Hey, You! Read This!

Hey, hey my lovely people!  Your friend, son, brother, best friend, etc. Kyle here.  I know it's been a while since my last post, but shut up.  

So here I am, just sittin' in muh flat upstairs in the Lighthouse, catching up on some much-needed washing of dishes, so I figured I would take this time to catch you guys up on the extreme wonder-adventure that is my life (.......).

Nothing too much to report.  The past week has just been us (the Year Team, also newly dubbed "The Marauders" since there are four of us) doing some random cleaning and tidying around DCM and planning weekend travel adventures.  This week, though, we start our duties (Nathan) at the Lighthouse, Gabrielle and Natalie on Tuesday, Danielle and me on Thursday.  My nights have been mostly filled with going out with Ashley, Shauna, people from Trinity Church, and various members of the Matthews family.  Last night, however, a large group of us including the aforementioned people in addition to some older leaders from DCM (Aaron N, Joel B, Lauren, Zoe and others) went out for a night at the cinema in Dundrum, about 15 minutes away on the LUAS (public rail-tram system).  We saw Apollo 18.  It was kind of cool, but not all that great.

*SPOILER ALERT*

When you get your head around what the simple concept of the movie actually is (the rocks on the moon are really extra-terrestrial life forms that come to life and attack you), the movie is not really very scary at all.  The real scary moments are just "jumpy" moments accomplished in the usual ways: noise build-up, restricting camera angles, and sudden cuts.  Not a bad movie per say, just not really very satisfying as a "scary movie."

ANYWAY,  after the cinema, Natalie D, Julia and I left the group behind and met up with Natalie's older sister Miriam and some of her friends at a pub called Mac Turcall's right around the corner from the Lighthouse.  Apparently it's a pretty nice pub that's fairly popular with the local crowd because of it's nice atmosphere and relatively cheap drinks (3.50 for any pint, which is still like $5.25, but compared to most places it's good).  I discovered that Carlsberg tastes MUCH better from the tap than it does in a bottle.  Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.  I had one of those and a Bulmer's Irish Cider Mmmmmmmmmm.  Anywho, I was also flattered to be invited to a party that Natalie is having at her house because I "drink like an Irish person."  I know that sounds bad, but she just meant it as in, I drink, and I enjoy drinking, and I finish a pint fairly quickly.  They may have to reschedule it though, because it's the same weekend we wanted to head up North, and Natalie wants to come with us.

Well, that is pretty much what I've been up to thus far, amigos.  There are some of you (Michael) that I haven't talked to for a while, so we need to skype.  A group skype session seems in order.

Love you guys like a crazy person!

You know what they say, "you may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not..."

CAMP!

Hello, Friends!  I know it has been over a week since my last entry, BUT that is only because I was out of town in Wicklow County for a week at Camp.  DCM is finishing up their summer camps, which are located on land that they own out in Wicklow.  Last week was the Town area Family Camp with kids in the DCM area of town and their families.

I am literally about to walk out the door for a second week of camp, which is called Choose Life.  Choose Life is the 15-18 group of kids that come to DCM on Fridays, so it should be a little more relaxed, as there are less kids to deal with.  This past week was very educational.  I got to lead morning worship sessions for the leaders, but not so much for the main sessions because not too many of the people know any worship songs.  This week, though, I'm hoping that we get to do more worship with the older kids.  Several of the leaders/other year-teamers play instruments, so we may have a guitar keyboard and violin to work with, which should be a good time.

So I had one night back in town with which I did laundry and slept, and now I'm heading out again.  It's good times though.  I have two weeks off coming up, and I'm making a trip up North to see my new friends from Northern Ireland.  I have to go now.  I love you all, and I'll talk to you in a week!

Kyle

Some New Friends

So.  There's a team from Northern Ireland helping out at DCM for the next two weeks.  Yesterday was the first day of Summer Project, and they were there helping out with the activities.  The first guy I talked to from the team, Jordan, aka "Fridge" told me that he plays American football.  He also told me that he's a Jacksonville Jaguars fan and that there's an Irish sister team to the Jaguars that "tried out" for the NFL, but didn't make it.  I had a little interview with Randall, "Fudge," and I told everyone that I was from Jacksonville, FL, so we both thought that our mutual connection was pretty random and cool.

