God is Funny

And He has very funny ways of making me rest.

I haven't posted on the blog for a while because things have been crazy.

9th week: 2nd test
10th week: 3rd test, term paper due (yes, it was assigned at the beginning of the summer.  But for us procrastinators, that doesn't mean much), mom comes, dad comes, traveling Ireland begins
Final weekend: Traveling Ireland with my amazing parents and finishing a paper
Yesterday: Dublin half marathon

And all throughout this, all the commitments I'd been quasi-avoiding all summer came crashing back into my life (as is pretty common towards the end of the summer).  Deadlines approaching, faulty planning falling through, poor communication catching up to me, etc.  Top that with trying to juggle seeing friends, family, and getting prepared for a retreat that left 2 days after I got home... I was pretty overwhelmed.

I say all this not to complain about being busy or to say that I'm the only person with commitments, but just to express how coming home was giving me a good amount of anxiety.  Traveling with my parents was AMAZING, but it felt like another weekend trip.  It wasn't until we walked into the Dublin airport that I realized that my summer was OVER and I wasn't going back to UL.  The plane that I was preparing to board was taking me back to the states and back to people I love and a school I love, but it was still the end of an incredible experience. I think I was also overwhelmed because I hadn't gotten my "Marnie time" to sit with my journal and think about the summer and write down all the thoughts that were spinning in my head (I know this sounds stupid, but I need it.  I've figured out that I'm 100% an external processor).

Anywho.  We got to the airport and of course, the line simply to print my boarding pass (even though I was checking no luggage, thanks mom and dad!) took about an hour. I was immediately frustrated that I hadn't thought to print it earlier, and the signs telling me that I only had 45 minutes to clear pre-US customs or else I would be "denied boarding" were stressing me out.  We went through security and I, of course, had forgotten to take some liquids out of my carry-on, making me more annoyed at myself and at the false sense of "I can travel by myself" attitude that I'd acquired.  I said bye to my parents, made it to my gate, and boarded without much trouble (except that I forgot to tell them that I'd made it, so as soon as I saw their texts I was out of wifi range and got concerned that they'd spend the remaining 8 hours worried about me).  I realized when I sat down that my headphone jack wasn't working to my TV on the back of my seat, so even though it meant I wouldn't get to watch any movies on the 8 hour flight, I was tired and had a good book so I figured I was okay.  We took off 45 minutes late due to another cancelled flight (they ended up filling our empty seats with people from the cancelled flight), so by the time we took off I was already anxious that I was going to miss my layover in Newark to Atlanta (I had a little less than an hour).

I settled down, thought "Unless we crash, this experience can't get much worse" (spoiler alert, we didn't crash. I'm still typing), realized that there was nothing I could do about the situation , and dove into my book (shout out to Victoria for the solid recommendation).

Surprise! It got worse.

About an hour and a half in, we find out that a child has had a bad allergic reaction and we're going to have to go back to Dublin.  Long story short, when we get back we find out that due to flight regulations, the crew cannot fly us back to Newark because of working-hours restrictions, so they've graciously rescheduled our flight to tomorrow at 2:00 p.m.  They would work out layovers for us and everything.

JOY.

Needless to say, I was frustrated and mad at myself for being frustrated because someone's life was in danger.  I was mad that I couldn't get a return flight and I didn't know when I was going to get home and thankful that we hadn't crashed all at the same time.

Cool things that happened:
1. There happened to be a nurse and an allergist on the flight who were able to stabilize the girl until we could land in Dublin.  By the time the ambulance had picked her up, we heard she had regained color and would likely be okay.
2. The response of the passengers - sure, people were frustrated, but there was an overall attitude of "There is nothing we can do about this".  People understood the situation and even applauded the doctors when they walked back to their seats.
3. We got food served BEFORE this all happened, so I even got a plane meal.
4. We're in a hotel in the suburbs of Dublin where all I have is my bible, computer & charger, iPad, journal, pajamas, and presents for people.  I'm now forced to spend 24 hours getting caught up on things, journaling through my summer, and talking to God.
5. All of these are first world problems.

