Friday, April 30

I subbed in Junior Infants today. They are 4 and 5 years old.. so adorable. It was a BUSY day, but they get out of school an hour earlier than the rest of the kids so that was nice!

My day consisted of coloring, finding sums, singing "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" and making up moves, playing Duck Duck Goose, and being constantly tapped on the back, the side, the hip, the elbow, the leg, or wherever they could tap me enough to get my attention.

During assembly this morning one of the little girls started randomly saying the Lord's Prayer to herself out loud. It was strange because there was a skit going on at the time. She was causing a little bit of a scene; it was hard for me to know what to do because she was supposed to be quiet, but how do you tell a 4-year-old to stop praying? I decided to let her just finish it out.. it was hilarious.

One debate I was asked about today was whether Jesus had a dad, and if so was his name God or Jesus?

I love how young kids are so honest and sweet. They were all holding my hand and telling me they liked me only 10 minutes into the school day.

Today a girl said to me, "My heart is hurting." So cute.. well, not cute that she had gotten her feelings hurt, but phrased preciously, especially when you add the accent to it.

I am still constantly amazed at how much people travel here! Three of the Junior Infants told me they are leaving the country because we are having a three day weekend. One little boy even said he was going to Capetown. Keep in mind he is only 4, so this may not be true.. but I actually wouldn't doubt it. Another boy said he is going to Spain.

There is a boy in the class named Harry. I was told twice by the whole class today that I was saying his name wrong. Each time I would call on him they would say, "It's Harry, not Harry." I ended up just having to say "Harry" with the best Irish accent I could so they'd leave me alone! I felt ridiculous, I would have been embarrassed if someone from the States had walked in and heard.. haha. It's funny how they thought I was calling him by the wrong name because of my accent, but they didn't correct me on any of the other names today.

One of the kids said to me today, "I wonder why you're so short." I thought it was funny, although I was a bit bummed because I thought maybe four-year-olds wouldn't notice. I was wrong.

Okay, I just realized I was wrong about the names. I was actually corrected on the name "Lauren" too. I pronounced it the way we do, "Lorren," and a few of them said, "Her name is Lawren, not Lorren." Thankfully Lauren said, "She can say it however she wants," so I didn't have to turn on my fake accent for her.

After school Steph and I made our way to the bus to Belfast! It rained a little, but the rain was followed by countless rainbows. There were so many we actually lost count. They were beautiful!

We arrived into Belfast and easily found our lovely Travelodge hotel. Steph and I went for a small walk, but decided the streets weren’t the safest at this time at night. We decided to get some sandwiches at a nearby Centra (a popular convenient store) and are calling it a night. We’re going to get up early in the morning in order to have a full day in Belfast.

Thursday, April 29

I didn't go to school today. I have been sick and had almost lost my voice completely by the end of last night. I woke up without much of it back plus a headache, so I decided to spend the day at home. I wasn't scheduled to teach any lessons today so it wasn't a big deal. I figured I'd never get my voice back if I spent today in the Junior Infants class. I slept in until about 9, then spent several hours working on my newest IU assignment. Only two of them left to go after this one! They are SO time consuming.

I started to get a little stir crazy, so I asked Steph if she wanted to go to Starbucks again. It has become almost a daily occurrence for us to make our way to the Blackrock Starbucks, but it's a cheap way to spend the evening out of the house. Plus, my mom uploaded more money onto my Starbucks gift card as a surprise last night, so I had to go use some of it:) Isn't she kind?

A picture of the beloved Starbucks at my mom's request.

On the way into Blackrock this evening I told Steph I have my first 24 hours back in the States planned out already (it's a whole month away, but I've always been a planner).

1. Drive my own vehicle for 6 hours.

2. Lay on the couch and watch TV for 6 hours (I don't even know how to turn the TV on here).

3. Cook for 6 hours because I haven't been able to cook one thing since I've been here.

4. Change my clothes over and over and over again 65 times (I am becoming tired of the same 5 outfits).

Tomorrow we're headed for Belfast in Northern Ireland. Northern Ireland is part of the United Kingdom, so we'll be using Pounds instead of Euros while we're there. This is a bummer because the exchange rate from US Dollars to Pound is even worse than it is for Euros. Oh well, we'll manage!

