We're In Ireland

It's been awhile since Ive had a blog post, which is partly because we're always so busy and mainly because I couldn't really think of anything interesting to say. But we are currently in the middle of an excursion on the Dingle peninsula and we have a little down time in our hostile, so I thought it would be a good time to get something down. 

If there is one thing that Ive learned on this trip, besides never to grab a Guinness before it settles, it's that life is very unpredictable and things never really go according to plan. I definitely think there is a "go with the flow" attitude in Ireland that I really appreciate and have started to adapt to since being here, but our group in particular has a hard time sticking to our plans. This weekend has been a perfect example of that. 

To start off, we began our weekend g the beautiful Glenstal Abbey where our theology professor is a brother. He showed us around the gorgeous castle and grounds and it was a great experience, and it also happened to be the place where our plans went out the window. While at the abbey, our director unfortunately got sick and had to go to a hospital in a nearby town. Luckily she is ok, but it turned out she would need to stay there for the weekend to do some tests. This left our group on our own, with just our trusty bus driver Gerard to try to get us to our planned places for the rest of the weekend. 

Without too much trouble we all loaded on the bus and headed to Dingle on our own. Once here last night we had a pretty smooth evening, except for the little bit that all 27 of us were wondering around looking for our hostile. But after that things went pretty smoothly and we were able to find the restaurant we were scheduled to eat at, and we had a relaxing evening wandering around the beautiful harbor city. 

This brings me to today..... When our plan would have been to spend the day touring the Dingle Peninsula. But of course as we woke up we noticed that it was incredibly foggy, misty morning and you could barely see the boats in the harbor let alone the ocean or sites beyond that. After about 15 minutes of driving, Gerard stopped the bus and literally told us that going around the peninsula would be a complete waste of time because all we can see is fog, and that the weather had completely ruined what would have otherwise been an amazing drive. He's quite the positive man. With that, we all agreed that it was best not to waste our time and to just turn around and head back to Dingle. 

Clearly things have not gone as planned this weekend, and while I will admit it gets frustrating at times, Im actually really ok with it. I think such an important part of coming on this trip is being open an ready for anything. While we didn't get to drive around the peninsula today, we instead got to spend all day wandering around this gorgeous harbor city. We had lunch, went to the shops, went to an amazing aquarium, and we'll get to go to the local pubs tonight that all feature great, live Irish music. We were also able to push our tour of the peninsula to tomorrow instead so we can only hope for better weather. I think plans are meant to be broken and sometimes you have the greatest experiences from the chaotic moments of your life. I think being in Ireland has made me much more easy going, and I'm always just ready for new experiences without always needing a plan. 

I guess only time will tell what the rest of the weekend has in store for us, but I know whatever it is will be great. Because after all, as so many of us on this trip like to say, "we're in Ireland!" and that's really enough of a plan for me.