Cáisc shona dhuit!

In Irish, "Cáisc shona dhuit" means Happy Easter!  Jesus has defeated death and has risen from the grave!    He has broken the chains of sin and set us free!  He is alive!  Alleluia!

Despite some feelings of homesickness, I have had a great Easter celebration here in Dublin.  I think being away from home during Easter was harder for me than being away during Christmas.  I think it was mostly because of the amazing Triduum (Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter Vigil) masses that I left behind in Ann Arbor.  I've really grown to love this time of the year because my church back home, Christ the King, has some really exceptional Triduum masses.  Honestly, they blow my mind.  Plus there's the fact that my dad sings in the choir there, and I just love hearing them sing...and seeing my dad smile at me.  :)

My host brother Paul rows for Trinity College in Dublin, so we went to his Trinity Regatta on Holy Saturday to watch him row.  He's the 3rd guy from the left, under the "TA" in REGATTA.  :)

That's me, Alessa, and Ellen.
Alessa is a German student staying with my host family for two weeks.

It was fun to watch the races.  Trinity ended up winning two and losing two.  Not bad!

The weather was nice, too.  We brought a big blanket and a picnic lunch, so we all ate outside and enjoyed the sun between Paul's races.

 I went to an Easter Vigil mass in town ("downtown Dublin") that evening with a woman named Carole from Spirit Radio.  We went to a church on Clarendon Street called St. Teresa's and the church was gorgeous!  There was an EXCEPTIONAL choir...they sounded amazing!  They sang some really beautiful songs during mass, and afterwards they sang the Hallelujah Chorus!  The Vigil mass itself was alright...they only did 3 out of the 7 readings, but besides that it was good.  Here's a picture of the church that I found online.

  It was even more beautiful inside the church!  After mass when we stepped outside, I overheard someone say "So, you're from California, and you're from Michigan?"  and my ears perked up at the sound of "Michigan."  I interrupted and said "Wait, who's from Michigan?"  This girl looked at me and said, "I am", and I told her I was as well.  I introduced myself to her and we got talking about, well, American things...like how we thought it was strange that no one does Easter baskets and jelly beans for Easter morning.  You know...important stuff.  :)  It turns out that she's an Au pair in Dublin and she's from the Upper Peninsula (UP) of Michigan.  I was telling her about my GAP program, and it turns out that both she and the Irish guy she was with know a couple of the families in the Community of Nazareth.  It's a small world!  Anyway, this girl Maria and I exchanged names and information, and we're most likely going to meet up sometime.  :)  I was so excited to make a friend!

I came home from town that evening at around 11pm, slept for about 2 hours, and then got up and watched my home church's Easter Vigil mass online. They streamed it on the internet for the first time, and despite the big time difference, I wanted to stay up all night to watch it.  I got to see my dad sing in the choir, and I saw my mom walk by during Communion.  It kind of felt like I was there and it kind of soothed my homesick heart.  :)  The mass started at 1:30am Irish time and didn't finish until about 5:30am, and then at about 6:15am, I went down to the beach with a bunch of people from Community to watch the sunrise.  It's apparently a little tradition they have...to watch the sunrise on Easter morning.  So even though I had been up all night, I went to watch the sunrise.  :)  I'm glad I did...I got some great pictures!

Some sweet silhouettes :)

Gorgeous sunrise!!

 Most of the younger kids (and a few older ones) got in the water too!  I couldn't believe it---it was pretty cold out!  There was hot chocolate for them afterwards...maybe that was their incentive?  Or maybe they're just crazy Irish people.  Yeah...we'll go with that.  :)

Some of my host family plus our German students

Me with Peter :)

That's all the kids in my host family, plus Marc & Alessa, our German students

When we came home we went back to bed for a couple of hours until around 10ish, and then we went to mass together at 11.  After mass we all helped prepare a big Easter lunch.  Yum!

When we finished our lunch, a bunch of us went for a walk up Killiney Hill.  We had a lot of fun and got some good pictures.  And we met a group of people from North Carolina!  Ahh...fellow Americans.  :)

As you can see, there are some really gorgeous views from Killiney Hill!  I love all the yellow flowers this time of year.  Just beautiful.  Oh and the mountains aren't too bad either.  ;)

Me, Ellen, Alessa, and Leanne

Me with Leanne and Ellen, my two host sisters

My super goofy host family...

Me with my little buddy, Leanne.

Being silly with the Germans :)

My host parents, Peter & Ciara, being cute.  :)

hahaha this picture cracks me up.  I couldn't get in that tree!

Alessa and me :)

On Easter Monday I colored Easter eggs with Leanne and Ciara, and then we all had a big lunch together.  Eggs, sausages, bacon, toast...the works.  It was scrumptious!  :)  

I am very thankful for a good host family and a great Easter weekend.  I thank the Lord every day for sending me here to Dublin to love and be loved by all these wonderful Irish people.