Church of Ireland

Yesterday morning I went with Gill's best friend Vivienne to the Church of Ireland (a Protestant Church) in Ballyhooly. Vivienne joked the whole way there about how tiny the church was and how different it would be from anything I'd been to before. It was different in terms of the size (there were only about 20 people there), but I really liked the church service. It is similar to the service at Christ Episcopal in Charlottesville on a much smaller scale. I figured everyone at home who knows my beautiful singing voice would love the fact that you HAVE to sing (otherwise there aren't enough people to sing the hymns). Not only do I have to sing, but there aren't hundreds of people to drown out my voice!! Vivienne lives in Dublin but her parents live around here, so I will be able to hitch a ride with them on the Sundays they are going. After the service, everyone in the church has tea and coffee. That was a great because I had the chance to meet two other American girls that are living in that area (one was in her late 50s but the other one in her late 20s). I got their phone numbers and will hopefully be able to get in touch with them sooner or later.

One of the girls- April- had been to Williamsburg before. When someone asked me if Williamsburg was a city, a town, or a village, I asked April for the best comparison (because I have been getting this question a lot and really don't know what to compare it to around here!). She compared it to the town of Fermoy, so the Fordes took me there after church. I feel like it was a good comparison of downtown Williamsburg, but still pretty different. Towns here are just so much more condensed and its just impossible to compare them to American cities/towns. We fed the ducks on the Blackwater River and then got back on the road.

On our way back we stopped by Bridgetown Abbey- an old monastarey. It's amazing to me that a building over 800 years old could still be standing. I've never been into history, but its hard not to be amazed by a building like that when its so unlike anything I've ever seen back home (and a lot older too!!)

When we got home, we had lunch with all of Kieran's family for his birthday. He is one of seven, so there was quite the crowd. We then spent the afternoon outside on the patio (with all of them) enjoying the BEAUTIFUL weather. It was almost HOT out! Reminded me of a good spring Virginia day. Absolutely perfect!