This week in the Village, was a
splendid one, we had lots of fun and grew closer as a team. This week started
off with a beautiful Irish Sunday that was rather uneventful. We went to mass
planned our youth night number 3, and Amy and I went shopping. Amy and I had a
fun time getting the necessary items of food for the week and the last minute
supplies for Me and Tim’s marvelous honoring of the girls on our team. The
evening was a night off filled with some intense games of Dutch Blitz, Oreos/
biscuits with some peanut butter, and Chuck. This was a very nice way to start
the week and our coming day off.
The next day we rose from our beds
after a nice sleep in, Tim and Amy ran, the rest of us were lazy, and then we
ate lunch and the girls were off. Tim and I stayed behind to prepare the
surprise for the girls. That Monday happened to be Thanksgiving in Canada,
rather early this year, but Tim and I had planned to cook the girls a Turkey
dinner. Tim and I picked up the Turkey from the Local Butcher and brought it to
our humble abode in the Village. Five hours later the Turkey, which took the
name of Rick, was carved, Potatoes were mashed, table was set, and stuffing was
stuffed, we surprised the girls with a beautiful feast. There was much joy that
came from that evening, the girls felt loved and we were happy to give of
ourselves, even if it was our day off. Rick lasted all week for lunches, we now
know how Rick is doing, he is doing good! (The whole Rick thing is an inside
joke from our Supervisor Mark, he likes to say, “How you doing Rick?!”)
The week continued on, Tuesday we
had team sport; we went and played of the playground. We all ran around played
on the toys and felt like little kids again…the Craic was had by all on the
Village playground. We came back and did the weekly Diads, we ate a lovely
dinner, and then went to our delightful friends the O’Neill’s where we ate
chocolate, drank some tea and apple juice, and just felt right at home with the
family interaction and Mama Mia playing on the television. Sadly Amy stayed
home because she wasn’t feeling the best but we had the Craic on her behalf.
The
next evening was our Hood time, Tim and I went to try out a new Pub, the
Greyhound. The environment and culture was nothing compared to the Team’s
favorite the Blue Hackle. When we got back and were upstairs watching a movie
the girls got scared of someone knocking on the window… so they ran up to us
for some help/ protection. Tim and I opened the door, finding Mr. O’Neill
laughing his butt off because he knew he had scared Amy, Marie and Rebecca.
Laura O’Neil (a girl on NET who is also his daughter) had told him that our shower was crap and he
came to see what he could do to fix it. He said he would be back with a new shower
head the next day, which made us guys happy so our shower would be more than a
trickle.
Thursday was a good day, It was
Youth Group number 3. Trivia Night was a hit with 13 people showing up; we
played a NET version of Jeopardy with six categories, 3 fun and 3 more faith
related. I was the host of our game show, I did a very good job even if I messed
up some answers to the questions… oops! Friday was a nice day of talking to our
families, get next week’s schedule and preparing for our first Team Day in
Dublin!!!!!
Dublin was amazing leave it at that! The day began earlier
than normal, and after some last minute cash retrievals we were on the Rocky
Road to Dublin… 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5! Random fact Dublin means Black Pond. The IKEA parking lot was rather empty at
10:30 am which was in our benefit. We found the bus stop and waited… and
waited… until we realized we needed to be down another 300 yards to a different
bus stop. Next we caught the bus heading into down town. The view was nice atop
the double decker bus, Rebecca’s first time on one, I saw the biggest grave
yard I had ever seen and many photos were taken. We began our walk about in
Temple Bar where we saw three open air markets, multiple cool shops, pubs, and
touristy spots. We then went up to Christ Church Cathedral which was built in
the 11th century and was Catholic until the 16th century, now it is Anglican.
Sadly we were not allowed in to look about for free; we instead just took
pictures outside then headed down to the Dublin Castle. Sadly Dublin Castle didn’t hold up to our
anticipated excitements, at least on the outside, but again we did not feel the
desire to pay to see the inside at that time. We headed then to the world
renowned Pipe Shop of Ireland, Peterson’s, there I bought some delicious dark
cherry tobacco. We just continued to tour about that area, watching street
performers, going to Saint Stephen’s park and then hurrying back to our bus
that would take us to IKEA. We ate a delicious dinner of Swedish Meatballs and
mashed potatoes at IKEA before embarking on our tour of the many show rooms. We
had 200 euro to spend, we spent 169 euro which was awesome because we were so
worried that we would go over. Our house
is one step closer to being furnished completely thanks to the amazing lower
prices of IKEA! This week was awesome tiring but so worth all the fun we had!
