Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Home away from home

Here I am-arrived in what shall be my home for the next three months. I was struck by the quaintness of the place. A small Irish town, with an old cathedral, a main street, and homes right along the ocean. Our holiday homes are right next to a bay that recedes two times daily and occasionally will behind a group of seals and the singular lone fishing boat. The scenery is simply beyond my vocabulary. As I walk out my back door, I am met with a visions emitting somewhere from the minds of Lewis and Tolkien. The Mourne mountains stand ominously to the right of our homes, often shrouded in clouds.
Our group toured the Northern Irish Assembly just yesterday, which would be their version of the English Parliament. I felt extremely privileged to be experiencing what we did. We were allowed to speak and question politicians from four of the eight leading political parties here in Northern Ireland and ask them any question we chose. We were taken onto the assembly floor by two particularly flamboyant, young politicians; who also conducted us through many other private sectors of the assembly house. We even had tea in the room, especially designated for politicians and such-it was crazy cool.
I am still having difficulty taking in all that I have done and expressing it all properly. I hope to do it more justice in the future, but for now, I must sign off...

1 comment:

danielle said...

very cool! what did you ask them?
i hope you are having the best semester ever-i mean how could you not?