sparkling on the go

Okay, now I´ve pushed this in front of me for too long. I just never seem to get to it, but now, Im going to spend the coming week writing about Northern Ireland. The only problem is; I don’t know where to start.

Tomorrow I start the spring term (MY LAST!) and I can´t believe I’m an entire autumn away from coming home. I miss traveling around, I miss never being still, I miss the people, and I miss the views. Mostly, I miss the other IFYEs. So I guess that it were I´ll start; The other IFYEs, and why they made the trip.

Hosts changed constantly, as did the sites we visited. But we remained constant. In the beginning we were just accidentally traveling together; we meet and saw the same thing. But as everything around us constantly changed, we still had each other and pretty soon that was all that mattered.

It might seem cruel, but after three weeks, Me, Jesa and Luzia spend our time complaining to each other. How our hosts were annoying, why people was so disturbed, how ignorantly dumb certain people seemed, how unbelievably prone everyone is to be drunk out of their wits and where Northern Irish people really hadn’t thought stuff through.  Though it’s a bit horrible that we sat together and complained as much as we could, but that didn’t matter. We felt the same things, and as long as we didn’t openly insult someone – what’s wrong with bonding over peoples flaws? Plus, we had some great laughs out of it too. And we were together.

After all that stress, sitting down together was always the best. Just being together, doing nothing. Those are my favorite times. Walking in the mountains that beautiful day the last week was so great. It was so still, just walking, no requirements, just being together. We had the best conversation coming back down, about language and Jesa’s reaction to our alphabets – it was so simple and so much fun!

Things like that are important, it doesn’t matter how many sites you see, it’s who you see them with. One of my favorite views is that of a lonely lake, just in nowhere – only because me and Luzia has such great times sitting and doing nothing there. Or the view in Donegal – beautiful in itself but even more so because of our failed attempts to smile in the pictures, and just because we saw it together. And the beach in north, made so much cooler by the fact that we laughed so hard when we drown down it.

One of the best moments with all of us was in Kesh, at the Knockout Challenge. There was so many fun activities, one of my favorites was the wheelbarrow part. It started out pretty good, each of us pushing another in the wheelbarrow. Until it was Martins turn to be pushed – I tried and failed, so soon all four of us struggled to together push him up the lane. It was quite funny. And I remember one of the funniest things ever said by Jesa; after the challenge had left all of us wet part from her, she proudly announced that she was still dry – but by the time she said it realized her mistake. To late though, she was wet pretty soon too.

And who can forget the time we spend in the car terrified from John or Fred’s driving. They were insane! There was no stop! Though terrifying, we had a great time, especially when going four laps around a roundabout only to return half a minute later to take three more laps and realizing we were on the right track the first time.

I remember when in Fermanagh, when all us girl were changing out of our wetsuit and back to normal clothes. Me, Luzia and Michaela had tried banana boat while Martin and Jesa took a tour on a canoe. Apparently, the three of us had chosen wrong as Jesa had had the BEST TIME. Firstly, her description of how she was sitting pretty much in the air as Martin way heavier in the other end (and Jesa being the smallest girl ever) was quite amusing, but her emphasis didn’t lie on that. What we missed was the guide. An apparently super-hot blond guide named Paul. Apparently, his body was worth licking chocolate of. We laughed so hard. I miss all that.

Being with all the IFYEs has been so great, and I will really miss everyone. Our lives entwined for a bit, and it seems too great to let go. I´ve just scratched the surface of our adventures, just begun to remember all the thing we´ve done. And the more I think about it, the more I can remember and the more I want to write. But I´ll quite here, for today.

There is so many small things that matters, so many small precious memories. For example, how Jesa decided to use my hair as mustache when she could. That such small un-important detail, but still, it’s so strong. This December, I cut my hair, and my first thought when coming home was: Oh, No! I just cut of Jesa’s mustache!

