It began on Friday, when Kathleen (a woman who works in the office here at the house a couple days a week) invited us over to her house for dinner. It was quite a night. I had my first taste of this home brewed Irish alcoholic drink, kind of similar to moonshine if I understood correctly. I was apprehensive at first because the word 'caution' written twice on the bottle, and after trying it, would not necessarily be inclined to having more of it any time soon. Kathleen and her husband were such great hosts and we ended up staying until 1:30 a.m. after a delicious meal, a slice of banoffee pie(bananas and toffee, and yes it tastes as good as it sounds)made by Claire the resident baker, and plenty of wine.
The following night, we played a rousing game of pictionary and headed to Gibney's. Kate's boyfriend, Johnny and his friend Berkey (I'm unsure of his actual name) met us at the pub. Turns out, Berkey worked on a farm in Nebraska for a couple summers, and his very first visit to Sonic took place in North Platte, which is where Erin and I also went to for the first time on our way down to Oklahoma in the spring. Small world.
I was up early the next morning to ride catch a bus down to a town south of Dublin called Greystones. From there I hiked along some very muddy trails for a couple hours up to Bray and then climbed to the top of Bray head. After waiting for the bus for an hour and a half, and then realizing I was waiting in the wrong spot, I eventually made my way back to the house to a final goodbye supper for Kaitlyn.
Some pictures from the walk:
All 8 of us (see picture below) plus Johnny went into Dublin to O'Neils to listen to a traditional Irish band play. We then made our way into Temple Bar which is kind of a trendy, touristy area in downtown Dublin which has a lot of bars and restaurants and stopped in at another pub. It was a nice way to spend Kaitlyn's last night in Ireland, and I think she had a fun time.
After a very short sleep we woke up to see Kaitlyn off early in the morning. A couple of the girls went with her to the airport, while the rest of us dropped off donation bags to homes in a residential area within walking distance of our house. Lennart and I spent the day together visiting 2 members, Christian and James. We bussed into Dublin to met Christian at his house and took him out to a pub for lunch. Then we bussed to James' area, killed an hour because we were early, and then hung out with him for a couple hours. We went out for coffee and for a very long walk. James just might be my favorite member yet and I'm excited for when he can come into the house next (he is too, he probably asked Lennart and I 10 times if we could put in a good word for him to the people in charge). It was a fun day, and I loved spending time with the members and seeing them in their normal life.
Especially during these past 2 weeks I feel like I've really settled into life here. I'm becoming a lot more used to the routines and the way things work (ie: the CASA organisation itself, the house, etc.)
We've got a group coming in tomorrow, and it seems that there are a lot of strong personalities coming in so it should be a fun few days. And then it's off to Rome...
Love,
Kate
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