Relaxation: Recreation or rest, esp. after a period of work.

As I mentioned in my last blog after a few grueling weeks of paper writing I used my free time to go visit Becky in Ireland. And aside from delayed flights on either end, it was a lovely, relaxing trip. Unfortunately there's a lot of cloud cover over Scotland these days, so aside from seeing some snow-covered mountains on our ascent out of Aberdeen, most of the flight I just enjoyed being in the sunshine above the clouds. I officially now have a stamp in my passport! I guess it's my 2nd stamp, but the first one is on the visa page of my passport for coming to study in the UK. It was quite fun when I got to customs, they asked me what I was doing in Dublin, etc. and they ended up looking up Becky in their system; I can only imagine that it was to confirm that I wasn't planning on visiting a non-existent friend...Well, while in Dublin we did and saw lots! It was a very relaxed sort of doing and seeing though. And we even took in a movie while I was there, J. Edgar. It was an interesting one, to be sure, with an added weirdness in that we were seeing it outside of the U.S. While I was there, one of our friends from Biola days, Ryan, was in town on business so Becky and I got to spend a day exploring Christ Church Cathedral and Kilmainham Gaol with him. It was fun catching up/exploring in this new context. Alas, as I wasn't really feeling touristy during this trip, so my pictures are only from that day, so here they are:

 

 

 


they shot the show The Tudors at Christ Church Cathedral, so they had a few of the costumes on display. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Above I linked these places with websites so that you can read more about them because I couldn't really do justice to describing either. But I will say how poignant Kilmainham was. Not only is it an interesting look at the various thoughts and methodologies behind prisons through time, it is also if full of the history of the Republic of Ireland. It held many people who fought and some who gave their lives, in the end, for Ireland to be free from British rule. In many ways it renewed my interest in seeing the places in America where we fought for a similar freedom centuries before. The last three pictures are of the former stone breakers yard, after the Easter Uprising of 1916, it was the place that the leaders of the uprising were shot. I think one of the most amazing things about the prison, though, was the fact that the people who came together to restore it, as a historical landmark, came from all sides of the conflicts to do so. But enough about Irish history for now.

The rest of my trip was spent experiencing the Dublin that Becky experiences; more or less. Her school, the beautiful Trinity College Dublin, where I got to see the Book of Kells and the glorious Long Room!(seen on the right, picture thanks to Google image search). We also spent many an hour in some of the  lovely bookshops of Dublin; in part because we were both on the hunt for our textbooks, and in part because we have to be gathering ideas for our own bookshop, of course. Or at least that's a good excuse. While in one of these Dublin bookshops we happened upon James Scott Bell's (father of our friend Nate Bell) book Try Dying. It was fun seeing a familiar name/book all the way in Dublin. We wandered around Temple Bar and up and down Grafton Street several times.

The main reason for my trip to Dublin, aside from seeing it and Becky, was to celebrate Becky's birthday that had passed just before. So, in order to do so properly, we went to The Shelbourne Hotel and had Afternoon tea in the Lord Mayor's Lounge. As I mentioned above, I only took pictures on our main tourist-y day, so here's a picture from the Shelbourne's website of the location.

Do you see the wing-back chair in the corner, in front of the drape? That's where I sat! It was absolutely lovely. We spent nearly three hours sitting and enjoying two pots of delicious tea (an orange chocolate one and an Irish Breakfast one) and some of the most amazing scones and sandwiches and other tea delights I've ever had! It was also good, although we'd spent a few weeks together over Christmas, to be able to catch up again, in person. When you're far from home it's nice to have a familiar face or two around. And it's particularly nice when it's a face that belongs to a close friend with whom you can laugh as well as share the harder parts of life.

Speaking of familiar faces! I'm very excited to say that I'll be having a visitor from the states soon! I can't wait for the-girl-who-is-practically-my-sister: Dani to come and see me here in Scotland. We're going to try to fit in quite a lot of adventuring while she's here (around my school schedule, of course). I'm looking forward to sharing this place with her, and through her, in a way, with home.

Well, I should probably end this blog post here. I'm afraid I've got homework that needs doing and updating a blog, as useful as it is, is a better procrastination device than a study tool.

Until next time,
Allons-y!