Day 1: We made it!
We made it to Newcastle! Hooray! Yesterday I began my trip
from Phoenix, Arizona to Northern Ireland. I left Phoenix at noon and took a
four and half hour flight to Philadelphia. All of the American Young
Ambassadors were on the same flight from to Philadelphia to Dublin. I met Trish
from the Albany Chapter while waiting to board the plane. Once we got on the
plane we met Mike from the Minnesota Chapter. Kelsey and Ciara from the Milwaukie
Chapter boarded the plane and we waved to them as they found their seats. The
flight wasn’t too bad only six hours, I just never sleep well on planes. Once
we got through customs we met Dr. Tim Campbell and Maddie the Canadian Young
Ambassador from the Toronto Chapter. We managed
to put our group of seven people into a seven person van with all of our
luggage … let me tell you it was impressive.
After we got in the van, we drove from Dublin to Northern
Ireland to Downpatrick to visit the Saint Patrick Centre. We watched a video
about the Centre and their mission. We
learned a little bit about Saint Patrick as well. The Centre has an amazing garden,
we went outside and had tea and discussed our trip what our goals were and what
our placements were. It was awesome!
After that we went to the grocery store and picked up some
food for the trip. Then we traveled to New Castle where our apartment is! We
are right by the beach it is beautiful! Kelsey, Ciara, and I are sharing a room
and a bathroom. We were given a little bit of free time before the evening activities.
Ciara and I went to explore and walked to the beach. We discovered a ton of
really ugly dead crabs. I highly doubt that I will get a better picture of
Ciara this entire trip!
Ciara and the Crab
A view of the ocean
Later we when to a Barbeque at the Saint Patrick Centre for
dinner. We met many new people and had great food. All of the Young Ambassadors
were asked to bring a rock from our part of the world to put in the friendship
garden. I chose to bring a red rock from Sedona, Arizona. I also met Alastair
for the first time! He travels to Arizona for a couple weeks every spring. He
sends a special hello to Mary Moriarty and Glenda!
Alastair and I
I loved my first day here! It was Brilliant! I am learning
so much I can’t even remember everything. Every time we get into the car Tim
starts talking about something and pointing at almost everything we drive by and
has a whole story about a building or a hill. I hope that I can start writing down
all of the things so I can blog about them tomorrow.
