several thanksgiving photos posted...link is on the left. enjoy!

Yea for an international Thanksgiving. I think I learned more about Thanksgiving in the last week than ever before in preparation for our Thanksgiving feast. Since the majority of our attendees were German, we needed to fill in the blanks and explain why we are so incredibly gluttonous on the fourth Thursday of November. And I made them do a cold reading of the one act play "The Ugly Turkey." For a bunch of first time Thanksgiving hosts, we did a pretty fabulous job of recreating our favorite dishes, name cards, table placements, and party games. It was a good night of food and friends.

And for a brief rant: X Factor is ridiculous. I swear, British voters are off their rockers. Bring back Daniel, Future Proof and Beverly.

Also spent Friday night at our favorite(?) pub. Live Irish music session, old friends (5 months=old) and new, all it was missing was a bit of a jig (reminiscent of Titanic), but none of us drink enough to start that....

Heat is an amazing thing. M and I finally caved yesterday and decided to run our heating for THREE long hours a day instead of the one that it had been on before. And it really is a beautiful thing. We've decided that it is weird to be "grown up" and thinking about things like heating costs and telephone bills.

Happy Thanksgiving to any Americans reading. I have to be honest, in light of all the inquires as to why we celebrate Thanksgiving, I had to do a quick google search and brush up my Thanksgiving facts v. Thanksgiving fiction. It was pretty enlightening and now I am armed with official wikipedia tidbits. Our Thanksgiving bash will take place this Saturday, most likely with more Germans in attendance than Americans. Seems to be a theme these days...

I spent last weekend in the tiny town of Castlewellan. I went for a(nother) training with a(nother) youth org in Belfast. The content wasn't really anything new, just a good juxtaposition of youth work training and social work problem solving methods, but the company and conversation were worth it. The group petitioned for an afternoon break on Saturday, to walk around the fabulous park that was just outside our doorway. And then it rained. I, however, got stubborn, and decided to walk anyway, so off I went on my own, in the rain, to search out a castle. I found the castle (see below) and deemed the walk my "Thanksgiving Walk." Every year, after Thanksgiving dinner, my aunts, mom, sisters and I try to walk off a few of the calories. I don't know how much it helps, but I have memories of walking through woods with leaves the colors of fire, and walking under street lamps as snow flurries began to fall. Unfortunately, this year, the family isn't the memory, but at least there's a castle.


We're gearing up for Christmas now (OK, let's be real, I've been ready for 3 weeks). The big switch on of Christmas lights at City Hall was on Tuesday night, with Shayne Ward singing (previous X-Factor winner). I had to work, but we still heard bits of the screaming crowd during our detached walk two(?) miles outside of town. The Continental Christmas Market is up and running on City Hall grounds now, too. I had big plans to go yesterday morning, and then, in true Belfast fashion, it poured. I will go and bring back photos for you though. Even in the construction phase last week it looked pretty cool, with tons of huts and pavilions built for these next three weeks. We've got a tour of Belfast Castle scheduled, a cookie baking night, Christmas dinner for our yp in the center and on the streets...it's an exciting four weeks. (Not to mention a trip home in one month+1 day!)

I got an email from TOMS shoes yesterday. I love this company. They sell these super cool shoes, and for every pair purchased, they make second pair for kids in Africa or South America. I went and read their blog (got all teary-eyed) and then began thinking like a social worker. Does giving one pair of new shoes to a child really change his life? Wouldn't it be better to teach them how to make shoes instead? But you know, when I get to thinking this way, I feel defeated. Poverty and inequality seems too big to overcome. Maybe new shoes today doesn't change much (Paolo Nutini would disagree) but the compassion an]d humanity shown through that action is just as important. It may not be enough, but it is one guy doing his best, and if 50,000 pairs of shoes, put onto the feet of children one by one, is just the beginning of this guy's best, I've got a lot of catching up to do.

best gifts ever (it's not that I haven't loved EVERY gift ever given to me-it's just that it is pretty durn cold):

the wool socks from mom and dad that make it seem as though i am walking on clouds
the green sock/bootie-like things from heather
knee socks from megan (a MUCH better option than thermal underware)

thank you for these gift that are trying their hardest to keep me warm on these icy, cold, windy nights.

***

It has been a good week. Monday was really just a lovely day. I went to a training with the Red Cross for their School Speaker Program. We'll be going into the schools and doing presentations about child soldiers, HIV/Aids and other humanitarian issues. I've done a lot training in the last five months, and this was definately one of the best since it was good information, casual and conversational. The other two volunteers in training either have or are working on Master's degrees in International Humanitarian Law, so the conversations were facinating. Although, it throws me off again in terms of "what I want to do with my life." Humanitarian Law sounds intriguing, and I've loved all of the work I have done with branches of the Red Cross...anyone want to tell me what I should do with my life? Someone told dad to be an engineer, and so he is, I'd be happy with a suggestion or two :)

That night was book club, at a fabulous little coffee shop. But we (I) read The Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man (no one else finished it) and I learned a very important lesson: I really do not care what James Joyce has to say about religion, art or beauty, and I am not a fan of his book. Who decided that stream of consiousness writing was a good literary style?

