Conor -- Mr. Tour Guide

D: Paddy's Palace, Belfast
there is just so much to write... we haven't been able to use the internet as often as expected so i apologize for those who were concerned. we are fine. casey is so sad, but we are doing just fine. sooooo.... we decided to split up the topics that we want to blog. i volunteered to write about 2 interesting guys we met. the first is conor. oh, what to say about conor...
the first day of the tour, he had each of us go forward and introduce ourselves to him (and everyone) with the microphone. casey went first and announced that she was 17. conor said he would look the other way if she wanted to drink. i went soon after casey and ended up singing 'summertime' for the entire bus. i gave myself 3 out of 10 stars. it was not so good. jaeda was next. so funny... she was wearing her t-shirt that says 'i choose not to, i'm mormon' conor didn't have a clue what a mormon was, let alone why you would choose not to. she explained what her shirt meant. who the mormons are and whatnot. he asked what kinds of things we choose not to do. 'drinking...smoking...swearing...' poor conor had a heart attack. he explained that he had guinness in his baby bottle and that the first time he ever threw up he was told to clean up the f-n mess.
conor has a mouth on him, that's for sure. i don't know... i think it must be the accent that keeps me from jumping everytime he drops the f-bomb (mind you that this is several times in just one sentence). jaeda counted his crass words today. 55 in one hour...
he is so hilarious. i laugh at all of the stories he tells. i have been keeping track of some of the things he has said. i don't have it with me right now. but... i think i will add more when i don't have to climb 25 flights of stairs to get to it. for now...
- he tells crazy stories. you can't believe anything that comes out of his mouth. one of my favorite stories was when a friend of his asked him to transport a garda car to a different city. he came across a car accident and ended up directing traffic and speeding away just as the real garda arrived.

- 'self-praise is no praise'

- jaeda mentioned the karaoke. one of the guys signed him up to sing 'it's raining men' he did it just because we thought he wouldn't

- i asked him one day why they call him the driver when he doesn't drive. apparently you have to be 21 to have a bus license. he is only 20

- when one of the women on our tour asked him why there are so many rocks in ireland he responded, 'don't yu know, that's what cuntries are made uf?'

- a couple of times he has said 'there are two stories about how this came to be. one of them's fact and the other is fiction. you can decide for yourselves.' he then proceeds to give you the whole story about how the faerie people, or the giant's did one thing or another and that's how it is and such. the second story is how the 'volcanic activity...blah blah blah, it's all bs, mcgool built them stairs'

- he is always giving people a hard time. slaggin' them.

- at the blarney stone, he assured us that we would speak like an irishman for 7 years... that we could tell a man to go to hell in such a way that they'll be lookin' forward to the journey.

- 'to git back at ye, i'll put in this music which you won't have a clue what it's about, 'cuz it's in irish -- HAH!'

-'look at the expression on my face... does it look like i care?'

-'didn't anyone read the brochure? things yu need ta bring -- helmet, english/irish dictionary, bulletproof/stabproof vest, passport...'

-'oh, everyone's asleep. i'll jus talk to meself. hello conor. hello. how are you today? i'm fine, thanks. any craic? no. nothing? allright'

-'Leprechaun's make shoes all day. for faeries...why do faeries need shoes, you wunder since they fly and all? it's for when they come in for a landing...'


anyway. this is just a bit of our experience with our tour leader conor. an interesting lad from the aran islands.