The hotel we're staying in does not have free wifi, so we I won't be able to update my blog until Monday or Tuesday, but when I do I promise there will be interesting things to see :)

Wednesday, April 28

I just arrived home from another evening at the Blackrock Starbucks with Steph. Today I spent the day in 2nd class. The teacher was gone today, but the practicing teacher (student teacher who is in her 40s and takes me to school every day now) basically had all the lessons planned. I just helped her out with whatever she needed. I love the second class kids, so it was a nice day.

This is so neat.. I'm so interested. Somewhere in Ireland there is a robin that just laid eggs in a nest. There is a camera close to the nest, and this website is providing live feed of the robin and its chicks. Second class has it up on the interactive whiteboard all day. The eggs hatched a couple days ago and it's great to see the male robin bring back food to the chicks, and to see their little heads pop out. It's worth looking at, tons of people here are talking about it!

http://www.rte.ie/radio/mooneygoeswild/features/mooneycam/

Click on "View the Robin's Nest"

There was a religion lesson in 2nd class today. The kids were asked to think about things they were thankful for, then they formed groups and wrote little prayers. They were cute.

Second class always prays before they eat. This is what they pray:

"Let us take a moment

to thank God for our food

For friends around the table

and everything that's good.

Amen"

Today I taught a short lesson on how to find how much change you'd get from 2 Euro if you spent certain amounts. This was more of a disaster than I had realized it would be. First of all, I was trying to demonstrate subtracting

2.00

-1. 5 7

_____

.. easy enough, right? Wrong! The kids here learn how to subtract differently than in the States, so that was fun. I was showing them the crossing out and borrowing and they were looking at me like I was crazy. They cross out and borrow too, just in a different way. Then, I didn't know how to write their cent sign. Turns out it's just a "c" without the line through it like ours. THEN, I kept saying dollars instead of Euros. Such simple things can turn into complicated messes here.. oh my. We managed to make it, but not without some minor struggles.

I did feel really proud today when I said Oisin's name correctly. It's really hard to pronounce, and the emphasis is not where you'd think it would be. I called on him and all the sudden they were all saying, "She said it right! No one can ever pronounce his name!" I felt like I fit in for once:)

I am getting sick and it seems like I may lose my voice, which will not be ideal for being in the Junior Infants classroom tomorrow and Friday. I stopped by a pharmacy today hoping for some Zicam. Sadly, my hopes were too high- no Zicam here. I did not have much time to browse around looking for something similar because I had to catch the bus, so I asked a woman who worked there. She gave me a box of Uniflu which has "tablets" (pills) and vitamins (which they pronounce vittamins). Hopefully this will be the ticket to my health, but my hopes are not too high.

Steph and I booked a trip to Belfast in Northern Ireland this weekend. There is no school on Monday, it's a Bank Holiday. I'm not quite sure what the point of these Bank Holidays is, but basically no one has school and banks aren't open on these days. There is nothing in particular to celebrate on this day, people just get the day off work. Works just fine for us! We're planning to stay there three nights! We've heard it's absolutely beautiful. We plan to visit Giant's Causeway, which is an ancient volcanic eruption site. We also are going to visit one of the Titanic's last stops before it set off to New York. I have heard it's a really neat place to visit.

I'm getting ready to go eat dinner, although I'm not very hungry. I often eat too many snacks after school and spoil my appetite. Steve says I'm the "phantom snacker." Anytime I'm hungry he asks, "Did you snack again?" It's not as common here to eat in between meals.

Random things:

-They said "zed" for the letter "z."

