Home Alone

Primary and secondary schools get 2 weeks vacation for Easter in Ireland. Being that the resurrection is the foundation to the Christian faith, I think the schools in America, if nothing else the Christian ones, should do that too. Just a thought. Anyway, Mary works in a school, and therefore has this time off as well, and decided to go to France with some friends for a week. Which means...Erin, Leanna, and I are home alone :(

When she comes back, I'll only have 2 more weeks left here in Ireland! That's so crazy. This coming week is my last week for class lectures, and then the next week I have finals...and then I'm DONE with college!!! WOO! :D

Besides staying bundled up to avoid the bitter cold, this past week I....

1. Went to see the Blindside with Mary. Erin was in Italy and Leanna was in England, so we had a little date :) While I had already seen the movie in America, it just came out in Ireland this last week. I loved the movie even the second time around...though sitting in a theater surrounded by Irish people made me realize just how "American" the movie really is. I'm pretty sure that's why it took so long to come out here...so that it could win its awards and give the Irish some incentive to actually go and see the movie.

2. Visited the town of Dalkey, which is just south of Dublin and also the home of Bono. While I didn't see him, one of the girls who is studying abroad here and living in Dalkey said she saw him walking down her street...sunglasses and all.

Anyway, I went on a gorgeous Sunday afternoon (the day before the winter weather decided to hit) and was able to walk through the town and hike up Dalkey and Killiney Hill--the views were amazing! Oh, and a couple of weeks ago my camera broke (not sure how...the LCD screen all of a sudden was busted one day and then the whole camera died) so the pictures below I stole off Google...haha :P But they're pretty legit, and a good representation of what I saw.

3. Visited the Chester Beatty Library in Dublin. One of the floors showcased all the major religions along with relics and ancient manuscripts. I finished with viewing the section on Christianity, and while I was a bit nervous as to how they would portray it, I thought it was all very well done. How the Chester Beatty Library ended up with them, I don't know, but they have some of the oldest biblical manuscripts in the world...so cool to see. The pictures below are again from Google :) (which works out well since you aren't allowed to take pictures inside anyway, and I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have been able to get this aerial view of the outside, either :)