Writing from Belfast

J: Ireland tour day 5
I keep thinking about the million things that I want to write, but when I get to the computer I have, like, no energy. Well, I'll give it a shot. We have had an amazing five days exploring Ireland thus far. I have had the opportunity to see the most beautiful and majestic sights that the world has to offer. From the Cliffs of Moher to the Burren. I sat out at Slea Head and watched a storm come out of nowhere, drenching the 25 people on our tour. It was so great! Crossing into the Burren is like entering a different part of the world than the one we had just spent time exploring. We went from green, rolling hills to fragmented limestone with sparse vegetation. But still so heartbreakingly beautiful. We have learned so much of Irish history, from the fun-loving stories of giants and leprechauns to the deep sadness that comes from hearing of Bloody Sunday and the fourteen innocent Irish that were so senselessly slain. We went to the Cliffs of Moher, and walked (again) forever to get to OBrien's tower. The view was so worth it, though. We stood looking out at the Cliffs on the 4th of July and sang our National anthem. I'm sure the many people surrounding us thought we were insane, but it was our own sense of patriotism. Afterward, people even stranger than us, if you can believe it, said 'Play Ball'. Ever the shy one, D responded with 'Don't you wish you were at a BBQ eating a hot dog?' or something to that effect. It's been a whirwind Ireland for us this week, and I am sad at the thought of this tour coming to a close. It's been difficult in a lot of ways, but also I have found moments of peace I hadn't thought possible before. I love this land that God created for us, and am astounded at it's beauty. He has shown us kindness and guidance here that we would have had a hard time doing without. I know He is... "Mindful of us, wanderers in a strange land."
We got to sing Karaoke at a pub in Annascaul (sp?)and we rocked! Our tour guide, Conor, has a surprisingly good singing voice, which he proved when he sang "It's raining men" for us all. Of course it was on a dare, and he changed the words to "It's raining women". Needless to say, he won't be trusting anyone else to pick out his songs for him in the future.
Well, it's about that time, and I am ready for food and bed, possibly not even food, I am so exhausted.

the emerald isle

our first introduction to ireland was the shannon airport, where us navy soldiers milled about waiting for their connecting flights. jaeda sat by a man named sean (picture a wierd accent over the e) who stuffed her head with helpful information. i hope she can remember it all while we are here. the gentleman next to casey informed us that they always clap when the plane lands. we made it safe and sound!

we made it to our church meeting on time thanks to a man on the bus wearing a missionary name badge. there was a huge mission reunion in finglas that brought a ton of visitors to a usually small ward. our teacher said that about half the people in class were visiting. so many people introduced themselves and we felt welcome, even with our sleepy jetlagged eyes and huge backpacks.

we had to try VERY hard to stay awake all day in order to adjust to the time. we slept 10 hours and still managed to fall asleep on the tour bus today.

the island is so beautiful. it reminds me a lot of home. green EVERYWHERE, the changing weather (about every 5 minutes). although it is so much older here. rock fences and plots of land seperated by short hedges and trees. it is a beautiful patchwork of varying shades of green.

we have officially been granted the gift of gab. connor, our insane tour leader, has assured us that by kissing the blarney stone we will speak like an irishman for 7 years, so be prepared...

there is a festival going on in killarney where we are staying tonight. we saw street performers and a leprechaun playing the fiddle with elvis and the teletubbies.

there are a few tidbits from our trip. the internet cafe closes soon, so we must update you in detail later.

NYC Pics!!!

what do you think this is? grand central station???

riding the subway

manhattan temple with the mean security guard (sorry it's sideways)