-Steph and I watched the "Tonight Show with Quinn Dahle" a couple weeks ago. Turns out Quinn Dahle's daughter goes to Steph's school! How crazy, she's seen a celebrity here and she didn't even realize it! Although, seeing a celebrity here isn't as big of a deal as it is in the states, because Ireland is smaller than Indiana alone.

Tuesday, April 27

So.. I slacked on the blog yesterday, mostly because I didn't have really anything exciting to say. I was very homesick yesterday, I ended up getting home at 2:45 and didn't do anything but surf the internet the whole night. I just realized yesterday that I am starting to really miss my friends, family, and home life, but I won't being going home for another whole month. I know I'm being silly because I'm in IRELAND and it's the experience of a lifetime, but I knew going into it that I would be feeling homesick at least 2 or 3 of the 72 days I'm here.

During school yesterday I was in 4th class. They are a rowdy set of kids, and I actually substitute taught them for the second part of the day. They actually behaved pretty well though, I was quite pleased.

Some of the interesting 4th class names-

Girls: Bronagh (Brona), Zara (Zarra), Appiok, Bethan, Krettika (those last two names aren't common here either)

Boys: Eoin (Owen)

I've been getting a "lift" home from a "practicing teacher" here (sort of like a student teacher). She is in her 40's and we just happened to learn that we live right across the corner from one another. I come to her house in the mornings "for 8" (they say "for 8" instead of "at 8"), and we enjoy a nice ride to school together. She is very kind, and it's nice to have someone ask me questions and talk to me. I get a little lost in the staff room conversations at school, so I get kind of lonely sometimes. Starting my day off by riding to school with Catherine is really nice. It also saves me money that I would be spending on bus fare, and it saves me the headache of the crowded bus.

Today was a fine day, I woke up still a bit homesick but I managed to survive. I began the morning with the Junior Infants (they are 4 & 5, it would be the year before Kindergarten). They were absolutely adorable and I loved every minute of my morning.

Interesting Junior Infant names-

Girls: Cosima, Sorcha (Sorsha), Ngok (Knock.. not common here either)

Boys: Eoin (Owen), Kai (Ky), Ciaran (Key-air-on), Oisin (Oysheen)

Unfortunately the 4th class teacher was sick today, so I had to spend the rest of my day subbing for them again. It ended up being a fine day, and I was impressed with the kids' behavior (thankfully). We had some extra time in the day so we had a little United States Q&A session. They had endless questions, I had to cut them off. I find it really fun to talk about my home to kids who have never visited the country. It's funny to hear some of their perceptions of America.

After school I came home and Skyped with my mom. Our conversation left me dreadfully stressed about getting a job this summer. Things are looking grim for me in the job world... after four summers in the Ulen Pro Shop I've kind of lost my spot since I won't be in town until the end of May. I have talked to some other places, but those aren't working too well either. Anyone need a babysitter? Or anything? I will do anything!

Today is Steve's birthday so the two families celebrated with a nice dinner. It was really nice to see Steph. I think we're going to plan another long weekend trip because we don't have school next Monday!

Interesting things I've heard or noticed in the past few days:

- "to-ing" and "fro-ing"

-the class attendance is done on paper... there is a teacher who comes around midday to ask each class if everyone is present

-some of the 5th class kids couldn't believe that my Indiana student teaching class had a TV and a mini-fridge. They thought that was amazing.

-It is common here for people to take a year off to travel. They just up and leave for places like Australia and Spain.

-

Sunday, April 25

Despite a few rain showers, today was a beautiful day. When Steph and I woke up this morning after a bit of sleeping in, the sun was shining so brightly that we decided we could not spend the day at home. We quickly ate breakfast and made our way to Blackrock to the ever wonderful Starbucks.

We made our way to the back of Starbucks only to sit with a beautiful view of the Irish Sea. There were tons of sailboats and people playing around in the water. It was so relaxing to watch. I love Indiana so much, but if it could just be placed right in the Irish Sea I think I might visit all the Starbucks there more often.

