After spending 25 hours awake from the airport to a full day of fun activities and tour visiting, it has been a bit exhausting to say the least. But nonetheless, I really enjoyed my first day here in Ireland. Firstly, I noticed how much the air quality drastically changed, it feels much more refreshing than the U.S. already. I also wanted to point out that the cars here are a bit smaller, and significantly less pick-up trucks. And yes, they drive on the left side of the road, I already knew that way before coming to Ireland, it just feels a bit different actually seeing it in person.
The first day was spent firstly by being picked up from the airport by Connor and Erin! They gave all of us a warm welcome, invited us for a quick breakfast then drove off straight to check in at our hotel. The hotel had a very nice atmosphere, welcoming staff and in a really great location! After we dropped off our stuff at the hotel, we went off to the Youth Centre to spend time with teens/tweens, all ten of us spent time with them playing board games, pool table, ping pong, playing soccer, and painting. I found this to be very exciting, I love making other people’s day brighter by just having fun and theirs too, my favorite activity at the Youth Centre had to be the painting room. I love making portraits and encouraging others to paint what their hearts desire, and it’s such a expressible form of art/creativity to show what you have interest in. Something I have noticed being in the Youth Centre is that these kids are very well behaved, more mature and way more respectful than kids back in the U.S., they actually respect other people’s boundaries, ask politely, not as hyperactive, and they seem to be a bit more knowledgable than back at home. It just goes to show how much of a difference Irish kids are compared to American kids.
After leaving the Youth Centre, we headed back to the hotel to shower, take a power nap, wash your face, whatever we needed before we all headed out to dinner. We headed off to an Italian restaurant, afterwards we then drove to the Peace Walls for a sight visit. When Connor was giving a lecture and backstory of the Peace Walls, I found it pretty strange at first. One wall, two sides. The different sides all had different stories. The Unionist side had hopeful quotes, such as “Spread love” or “Don’t give up!”, etc. But the Nationalist side of the wall was nothing alike, in fact the Peace wall had another security fence just a couple of feet away, almost near the people’s homes too. The reason why the security fence was put up was because they were installed as a protective shield to stop petrol bombs, bricks, or fireworks from being thrown over the top of the wall. Hearing about this just made my heart sank, although I know briefly about the history of Ireland/Northern Ireland from the book “Say Nothing”, this is a devastating fact to even witness hearing. And to me, it makes me sick that this was still recent in history. Even after all the people of Ireland had to go through, it surprises me that they still remain kind to one another, at least that’s what I’ve been experiencing only being here for a short amount of time!