Day 2

August 8, 2006 – Evening

Wow! St. Colette has truly made its way into Ireland! We enjoyed an Irish-style dinner, and we made our way to mass. The whole group was a little jet lagged, and heads were nodding throughout the day. We made it though! The mass with the Bishop was nice, and it was nice to realize that Catholics all over the world, whether you’re German, American or Irish, can come together to celebrate faith. After mass, there still was more fun to come, an Irish band featuring a fiddle, banjo, flute and other instruments played music to keep us awake! Not only did we dance to the authentic music, and mix with the German and Irish kids, we also introduced the whole group to the great American card game-Spoons. Between wrestling over spoons with people we had just met, and trying to keep up with the game, we definitely got to know all of our new foreign acquaintances on a whole new level. What better way to get to know people? Anyway, it feels like the whole group is already having a blast here in Belfast, and I cant wait for all of the crazy and exciting experiences yet to come!
Peace and love,
Kelsey Ralls


August 9th 8:00pm

Lauren and Jenna are here coming to you from Northern Ireland. Haha. Today we started off taking a bus tour all throughout Belfast. We saw a lot of murals depicting the “Troubles". Some murals were just showing the beliefs of the different religions, but others were pretty violent. “Belfast Wall” was a very tall wall built between the different housing communities to keep the Catholics and Protestants separate. There were many British flags hanging along the streets in the Protestant area to show their loyalty to Britain. The gate door separating the two communities is still closed at night to keep the violence out. We then took a tour of the Stormont government building. They told us how it was used as a secret meeting place during World War II. They disguised it by covering it with black paint which took seven years to remove after the war was over. Some of us have been eating a lot of lasagna and potatoes here. They also keep serving us this juice that is quite unique. Currently we just got finished with dinner and are waiting for the Irish dancers to arrive. They said it should be an early night for us and we will be back around 9:00pm. Good Day!!!

~Jenna Zuccarini and Lauren Glovak