Wonderful Irish Sunshine

Soooo, today I woke up and it was SUNNY and GORGEOUS and WARM out, so what was the best way to take advantage of the day? Go for a run of course! I ended up finding the NUIG regional track after I took a detour from the usual route. Super duper (it is a very nice track). On my way home it started to downpour, which was fine with me. Then we went grocery shopping, came home, and went exploring!

I was randomly looking out the window and realized that there was a little path behind our house. Who knew? So Melissa and I went to find it and had to scale a wall to do so. Once we had gotten to the other side, we noticed a little mini horse and this was the smallest horse that I have ever seen in my life. Anywho, it looked lonely so I went up and started to pet it; poor little guy, he was sweating uncontrollably, there was no water anywhere for him to drink, and his eyes were dripping with who-knows-what. Unfortunately, there was nothing we could do, sad day. After that we left to resume the afternoon and enjoy more of the day. When climbing over the wall again, what did we find? A lonely license plate! It was at the end of a dead end road and was from 11 years ago and had apparently been abandoned. I think you can tell how this story ends... :D Then it went back to a pretty typical day and we had EARTH HOUR!!!--this is when you shut off everything for an hour. It was dark out and there wasn't much to do, so we went for a walk. Delightful!

That's my day and now I will give y'all some suggestions in case you want to brush up on Irish history (I have these all hyper-linked, so you can click on them for the Wikipedia articles):

Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt: This is a book about an Irish family during the 1930s and 40s.

The Wind that Shakes the Barley: This is a movie about the Irish War of Independence from Britain--very sad, very well made, and the actors are actually Irish.

Michael Collins: This is a movie about Michael Collins who was a leader in the Irish revolution and a key player in the Anglo-Irish Treaty.

So, that's all I've got. Have a great day!

Happy Wednesday!

It is a happy Wednesday indeed. Today I went to class, cleaned my room, the weather is getting better (it rained off and on all day, but at least it's not snowing. and I love rain, so...), I'm reading another book, and I finally set up my Skype account so I can talk to people. Yay! The book I'm reading is called "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time". It's written from the perspective of a teenager with...autism, maybe? I'm not sure. Anywho, it is interesting and quite good so far. Nope, I just looked on the back cover and he has Asperger's Syndrome. Back to what I was saying, it is quite good, but I'm only halfway through it, so I hope it ends well.

As for the last book I finished reading ("The Witch of Portobello"), it was not my favorite. Coelho is a great author, but it seemed to me (I'm sorry if you disagree, and if you do, feel free to tell me) that it was just a story glorifying some kind of strange hippie religious movement. The book itself was well-written and was done so with an interesting approach. It was written from the present looking back at events through a series of interviews with the people that know Athena, the main character. The overall concept of HOW it was written was good, but the story was a little too off-kilter for my liking. Would I recommend it? I would have to say...no.

Anywho, as for things that are new. I figured out my schedule for the semester and that's about it. Also today, I discovered the First Presidency Message for the month. They are always good, and this one is especially. I would HIGHLY recommend reading it--there will be a link to it at the end of this post.

Here are some more pictures that I've taken. Once again, captions are under each one.


This is just more of the pedestrianized shopping center next to Eyre Square.



This is my bedroom. When I took this picture I was literally mashed up against my closet door trying to take a picture that would fit everything in it.



This is the other half of my kitchen. On the left side of the picture you can see my bedroom. My bathroom is to the right of my bedroom.

Apparently I can't put in a link to the First Presidency Message. Just go to lds.org and it is on the left side and titled "Hold on a Little Longer" and it is by President Uchtdorf. It is EXCELLENT.

First Day of Class. Whoo Hoo!!!

So here I am. Today was my first day of class and it was pretty uneventful. I am in four business classes and two Irish studies classes. As for notable things that have happened, it's starting to warm up, which means that I'll actually be able to go outside! I feel so lame--here I am in Ireland and I'll I've been doing is sitting inside because it's too cold to go outside. That combined with the fact that it gets dark around 5:30, makes for a very boring Kelty.

There actually is something that I've been doing, I've been reading "The Witch of Portobello" by Paulo Coelho. I find that his books are usually decent, if not quite good. This one, however, unless something drastic happens in the last 30 pages, will be made of fail. I actually enjoy books that put a plot in with philosophy, but I think this one is just a little bit too odd for my liking. Anywho, life is good and my only class today went well. That's about all I've got for now. Peace out.

This has Been a Long Week...and It's Only Tuesday

First of all, I am on Stumble right now and found the World Clock (http://www.shambles.net/worldclock/worldclock.swf) and the abortion rate is over HALF the rate of the world population growth--simply put, more than 1 in 3 babies are being aborted. This is a cause for concern. Moving on, Older Sis is doing well, she's out of the hospital; however, she is in Denver. She and the little guy had to be flown down there on Sunday because he stopped breathing on his own so now he is hooked up to a respirator and ventilator that are 1. Helping him breathe and 2. Teaching him how to breathe on his own. He is doing well, considering all of this.

Here's the deal, I've been uber stressed to the point that I can't eat, can barely sleep, and I've developed a slight twitch (I'm being serious, clicky pens are horrible for me right now--no bueno). I've handled it pretty well so far, except for Sunday. During church I had to leave and go sit in the gym. Someone came out to check on me and I broke down and started crying. Other than that, life has been good and I'm REALLY excited for the day off tomorrow. I think I need a break, unfortunately I think I just might work all day--funding for me is lacking slightly at the moment.

What else has happened recently???? Star Wars party Saturday night, Ironman on Sunday night, moving party last night and a whole lotta homework. Yippy skippy. I've also started to read "The Picture of Dorian Gray"--it's pretty good so far. Anywho, that's all for now.

P.S. Concerning one of my previous posts about self-discovery, this quote from Mr. Oscar Wilde sums it up quite well: The reason I will not exhibit this picture is that I am afraid that I have shown in it the secret of my own soul.