Thursday, September 11, 2008

The first week has come and gone

I can not believe that I have been overseas for a week and I've already traveled through two different countries! I guess when I start traveling around Europe next year this won't be an abnormal occurrence but for a small town girl this is extremely exciting!

I flew into London last Friday at 0630 London time and got into London City Center at 0930. I actually was not tired when I first got into the city but although I checked my guitar and large backpack I still had a number of books in the smaller bag I decided to cart around London with me. That day I saw Buckingham Palace, Trafalgar Square, Parliament and Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, walked through a few of the green spaces (they must be royal gardens!) and had lunch at a small cafe in Covent Gardens. This may not mean much at the moment but it is a lot of walking! Half way through the day I started to get very tired and cranky, I even got lost which made things much worse and by the time Buckingham Palace came back into view all I wanted to do was find Victoria cross Station and sit down and wait for Marina! To say the least, London was not my favorite city that day! But Marina came and found me at 1800 and we caught a train back to her place. Her family spoiled me with an amazing dinner and I slept for 11 hours that night! The next day Marina took me back to the City Center and we walked around the Southend (or is it southbank?) and we went to Borough market where I had the best latte ever! Well, it was almost as good as a latte from Weeds Cafe in Calgary :0p After that we just walked around and took pictures of living statues and famous monuments and had dinner at a pub near the river. Marina then took me to a show at Shakespears Globe Theatre called "The Merry Wives of Windsor". It was amazing! And we got to be groundlings so we stood on the floor right next to the stage! The actors were extraordinary and the music was great! Then we went to go see Tower Bridge all lit up! I slept for another long time that night and Marina's mom made up a Canadian breakfast of Pancakes and Maple Syrup... sigh just like home, and then Marina and I went to Kings Cross Station! As many of you know I am a huge Harry Potter fan and lets just say I was very excited! After we walked around Kensington and had afternoon tea at a hotel :0) Very English! I had to say goodbye to Marina and her family that night (which was extremely difficult since I felt quite safe and comfortable there) and headed out to Dublin the following morning.

Dublin was amazing but very busy. I met up with 4 other girls from Canada that came on the same program as I did. Two already have jobs as au pairs and they are just a two hours bus ride from where I am in Cork and the other two are now in Gallway, the third largest city in Ireland. The orientation was full of information which has been very helpful! I've alredy registered with immigration and all I need to do is go and get a PPS number (the Irish version of a SIN number) and then I'll open up a bank account once that comes in the mail.


My first day in Cork was very difficult. Homesickness hit quickly and I couldn't shake it. While I was in Kelowna I prayed often about what city God wanted me to go in Ireland and Cork stood out amongst the rest. I did not do much research on the city but as the days continued I felt at peace about heading to Cork once the orientation was over but once on the train my mind began to role and all I could do was worry about all of the things I needed to do once i got to Cork and how long it would take me to find a place to live and then a job. The person who needs a plan and structure was suddenly being shaken fiercly and tears were quite close to the surface. The Lord has continually been teaching me that He is with me and knows the way ahead even though I do not and He will not leave me because He loves me. I went down for breakfast early this morning with a list of things to complete and as I was reading in 1 Corinthians and writing in my prayer journal I felt God say to look for a church first. So I walked into a Christian Bookstore that is owned by Cove Street Christian Fellowship (an evangelical/pentecostal church) and the gentleman at the store and I talked for quite sometime. When he learned I was going to be here for 7 months and was looking for accomodation and a job he gave me the address of a Canadian couple who moved her a little over 3 years ago. I met with the women and we had coffee and talked a lot about the different churchs and she said that she would look out for accomodations that come up with women in the church that she knows. It was such a blessing to be taken into their home as family and enjoy a cup of coffee. After meeting with her the feeling of peace that Cork is where I am suppose to be took over my senses and the day ran by much better than the previous night. So often I believe that God does not have time to take care of me but I am wrong. He always has time to take care of me and He wants to! That is a truth I must continually remind myself. The love my Lord bestows on me, and all of His children, has taken my breath away constantly today.

Well, after such a long update (which I will be impressed if you got through :0p ) I will sign off. I have to do laundry tonight and get an early start tomorrow. Time to find a place to live!

Love,
Candice

1 Comments:

At September 16, 2008 at 12:38 AM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

hey Candice, i found your blog! now you're going to find mine.

even if you find somewhere before we arrive, i'd still like to invite you on our Harry Potter adventure. i contacted the brittish tour authority and they gave me the website for a lot of harry potter locations. i see you've already made it to platform 9 3/4 (i'm jealous!) but we'll take you back and to other venues... interested?

 

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