Chinese welfare association came out to the youth programme on Tuesday, open club Wednesday, detached tonight (thank goodness for big, warm detached coats, the weather caught me off guard).

AND, the new BVSers have arrived in NI/Ireland. I have met one of the five, and she's fantastic. It's good to have several more Americans around to help out with our Thanksgiving dinner in a few weeks. Looks like we may have a big crowd. I do love Thanksgiving, but I have decided that I also like the fact that there are no other holidays between Halloween and Christmas in this country. Makes me feel not so bad for listening to Christmas music, obsessing over Christmas gifts, and appreciating Christmas tunes and decorations nearing full swing all over the city.

The fun began at 12:03 last night. Since we were all awake, J and M stopped by my doorframe to wish me a happy birthday. J brought me pralines and a big decorative gingerbread cookie from his last trip home to Germany. It was completely unexpected and really very nice. When I got up super early for the final day of youth work training, I ate the cinnamon toast crunch cereal that mom and dad sent in my birthday box. Then the assessment morning at youth work training, which wasn't too painful...and coffee at a nice little cafe in the city. It's a place I had never been before (and won't go again because it was way too pricey) but I finally had that feeling of sitting in a small European city, feeling sophisticated and grown up. I have to remind myself that this is my life. A bit of browsing in a gormet food shop and a bit of buying in the metro tesco and I headed home for a quite afternoon of reading, cleaning, baking, and opening the gifts from home.

Part 2 started around six when N and F joined us (me, M and J) for tacos (thanks mom and dad). N found me the poptarts that I have been craving and a box of chocolate and F brought a home baked marble cake. M, F, and J gave me a card they made with a photo that M took and a picture F drew, and to top it off, M said that his gift to me is a trip on the Belfast Wheel. It's a bit overwhelming, I suppose. It's easy to forget how many people really care, and today I am just blown away by their thoughtfulness. Thanks, friends.

And Part 3, which was the only real intentional piece on my end. We all went to the Lyric theatre to see Truth in Translation. It was an amazing musical that showed the reconciliation process in South Africa through the eyes of the interpretors who translated the Truth Commission proceedings into the local languages. The music made me want to dance, clap, cry and sing, the topic just made me plain curious to learn about the reconciliation process. I realize that I was around 11 when it all began and I have no recollection of any news from South Africa...I think it was a brilliant way to present such a sensitive issue since the audience can identify with the interpretors as characters (as opposed to perpetrators or victims) and through them, work through the things they did: taking on the identities of those they interpreted for, their identity of white or black and their roles in the community, their understanding of what was going on while they were safe at home in their middle class homes. It's a very cool project, check out the link: http://www.truthintranslation.org/

So thank you everyone, for the emails, phone messages, gifts, cards, facebook messages, and the thought you put into making today special.

I suppose every country needs its excuse to set of fireworks. The US has the 4th of July, I'm told it's New Year's Eve in Germany. Here in Northern Ireland? It's Halloween. There are quite obviously plenty of outlets for illegal fireworks, lighting up the entire city and makig it sound as though it were under siege. I really would have liked to watch it all from the mountain, it would have been a fabulous show, but it was pretty exciting to experience Halloween right in the middle of it all. Few of the yp were about, so it wasn't too successful as a night of detached work, but really, I've never seen anything like it. Literally every corner of the city had major firework shows (although only one was official), with real, Washington DC-on-the-4th-of-July size fireworks. We saw some people setting them off in pretty stupid ways...but we (and the people we were passing) appeared to make it through the night ok.

I took a field trip to Glengormley today. It a small suburb just north of Belfast, and their library was the closest that had the book I need. Due to completely illogical policies, I had to go to them to pick up the book (libraries in NI need help). I go on the bus, no problem, and confirmed with the bus driver that this bus stopped in Glengormley. This led to a conversation about where the stop was that left me utterly faithless in my ability to communicate. Eventually I just nodded and sat down, clueless. And then I got a bit anxious. How the heck would I know where I was and when to get off? I texted M, who was great, and sent me the names of the two biggest stops just before mine. And when we passed those and I began to panic, I turned to the gentleman across the aisle, admitted my ignorance and learned that he could not hear. Apparently he reads lips pretty well, got the jist of glen-gorm-ley, and was ever so kind to put away his book and direct me as to when to get off. Mission accomplished.

I get off the bus and attempt to look intent upon reaching my destination, except that I have no idea how to get to my destination. So I walk. I call into a charity shop (there's a great skirt on the rack, but I don't feel like shopping) and ask the woman at the counter for directions to the library. Finally I set out, for the first time, actually intent upon reaching my destination. Lesson learned in the past two years: there's nothing quite like the feeling of successfully using resources and accomplishing small adventures on your own. Like all libraries, it was small, and it took about one minute to pick up the book, but it was in a pretty neighborhood so I walked for a bit and stood under the trees out front, listening to the birds sing as though it was the first day of spring.

The rest of the day I spent reading. I read in Clements over coffee and a panini, I read in the Central Library. It's so refreshing to have a day on my own, productive still, but relaxing.