In Ireland I’m staying at a golf course and resort, as a temporary volunteer.   I do a few hours of work each week in exchange for my room and food.  I stay in a staff quarters with a Spanish couple and a young Italian man.  For me it is very interesting to help them learn English.  They are all three trying very diligently to learn English, and can speak  it quite well right now.  The words they have the most trouble with were surprising to me though.  Words like “Get” were confusing because of the number of contexts it can be use.  Get out, Get Away, Get Back, Get On, Get Off, Get There, Get Here, Get Him, Get Her, Get It.   Also all the double meaning words are obviously difficult, such as There, Their and They’re.  Of course there is all the slang and sayings/phrases that don’t make much sense.  “Raining cats and dogs”, and “throw away” (garbage) are two that took a bit of explaining.

An interesting mixture of people work here.  Just yesterday we were served Chinese food, cooked by a German chef, served by an Indian chef, to an American, an Italian and two Spaniards, in Ireland.  There are also Czech, Polish, Latvian and South African people who live and work here.  It seems that Ireland too is a major melting pot of cultures.

After my few days of work on the greens of the golf course, mostly edging bunkers (Basically cutting the sod of the sand traps to be clean and removing the grass and stones), I managed to get out to do a little exploring and photography on the grounds.  The weather though did not cooperate and it soon clouded over again.  I did manage to find a few interesting shots which you can see in the main photo gallery here.

I am working heavily on finding new sponsors to help my adventure along, and to refocus on my mission.  I want to be more definitive about what my reasons for this adventure are.  I am not simply trying to have a big vacation, but to inspire people to travel, especially people who have or are suffering from serious illness.  Having spent my young adult life unable to do much of anything adventurous because of my battle with Ulcerative Colitis, it is important to me to help others who maybe suffering with it, or other conditions to see there are ways to do some of these thing while staying safe and healthy. For those who aren’t sick, but need a little push, I also want to encourage them to take that first step, that leap of faith and go find the amazing part of the world that they are interested in.  Please feel free to contact me asking questions or giving suggestions, as I always enjoy hearing from people interested in the things I post.

I also wanted to take a moment to thank Scottevest and Aarn, two of my sponsors for their help.  With out them this trip would be very different and more difficult to complete.  Having the right gear is paramount to completing any major adventure!

-Ty

Ty sitting in Ireland with his Aarn Mountain Magic 50 Backpack and Scottevest Expedition Jacket.