Feelings Free For All

We are back on campus again and it's actually good to be "home." We were able to get to our spiritual retreat in the mountains, despite Nigel's fears. However, the last leg of the road was quite an interesting one, seeing as how the rutted mud and snow can hardly be considered a road. Still, we made it to the beautiful retreat center, Knocklayd. The center is actually an old farmhouse (or two houses) that have been turned into a retreat center that groups can use. the house is set up in the mountains and is surrounded by rolling hills and fields with sheep and cows. It is gorgeous. Each year a different couple volunteers to host the house. This year the couple is from New Mexico and their names are Nancy and Jake. They were wonderful hosts and brilliant cooks. We had dessert with every meal and tea in between. That is one thing that is NOT AT ALL over-exaggerated here. They really do drink tea ALL THE TIME. We have tea with meals and several times in between meals, morning, night, anytime. It is always offered and always available at just about a moment's notice. And not only do they drink tea, but they don't ever drink it alone. The tea always comes with cookies (biscuits here) or scones or bars of some sort. It is quite the experience; some love it, others not so much. I think I'm more in the love it category, but it's a bit much for me.

Anyway, getting off of my tea tangent...Our first day at Knocklayd was all about getting to know each other and discussing our hopes and fears for the program and what we hoped the experience to be. We set up a group contract and spent most of the day bonding, interspersed with tea and cookies and wonderful meals from Nancy and Jake. That night we went down to tour the Corrymeela center. This is a center located right on the coast in Ballycastle that serves as sort of a mediation point for conflict. It is quite well-recognized internationally for it's efforts dealing with peace and reconciliation. We were led around by one of the center's founders. He told us many really touching stories and, of course, served us tea and sweets. It was a really neat experience and it will be the internship site for one of our group.

The next day's focus was more on the course itself and the objectives of both classroom instruction and seminars coupled with the internship experience.  The morning was easy enough as we learned about all the different internship organizations we will be working for. The difficulty came after lunch when it was time to actually choose our internship organizations. We were to choose our internships democratically as a group. Nigel had no part in how they were assigned. It was up to us to work it out so that everyone was satisfied, and so that we also have a balance between the amount of people stationed in Derry and those stationed in Belfast. In the past the process has taken as little as 15 minutes and as long as 3 hours. Luckily, we did not set a new record for the longest, though we were nowhere near the shortest time. It was a long, fairly uncomfortable process. However, after 2 hours we had all been sorted and people were fairly satisfied. I will be stationed in Belfast for the middle 7 weeks of the program working with an organization called Northern Ireland Alternatives. This organization mainly works in the Shankill Road area on reconciliation and mediation between community members. I will likely be working on a project that brings ex-paramilitaries together to work out differences and to record their stories, which is an important step in the peace process. I have been told that the work is very challenging from an emotional standpoint. I could be working with people who fought in the troubles. However, I feel that this internship is a perfect fit for me and I am up for the challenge and very excited. 7 other people will be stationed in Belfast as well, though at different internships. There will be 5 people stationed in Derry. Once we move into our internships we will gather together once a week in either Derry or Belfast to have futher seminars and field experiences with Nigel. 

To take the edge off, Nigel took us down to a pub in Ballycastle that night for a pint and some chips. It was nice to be able to relax as a group again. I bought the girl who also wanted my internship a pint because she was nice enough to give up her spot and move to a different internship. 

Early this morning we got up and had hot porridge before heading out on a day of sightseeing. Our first stop was at Giant's Causeway on the northern coast. I will be putting up pictures soon so you can see it because it is very difficult to explain. However, in the mean time, you should look it up on wikipedia if you're interested. It's really very bizarre. Essentially it is a series of coastline that is made up of old lava formations, if you believe in a scientific explanation. If you believe Irish legend it is the remains of a bridge built from Ireland to Scotland by the Irish giant Finn, so that he could duel the giant from Scotland. Either way, the coast is made up of hexagonal columns with very flat surfaces. I'll be sure to put up pictures very soon.

Following the Giant's Causeway was a stop for lunch (first fish and chips of the trip) and then a visit to Bushmill's Distillery. It is the oldest legal distillery still in operation on the island. We were able to see the actual distillation process and to sample some of the whiskey at the end. All Irish whiskey is distilled 3 times, as opposed to the 'lesser quality' Scottish whiskey that is only distilled twice, and bourbon, which is only distilled once. This is the bulk of what I took away from the tour. Also that the whiskey is made mainly from malted barley, yeast, and water. I sampled a 12 year old malt whiskey. I was surprised to actually like it, though it made me cough just a bit. It was REALLY strong.

We stopped at the remains of Dunluce castle after Bushmills and we were led on a tour of the ruins. The old castle, owned by an old Irish clan family, is situated on the top of a very high cliff overlooking the ocean. It is built pretty much out to the edge of the cliff, which proved to be not such a smart idea when half the outer wall crumbled into the sea in the early 1600s. If you know anything about my whole structural phobia, I'm sure you can guess by now that I was terrified. However, it was really a neat tour and not too scary. Pictures are coming, I promise. 

I forgot to mention about the evening mass we went to on Sunday. As it turns out it was not at the convent, as we were told, but at the church we had happened to walk into earlier in the weekend when we were walking around Portstewart. There was a lot of confusion with the cab driver, who knew nothing of an 8 pm mass in the convent. This confusion was only multiplied by the driver thinking we were looking for an 8 pm MAST. He kept asking us what an 8 pm mast was and we didn't correct him because we thought it might just have been his accent. WE weren't really sure how to explain except to say that it would be 20:00 here. Eventually we got it sorted out and arrived at the church. It was a nice service, though much more contemporary than I was expecting. The first three songs we sang were songs that we sing at Messiah all the time. (By the way Mum, Faj, Rachel, and Peter...even thousands of miles away we sang the Jurassic Park/Brady Bunch song and I almost started crying because there was no one next to me to laugh with.) The very interesting part came after the service when the priest invited us all in for tea and biscuits (there it is again!). We were under the impression that we would be joining the rest of the congregation in sort of a fellowship hour, so we were surprised when we reached the room to find it empty. We ended up drinking tea with the priest and one of the men in the congregation. They drove us back to campus afterward and saved us a cab ride. We are invited to come back anytime we want.

I should probably get back to the room now to finish the reading we have assigned because we actually have class tomorrow. It's really more introductory stuff and tours of the college, but we do have to report to a room at a certain time. I hope all is well at home!

(So this was long again...Sorry!)