God has a funny way of making me rest.

See you tomorrow America.

Then again, that's what I said yesterday.

Reunions Are Happy

 Nothing much to blog about, but I thought since these kids made such frequent appearances on the blog last summer, I couldn't neglect putting them on this summer!

So yes, the Gleason's are in Ireland!! Rudy is teaching for the second five weeks, and I finally got to hang out with Katie and the kids this morning.  It was amazing.  We caught up about Ethiopia and life, played soccer, and I got to show them some parts of campus they hadn't seen yet.

Because I don't know how to describe it, here are some words that keep popping up.

sweet
refreshing
joyful
humbling
reflective
and then some more joyful.
it was just really, really good to see them.

... what happens when Brooklyn (the youngest) gets your camera.  Good reminder that no matter how much can change in a year, some things will remain constant for a long time.

Not that I can complain... here's what I got from April a couple weeks ago: 

We can just say that Brooklyn had a very effective teacher last summer.

Festival, Take 2

Hi!! I'm back!! Sorry it's been forever... turns out when there's actually stuff to do keeping a consistent blog isn't as easy as it was last summer!!

Anywho, lots of catching up to do.  But to start, Victoria & I just got back from our weekend in Belgium!! And apologies in advance, but I just re-discovered the wonders of the app "Picstitch" and even though it's supa cliche and reserved for instagram and birthday facebook statuses, I decided it was a fantastic way to put my weekend to words.

Thursday: 
Take a late flight from Limerick and get to our airbnb in Brussels around 11:30 p.m.  The owner's boyfriend gave us a quick tour of their flat when we got there (we were renting a room)... .  he walked us straight into their bedroom and his girlfriend was already in bed.  I guess that's one way to make your guests feel right at home!

Friday: 
Wake up early and go explore Brussels!  The boyfriend (I really should have learned his name...) gave us a pretty cool map of Brussels that was made by locals and included sassy commentary about the places to go in Brussels, so we felt well equipped.  The day consisted of vintage shops, regular shops, some delicious food (obviously), and getting to know the city!! The first thing the map of Brussels says is "Brussels is ugly and we love it".  Honestly, that's a pretty accurate description.  It's the capital city of the European Union, so it's just a big city with lots of traffic and a good amount of people.  It's not like Rome (or Ghent, but we'll get to that later) where there are pretty buildings around every corner, there aren't cute cafe's around every corner and there are no huge parks in the middle of the city.  That being said, if you're a city person, it would be a really cool place to live.  There is a TON of culture mixed throughout different parts of the city, the people are supa chill (and the vintage shops are AWESOME.  I'm learning that vintage = trendy thrift shop clothes (seriously, one guy told us he gets half his stuff from the Goodwill storehouse in Texas), so next time someone criticizes you thrift shopping, just call it vintage and then it's trendy. Brussels gives a vibe that it holds a lot of hidden gems that would be fun to find over time, but that's hard to do in a day (or weekend).  And if you're a beer drinker, obviously Brussels is a wonderful place for beer tasting.  On Friday night, we went to a bar called "Delirium" (if you're a college student and you've studied abroad, you've probably heard of Delirium).  It's a side street that has turned into a couple different bars, but it's known for it's Beer Bar that has a bajillion different beers (seriously, I think it's a bajillion.  They even had craft brews from the states!!) and 20 different beers on tap.

Belgian cookie-flavored ice cream, a grapefruit and tonic (I saw a local drinking it - YUM), and Belgian fries (per recommendation of "the boyfriend").  Because what a better way to pretend like you're a local than to eat like one!  

... yes, that's actually how big the famous "Peeing Boy" statue is.  He's an icon in Brussels - all the tourist shops are filled with statues/bottle openers/post cards/t-shirts of the peeing boy.  Turns out the statue is about 2 feet tall on a street corner - it marked where peasants could sell their urine as fertilizer (I think).  Nonetheless, it has been dressed up, hooked to a keg, and stolen throughout the years of living in Brussels.  So as a tourist, we at least had to get a picture! 

