08/27/08 Glaslough, Ireland ( I shall have to write more for these two days)

En un momento yo duermo en un hosteria. Es moy comodo! La hosteria tiene wifi. Yo apprecio wifi porque necesito wifi para mi clases.

This day was insane! We woke up and went downstairs to grab a bite to eat. As we ate I got to meet Mrs. Jossie and Brendon. I loved talking to them! They were so nice! Brendon took us in his car up to see the hill that Mr. Anderson was born on. He took us right up to their house and showed us all around the countryside. He told us that the hedges used to be in great shape, and that in the past they had a committee of people who would trim them. Now they're left to the farmers, and they never do it. He also told us about the accident he'd been in where his right socket got completely shattered (he was chopping down trees and one got him). He also showed me their puppy labs. Such cute doggies!!!!

He took us back to the b&b and shortly after we'd gotten out of the car Ahmee asked him if there were any ooold cemeteries around where she could look for Andersons or Bells or Beales. Of course, he hopped right back into the car and drove us to three graveyards to search for our ancestors names. We didn't find any. The whole time we enjoyed talking to him though and we teased him about how he was just trying to get out of painting and doing wallpaper.

Once we got back to the b&b he recommended we go see the local historian and that he might be able to help us. Seamus McClouskey (sp?) was an older gentleman who was very accustomed to people just showing up at his doorstep asking if he knew more about their ancestors. Since Ahmee already knew tons about the Andersons and Bells, the conversation that ensued was more about where they resided. He wasn't sure at the time, but he and Ahmee definitely loved trading history back and forth. I enjoyed sitting there, listening to the old family stories that came from Ahmee, and the old Irish history that came from Seamus. Someone interesting he told us about was Sir John Leslie, the 96 year old Knight who lived in the castle in Glaslough. The really interesting thing about this man was that he, to this day, loves to go to the disco, and they often call him by Disco John. He sounded like such a lovely character! It's a shame he was in Italy when we were there, he would've been incredible to meet. Seamus was a very interesting man as well. He reminded me of Mr. Owens in that they both get so into what they're talking about that they'll forget what they'd set out to inform people on.

We left then, but we heard back from Seamus after Ahmee and I got back from horseback riding. To sum the ride up, I enjoyed going slow and enjoyed the lovely view of the trees, the lake, and the grasses, my horse loved going slow, we got far behind, I hadn't ridden in forever so I didn't give him a hard enough kick, and... the horse didn't go any faster. Before we headed out to dinner we went and checked in on Seamus who was so excited when we came in. He asked Ahmee a couple questions about James Anderson and then he informed us that he had been one of the leaders of a society called the United Irishman Society, men who worked to make Ireland a separate country from England, that he had been on the most wanted list, and that if he hadn't escaped he'd have been hanged next to the very b&b we were staying in! Gives you goosebumps? It did for me. How lucky do we have to be to have walked right to the right door? The odds of it happening are tiny!

Seamus also told us that we were all three members of the county and he presented us with our certificates. He also told Ahmee that he wrote a small history section for the weekly newspaper and that he planned on including her story in there.

Our heads were quite large after having left his house!