Glendalough - Glen of Two Lakes

So we went to Glendalough yesterday. It was AMAZING. Glendalough (Glen-da-Lock) literally means Glen of Two Lakes of Valley of Two Lakes so this valley has two lakes, the Upper and Lower Lake. If one has to put a place down on their Bucket List, visiting Glendalough needs to be one of those items.
Glendalough, like I said before, is an old monastery founded by St. Kevin in the 6th Century. Monastery actually means community so basically a monastery was a religious community. And for the longest time the Irish Monasteries were different from those that we think about on the Continent of Europe. First of all, the monks had many different roles throughout their small community that didn't always include 24/7 fasting and praying. Majority were laymen, cultivating the fields and such for their food source, some were scribes, cooks, millers, bakers, gardeners, and porters, along with many other occupations. They were overseen by Abbots or Abbesses oversaw the nuns. And these small communities weren't just for monks and nuns. For a long time these monasteries including the families of the monks and nuns because the Irish didn't think that to become a monk or nun they had to sustain from marriage. Of course there were a few who did sustain from marriage, but that whole "Thou Shalt Not Marry if You Want To Become a Nun or Monk" wasn't really introduced until the 12th century.

Glendalough, like all monasteries, was a HUGE center of everything. Because there were little kingdoms of petty Irish kings, monasteries became the hub of all business and really the first cities and towns of Ireland. Before that everyone was just spread about. One poem describes this perfectly:

Ailill the king is vanished
Vanished Croghan's fort
Kings to Clonmacnoise now
Come to pay their court

Navan town is shattered
Ruins everywhere
Glendalough remains
Half a world is there.

I think that's a really cool poem.
While at Glendalough we saw was it called the Sanctuary Stone. Now this stone was erected before even the stone archways that served as the gates was made. It has a stone cross etched into it and it symbolized to anyone passing through that they were now in safe territory. The two archways that serve as the entrance to Glendalough are the oldest remaining archways in all of the Celtic nations which include Scotland and Wales.

At Glendalough there is an Irish Round Tower. The whole reason why it is called the Irish Round Tower is because the Irish believe that they invented the Round Tower and that saints from Ireland who traveled to Scotland and Wales brought the idea with them and as our tour guide said "Who is to say the Irish didn't invent the Round Towers?" Many believe that the Towers were made to act as a signal to those traveling to monasteries to show them which direction to take and where the monastery was.
The graveyard at Glendalough is really cool since it's one of - if not the only - graveyard in Ireland to have both Catholics and Protestants buried in it. It was all because when the English took over they put Protestants in it and when the Catholics finally were able to worship they buried their people in the graveyard. So to this day no one has ever done an excavation at Glendalough because of the fact that so many people were buried there in the past few decades they don't want to upset any families who still come and visit the gravesides.

After Glendalough we went and had lunch on the shore of the Upper Lake and then we split into groups. Some staid behind to do short hikes around the lake while I and a slightly larger group took a three hour hike up around the Upper Lake. It was a hard hike but in the end it was absolutely stunning. We were high into the Wicklow Mountains and we could see for miles - we could even see the ocean when we were at the top of where we were. It really was amazing. The only sad thing was when one of our directors, Kyle, told us about how back in 2002 one of the freshmen in the Freshmen Irish Studies Program died while hiking the same hike because she and two other friends went off the path and she fell about 60 feet after not clearing a jump she was trying to make. Yeah, that was really sad.

After the hike we treated ourselves to ice cream. I think we deserved it. My legs today are hurting slightly but not so much now that the day has gotten on. Tomorrow we're going to go see the Book of Kells at Trinity College in Dublin and I can't wait to see that. We're also going to see the college's library which is called the Long Room and Vance Maloney said that one person he knew wept upon seeing the library for the first time. Does that mean I might start weeping? There's that possibility.