SaturDAY:

Wake up. Train to Ghent. Explore the city!!

We went to Ghent per recommendation, and it was WONDERFUL.  It's a smaller city about 40 minutes outside of Brussels that is a city on a river with medieval architecture.  Not only does it have cool shops, restaurants, and graffiti streets that we explored during the day, but there was also a HUGE festival going on (Gente festeen) that brings in about a million people to the city.  So it TOTALLY threw off the "small, quiet city" feel, but it made Ghent a really fun experience.  Plus, Victoria and I hadn't had the best "festival" luck and decided we completely redeemed ourselves with this one (but we will still always "cherish" Enniscorthy)

 Saturday NIGHT:
was a blast.  Victoria and I cooked dinner at our POSH hostel (I don't exactly know what posh means, but I'm pretty sure it's sleek and trendy and the hostel felt like it should be described that way).  We were only about a 7 minutes walk from the festivities, so it was in a prime location, had a great room AND a kitchen.  We became hippies for the night and headed to the festival to see what all the hype was about.  The city had set up huge stages in the middle of the main squares, and by the time we showed up the bands were playing and there were tons of people.  We stood in the back of the crowd for the first band - it was a 70s/80s rock band (and playing American songs!!), and they were having so much fun performing that it made it impossible not to enjoy watching them.  We decided we'd continue exploring when the band took a break, so we kept walking and came up to the river where a huge stage was set up and a Latin band was playing.  Right as we got there it started raining, so not only was I getting to listen to LIVE Spanish music and watch salsa, but we were also dancing in the rain.  Savour joy.  
We headed back to watch the tail end of the first band, and we were about to leave when they finished but then "Call Me Maybe" came on over the loudspeaker.  If you ever get bored with American pop music, come abroad and hear a bunch of stuff in another language, and then hear a song you're familiar with.  You might go crazy and dance in the rain too.  We ended up starting a tunnel in the middle of the crowd with a couple of other dancers, and before we knew it the square had turned into this dance tunnel made of people that we kept rotating through (sorry that's an awful description.  You know when people get in two lines and face each other and touch hands so they can form a tunnel? That's what we did, but it was with a big crowd and a bunch of people were singing and dancing through it.  It was great).

 Sunday: 
Wake up, eat HOMEMADE breakfast nom nom, hit up the Sunday markets, and head back to Brussels.  Our flight wasn't until 10:30 that night, so we had a good part of the day to "kill" in Brussels (and yes, that means we got back at 4 a.m. HOORAY for 9 a.m's instead of 8 a.m's!!)  We ended up camping out at a trendy coffee shop for a bit and then headed to the station.  On the way, however, we had to stop and eat our MUSSELS IN BRUSSELS (yes, I have been waiting to write that on my blog).  It's the first time I'd tried mussels, and they were delicious!!!

MUSSELS IN BRUSSELS!!! 

(I was too excited about the phrase to only use it once) 

Things I learned this weekend: 

1. I like dressing like a hippy

2. I love cities that are 30-40 walking distance all the way across.  You get to walk everywhere but it doesn't take a crazy amount of time, and I like that.

3. I like running (I left my running shoes at home and I actually missed it!!) 

4. Just because I buy a big chocolate bar doesn't mean I have to eat it all at once 

5. I love water (drinking water AND rivers/lakes/boats/PEACE)

6. I need to decide before I go to cities whether I'm "sight seeing" or "culture exploring" because I have a hard time doing both.  I've found that I actually appreciate sight seeing, but I also love learning about cultures (aka getting to know the local life) and that's harder to do on weekend trips.  I think there's a balance, I just haven't found it yet. 

And I'm Proud to be an American

So proud, actually, that I celebrated the 4th the only way it should be celebrated and headed back to the states!!

Okay no, I'm not THAT patriotic.  But I did go back to the USofA this weekend because I was lucky enough to be a part of one of my best friends' getting married.

Hi everyone, meet Emily!! 

