Snowy Dingle!

I have been quite crap recently at updating this, and for that I apologize! A lot has happened!! For one I had my birthday at the end of December, which was one of the most incredible birthday's I've ever had. It was themed party involving all the colors of the rainbow and each person had to dress in a solid color of the rainbow. My house and food for the party was also all rainbows. Parts of Europe have a tradition where the birthday person gets woken up by singing happy birthday with their cake and candles lit in bed. For many Americans this isn't something you would normally have on your birthday! This was a special treat for me and a very nice way to get woken up in the morning. The day that followed was called "keep Elsie out of the house." So I walked to the beach with a resident and enjoyed the sea and the sand before coming home to an amazing party filled with rainbow food and rainbow guests. We then went for the festivities that were in town which was a band in town that walks the streets of Dingle until midnight where we do that countdown in the center of town with the countdown projected on the side of the building. It was an amazing amount of people and great music and great company. Couldn't have asked for a better way to spend my birthday!!

Over the Christmas holiday's we had about two weeks off where we didn't do any work on the garden and really just did a lot of sleeping and did big outings. This was a lovely time to spend time together, eat amazing food, sing a lot, and just spend time relaxing. Of course all good things come to end. We went back to work on the 7th of January and since then it's been quite hectic has many people went on holiday and left the co-workers in charge, which was perfectly fine but all our tasks were ramped up a bit for about a week or so. Finally our lives are calming down now and are finally getting back to normal. This past weekend was jam packed, and full of fun little outings. On Sunday me and a few people went up this hill. In Ireland they call it a mountain.....its a hill. It was amazing at the top, so windy! You literally lean back into the air and you wouldn't fall. The hike of course was extremely muddy and we all nearly fell several times. We also had a resident who whenever he felt like it would just lie on the grass and in the case a full on bush, he would just lay down dividing the bush in half. We would then have to bribe him with chocolate or crisps (chips) to get up and keep walking to the top where he would then get his reward....horrible I know but it really works. It was at the top where all who went ont his hike really realized how blessed we are to live in such a beautiful place. It's amazing but sometimes you forget until you are in one of these situations where you are just floored at the sight that is before you and all you can do is just look.

the other very exciting thing that happened was today we woke up to SNOW! It's been two years since this part of Ireland had snow and it amazingly stuck for most of the day! We were able to have a pretty good snow ball fight during tea break and the weather was also just gorgeous. Sun shining and everything, which happens rarely here these days. It put everyone in a really nice mood and those who like me need snow in winter I was rather over excited for the change in weather. Not to mention Ireland became an entirely new kind of beautiful.

I do hope this finds everyone in dear old Vermont and New England well! I am constantly getting mocked for my "American English". They love the abbreviations for orange juice and peanut butter and have started making everything into just the two first letters, grape juice (gj) as an example. I have also become the human dictionary and grammar teacher for all of those who are still learning English. It's rather fun, of course next I have to try and learn one of the many languages I am surrounded by, so we shall see how that goes! In other news life is going alright, life sharing in such a small community can be very hard sometimes, you can't really avoid anything if you are having trouble with someone. This has been a lesson I have learned first hand and am still struggling with how to deal with it. It is something I am trying my best to learn from it and take in stride but this is a very hard lesson. But I am so thankful for the people that surround me and the beautiful country that I get to call home right now. So I will leave you with take the time to just enjoy where you live and remember to look for the beautiful things. Much love to all! xElsie