Coffee Trek and Church

Saturday we went on a coffee trek. In other words, we were put into groups, given five euros each, and sent off to explore stops along the DART and find coffee shops. That was actually fun. In my group I had Ryan, Rachel, Kristin, and Avery. We found a coffee shop at the back of this street market at Blackrock and then we found a cute little tea room in the back of this really expensive boutique type shop called Ellen's Tea Room. It was a really cute shop. So that was fun.
Today, Sunday, I went to Greystones Presbyterian Church which is about a quarter mile or so from the YWCA. They were finishing up a series on Elijah called Why Ireland needs Prophets - Not Profit. I think some American pastor needs to do a series on it, except rename is Why America needs Prophets - Not Profit. After that we went into the back of the church for tea and coffee and me and the small group of Taylor students going to the church with me (other students went to other community churches) talked with this guy who for the past thirty years until last year was a New Age Professor and wrote articles and studied in-depth on the subject. Then one night last year he had a dream that he was being eaten by a demon for believing in New Age and that made him want to try and learn more about Christianity. He says his wife thinks that he's gone slightly insane because he's so passionate about Christ now but he hopes and prays that she will hopefully open up to Christ in the near future but he knows that it might take a while since it took him a long time.
Tomorrow we will be going to Glendalough (pronounced Glen-da-lock). It's an old monastery created in St. Kevin in the 6th Century. Basically, monasteries in Ireland were little religious communities and were great centers of learning. During Europe's Dark Ages - Ireland sorta got skipped by that. That was Ireland's Golden Age basically. Anyway, in monasteries there were individual rooms for the monks that are called cells, there's also a church building, kitchens, land and pastures so that they could cultivate the land and glean from it, the monasteries always had a library and a scriptorium where the scribes would be writing and translating. During the Dark Ages of Europe, books were sent to Ireland for them to be translated because Ireland was so well known for its scholars.
Monastery actually means Community (which I thought was cool.) Dr. Cosgrove, one of my professors, teasingly called Taylor the Taylor Monastery since community is a big thing at Taylor. Anyway, at the monastery the day went by like this: pray daily, fast daily, study daily, work daily. There was daily church and the special days were Sundays, Saint Days and Easter was the big day. The monks would fast through the 40 days of Lent - but not a total fast for they took very light meals at night so that they would survive.
We'll learn a whole lot more about the people who lived in a monastery tomorrow but that's all I have right now. I don't know if I'll be able to update a post tomorrow since the wi-fi will be off and I'll have to battle for ether-net cords but I will update as soon as possible.

Just a Day in Ireland

Yesterday we didn't do a whole lot. Though we did watch the 13th Warrior which was an awesome movie. It's basically a movie that's based off Beowulf that isn't Beowulf. It was really good, a lot better than what I thought it would be. There was some blood and stuff but other than that it was a good movie.
We got our DART passes today and Megan Mathre and I went to Dublin where we found this awesome bookshop called The Winding Staircase with these awesome old books. I got a book on Scottish Verses for 4 euro. It was pretty awesome and I really like it. Megan and I then ate and then came back. All in all we spent several hours there.
Now I'm in the Internet room and there is only wi-fi on Thursdays and the weekend so all other times we have to sign up and use a cord to connect to the Internet. A little miffed at that but oh well.
Will blog whenever I can.

Newgrange, Hill Slane, and Mellifont Abbey

Today was a busy and exciting day. First we got up early so that we could have breakfast, make lunch, and leave the YWCA at 8 or a little thereafter so that we could get to Newgrange at a decent time. Newgrange is an ancient monument built around 3200 BC which is before the Great Pyramids and Stonehenge, making it over 5000 years old. Many archaeologists believe that is was some sort of burial ground as several human remains were found when the site was excavated in the 60s. The outside is basically a reconstruction of what people think the outside must have looked like originally. The inner chamber is in the shape of a cross, though this was thousands of years before Christ so they weren't inspired by that - but to me it makes me think about perhaps God inspired them to somehow shape the chamber to be a message of what would happen in the future - dunno really, just my interpretation of it. But the chamber starts off being one long passageway that I only had to duck my head once or twice...but not at the entrance like everyone else. The tour guide was like "When you enter and exit watch you head." Yeah...I didn't have to. But when you get to the end you see three small chambers which make the shape of the cross. One chamber is decorated with lots and lots of carvings which many scholars believe symbolize the Sky which is where all the gods and spirits lived, the once across from the is the Earth which is where we humans live, and the one in direct center is the Underworld and it only has one carving which is the Three Spiral Carving which is only really visible during the Winter Solstice when the sun is able to aligne with the Sun Box above the entrance and sends a shaft of light through the passageway into the back of the Underworld Chamber. The tour guide even did a reenactment of what the solstice looks like with the few electric bulbs that are in the inside though when it was pitch dark it was really creepy.

