Today we took a bus up to Knock for the feast of Our Lady. For the morning the four of us wandered around the shrine on our own (it's much more out in the country with priests and nuns everywhere), then met up for noon Mass. They had a separate building where confessions were heard all day long, and the priest said some things that really pierced my heart, things he somehow knew I needed to hear. The coolest part, though, was that at Mass we realized there were other Steubiytes there! My good friend Steve who worked Totus Tuus with me last summer, his brother John, and our mutual friend Mike have also been making their way around the Emerald Isle. We had lunch together (obviously the loudest table in the whole place) - Knock had much more Catholicism to the culture, for obvious reasons (it's the site of a Marian apparition). We looked around in the shops and I found a way to get Bailey something from every country as per her request. Then we prayed a walking rosary together through the cemetery which was a few hundred years old (the 15 witnesses of the apparition were laid to rest there), and enjoyed dinner... and made plans to meet back up again in Cork in a few days. After reading the bulletin from Mass, we also discovered that we had fulfilled almost all requirements to receive a plenary indulgence, and so prayed the necessary prayers before dinner. The day was really relaxing and more spiritual, balancing out our last two nights of little more wild fun - but I am still behaving, Chrissy! It was also good to run into other guys because Josh is the only one in our group and needed a testosterone recharge. After the boys took off, we still had an hour to wait for our bus so we sat on the stone wall next to the bus stop talking and watching some horses inside the wall. They got really close to us and even stepped up to the wall after we started boarding the bus - didn't get to pet them, but great photos nonetheless. Tomorrow we will be heading to Doolin and the famous Cliffs of Moher, with plans to Spar it up for food and hopefully not spend more than 10-15 Euro. The fluxuating currency exchange rate has been a difficult thing for me to figure out - but I am little relieved to know now that the jobs at the Kartause pay in cash Euro. I am so grateful to have a real vacation, but time is different here regardless - it is so much more laid back and person-focused. For example, you know at Mass in the States we sometimes won't make eye contact when giving the sign of peace? Here people will stretch all the way across the pew to shake your hand. Just one example... there are also other funny differences I've noticed, such as: even though Americans sound like robots at Mass, they are always in unison. It's much more chaotic, at least in Ireland. People mumble really quickly, and Communion lines do not exist. People just book it up in a mad mob, it's almost funny. And the sit-stand-sit-stand-kneel-stand routine? Forget it - we do something wrong at least every time we go to Mass.