Back in the rush

We finally found the place to hae our laundry done, so I got up and went out at 8:30 before staff devotions time to put mine in. The lady just took my stuff and when we were finished with devos, I came back and lo and behold! the laundry was in a bag all nicely folded. It was 25 euro though which is like $36 so it's pretty steep, but we have 100 euro a week with which to buy food and laundry. Ug, it kinda kills me inside anyway. I wish I could do it myself and save money, but oh well. I suppose I'll enjoy having it all done while I can.
I started working at noon today and got put to work on the floor, delivering food and cleaning up tables, which was exciting because I got to be out among the crowds. I met four boys by finishing a joke one of them was telling and thereby amazing them with my “psychic powers”. They then wanted to test out their own skills and tried to guess where I was from: I was impressed with how many US state names they did know, but they never could come up with Indiana, so I left them to guess where Kelsie was from. In the meantime, I met up with Cillian, the little rascal who gave me trouble last week. Today he was confused as to why all of us had ashes on our foreheads because he thought it was only a Catholic thing to do. He asked if we were all Catholic or all Protestant or a mix and when I told him it was a little of both, he then wondered how the Protestants put up with the “evil crucifix” being displayed around the café. Apparently he imagined that Protestants considered the cross with Jesus hanging on it to be evil but I told him that just because it was something more common with Catholics, it didn’t have to be wrong for Protestants. I was glad I was able to dispel at least a little bit of his confusion.
However, it is still frustrating to not have the time or space to have a decent conversation with people. The lunch rush is so hectic and other customers usually want to be left alone with their newspaper or their friends. But today during my quiet time, I heard something that made me smile. I was sitting in one of the nearby cathedrals reading when a young mother with two small children came in. The kids were restless and she seemed fed up from trying to control them while praying. Throughout her prayer I heard the kids whispering things like, “Mommy, when are we having supper?” and “Who’s that man over there” and other classic kid stuff, but as the mother finished her prayer and said Amen, the little girl shouted at the top of her lungs, “THANK YOU!” It wasn’t an exasperated “thank goodness mom is done” but an innocent child shouting to her Creator who she still hasn’t even learned much about. So while I found myself frustrated at lost or difficult opportunities, I was reminded to be thankful in all things. Today was a very good day and I felt like I met some new people and had some good times with them.
Later this evening after dinner, Ben, Kelsie, and I went over to Salthill to see the group from Greystones. It was good to see Scotty 2 Hotty again and Brian taunted us by telling us he was headed to Monroe's (a great pub right across the street from us that we can't go into). Kelsie got to hang out with her roommate from TU and Ben and I chatted with Peter, the guy who owns the B&B they were staying in. We got to chat a little with some of the other students on the trip, but most of them I just know a little bit or through someone else, but it was still a good time comparing stories. They'll be coming into the cafe tomorrow morning around 10:30 and it's probably Kelsie's turn to be on dishes which Ben and I are not gonna let happen seeing how she's the only one of the three of us with a roommate/close friend visiting.