OUR NORTHERN IRELAND EXPERIENCE

For six weeks we are staying here
I guess we all tried the Gunnies beer
In County Antrim we arrived all together
The weather could have been better
We saw the castle, coast and bridge
and realized soon, this county is rich
Probably not in sun and money
But the evenings with the Young Farmers were funny

At the Bushmills Distillery we tried the whiskey
Just the rope-bridge were probably risky
By Giant’s Causeway we were all impressed
Who was the winner of the treasure hunt, guess
After one week we moved to county Down
Unfortunately we were not in the same town
To Stormont went all of us
But in Belfast we had already taken the open-top bus 

Titanic, Museums and foamparty we did enjoy
Though Martin didn’t like the shopping, poor boy
The beaches in Down were really nice
Some of us saw them more than twice
The BBQ on Saturday were glad we didn’t miss
Alan Boyd gave the girls a kiss
Pack again and change the host
By now we’ve sent many letters by post

Dunbia factory, Hillsbourgh research centre
And jungles bouncy castle were quite an adventure
In downhill we drove on the beach
At Mossidun temple John did preach
Some ice-cream and drinks later
Down in Kelly’s, Jesa found herself a hater
In Londonderry we took again an open bus
The walls, murals, peace bridge does impress us

Laser shooting, archery and bowling game
And even rock-climbing we’d like to do again
Three more county’s yet to explore
Up to now definitely not a bore
Tyrone is the county we go next
Hopefully without writing another text
Fermanagh, Armagh you’re still far away
But we’re looking forward to our stay

Probably you could book some good weather
We’re sad that from now on we are no longer all together
Lisa, our German, friend will leave us soon
It’ll be her birthday by tomorrow at noon
There more times we pack our cases
We’ll never forget your lovely faces
To cut it short we make a toast
To all our Young Farmer host, we now say: “Prost!”

In four hours im boarding my plane to London! There I´ll meet up with Martin, an Ifye from Norway who´ll be taking the same plane as me to Belfast. I hope we can find eachother ^^

Yesterday I finished my packing, and hopefully I´ve not forgotten everything. I will notice that I guess. When I was packing I realized I´ll have to repack my bag six times since Im changing host family once a week. Ouch. Packing aint my strong side, but at least I have a little backing skill so I´ll be fine. Anyway, it dont have to be perfect untill the last time ;D

I sooo nervous I´ll die! Im exited, terrified and a little paniced. But in a good way. Like, Im sitting here drinking my tea with my family and tomorrow I´ll be in an entirely new place, with entierly new people, trying to be a normal person (what if I make a fool out of myself?! (on the otherhand, that would be kinda me)).

And you know what?! I´ll be missing two weeks of school. That means missing a lot of lessons - aka take notes for me IKGers, and the introduktion to our project work - guess I´ll have to panic about that on my own. I dont really know if Im happy or sad about missing school - all my friends are there. But on the otherhand, Im getting to do soething great and unforgettble instead - so screw two week of school and yhey to Northern Ireland!

So, exited and nervous, here I go. Goodbye Sweden! And all my beloved family and dear friends - I´ll se you soon! 

Hello Reader!

My new journey begins at 16:15 on sunday the 17th of Jule on an airplane headed to Belfast City. Thats right, Im going to Northern Ireland! Its the amazing island I´ve always dreamt of visiting, so this will be a real dream.-come-true, like Rapunzels wish to see the floating lights. Just like her, though, Im a bit worried. "What if it's not everything I dreamed it would be?".
I believe in adventures, new places and people, and that there is always something good in everything. And certainly there will pe planty of good in Ireland. I still cant believe Im going, and less so that its less than a month away! I think Im feaking out.

I wont be going to Ireland just to tourist, I will be going there as an IFYE (that means international farming/4H youth exchange). IFYE is 4H exchange program ranging between sevaral countries and from 3 weeks to a year. I will be there for 6 weeks during which I will live with hostfamilies and experience their everyday life and such. Its like being an exchange student without going to school.
This will be the first time Im flying alone, and even more scary; landing alone. I hate airports, its like they´re made to get lost in. I will be alone and have to find somebody´ve never meet in a crowd fo people, so thats the first challenge. After that I have to meet people without appearing to be a complete idiot, which is going to be real hard. But challenges are good, and is something I believe i can acomplish (cuz its not like Im climbing mount everest all of a sudden).

 

Just look at this! It is so amazing! I want to see some green hills, glipse the treetops in the horizon, watch the mountains rise from the earth. I just want to see everything! There can never be too much nature and beauty. I think Camille (thats my cameras name) will be my closes and deares compainon during my visit to Ireland. She´ll be indispensable.

Though being a alone swede during my visit, arriving home might be as difficult - Im going to miss Ireland and all the people, and the nature and everything. Home is just rainy sweden (btw its going to rain like two centimeters today, yeah, centimeters, not milimeters - ush). But it will be nice too, to come home to my own bed, and my family and all my friends. But before all that, I have a new aduevture to embrace! <3