Today at Summer Project, we started the morning off with some of the usual games, then we broke for lunch, and I decided to stay back at DCM with the team from Northern Ireland.  I really enjoyed just sitting with them and beginning to get to know them.  I discovered some linguistic differentiations between Irish and American English, such as saying "salad" instead of "lettuce" on a sandwich.  I was legitimately confused for a whole minute trying to figure out what was on the sandwiches that they made...  We had a good laugh over that.

They put butter on their sandwiches.  Like, meat, cold-cut sandwiches.

They also told me that American chocolate isn't nearly as good as Irish chocolate, specifically Hershey vs. Cadbury.

After lunch, we took ALL the kids (about 35-40) up the road (like 20 minutes of walking) to Phoenix Park.   It was really, really beautiful.  There are open fields with nice, soft grass, big beds of brightly colored flowers, and a huge obelisk monument thing in the middle resembling the Washington Monument.  I played football (soccer) with a group of older kids fro about an hr.  I fell over about four times total.  I learned that my ball control skills need improvement, BUT that I'm a great Back (defender) because I'm really fast and quick and can stay in front of pretty much anyone, and I have pretty quick reactions.  Good fun.  

There was also a family quiz night thing scheduled for tonight, so for a couple hours, I went up to Danielle's kitchen up-upstairs with Natalie (Irish Natalie, not New Zealand Natalie), who is one of the leaders at DCM.  We ended up watching that show where those people are all competing for a role on Glee.  It was entertaining.  I wouldn't keep up with it.

The Quiz Night was pretty ridiculous.  Irish people, at least these Irish people, have a tendency to bend the rules slightly by breaking them and cheating.   Even the parents of the kids.  They are just as loud and rowdy as the kids, only with more discernment that comes with age, usually.  WE CAME IN THIRD!  One of the "questions" was a little competition where we had to fit as many people as we could onto a trash bag laid flat on the floor.  This activity involved me standing stomach-to-stomach and head-to-head with Travis and Noel's father, who smokes.  It was unpleasant.   He was a pretty nice guy though.

Anyway, I got the phone numbers of two of the guys from the Northern Irish team, and they told me a lot about the ministry that they come from, Exodus.  They said I should make a trip up sometime.  I have two weeks off in September when the DCM staff have their Holiday, so I'm thinking about just catching the bus up North for a week or so.  Seems like it would be pretty sweet, and a great opportunity to continue building relationship and friendship with Christ-following Irish people my age.  Looking forward to it.  We still have a whole 'nother week after this one away at camp, so that should really give us all an opportunity to bond.

Ok.  That's enough for now.  It probably took you like an hour to read that.

Love you all,

Kyle

Sleeping In the Lighthouse By Yourself at Night Is NOT COOL.

That's pretty much it.

Follow My Blog!

Hey, Friends!  I just created my blog.  It is called: Kyle Lives In Ireland Now.  The URL is kylelivesinirelandnow.blogspot.com.


I haven't really made it my own yet, just chose a template and wanted to get some stuff written.  


My plane landed in Dublin at about 9:30am, and Liesel was waiting for me at the airport.  She proceeded to make fun of me for how much stuff I brought, apparently more than any of the girls.  Whatever.  We'll see who's prepared.  


After Tetris-ing all of my stuff into her little Toyota, we traveled to the Lighthouse, and she helped me upstairs with my stuff.  My new flat is suhweet!  I have two rooms!  I have a living area/kitchen that connects with my bathroom and then a whole full-size bedroom with a desk and closets and a sweet view!  I love having a desk.  I didn't even have a desk in Orlando...


Once I had all my stuff in my flat, we went downstairs (I, of course, live on the 3rd floor) to the floor below me to say hi to Ashley.  We shot the breeze for 20 minutes or so, and then Liesel graciously took me shopping to the "big", "American-sized" Tesco that is quite far away.  She literally walked the aisles with me and helped me pick stuff out haha.  Now I'm back at the flat getting all settled in.  


Excited to be here and to keep journaling my endeavors like this.  Hope you guys enjoy reading it.


Kyle