Castles, whisky, and cliffs oh my!

So its been a few days since i've written anything, but I have a good reason for that...we spent the last three days on the coast at a retreat house, meaning no internet. We left bright and early monday morning, not really knowing what to expect, or if we'd even be able to make it there because of the icy roads, but we made it and it was actually kinda nice! We spent monday "getting to know" each other, but the weekend had pretty much been the biggest ice breaker ever so that was ok. Oh and I'm glad we did those exercises monday afternoon because we discovered we are onions-multiple layers that need to be pealed in order to really get to know each other! Monday night was really interesting because we went with nigel and derick to corrymela center, where they work on bring the communities together as well as helping people deal with and move on from the troubles. I don't think I could even begin to describe how I think we all felt listening to derick talk about how powerful and emotionally some of their events had been. It was kinda one of those you had to be there moments but it really got us all thinking and, at least for me made the stuff i'm reading come to life.

With Tuesday came my first taste of poridge, aka oatmeal, and it was pretty good especially with the brown sugar! But it was so filling that i was too full to eat the freshly baked coffee cake...sad day! In the morning we went over course stuff, and in the afternoon we had the not so fun task of picking internships, aka everyone sitting around trying to get the one they want, and choosing as a group, sort of how, who would go where. My placement was made easy by the fact that I wanted to do one that no one else wanted! Yay! I love avoiding confrontation, purely by luck! Anyhow, two hours later, it was all settled without any tears, massive dissapointment, or fighting! Later that night we went out for a drink (a very popular pasttime around here) at a local pub and that was fun. Oh and we also watched twilight ok movie, made better by the incredibly sarcastic and ridiculous commentary! Unfortunately yesterday signaled the point where we're all starting to not feel so good, so hopefully we get better soon!

Anyways, Wednesday (aka today) we went to giant's causeway, the bushmills (whisky) distillery, and a castle (hence the title!). Honestly giant's causeway was amazing but scared the heck out of me for probably the first like 10 min. because I got stuck on the edge, alone, and didn't know where to go, but nigel helped out and soon the slippery rocks didn't bother me soo much! Then we grabbed lunch, and headed to the distillery. Pretty sure you could get drunk just standing outside of it. Whisky...interesting taste... a little intense by itself but yeah interesting! The castle was AMAZING and gorgous!

Will write more tomorrow time to go watch west wing and read a little for friday!

BTW I'm Loving Norn Iron! :)