Steph and I sat there for hours, as always, finishing our IU weekly assignments. When we were finished we booked a flight and hotel reservations for VENICE! Last night Steph and I were trying to find another Ireland tour, but Steve and Diane were telling us we should go to another country. After Steph and I had originally returned back from our Easter holiday travels we said we weren't leaving Ireland again until we go home because we both were questioned heavily by the people working at customs. I was asked what my address was several times, and I had to prove that I had enough funds to stay here for the remaining month and a half of my trip. The guy seemed very skeptical, was not friendly, and was very intimidating. Steph even got her photo taken. It was nerve-racking and we were thinking we were too afraid to leave again and not be allowed to enter the country.

Anyway, Steve and Diane started telling us all the possibilities of the places we could go and they promised us we'd be able to get back in, so we couldn't resist. A little over 12 hours later we found ourselves booking flights. We spent HOURS trying to find cheap flights and a good cheap hotel, and we hope we did a good job. It was difficult to find stuff, and we're not sure our hotel is very close to the city, or how we're even going to get to the city, but we'll manage I'm sure. It will be an adventure, no doubt.

Eileen is here for Sunday dinner, and everyone is downstairs talking so I should go. Tomorrow I will be in 4th class!

Saturday, April 24

I am so exhausted I think I might sleep for 12 hours tonight. Steph spent the night last night and we woke up early this morning. Her school had a yard sale today so we decided to head over there to look. It's a long journey to her school, involving two bus rides. We waited for the first bus for over 30 minutes, then we waited for the next one for over 40 minutes. To help pass the time, I taught her the "OP" language which can be compared to pig latin, boput opis wopay bopettoper.

Finally we got to her school, Powerscourt, and looked around the yard sale for a bit. Nothing struck our fancy, so we left with no new purchases. Her school is in a little village called Enniskerry. It's really cute and small, and we decided to stop into a small coffee shop for some muffins. After I ate a chocolate muffin (heart attack) and she ate a blueberry one, we headed back to the bus stop to find we had another 40 minute wait.

Then we decided to take the Dart to get into Dublin, which was another 20 minute wait. Our day clearly involved a lot of waiting. This time we played some iPod karaoke to pass the time.

On the way into Dublin I fell asleep and dreamed with my mouth wide open. I told Steph I don't usually look that terrible when I sleep, I was just trying to entertain her...

We circled several attractions and things we wanted to see today on the Dublin map, but unfortunately we got to none of them because they were all closed by the time we made it there. As always though, we found something to do. We walked around for a while, which was lovely because my feet DON'T HURT anymore! My new shoes are amazing.

We saw one of those people who act like statues. It was one of the better ones we've seen here. The kid who stops to check it out in this video cracks me up.

As in every big city, there is an H&M here. We hit it up and I got two new sweaters for 17 Euro. I am SO thrilled because I really don't have many clothes here at all. It will be nice to wear something to school next week other than the 5 outfits I brought.

We ate at a little hole in the wall Italian restaurant called "Steps of Rome." I had pizza and Steph had lasagna. It was really good and not too expensive (hard to come by).

There is a beautiful little park by the St. Stephen's Green shopping centre. We decided to check it out and it was a great idea on our part. It was absolutely beautiful. It's RIGHT in the middle of Dublin, right off of one of the two busiest streets, but when we walked into it, it felt like nothing was around. It was so closed off, quiet, and calm. It was beautiful.

We were very tired by this time, so we headed to the bus station. There was a cricket game going on nearby at Trinity College. The way they pitch is so neat.. the pitcher is on the right side of the video.

On the way home we saw Marvin Windows & Doors signs which is the window/door provider for the company my dad works at. The picture is bad, but we tried.

When we got back to my house we watched Britain's Got Talent with my host family and had some chicken curry. Now we're vegging out on the computer by Skyping, blogging, and planning a possible trip to Venice (fingers crossed)!

Friday, April 23

It's only 8:10pm and Steph and I have already called it a night. I've been really exhausted today and neither of us felt like doing much. She is at my house with me right now and we're trying to watch Big (with Tom Hanks) but we can't figure out how to work the TV, so we will be exploring some other options within the house this evening.

