My two month hiatus was a failure. I have written, maybe, one journal entry, and while I started off strong with the emails, they've faded quickly. So I'm back at blogging. Letting the whole world know what I've done day in and day out. But this time it's completely for selfish reasons (those who debate the ethics of blogs may think blogging is always selfish...). At least if I blog regularly I'll have a record of my life in Belfast, and that's worth my time. So read and comment and don't read at all- I won't be bothered.

It's an appropriate day to restart. It's a good parallel to the first time- another (partially) diabolical weekend residential. I think that overall and "officially" it would classify as "good," but a day later and most of the good parts have filtered themselves out. The good news is that it wasn't a FS residential, and, in all fairness, all of the kids have serious family issues happening in their lives and some were completely dead on. It's just that the few who weren't were really good at being disrespectful, crude, headstrong and unruly. I wish I had had a tape recorder, because I don't think that most of you can imagine the strings of cursing and insults that these kids come up with (occasionally, I do have to give them inner applause for their creativity.) We did get to do lots of archery, I attempted a climbing wall for the first time, watched some banana boating (but couldn't handle the thought of wading into the icy water), played some pool, ran about a HUGE ball pit with a free fall slide... I'm also still musing over our "performance" as youth workers. I don't think I've ever worked with people who were so communicative and reflective DURING an actual event. It was kinda cool to "talk strategy" as were trying to figure out how best to encourage the young people to sleep at 4 am, and it was definitely beneficial since I was unfamiliar with the policies and preferences of the organization. So yes. That was my weekend- I came home cold, sick and knackered, and decided that hot showers are God's gift to youth workers.

Today, though, is a new day. And it happens to be St. Patrick's Day. I feel like a bit of a slacker for not pubbing and drinking lots of Guinness on St. Paddy's Day in N. Ireland, but I did go to the "carnival parade" and free concert in city centre. The parade was good- a bit silly and small, but it's only the third year there's even been city council sponsored events in the city. The concert was also really good (3/4 of it). There were two traditional Irish bands, an Irish dance troop and then the headliner. Lots of people left when the headliner came on, and I did too when she restarted her first song after coming in at the wrong part of the karaoke-type track. But the weather was absolutely gorgeous today, so C and I took a walk through town just enjoying the sun.

Check to the left for some random pics from the past few months.

And a new feature (to keep me accountable and to assure Heather that I am trying my best not be a failure in life:
Most recent read: Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin (great book, but still didn't motivate me enough to get very high on my first climbing wall attempt...)