 Before I got to see her, however, I got the chance to spend some time at home.  It was SO good to be home and get some quality time with my parents and my sister.  AND, my mom and I got to run the PEACHTREE!! It's by far my favorite race in the world, and I got to run it with my favorite running partner (sorry fab 4, you can't beat my mom).  The peachtree is great because it's a supa chill race (as long as you go in a non-ranked heat), you get lots of free stuff, and people cheer for you the whole way! (especially if you wear a bacon shirt. Then they REALLY cheer).  This guy was passing out free bacon at the beginning of the last mile, and I felt very obligated to carry it until I could take a picture in honor of it matching my shirt.  Note to self: never run with a piece of greasy bacon. It's really gross (don't worry, I actually didn't eat it).

I run so I can eat

The world's greatest running partner

Plus the best way to end a race. 4th of July, mission accomplished. 

Frayuns!!! 

 After the race, I got ready and headed to Auburn to start the wedding festivities.  The weekend turned out to be incredible. You know those friends that you haven't seen in forever so you forget how much they mean to you? That's the epitome of this weekend.  Emily was my roommate on beach project 2 summer's ago, and this was the first weekend in a long time that I'd gotten to spend a good amount of quality time with her.  And this is my chance to brag on her a bit - she is AMAZING.  She teaches me so much about selfless love, whether it's showing her friends how much she appreciates them, being an amazing sister, or finding ways to encourage her fiance (now HUSBAND) so that he knows how important she is.  She constantly amazes me with her ability to serve even when the rest of the world is telling her that she should be focusing on herself (after all, it was her wedding day).  She was a BEAUTIFUL bride, not only because she looked stunning, but because she literally radiated joy.  Her wedding was a reminder of how God redeems relationships and how He blesses people who submit to him.

On top of all that, I got to hang out with KIRSTIN, one of my good friends from high school.  It's crazy how connected the world is.  I also got to bond with some of the coolest bridesmaids - it's one of those things where when people are friends with people you like, you tend to click with them just as well.

Reason #234 why she's the coolest bride.  Because who
else does push-ups in her wedding dress? 

Despite the fact that I hadn't gotten much sleep and my body was SUPER confused as to what time it was, I left the weekend overwhelmed with joy and thankfulness and feeling extremely refreshed.  It was weird because when I first got back to Atlanta it felt like the wrong place to be - I felt like I was leaving my trip early and Ireland wasn't supposed to be over yet.  Nevertheless, by Sunday I was left questioning why I hadn't pushed my plane ticket back a couple more days.

I got back on Monday morning just in time for class (it was epic. I walked into class with my suitcase).  It's definitely good to be back, but I also feel this burden of the fact that there are only three weekends left.  Even though it's a month of the program, when I think about how quickly the weeks have flown by, I know that my parents are going to be here before I know it (BECAUSE THEY'RE COMING TO IRELAND IN 3 WEEKS!!!)  I want to make sure I take advantage of everything, but that also comes with having to focus on school - blah. Test week here we come!! 

Happy Days in Ireland

Past couple days have been a roller coaster.  Starting a new class where the professor actually expects us to be committed to school and do lots of work outside of class, sunny days mixed with cold and windy ones, recovering from lack of sleep in London and preparing for this weekend... it's been a lot.

Emotions are funny to me because they are extremely powerful, are affected by lots of things (weather, food, exercise, people, etc.), and can be changed SO easily.  Yesterday was one of those days where I didn't feel like doing ANYTHING.  I got back from class, packed, and then laid around until dinner time when I decided it was time to get up and do something.  I was torn between wanting to rest and wanting to explore, and then getting mad at myself for either not resting or for wasting precious time in Ireland.  And when you're already not feeling motivated, frustration never helps, so I ended up bumming around until 6:00 hit and I decided I had to force myself out of my room.

