gettin' ready for St. Pat!

all of us waiting for the parade to start!

Today one of the towns next to us, Fanore, had a Saint Patrick's Day parade. Fanore is stunning and one of my favorite places near where I live. The beach is beautiful and there cliffs and mountain, and it's just one of the most beautiful places I've seen. Anyway, Robert picked those of us that wanted to go up today and dropped us off at Fanore. We were there pretty much all day. Two students had artwork in the parade (puppets) and the rest of us were just there to walk in the parade and just see where the day would take us. We ended up walking around the cliffs in the parade. The parade ended at a pub where they had a little ceremony that my buddy Father Des was the speaker for. He basically just introduced each float with his very crude, Irish sense of humor. (hilarious) Then everyone went into the Pub for Irish music and a cheap lunch. Lindsey, Steph, and I left the pub after eating for a bit to walk around and ended up finding some dry grass in a field near the ocean to relax in for a bit. After that we headed back over to the pub where there was a huge crowd of people gathered around. Apparently Tug of War is kind of a serious thing here. There were legitimate teams from representing each town. They were not playing around. Each team had a coach. There were younger men in the tug of war matches and dirty old Irish men drinking beer and cheering them on. "C'mon lads!" Today was one of my favorite days in Ireland. I am so happy I went to Fanore and got to see all of that- it really hit me that I'm in Ireland and I remembered how special it is that I'm here! Anyway, I took a lot of pictures that I really love of the kids, and the old men, and the floats, and the families. I'm so grateful for the pictures I've been able to collect since I've been here. Can't wait to show you all when I'm home but here are a couple other ones. 

I've been collecting a lot of portraits like this one this semester 

of people in the community and people I've met or run into

throughout the coarse of my day. 

It's been a really special way of meeting people.

one of my favorites.

suzanne!

friends from my school performing with the puppets

as a performance art piece.

float of the Titanic sinking. the BEST one.

(The Titanic was built in Northern Ireland, Belfast)

this poor donkey that they were raffling? 

FR. DES, what are you doing?

Enthusiastic Kids:

Resting in  Cowfield, In the Sun, After the Parade...

a few from Tug of War