Bus rides, Noise-aholics, and Football

Well, today was my third day in Belfast and my second day on the job. I was supposed to catch the 11 o'clock 530 bus but it doesn't exist. SO, I showed up at YI at 1 roughly after having caught the noon bus and walked about ten minutes after having gone past my destination. But you know, it happens.

I am currently reading Chuck Palahniuk's novel 'Lullaby' and I am loving it. I love his style of writing and even though it is a bit dark, I found the content to be very humorous and true. He is using the idea that words have power (and in the case of the book, the power to kill). But he makes many references to the fact that we as a world culture are growing more and more to be noise-aholics. He says we can't stand silence and we can't handle the idea of silence. He talks about our music being loud and our talking being constant. He lists of many different things and I think it is true. He contemplates a world where if everyone knew of the Culling Song (a song in the book that can kill), then the world would put a ban on noise. Everywhere, silence would abound. He used the phrase, 'A word is worth a thousand pictures' because every minute word you whispered would have to be precious. You would not want to listen to someone and they speak the culling song. You would die! It was very interesting... contemplate on it. What is sound was a weapon? A mere sentence could kill, eight lines long, ten seconds to speak. If you heard it, you would die.

Finally, football happened today. The kids I was playing with were kids from the West Belfast community (Catholic and rough). They were cursing up a storm and being very rough in the game play. And they were naturally very good. All of these things combined made me very intimidated. They were all good enough to play on any college team, plus they were badass enough to beat me up. It was a thrill and I did not like it. LOL. Next Tuesday I play with the 11- 14 year olds (Lifeline is 15-18). Hopefully that goes better.

I like it here a lot. It is growing on me more and more every day. But I still miss home...