Hello all!

Hello there from Belfast. Things are going well with me. I am starting to get used to my daily life here and the many tiny differences vs my life in the U.S. As you become more accustomed to the life that surrounds you, you find that you miss things and notice differences that you did not even think about when you had them, now that you are without them.

Little things here are different like cooking. As I tried to bake a cake for my roommate Jess's birthday I found that the ingredients of the cake here are harder to find. I ended up having to go back and forth to the store trying to get it all right. It turned out to be a blob of a cake, but it was made with lots of love! Haha! We had fun last night celebrating her birthday together! Some other things that are different is the drastic changes in the temperature. It can literally change seasons four times in one day here in Belfast. You can start out with a mild, sunny morning, that slowly turns to clouds and rain, then to wind and sun, then to hot, then to bitterly cold! This is new to me.

I learned how to bleed a radiator this last week. We got our heat turned on this week in the house and I quickly noticed that mine was not getting hot at all. I called around a bit and ended up getting directions to bleed the radiator. This is a slow process...I probably could not tell you why it worked, but it thankfully did!

Work has been busy. I am starting to make some really good friendships with co-workers and people that I work with as well. The kids are challenging here. Some are wonderful, don't get me wrong, but behavior here is a bit of a problem. I have never had to kick anyone out of anything in my life, but this last week I had to kick 4 fifteen or sixteen year old girls out of my program. It felt strange and sad, but it was necessary. I can't say a lot more than that because this is a blog and anyone can access it!

It is starting to hit me, missing home that is, and the inevitable homesickness. I think that I just realize now how far away everyone seems. It is my Dad's birthday next week and I am sad that I am not going to be there. This is the first of many things that I am going to miss this year while being here. It is good to start this process of homesickness. The way I think about it is that if you are homesick, that means that you have an awful lot of blessings in your life that you miss. I do indeed have so many people that I miss. I am so very lucky to be able to miss people and places the way I do.

Something that I am also realizing is that doing something like what I am doing changes you and the people around you in so many ways. I think that it is changing me the most though. Although I am here to help, to influence, to change others, I get the sneaking suspicion that I am being changed much more than I am in fact changing others. I think that if you realize that about life, you are the better for it. I always knew that I would be shaped by my experience here. I just did not know by how much.

Peace this week has come in many forms. As I am constantly looking for peace in this strange place that I am getting to know, and the people that I am getting to know, I see facets of peace in small ways. Much like grace, I feel times of peace in my own life as well as see peace emerging in this place of unrest. Peace came in the form of a few minutes of silence with just me and my guitar this week. I had a few minutes just to myself to play my guitar and watch it rain. It was healing, it was just what I needed. Peace and grace really are in everything. It is in the sun that shines on my face while I walk to work. It is in the moments of stillness that our body yearns for but rarely gets. May you find peace and grace in the little moments in your life this week.

All my love-
Melissa