It is midnight here. Jared is snuggled up beside me in bed probably feeling really annoyed at the clicking of my keypad hoping that I will take out my contacts and put down my computer and snuggle up with him, but I am determined to complete a post before I allow myself the bliss of sleep. We have had a really lazy day anyway, and I have lots of energy to use up considering I have not left the house even one time today. I actually have probably only left the bed two or three times to use the restroom or grab a snack. What is today, anyway? Wednesday? This is the wonder of living elsewhere with no deadlines and nowhere to be with no one you know expecting you to be anywhere. We woke up today at about 9:45. That is 3:45 am where you are. I literally leaned over the side of the bed and picked up my laptop and headphones and started to work. The reason that the laptop and headphones were beside the bed in the first place is because long after Jared was sleeping I was working. Work has consumed me for the last few days. It is now midnight here, and I just decided that I would put away work and start on the blog. I worked today from 4 AM to Midnight with a small break for Julie and Julia and also a small break for a chess game with Jared and a couple of episodes of Friends. Other than that, I have been glued to my computer trying to meet this month's deadlines. Joy.
Enough about our last two lazy days. I want to tell you about Monday! We woke up with Katherine knocking on our door (our wake-up call on weekends) at 8. We got ready, had a cup of coffee and some brown soda bread with butter and marmalade and then headed to Limerick with Brian. He goes to college there, so he dropped us off in the city before class and said he would pick us up afterward at 3. We went to St. John's castle and just looked at it, basically. Another really cool, old building with loads of history. It definitely was neat to see. From there we walked around to the shopping center of the town across an old bridge. I had to run an errand for Katherine so we went into a really nice department store where everything looks really shiny and nice so that I could buy her sister a shirt that she had shown me before I left with Brian. I looked around the shop and found a dress that I LOVED, but then I saw that it was 540 euros... nonetheless, it was really fun running an errand for our Irish mother figure. I felt like she had trusted me with something, which was a really sweet thing to do. After the fancy shop we kind of just walked around. I wanted to go into about every store, but to save Jared the misery I mostly window shopped. We did go into a candy shoppe though (go figure) and it seriously was like we walked into Willy Wonka's factory. Tall ceilings, shelf after shelf of candy all the way to the highest level. There were clear glass canisters with pretty much every kind of candy you can imagine. I made the mistake of asking the store employee what was good. He gave Jared and I a couple of lemon balls out of a canister and said "these are our best sellers." Have you ever had a WarHead? Well, imagine that kind of sour times 10. I am not exaggerating at all. It was so sour it hurt. The cashier guy kind of had a slight smirk on his face. I asked for the trash can. Jared stuck it out. We ended up buying two, but I will get to that later. We also bought lots of other random candy and then we left. We had a nice lunch on the patio of a restaurant and then it was time to find a pay phone and call Brian to see if his classes were on schedule.
After trying about 5 pay phones that were not operating we weren't really sure what we were going to do. We decided to try one more. Luckily, we figured it out... I don't think the other one's weren't working. I think we are just pay phone illiterate. We got a hold of Brian and he said he was really sorry but that he went home. He has an infection close to his heart that he just found out about the day after we flew in, actually. He was in and out of the hospital and he had 10 days of bed rest. Monday was his first day back at school, and I guess it didn't go so well. He was feeling really light headed and sick and so he had no way of getting a hold of us so he had to leave. We were stranded in Limerick!! Okay, I am being dramatic. We actually got a bus and went back to Ennis as soon as we spoke with him. It cost us 18 euros for a 30 minute bus ride! Talk about overpriced.
After arriving home we went into our room at the Fitzpatrick's and decided to work. We worked until Katherine knocked on our door and told us to come out of our cave for dinner. We had lamb, mashed potatoes, brown bread, and turnips. Katherine is like mega housewife and she cooks three meals a day and dotes on everyone. She is pretty much my idol. Anyway, It was my first time ever eating a turnip and I was really impressed with them. They are so good. Jared on the other hand, didn't really touch his... ahaha. After dinner we had tea and biscuits (so good) and ended up chatting a bit. We also gave Pat and Katherine some dessert in the form of little yellow lemon balls. It was SO funny because they took them to be polite and didn't want to offend us, so they pretended to like them at first! After the dessert, Pat decided that he wanted to take Jared out, so they left for town. I was over in my corner thinking about how cute it is that Jared is going on a man date with our landlord, getting to know a 60-something year old Irish man. It is so out of his comfort zone, and so good for him. Anyway, I stayed behind and had a girl's night with Katherine and Granne. We had some wine, cheese, and good conversation. We laughed a lot, and talked about woman things. I really needed that. Granne left at about 11 because she had to be at work early in the morning, but Katherine and I stayed up until 1 am just getting to know each other. It was so great to hear about her life. We talked about the differences between Catholicism and Christianity and why I believe what I do. We talked about things like why we don't believe we have to go to a priest to speak to God and how I believe Jesus' blood is sufficient to cover all sins so there is no need to work them off. At the end she said with a huge smile on her face "Well, I think I am just about ready to become a Christian!"
Nothing really touristy and exciting has happened since the last blog, but we had some really great experiences with people. We continue to be blessed with the companionship of each other and the company of a wonderful family. I may complain about the non stop work I have been doing for the last few days, but honestly I should be joyful because God is providing. We feel so grateful for all of the blessings in our life.
I will continue to blog, but nothing too exciting will be happening until this weekend. Jared has plans to go golfing on Sunday with Katherine's brother on a private golf course. Her brother is a member and can get him in, lucky Jared. While they are golfing I am going out for tea with Katherine and her sisters. We will also probably go to Mass, which I am looking forward to for the cultural experience and for the knowledge. I will keep all of you updated! Hugs! Goodnight!
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