Dublin Summer, in Photos

Though the weather has turned a bit blah again, I’m glad I ended up with hundreds of photo from last week/over the weekend. Everything here looks so different when the sun’s out!

Here are some of my favorites:

Dublin City Soul Festival…

…with music+picnic

Reese’s milkshake

Warm night next to the river

Irish sunbather #1: this stomach hasn’t seen the sun in years

Irish sunbather #2: the businessman on his lunch break

Irish sunbather #3: no swimsuit, no problem!

St. Stephen’s Green park

My favorite accessory

Warm nights in Dublin are the best

Refocusing

Today I met with a man whose company brings Brazilians to Ireland to learn English. He had seen my advertisement on Gumtree about offering English lessons and contacted me to partner with him because he needs more teachers. His offer of teaching private lessons was really enticing, and would definitely make more money than I make nannying (which, by the way, I am still waiting to go back to-hopefully next week). His last teacher here had 10 students, and if you teach most of them 3 times a week for 10 euro/hour, that’s not bad!

The man said I could start by teaching during my free time (when I’m not nannying), and then gradually add more students and eventually do this full-time. I left the meeting almost certain I would say yes. Why wouldn’t I take this chance to build my career? Why wouldn’t I want to make more money? Why wouldn’t I take this opportunity to show the love of Jesus to Brazilians? However, all afternoon I have become increasingly more anxious about accepting this job because of the busyness and preparation time it would add to my schedule. I prayed about it, and I felt God ask me a simple question:

“Emily, why are you here?”

Rest. I came here to rest. That was the first thing that popped into my head, and it is indeed one of the main reasons I came to Ireland on a working holiday. I wanted to spend lots of time alone with Jesus, to learn how to live unhurried and simply, and to understand that my identity will never be based on what I do (or how much I do), but on who I am. I know my life won’t look like this forever, but I think for now, it’s healthy.

My focus has gotten blurred a lot in Ireland, but I am thankful for a gracious God who keeps making it clear again.

Summer in Dublin

Dublin has been in a heatwave the past week, and I cannot explain how refreshing this week has been to my body and soul. When the weather warms up, EVERYONE heads outside. The parks are packed. Ice cream stores are packed. People wear shorts and tank tops and sometimes even their bathing suits to sunbathe in the park. Dublin seems like an entirely different city when it’s warm and sunny. If it was like this all the time, I would never, ever consider living anywhere else. Even still, I love Dublin and am wondering if the little bit of warm weather every year makes suffering the rest of the year worth it? I haven’t decided yet.

Some highlights from the week:

-Sunbathing in the park on Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday

-Getting sunburned (normally this would be negative, but I was thrilled)

-Bringing a picnic to the Dublin City Soul Festival in the lovely Merrion Square

-Walking to dinner at a friend’s house Saturday night and seeing lots of new places in Dublin. He lives 5 km away, but we couldn’t justify spending money on a bus when the weather was so perfect!

-Having my conversation classes at outdoor cafes

-Wearing shorts

I’m praying this weather lasts a bit longer, but am so thankful for the time it’s lasted!

 

Summer-ish in Dublin

Summer arrived yesterday in Dublin, and hopefully it’s here to stay for a while. By summer, I mean the temperature is in the high 50s/low 60s. My body has definitely adjusted to Ireland weather, because it feels incredibly warm to me. Yesterday I walked around in a tank top for a while, because with my light sweater, I was just too hot!

Every day that it’s sunny here, I feel the need to take pictures. Here are 3 from yesterday:

Beautiful sky

On sunny days, the park across the street from my flat is always packed with happy people. I love it!

Belfast

A couple of Saturdays ago, I went to Belfast for the day and the bus ride was a quick 2 hours from Dublin. Call me ignorant, but 8 months ago I had no idea that the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland were 2 different countries. Northern Ireland belongs to the UK. However, you need no passport to travel between the two countries, and the “border” is unmarked and has no border crossing. The only differences I noticed between the two countries are the accents, the taxis (N.I. has the sweet taxis like London) and the fact that N.I. uses the pound as its currency, and the Republic uses the Euro.

The main reason why we traveled to Belfast was to see the new Titanic Museum (the Titanic was constructed in Belfast). With all of the advertising and hype surrounding the museum, I was expecting more, but it was still enjoyable and I learned a lot. Belfast itself was a strange city. After we left the museum, we had to walk through the whole city back to the bus station around 7 PM. The city was eerily quiet, and the only people out were really crazy teenagers, in pockets around the city. This was on a Saturday night! I did really enjoy the city’s architecture and an indoor market we stumbled upon that had all sorts of food and clothing vendors. It reminded me of Austin!

It wasn’t my favorite, but I’m glad I experienced Belfast. Here are some pictures:

City Hall

Old architecture…

…and new architecture

Don’t let the sun fool you, it was cold!

This building was sweet, inside and out!