yummy cheesecake

lady liberty


waiting in line for phantom tickets

Hello all! Here is Casey just giving you some memoirs of New York...when we first got there we took FOREVER parking!!! we drove around forever trying to get Aunt Net to honk a few times but she refused...after we finally parked we made our way to times square using the Subway...this was exciting because it was Jaeda's first time in a subway...she hated it ;)
My first impression of Times Square was AMAZING!!! I absolutely LOVED it. It is sooo crazy and loud, it was so so so so crowded...and the smell...AMAZING, cigarette smoke mixed with hot food and people...I LOVE IT!!!
Anyway, when we finally got situated we went to find tickets to Phantom of the Opera! a couple hours later, after half of it spent standing in a line we got tickets. We then checked into our hostel and Aunt Net checked into her hotel and we set off for some dinner. we found it an awesome restaurant called Europa Cafe...this was soooo awesome. We got to build our own salads and they made sandwiches that were AMAZING!!! it also wasn't too expensive :)
After dinner we found our way to Phantom...there are no words for this amazing doesn't cut it, extraordinary doesn't even come close...I can't even think of better words...It was my first time, jaeda's second time, danita's thrid time and aunt nets ninth time seeing it...All of us were amazed! Afterwards I was speechless for ten minutes, it was......it just was!
After Phantom we didn't do much..WAIT...we went to have dessert, we had cherry cheesecake...OH MY GOSH!!! it was soooooooo sooooo soooo good and creamy and just....yummy! Jaeda even liked it!
We tried walking around for a while but Jaeda was like a zombie, she was so tired and we still had a long subway ride before we could crash at the hostel. so we headed there.
Earlier we had met our rommate, Sabrina. She was really cute! she was from belgium and was traveling hte eastern United States, we met her on her last day in the U.S. she was nice and so so happy ;)
The next day we rose early...ok so not as early as we wanted, we were going to meet aunt net for breakfast at nine and at nine thirty we headed out the door. We met her at her hotel and dropped our bags off and left to get breakfast. We fot a sandwich and a smoothie at this cute little corner food place before we headed to the Statue of Liberty.
We were trying to save money and really didn't have all the time we wanted to do everything on the Island so we took the FREE ferry to Staten Island which passed right by the Lady of Liberty, so we got a photo op, to see her, save the money, AND skip all the crowds of people. It worked all ways ;P
After the Lady o' Liberty we wanted to see the temple so we took the imfamous subway to the Lincoln center and walked from there across the streed to the TEMPLE!!! now Jaeda had really wanted to see missionaries in New York and who was there but about a thousand missionaries!!! ok not really only about fifteen (oops...16) or so missionaries, but it was really cool anyway :) so we went into the temple and there was a really mean security guard there (but Danita filled you in on him already:) so we went to the church area and sat for a few minutes, we used the bathroom and headed off
With only a couple hours to go we went to Grand Centeral Station...no not to take a train anywhere, just to see it. It was AWESOME!!! it was so big and...AWESOME!!! it was just cool. The ceiling was probably the coolest part...it had stars and constellations on it ;)
After GCS it was about time to go pick up our bags and head off, we stopped at a drug store to get snacks and put all our pictures so far onto a CD (which took longer than necessary but it worked eventually) we picked up our bags from Aunt Net's hotel, said our good-bye's and headed off to the airport.
Our flight took off 45 minutes earlier than we had planned and we got to the terminal just in time to board, unfortunately we weren't able to meet up with Sabrina before like we had planned ('cause she was catching a plane "the same time we were")
All in all I LOVED NYC, Danita LOVED NYC again, and Jaeda HATED IT!!! well she didn't like it enough to go back again, I on the other hand am planning it already :)

PHILADELPHIA PICS

So I'll pick up where D left off last. Yes, the zoo. My first experience at a zoo anywhere. What better place to see your first zoo than THE first in the US. After the zoo we walked FOREVER! Okay, not entirely true. But by then I had hit the wall. I was so dead! And four people trying to make a decision rarely works out well. We ended up going out for ice cream at a place that is kind of like cold stone, but not. It was called Scoop Deville. Not bad.
I am a little fuzzy on the rest of the night, but I think we went to a fountain or something. Then I crashed. The next morning, we went to Reading Terminal and had breakfast. I had a REALLY good granola with honey and grilled grapefruit. Then we walked and walked and walked and..... waaaaalllllkkkkeeeddd. Oh my goodness. e had some great times. Rita's water ice and Philly Cheese Steaks. Like real Philadelphia cheese steaks. Another dream realized. We went on this awesome Lights of Liberty walking tour, and learned a lot of Philly history. We ordered pizza in :)
NEW YORK! Remember all the walking? Yeah, well, it NEVER STOPPED! We walked downtown NYC for a very long time! But we did get tickets to Phantom! D already filled you in on all that.
The next day Off to Ireland. That day has not yet ended for us. Yes, it was yesterday, but we are still kicking. Just very weakly. Anyway, we are going to try to post some pictures and head off to bed. There is still so much to write about NYC, I'll let someone else take that up. 'til then.