two weeks till Fall Break...1/3 of the way finished...flyin by like apple pie

Tollymore Forest day (Saturday) – this is a place that inspired C.S. Lewis in his writings…and believe me…it could inspire the most dense person to write about fairies and imagination things and nature. It seriously was incredibly beautiful. It can’t be described and the pictures give no justice, but it is something that I made sure to snap in my mental memory forever…and I’ve got a good photographic memory.
So over a month down. Only 2/3rds left…piece o’cake…which some cake would be nice. Mollie (our Resident Director, who graduated from JBU a few years ago) her friend Emily flew over here and stayed for a week and we had a great time…AND she turned 24 last Tuesday…SO (bragging time) I made an incredible dinner (thanks to the teachings of my fabulously amazing, can-do-everything mom) and a cake and HOMEMADE icing…oh yeah…it was absolutely phenomenal.
Friday evening the house in between the middle girls house and the boys house had a lot of people in it from Dublin and France. They were all here for windsurfing. They were from the ages of 18 to around 30 and a few of us (I started it) hung outside with them in our back yard talking about life and each other. They just could NOT understand why we were doing a semester in Ireland to study the culture and not drink. It was great to get to spend the whole evening just chillin outside, talking and getting to know about each other’s cultures and life. That is why I’m on this semester study trip.
Rick Ostrander (JBU’s Dean of Education) came on Sunday and left on Tuesday. He came to evaluate the ‘program’. We discussed a lot about living here and our ability to meet people our age, the living arrangements and class work. THEN he went for like a 4 hour bike ride with some of the students…he’s so cool. We played Trival Pursuit (Pop Culture mixed with Millennium edition: yeah we mixed it up a bit) to show him what we do in the evenings instead of the ambiguous homework assignments we get (which I should be doing instead of writing this). He left this morning, sad day for us all…but allows the time to be split up well. This coming weekend Stan McKinnon is coming for another few days…he’ll be here specifically for ‘spiritual emphasis’ week. We’ve got all kinds of things to look forward to from now on. In two weeks (as of tomorrow) is our Fall Break and I’m going to Italy with Emily, Elizabeth, Luke and Carrie…love them! It was kind of a spur of the moment decision, and I know it’ll be great. I’ve got no info on the trip or what we’ll be doing, but when it comes closer I’ll let y’all know. Then after that we are going to Oxford or/and Dublin a few weeks later, then final exams (I guess we’ll have final exams…?) and then a little time with mom cause she’s flying here to spend a little time here! WOO HOO..it’ll fly by. I can’t wait to show someone from home around…especially the most amazing women ever!
We are still trying to figure out internet…which is still ridiculously confusing and hard to get apparently. So I’ll be riding my bike 4 miles to go upload this, send some assignments and emails, and of course check facebook.
OH so we got to experience something special on Sunday. We went to a slightly charismatic church and got to hear speaking in tongues. I actually know the woman who started to pray in tongues, which was even more interesting cause it’s not something I expected at all. An older woman in the very small congregation of about 30 people translated, and I feel it was very focused on God. My church never really has addressed the whole spiritual gifts belief and so I’m open to learning about it, and getting to actually experience a service with that in it was definitely a conversational piece for the next few days within out group.

Well i've got to go but LOVE you all and miss you too!