Titanic Museum

Titanic Museum (with my travel companion, Carlos)

English Lessons

I haven’t been able to work in my nanny job for almost 2 weeks now, because Carin, my boss is out on sick leave with a knee injury. Last week I was really worried about money and knew that I needed to start thinking about another job. I wasn’t ready to completely give up on my nanny job, because I love the family and know that me not being able to work is out of everyone’s control. But I knew that after I paid the rent this week I would have almost no money left.

On Thursday I decided to post an ad on Gumtree (like Craigslist) offering private English conversation lessons. I had absolutely no idea if I would get any responses, but I already have 3 students: a Brazilian, an Italian, and a Pakistani. They are all hoping to meet for multiple hours each week, which is great. I’m hoping to get a few more students, but don’t want to be too busy once I start nannying again. It’s going to be a challenge for me in many ways, but I so badly want to see them improve because all 3 of them have such a desire to learn!

Once again, God has shocked me with His faithfulness. For several days last week I wasn’t sure if I would realistically be able to stay in Ireland much longer. I just kept praying that if God wanted me to stay, He would provide the money for me to survive, and He has.

 

 

Happy Mother’s Day, Mom!

Dear Mom,

Thanks for your love, support, and encouragement, even right now from across the Atlantic. I love you and wish I could be there to celebrate with you!

Love,

Emily

 

Religion vs. the Gospel

The past few months, God has been bringing me back to the basics of Christianity (which I think should never, ever leave you as a Christian!). At Biola, it was easy to toss around words like “grace” and “the Gospel” and not really thinking through what they mean. It’s also easy to say things like, “Christianity is a relationship, not a religion.” I agree with this statement, but recently in my life, religion has dominated. I’ve been living as if God is displeased with me and I have to earn my way back into His favor. I’ve thought that if I do the right things, God will love me more. I have been incredibly frustrated spiritually lately because of course I cannot do the right things on my own. Of course I cannot earn my way back into God’s favor when there is nothing in me that’s good.  Last week I decided to listen to a sermon online from my church in Austin, found here. The sermon I randomly chose is entitled Religion vs. the Gospel, and it was JUST what I needed to hear. These were my favorite points, and maybe they will make as much sense to you as they did to me.

Religion says follow all of the rules, and then maybe you can earn your way back to God.

The Gospel says that the way back to God has already been earned for you though Jesus.

Religion says that I’ve been good and I am entitled to God’s blessings.

The Gospel says that God if you never give me anything besides the cross, I am the most blessed person in humanity because you have given me more than I deserve.

Religion says, “I obey that I might be accepted.”

The Gospel says “I’m accepted, therefore I obey.”

Based on that, don’t you know want your life to be about The Gospel, rather than religion? I know I do. God has done it all for us, accept it and believe it.

Professor Wamagatta

I have been really missing Biola the past few days, probably because my graduation anniversary is almost here and it just feels like I should be back there this time of year.

My favorite Biola professor was undoubtedly Professor Wamagatta from the History Department. Even though I didn’t major or minor in History, I somehow managed to take 6 classes from him over the course of 4 years, and 4 classes from him my final year. I loved him that much! He moved to the US from Kenya as an adult, and became a Christian later in life, so I liked the different point of view he had on a lot of issues. He is incredibly smart though humble.

He is also so, so funny. He had a tradition of clapping for every student after they finished their end-of-the-year presentation. The clap went something like this:

Clap. Clap. Clap.

“Good job!”

Clap. Clap. Clap.

“Congratulations!”

Clap. Clap. Clap.

“We enjoyed your presentation!”

Clap. Clap. Clap.

“God bless you!”

The funny part was that, the first time in every class he would say, “Let’s give so-and-so a round of applause,” and everyone would start clapping normally. Then Professor Wamagatta would silence everyone with his hands, and start his own special clap. SO AWESOME! I also made a running list of Professor Wamagatta quotes from last year, because he said something funny multiple times every class period. I need to find those…

More than anything, he really, really cared for his students. He prayed for us before every class period I ever had with him. He was the professor I felt most comfortable visiting during his office hours. He was quick to offer grace if I couldn’t finish a paper on time. He always asked me how my girls were doing when he found out I was an RA and how the job was treating me.

If you are still a Biola student and reading this, please do 2 things: 1) go give Professor Wamagatta a hug for me and 2) take one of his classes!

 

Happy Bank Holiday

Ireland has a lovely tradition known as a Bank Holiday four times a year: the first Mondays in May, June, August, and October. Nationwide there is no work or school. So what do the bank holidays celebrate? Absolutely nothing. I suppose they are called that because the banks and other public offices are closed. I think every country should do the same!

On my bank holiday today I slept in, cooked, basked in the on-and-off sunshine by walking around (I actually didn’t need a sweater when I went outside this morning…it eventually got colder, but I’ll take what I can get), and went to the cinema to see The Lucky One.

I went to Belfast for the day on Saturday to the new Titanic museum and will post pictures soon. It was interesting, but I left feeling very grateful I live in Dublin!