Catching the Coffee Vision

I now have several new "homes away from home". No it's not Coolnagreina, or even Ireland. It's actually the three different coffee shops I have lived in the past few days. If anyone ever tells you this program is easy cause you never have any homework that is a lie! I have seventeen projects, papers, presentations, or illustrations due in a two week time span. I guess it's not really that bad; it just seems like it when I would so much rather be out exploring the country! Right now we are at a sprint to the finish and it feels like there is not enough time to cram everything in that I still want to do.
In exactly two weeks from yesterday I will be in a completely different country, time zone, and culture! As our time here is wrapping up, we are starting to debrief. I swear the people here love to talk about our feelings more than anyone else I have ever met. It is definitely a stretch for me, but I suppose it is a good thing.
Tonight we talked about our involvement in the local churches and what we have learned about the universal church by living in such a close community of twenty students for three months. It was a good discussion and there are definitely things I have learned here that I want to take home with me... For example, coffee! Not literally, but the idea behind coffee and tea here. It is very normal to ask someone you barely know on a coffee date. I have gotten to know so many people a lot better over a good mocha. Also, all the churches serve tea, coffee, and biscuits (cookies) after the service. So everyone sticks around and chats for half an hour to an hour. I feel like in our American churches as soon as the sermon ends, everyone sprints out the door because they all have yardwork, a little league game, or a luncheon planned. Seriously, what if we all hung out for awhile and actually learned more than just the names of the people who sit behind us every single week? What if the body of Christ really truly cared about each other like an actual family? What if we all stopped church hopping and didn't bail on each other when times got hard? What would our churches look like then? I for one, am determined to find out.