Sunday

I will have to say that though I was a wee bit unexcited about going to church today it turned out to be a nice experience. (I know mom, I need to be more positive! :>) We got there plenty early, go figure, so my Aunt was able to talk to the church Historian. He apparently gave her a few things to look for when doing our search in the Records Office.

When we walked in, Roy, the grounds keeper we had met a few days earlier greeted us and introduced us around. When people meet you they say, "You're very welcome." It threw me off at first because I kept thinking, but I didn't say thank you. It was cute.

The Pastor (I think he was a pastor) gave us a shout out from the Podium to start the meeting. "We understand we have two Americans in the audience today. Wow did they have to get up early to get the church on time. Go ahead and give us a wave so we know who you are." It was a good time. People were so friendly. I loved church, too! It was only 1 hour and 15 minutes and we got to stand up a lot and sing. The great thing is that if we didn't know the words we could just look up on the jumbo trans in the front of the church. That was probably a pain for our ancestors having to stand on a ladder and write and erase the words to each song as it came up. (Ha! Even in another country, I'm still funny!)

My dad always told me that in England if you don't like the weather, wait a minute and it will change. He wasn't kidding. We came out of church to a beautiful sunny day. The views of the green hillsides were breath taking and I was sad that I didn't have my camera. We have one little conversation and all of a sudden you can't see the hills, it's totally clouded over and it's starting to rain a cold wet rain! Needless to say I looked so lovely as we sat there waiting for our cab.

We went on a "Black Cab Tour" of Belfast. The driver took us to a few of the different sites where there has been a lot of political unrest between the Catholics and the Prodestants that has gone on for centuries. They even have a Peace Wall that divides the two groups. My aunt asked if the lines were enforced and the driver said, Not enforced....respected. About nine months ago they had a vote to see if the two sides wanted to take the wall down....they voted 60/40 to keep it up. Very interesting.

It's ten to 5 and we are home for the night. Only five hours to kill until bedtime. Hmmmmm what shall I do? I loved talking to my parents the other day! I am so jealous when I see everyone talking on their cell phones. Oh how I miss my little cell phone. In Dublin they have these World Link Call shops that you can go in and call anywhere in the world for a small price.... they don't have them here, and supposedly the only place to get calling cards is at the Post office. I'm keeping my eyes peeled.

I had better go rest up now. Maybe I'll just go lay down on one of the couches. I'll take a picture so you can all see why that isn't a good idea.