A week in the life of Quakers and a hike in my backyard

So I've officially been living in Belfast for 9 days now, it has been going really well.

I haven't been certified to work with the children yet, so I have been doing a lot of cleaning and working in the kitchen and preparing crafts and such.

I have also started driving the buses, the 2 main buses we use to pick up the mums and kids are automatic and have been pretty easy to learn to drive. It isn't as strange as I thought to get used to drive on the left hand side of the road.

Hopefully this week I will work on driving Sunny Bo, the bus we use for our personal use, he is stick shift, but things should go well with that.

Mondays and Fridays are shorter days and we work from 9-3:30is and Tues, Wed, and Thurs are longer days and we work 9-6:30 or 7. We have after school children on these days.

This coming week is my cooking week, and I will be making Lasagna and then baked potatoes for my "snack" meal. I get to learn how to make chips (fries), hopefully all goes well since the mums and be pretty particular about the way their food is cooked.

On another note, I took a hike in my backyard this morning, it was wonderful I was able to take time to think and reflect on a lot of different things.

I am truly amazed at the beauty of God's creation, I was speechless as I looked over the city from one of the highest points in Belfast.

Above are some pictures from my backyard hike.

Welcome to Quaker Cottage

After an 8 hour flight and 3 days in Geneva for an small orientation I arrived at my new home Friday evening around 4:30.

There is so much I could write about my flight and my time in Switzerland, but to sum it up I learned I am better at sitting still than I thought, I don't know a lick of French, Hostels are small and loud at night, my body can adjust pretty well to different time changes, it's nice to have familiar faces to travel with, Cheese Fondue is delicious, and meeting new people is always fun.

We were greeted in the airport by a man named Scott who is working with Micah and Lucy my two fellow BVSers who were in Geneva with me and will also be living in Belfast. He drove us (on the left hand side of the road) all the way up to Quaker Cottage, which you can see from almost anywhere in the City because it's so high up on Black Mountain. Ballygomartin is a tiny lane and was greeted by Sarah a BVSer who will be leaving in about three weeks.

She showed me around the Cottage I am living in which is a 3 bedroom spacious cottage.

Currently there is a German volunteer(Peter) and Heather another BVSer living in the Cottage with me. and Sarah moved to the Caravan and gave me her room. All three of these other volunteers will be gone by July and hopefully 2 others will be moving in in the next couple of months if everything works out... but enough of that.

The view from the Cottage is breathtaking, if it is clear we can even see Scotland past the Sea on a clear day and we can see rest of Belfast. It will take some getting used to city life and seeing lights and everything, but the mountain reminds me of home because we are secluded and there are even cows and some farm equipment.

On Saturday Sarah and I walked down the mountain (about a 15-20 minute walk) and then ended up walking into city center where a lot of stores and such are. I exchanged some money so I could do some grocery shopping. We met up with another BVSer who is at a different project and just walked around the city some and even went to a farmers market which was pretty neat.

I was even able to meet 2 of my coworkers yesterday (Phil and Rory) I think I will get along with them really well, and I am excited to meet everyone else tomorrow.

After our day out we took the bus to the bottom of our road and then proceeded to walk back up (about a 30-35 minute hike) my calves are a little sore today. There are some parts of the lane that are almost straight up.

Two German volunteers from last summer came back to visit and spend time for the week so it has been fun hanging out with them.

Today I have been doing a bit of cleaning around the cottage and settling in more.

I am ready to meet the children tomorrow and officially begin work. :)

Until then I am enjoying quiet moments because I don't think I will have many over the next few weeks.

I have been gone for almost a week now, but am loving every minute of my adventures so far. Hopefully things continue this way. There is so much to learn and so many "Irish" sayings I need to catch up on and learn what to say and what not to say.

For example pants here are underwear people like to say Aye for yes and Crack means having a good time of good fun.. oh so many things to pick up on. :)