Next we went and ate lunch on Hill Slane where there is a ruin of a church and graveyard and my friends and I ate in the graveyard section. It was so cool and some people were even buried there as late at the 90s. But we ate there and then went exploring all over the ruins and there was so much stuff to climb and the view was absolutely breathtaking! It's as if God made Heaven and then Ireland...but yeah, that was the highlight, the majority of us all enjoyed doing that because it was just so FUN! We could see the green hills and pastures and the blue sky just went on forever and the breeze just gently whipped at our hair and the air was clean and....there's just so much that one cannot put into words. We were quite upset to leave.

Next we went to Mellifont Abbey which while the history was interesting...the tour guide was boring. We weren't the only group at Mellifont though. A group of basketball players from Franklin and Marshall in Lancaster, Pennsylvania for a basketball tournament. We took a group picture with them. I also mentioned that a friend would be going to Lancaster Bible College and they knew where that was. Then Megan, Hannah and I "sunbathed" on the roof of one of the buildings of the abbey.
After we arrived back at the Y for dinner, Megan and I went out and sat on the rocks by the Irish Sea and read. It was a bit chilly but it was amazing. I could smell the salt water, hear the waves crashing against the rocks that were beneath us and the rock cliffish thing we were sitting on. We staid there for an hour at least before climbing over some of the rocks to stretch then we went back to the Y because the sun was setting and it was getting cold.

The first picture is of the River Boyne which is where Newgrange is located. We were walking to the place where we would catch our tour bus. The second photo is of the front of Newgrange. The third picture is at Hill Slane and it's a window the bell tower that we unfortunately couldn't get into because they had blocked the entrance. But we were eating lunch in the graveyard under that window, looked, and suddenly realized that there was a creepy head there. The last picture is us FISP students with the basketball team from Franklin and Marshall. Yeah...we Americans must stick together!
And that concludes today. Now I must do homework.

In Ireland

So we have finally arrived in Ireland. Today is Tuesday and it is 8:48 pm right now which means that it's early afternoon or so back home. I finally changed the time to Dublin time on my computer so that I can know what the real time is for the next 3 months.
Ireland is simply amazing, and I have barely seen it yet. We are in a small town called Greystones. It's not exactly "small" but it's got a very old world feel to it even though you can see all the modern convienances of today's world in it. The YWCA which is in town is about a block from the ocean so you can see it from the windows. We can also look out the windows and see some hills and Little Sugarloaf. It's very beautiful.
The coast is much like Maine, as is the temperature, though it feels more like Fall here then summer back home. But so many people get cold here and here I am feeling right at home in the slightly chilly weather. There are rocks on the beach that I have yet to go explore and climb, I hope to go do that in a few days. The DART (Dublin Area Rapid Transit), runs past the Y at intervals. We could hear and see some of it from the school room which is in a seperate building behind the Y. It feels like a one room school house.
Tomorrow we are going to Newgrange was is 5000 years old or so. It was built around 3200 BC which is before Stonehenge and the Great Pyramids which I think is absolutely COOL.
Basically tonight I have been doing homework for my Foundations of Christian Thought class for Dr. Mark Cosgrove - he's such a character! But I've got some down time so I decided to make this blog so that all my friends can see what I am up to and what mischief and mayhem I am creating...
I hope to update this as much as possible but in ensure that we get out and explore the country, the YWCA's wi-fi is turned off except on weekends so unless I borrow an ether cord I won't have internet for most of the week. I will, however, update whenever I get a chance so please be patient. Thanks.
For all my friends who will hopefully read this, I miss you guys and hope you are all doing well in your own schools and work places. I love you guys and I wish that you could all experience Ireland as well. I've barely been here 24 hrs and already it's starting to feel like a sort of home.

The first first picture is over the backyard or garden of the YWCA . The next picture is over a rainbow over Little Sugarloaf, you might have to squint to see the rainbow. Laura, one of the directors, said that was in the sky from 9am to 10am which when we started our class and stopped for a break. The third picture is of the Irish Sea and 50 miles across is Wales. If I were to take a picture of the same sea but to the left then the land would be England. The fourth picture is of the Exit signs that are in Ireland and the movie is of us in the bus getting our first glimpse of the Irish Sea.
I will post as much as possible whenever I get the internet (and Wi-Fi isn't neccessarily free here in the coffee shops).