soyandsodabread

Sorry I’ve fallen behind!  We did two day trips to Portstewart and Giants Causeway over the last to weekends.  Everything is still going excellent 🙂 Northern Ireland is absolutely beautiful…even when it is super cold!

Port Stewart (Donegal is in the distance)

Portstewart

Beach at Portrush with Dun Luce castle on the cliff

Double Rainbow!!!

Crowne Bar...you sit in booths like this with doors! So cool!

door to booth

Window from our booth 🙂

Giants Causeway goup (from left: Sam, Lena, Kerry, Becca, Me)

Giant's Causeway

Beautiful!!! Needless to say, I’ve been having a great time exploring!

Over the next couple of days we will be taking one of our groups of families on residential (mini getaway) at Corymeela. It’s a trip that ends up being a thing of legend to each group.  Quakers does 3/year and I am very excited to see what a residential is like! I won’t be able to update the blog while I am away, but I should be back Friday with more pictures!  Hope you all are doing well!

Today was the first day of my Jazz Street Dance class at the Crescent Center for the Arts.  Street dance seems to be the British term for dancing that does not originate from a studio.  Beat boxing, hip hop, break dancing, etc. are all part of street dance.  I was pretty nervous about the class because you were supposed to have some dance experience to join it.  I do have some (some being the key word) experience but haven’t taken a dance class in 9 years!  However, I talked to the teacher today and she said that I was OK, which is brilliant because the class is so much fun!  I can’t wait to go back next week.  I just have to figure out where to go to get dance shoes and PRACTICE!  It should be great 🙂

Weekend update:

Sam and I went to a bar called the Emporium.  It’s gorgeous and used to be a church a long time ago.  On Saturday there was an Eagles tribute band playing, the Illegals.  They were so good!  They played all the great Eagles songs along with some Fleetwood Mac and Stevie Knicks.  It was a lot of fun.

Week update:

This week is my cooking week and it’s been crazy!  First, I bought so much food that I thought it was going to cost 100,000 pounds instead of 100 (luckily it was under 100).  I am just not used to grocery shopping for that many people.  Then, there is the process of cooking for twenty people with a small oven and a time constraint.  It’s also intimidating that everyone that’s been at Quakers knows what things are supposed to taste like and I have no idea.  Being vegan is not helping me on this one.  All in all, though, it is going alright.  The next two days I am making pizza, which I always enjoy.  I LOVE pounding down the dough 🙂  It reminds me of playing with play dough as a kid.

This has been the first week of afternoon sessions with afterschoolers and preteens as well.  It has been weird only having one age group at a time to focus on, but I like it a lot.  I feel like the kids have a good amount of individual attention and everything focused at an age appropriate level.

Conclusion:

Life is good 🙂

Not much new has been going on.  We said good bye to Alex yesterday (3 mo. volunteer that showed us the ropes) and were able to drop her off at the bus station.  She should be coming back next weekend, though, since she is traveling around the island before flying back to Germany.  Below is a picture of the chocolate cake I made her as a thank you for all her help getting Lena, Sam, and I settled.

Yes, it's vegan

Lately we have had less kids around, which means I have been doing TONS of cleaning.  It actually is not terrible, but all of you that know me know how I feel about cleaning 😛  Sharon (a full time staff member) says it will only be temporary and we should be in full swing in the next couple of weeks.

One of the nice things about having a little extra time, on the other hand, is that we got to practice driving a bus route today.  It took Sharon about 40 min to show Lena and I the route; it took Lean and I about 90 min to get lost and back to Quakers; and then it took me another 40 min to finally figure it out.  I’m glad I had that time to practice because I couldn’t imagine trying to learn the route with kids in the car.

After all that driving, I just had a chill evening.  Tomorrow Sam and I will be checking out the Stiff Kitten Bar because we hear it has good indy music.  I’m still not convinced that anything will beat Club 23 😛