The story of St. Patrick's Day begins around 385 AD with a man named Maewyn. At age 16, the Pagan Maewyn was sold into slavery, which brought him closer to God. He finally managed to escape slavery six years later and headed to a monastery in Gaul to study, where he adopted the Christian name "Patrick." Upon ending his studies, he moved to Ireland, where he felt his calling in life was to convert Pagans to Christianity. For the next 30 years, he traveled throughout the country, setting up monasteries and converting the natives. After his death in 461 (on March 17th, when else did you expect?), he was declared a saint.

We arrived at Mission, 75 miles west of Port Isabel, yesterday afternoon. Stopped at Camping World to have motor home serviced and enjoyed a lunch of enchiladas at Danny's restaurant while we waited. The private RV park is in an old citrus grove. We may pick grapefruit as we please. Our neighbor reports a campground roadrunner, but we haven't met it yet.

Today's dawn found us at the Santa Anna National Wildlife Refuge at the Rio Grande. We found only one new life bird, the tropical parula, a small blue and yellow warbler. Otherwise we found many of the other Texas specialties we first encountered last week. We visited a spring hawk watch that was having its first day at the refuge. It was led by a George Wilhelm, a former Pennsylvanian. He told us that it would probably be another week before a significant migration begins.

Hello everybody! Just thought I would send a little note from abroad. My parents were great enough to send me to Europe for a few weeks after my program ended so that I would get a chance to visit my friends here and because I didnt get that same abroad experience. Last Thursday night I flew into Dublin, Ireland where my friend Emily is studying. We spent the weekend there, visiting castles and taking a tour of the famous Guinness Storehouse. Monday morning the two of us flew to Paris where our good friend Sarah is taking a semester. We were lucky enough to be gifted a free weekly metro pass from someone who was leaving the country. Weve spent the week so far visiting cafés and musées. I apoligize for the poor typing but Im using the cyber centre next to our hostel in Montrmartre and the keyboards weird. Today we went to the Centre Pompidou and took the tour to the top of the Notre Dame towers. Then we climbed some stairs to the beautiful view of the Sacré Coeur. Tomorrow we will be visiting the Louvre, the Champs-elysées, the Eiffel Tower and a fondue restaurant that supposedly serves wine out of baby bottles?! Friday, we (Em, Sarah and I) are flying to the Netherlands with some other friends for the weekend. And then next monday morning we will be leaving for Rome, Italy where two of my friends are studying and have an apartment and some friends from the states are meeting us. I'm extremely excited and have had an excellent time so far. I will be flying home on the 26th of March. I hope to see you all soon!!