I ended up going for a walk and got to listen to a sermon by Pastor Leonce at Renovation Church. He talked about how we've stopped expecting God to be God (I would HIGHLY recommend it if you need something to think about and want to go for a good walk - http://www.renovationchurch.com/sermons/expecting-god-to-be-god/).  It hit me in a lot of places that I've been thinking through lately, but the main thing I got out of it was how I've limited God to what I imagine Him to being.  Yes, I have the Bible and stories about what He's done, but at the end of the day my understanding of God is limited to who I've seen Him to be and it's really hard for me to trust that He "exists" outside of that.  That he still performs miracles and that HE transforms lives and it's not just the power of our minds.  That God can still speak to us and heal us and do all of the things that He says He can do.  And when I don't pray or ask Him for things or take time to recognize the things that he's doing, I'm limiting my understanding of Him which limits my worship of Him which limits what I'm ultimately made to do, which is glorify Him.

So yesterday I'm thinking through all this and trying to journal down some thoughts.  I was frustrated and overwhelmed and excited that I'm getting somewhere all at the same time. And I was reading through Isaiah 7-8 where God is speaking to the people of Jerusalem.  He's just gone through promising them a messiah to come in the future, but then he starts building covenants with them as a sort of "short term promise" to build their faith in Him. It reminded me of what I see Him doing now.  We have the promise of Jesus and that one day He's going to come back and his followers will be redeemed, but sometimes that feels like SUCH a foreign concept and such a long way off.  But I think God shows up in little ways (and sometimes in huge ways) day in the same way that he showed up to his people a lot of years ago (I really should know the amount of time between the old testament and new testament better) to remind us that He is here and we can actually trust in His word and promises.

Favorite part of the journal entry (post 2 pages of Marnie venting about frustrations/doubts/the struggle of faith): "But then I see you providing answers and changing desires and giving me a heart for you and sermons that speak directly to where I'm at. That call me out on not letting you be God and on limiting you to my understanding of who you are rather than letting you define who you are.  Or stopping me in the middle of my walk to find a perfect spot to sit along the river with SWANS and reflect on you.  And even though this is a crappy pen, there are swans.
And then I just don't know anymore"

God is good.

Here are some pics from the last few days!

This is what happens when it's sunny in Ireland

Salmon + cream cheese + bagel sandwiches!!! 

Funny when the same suitcase you pack for the entire trip
 is the same suitcase you take home for a weekend.

THE SWANS

WIMBLEDON

WHAT a weekend.  I decided this would be way better if the days were separated by posts, and since they feel like two completely separate trips anyways, it'll be easy.

To start, WE MADE IT TO WIMBLEDON!!! We left the Shannon airport at 9:30, and between flight delays, trains, night buses that smelled like vomit, and a 30 minute walk to the Queue, we made it to the Queue (place where people camp out to get tickets) at 3 a.m.  I had hopes that since we were getting there so early we might get Centre Court tickets, but when we got there and saw rows upon rows of tents, I realized we'd be lucky if we got tickets at all.  Apparently people set up camp the day tickets are released and camp for the ENTIRE 2 weeks so they can go to matches every day.  The volunteers told us that we could camp out all day Friday and that we'd for sure get Center Court tickets (which I was strongly considering), but we decided that watching tennis was going to be cool either way and we'd rather get our Wimbledon experience and then have some time in London too.  Here's a summary of our day!

Phase 1: Camping

We found our spot in line, got our Queue tickets, and set up camp.  The volunteers told us that they'd wake us up at 6:30 to pack up our tents and the line would start moving around 7:45 - we just laughed because we definitely hadn't packed tents, and only 3 of us had blankets.  The guys who were staying in the tent next to us thought it was really funny (not only did they make fun of us, but we also heard them talking about it when they got in their tent to go to sleep.  Turns out tents aren't soundproof).  

We all fell asleep with no problems because we were so exhausted, but it didn't last long.  I woke up to the sun shining and more people getting in line - I felt sure that it was time to pack up.  Turns out it was only 5:00 a.m., so I think we got a whole hour of sleep! 

Victoria was well prepared with a blanket AND pillow.

