Adventure Update #1

Hello world!

Sorry it has been three weeks since I left the States and have yet to email/post any personal updates. Gosh. This has just been a crazy trip into a new adventure, but I am constantly being blessed and loving it.

For those of you who do not know, here are some fun facts:
- I graduated from Franciscan University of Steubenville in 2007, with a BA in Theology
- After graduation, I returned home to work as a Contract Engineer, which lasted two years.
- In June 2009 I became the first american to be accepted into the Public Affairs and Political Communication Master's Program at DIT in Dublin, Ireland.
- On September 7th, 2009, I arrived in Dublin and so the adventure began....

I am living in Dublin and loving it. It was a bit of a rough transition, but I have recovered and am loving it. It was stressful to find housing in a good area, at a decent price, but I was able to find a beautiful flat in Dublin for my roommates and I. I am living with a friend from my home Parish in Michigan for the year, as well as a French girl who was a friend of a friend. God is good.

Since arriving in Dublin, I have been involved in a campaign against the upcoming Lisbon Treaty vote in Ireland (which takes place Friday Oct 2nd). I spent the past few weeks canvassing door to door and also doing street sessions in the Dublin City Center (passing out leaflets to walkers-by and talking to them about the Treaty). God is blessing that work and I am praying for the Irish people, that they protect their democratic rights in the vote on Friday!!! Please keep the Irish people in your prayers!

Public Affairs and Political Communication: Ahhh! I am loving the program! I am only less than a week in and am a bit obsessed! I have always loved a great debate, but rarely find the opportunity to debate anymore. It seems to be because most people don't know how to debate, nor do they enjoy debating. But... in this program, there are constant debates breaking out in class, outside of class, and everywhere else! It is awesome!!! Obviously, the fact that I haven't grown up in Ireland could be seen as a negative in a course that studies Irish politics mainly, and American/UK politics secondarily, but I am turning it into a positive. I figure that if I can debate Irish people on Irish politics, I can debate anyone on any things. The Irish have been known to be fighters and great debaters and here I am debating them (outside of my comfort zone) on their policies. I have also been able to bring alot of interesting comparisons from America, which I think the course administrators are loving.

Here are some things that are on my itinerary for the week:

- Internship assignment. I will be assigned a Senator here, with whom I will intern with for the whole year. I met with the Chair of my department and have a good idea of who I want to be placed with, but I will wait until I find out and then I will post some info on the Senator that I've been placed with.

- Tonight I am attending a debate at UCD here in Dublin on the Lisbon Treaty. I am really excited and it should be a great debate. My friend Kati is going with me, as well as some of the members of Youth Defence.

- Debate on Friday: I am Debating another team in my course on Friday, on the NO side of the Lisbon Treaty. I will post some notes on my findings once it's over (and possibly the video of it), but I don't want to squeal the interesting points I'll be making just yet.

- Friday is also the Lisbon Treaty voting day and Saturday is the Count. I will be doing more No to Lisbon work throughout the week and then meeting up with the group on Saturday to find out the results. Pray for Ireland!!!


Just havin' a Laugh.... Here is a funny story to leave you with.
The first day that we had moved into the flat, we couldn't get the door of our flat opened. I had seen a few guys going to the upstairs flat and I was convinced that they were pulling some prank on us and jammed the door. Gah! So, I knocked on their door and asked one of the lads to open the door. Of course, the door opened right away for him and we looked like total eejits!!! Haha! The best part of the story is, because of our interaction with them, they realized we had american accents. That night they returned from the pub and serenaded us (outside of our door) until 2am, singing 'American Woman' (by Lenny Kravitz). Gosh! It was hilarious! We have since met them and found them to be quite upstanding Irish lads, but we did have a hilarious introduction.

God bless you all. Know that you are all in my prayers. I will write more later, but I wanted to write a bit of an update while I was thinking about it.

xoxo