StumbleUpon

While living in household 3 years ago, my roommates were often on StumbleUpon a website that will help you discover great websites, videos, photos, and facts from the internet. For some of my roommates it became regular habit to "stumble" after checking her e-mail and facebook and any other form of procrastinating before starting an assignment. I never visited the website myself, but I heard lots about it as I learned fun facts.

Today I thought about the website for the first time in over a year while exploring Belfast City Centre. (I did it! I spelled City Centre as if I am from Belfast. Please note, won't spell it any other time like that except when referring to Belfast). Today, I had the whole afternoon and evening free, so I decided to explore the city centre. I needed to by a few things for Matthew's birthday which is two days before mine. Besides that I had no agenda, so I decided to walk around.

I haven't spent much time in the City Centre since moving to Belfast. My weekends have been really busy since being here, but I have reflecting a lot recently about what brings me life and restores me from the business of life. The downtown of cities just speaks to my heart in ways no other places do. It's an automatic "happiness" moment. Sometimes after hard weeks in Detroit, I would just leave work early and drive downtown and walk along the river. There were also many times I would drive around at night in awe of the massive buildings lit up. My roommate Alex knew the way to calm me down after being stressed out by student teaching and my final year of uni. She would just take me on a drive to downtown Minneapolis with music blaring, windows open, and thoughts flooding without having to say a word. For being a small town girl, I LOVE city life.

While getting my city fix today, I stumbled upon majesticness. Side note: a moment of truth. I don't do a very good job researching the cities I live in before going. Rather I allow the city to show me what it has to offer, talk to locals, and figure out the rest later. For some reason, I turned down this little alley way and I saw this massive cathedral. I can't put into words what it was like to stumble upon something that beautiful at the end of such a random alley.

St. Anne's Cathedral- also known as Belfast Cathedral is the cathedral for the Church of Ireland.

As I was walking across this open square up to the cathedral I was struck by the words written on a slab of concrete in the middle of the square.

"I was born in Belfast and brought up to believe that, like St. Paul, I am a citizen of no mean city."

I continued walking around the square and saw quotes from men who had lived, worked, and loved the city of Belfast. My favorite was finding a C.S. Lewis who was born in East Belfast. As I continued reading, I realized that I was in Writer's Square. It was brilliant because that's exactly what I wanted to do was sit down, think, write, and be creative.

I absolutely loved my time in the city centre today. Time seemed to go in slow motion as I discovered incredible shopping centers, window shopped, looked down cute alleys, and enjoyed living in a city in Europe. It was so incredible. Sorry, I don't have more pictures. My camera started dying at the beginning of the evening. There will be more to come because I have much more to explore.

Ladies Nights

Babies, men, pregnancy, cooking, cleaning, and wine - some of the topics of discussion. One of the best parts of living with a young couple is that I am invited along with them to their social events. Last night, Judie Dick (this is your shout out :0) hosted a dinner and evening for a few of her close friends, and I was lucky enough to be invited along too. The dinner, dessert, and cheese were absolutely delicious, but within that one evening I learned more about being married, the pregnancy process, and having children than I even would have imagined was possible in one evening. Afterwards, a couple of people asked if I felt awkward, but the truth was I felt blessed to be among a group of women who were so welcoming to me. It didn't really matter if I was able to chime in about "my husband/lack of husband" or not. Rather I was able to share life with women who really loved and cared for each other, something I have really been longing for since moving to Belfast.

I'm in this strange age group/state in life where I can float back and forth between the college crowd and the married/stable "ish" in life crowd. I love being apart of both groups because it offers me a wide range of friendships, conversations, and life experiences. Some people get bitter and long to be back in college or happily married. Honestly, I sometimes wish for that too. At the same time, I'm so blessed by the life I have. I'm grateful for the opportunities to pick up my entire life, buy a one way ticket to Belfast, and settle into a completely new culture and community. As the young people always say "YOLO- You Only Live Once!"

Brown Sauce

Today, I was reading an article in a magazine about a guy who traveled to Japan. The article began describing all these differences he noticed the first few days like how clean the streets were without any rubbish bins or how quiet the subways were. Little things that natives never notice, but as a foreigner you can't help but to notice.

I continued reading the story while piling onto my fork toast with melted cheese o, baked beans, and brown sauce. I never would have imagined that this random assortment of food would be something I would eat for breakfast, but since moving to Ireland things that I once thought to be "strange" have become my new normal.

Brown Sauce: I heard my UK friends talk about it all the time while I was in Michigan. They missed it a lot and always wanted to put it on their food. I never really understand what it was. I imagined it being like some kind of brown gravy. When I first got to Belfast, someone described it more like BBQ sauce. After tasting it, I realized that it can't really be described, and it most be an acquired taste. It has a strong vinegar bite, but it adds a bit of flavor to your meal.

Wikipedia describes it as: Brown sauce is a traditional condiment served with food in the United Kingdom and Ireland, normally brown or dark orange in colour, and made from a varying combination of tomatoes, molasses, dates, tamarind, spices, vinegar, and sometimes raisins or anchovies. The taste is either tart or sweet with a peppery taste similar to Worcestershire sauce. It is similar but not identical to steak sauce in the United States, which historically derives from it, barbeque sauce in Australia, and tonkatsu sauce in Japan.

As the saying goes,

When in Rome do as the Romans do.

I'm trying not to compare the food from back home to here so much because I realized that much of it isn't a difference between what's better or best (except the chocolate here is much better), but rather it deals with what you grew up with and what your willing to try. I don't know why the pancakes are so small here or why baked beans are a part of breakfast, but you get used to it. Slowly over time it becomes the new normal as I add a little "sauce" to my life.