Phase 2: Standing in Line
We stood in line from 6:30 - around 10:00.  It wasn't bad at all - they did a really good job at moving us every so often, and we met some really cool people in the lines next to us that were fun to talk to!  When you enter the queue (aka when we started camping) you are assigned a queue number - this number is what gets you a ticket once you've waited in line for 3 hours and finally reach the front entrance of Wimbledon.  Until you've bought your ticket, there is no guarantee that you will get one.  The tickets are given out first-come, first-serve: the first 500 go to Centre Court, next 500 to Court 1, next 500 to Court 2, and then the remaining 500 or so go towards the non-show courts (3 through 17).  We had initially been told we would be on Court 2, but when we got to the front of the line, we had made it far enough to get tickets to Court 1!!! To say we were excited is a HUGE understatement,  but it didn't match the feelings we had when we found out our tickets were all together on the 6th row right at the net.  It was unbelievable and made camping, standing in line, and the price of the ticket TOTALLY worth it.

This is how we get through standing in line
at 7 a.m....

The line-up for the day

 Phase 3: Watch tennis
We got our tickets and got inside the club around 10:00.  They didn't open the grounds until 10:30, so we grabbed food and headed to the gift shop.  I don't know what I was expecting, but Wimbledon was pretty much just a big country club.  There were the big show courts, and then the other courts were normal tennis courts with a couple benches along the sides to watch the matches.  You could walk through these courts and watch several matches at once, and since the matches on court 1 didn't start until 1:00, that's exactly what we did.  I got to watch a men's doubles match (I sat in the "reserved for players" section because no players were sitting in the seats... it was a quality view), and then at 1:00 headed to Court 1 to watch Li Na, the #2 women's player in the WORLD, play her match.  She ended up losing to Barbara Zahlavova-Strycova (try saying that 5 times fast)... it was a GREAT match.  The coolest part was the first rally when the entire stadium was silent during the point.  It was crazy - a giant crowd went from very loud to zero noise as soon as the players stepped up to serve.  I enjoyed Wimbledon because it was a very respectful environment.  While it was clear that people had picked favorites to cheer for, people cheered for every good point regardless of who won.  When Dogopolov lost to Dimitrov (the 2nd match we saw), he received a standing ovation when we walked off the court because he had played so well.  I very much appreciated it.  The only problematic fans were the 8 college students who would occasionally doze off to sleep, but we had a good accountability system of elbowing each other when we saw the eyes closing and heads nodding (I got really good at watching tennis with my eyes closed! I could follow the sound of the ball and everything).

Strycova when she beat Li Na

Dimitrov and  Dolgopolov at the end of the match.

Overall, Wimbledon was an incredible experience.  It was beautiful weather and I was with amazing people watching world-class tennis at a place that I've grown up watching but never expected to actually get to.  It was a great start to a weekend full of LITERAL dreams coming true, and I left, once again, extremely thankful to have the opportunities that I've been given this summer.

Our seats!! 

Whoaaaa, we're halfway there

The summer is officially halfway over! At least school wise.  We had our final today, which marks the end of the "first semester" of the summer.  I REALLY like these 5 week semester things.  I think it's exactly how I was designed to learn:
Week 1: Decide you're getting an A in all your classes this semester. Sit in the front row, pay attention, take great notes and stay very organized with all your material.
Week 2: Start getting bored of the material, but then the midterm is coming up so you have to prepare for that.
Week 3: Midterm!! Study because after this test, you're halfway done with the semester
Week 4: Recover from the midterm.  While studying for the test you realized that you should have paid more attention and taken better notes, so you spend the week after doing that.
Week 5: Finals week!! Cram everything in that you've been learning, study because you're motivated by the fact that you need a 120% to get an A and you think that's possible, and then take your final! (I estimated the 120... I think that was an overestimate).
In summary, in terms of Marnie-motivation, 5 week semesters are GREAT.

So because it was week 5, I really have nothing new to write about.  I got back from an amazing week and spent time catching up on things at Tech and studying for the final.  We have a flight tonight at 9:00 to head to London, and we'll spend the night camping outside Wimbledon trying to get tickets for tomorrow!! Fingers are crossed for no rain...

More to come later. Just wanted to send a quick update that life is good, Ireland has returned to typical rainy weather, and I'm officially halfway done with the semester!

For your entertainment.... here's what happens when you drift a car on the beach