Today was a wonderful school day! I had so much fun. I got to teach the kids a lesson about Indiana from a powerpoint I made. I included photos of IU basketball and football, Colts games, cornfields, the Indy 500, farm animals, snow, Michael Jackson, etc. They were all my very own pictures from my camera, so it was really fun. I even included small video clips of the Indy 500 and of an IU basketball game. They thought the Indy 500 stuff was really great. They asked me about a million questions too, especially about tornadoes. I told them about a time my family and I were driving through a huge storm and had to go inside a random house because there was a man in his yard yelling "tornado!" I taught them how students in school have to sit during tornado drills, and they thought it was really funny that my family used to hide in the bathtub during tornado warnings.

Arts week ended today. All parents were invited to the school for tea, and then all the students came into the gym ("hall") for a presentation of all the fun things they did all week. There is a huge mural Miss Caulwell coordinated. Every kid and staff member painted a square of it, and I was even asked to paint one! During the ceremony they had an "initial unveiling" of the finished product. I couldn't take pictures because all the parents were in the way, but I MOST definitely will later because the whole thing is truly amazing.

After school Steph and I went to Bray for a little bit of shopping/browsing. I FINALLY got some new tennis shoes that don't feel like I'm walking barefooted. I wore them out of the store and realized about an hour later that the tag was still hanging from the left shoe. No surprise, I accidentally leave tags on my clothes too often.

We ate at an American-like restaurant tonight called Eddie Rocket's. It is supposed to look like a diner from the 50's I think. We both got big cheeseburgers, french fries, and milk shakes! YUMMMM.. I've missed cheeseburgers. And I think the best thing of all was being able to order "french fries" instead of having to say "chips." On second thought, maybe the best part was having a ketchup bottle at my table instead of having to be the annoying American asking the waitress for more ketchup packets.

Hello greasy America.

I am feeling really tired and my back hurts today, so Steph and I headed back early. Hopefully we'll get the DVD player working...


This picture is dedicated to my Central kids! They asked me if pop cans were smaller here. I told them that the regular ones are the same size as in the States, but they do have these teeny ones available. Sadly, the Diet Coke tastes different here, and I'm in favor of it back home, so I didn't drink much of this.

Thursday, April 22

Another lovely day has been had by me! Life is wonderful here in Ireland (although I do miss home).

The kids got to do music for Arts Week today. A violinist and guitarist came to teach them how to compose music. They played a little bit of Irish music and asked the kids for help. The kids each had a different instrument.



We Skyped with Central today! I miss my students SO much. They were awesome. They each had questions prepared, and they even said the Pledge of Allegiance and the school pledge for the Irish kids. The Irish students taught them a few Irish words too. It was so much fun. Unfortunately the Irish students were only able to talk to the Indiana kids for about 15 minutes. Since we are 5 hours ahead here there is only a 15 minute overlap; when the Indiana kids are arriving to school the Irish students are just leaving. I stayed after school to talk to my students a little bit though. They asked some really great questions and asked me to show them my ring:) I can't express how much of a highlight this was for me. I miss them an incredible amount. If I could have them as students for the rest of my life I would totally choose to!

Steph and I met at Starbucks this afternoon after school. I realized the bus from the school doesn't come into Blackrock, so one of the teachers offered to drop me off here. We discovered that we live in the same neighborhood so she offered to take me to and from school each day. This will save me about 15 Euro AND 10 annoying bus rides per week. I'm going to have to give her a huge gift of some sort.

Tomorrow Miss Caulwell will be gone for about an hour, and she told me she'd love for me to teach the kids more about Indiana. That should be easy enough :)

Wednesday, April 21

Today has been really great day. There was barely any schoolwork involved which I definitely can't complain about :) School started with PE today. We took at 10 minute walked in the beautiful sun to get to some tennis courts. Half the kids played tennis while the other half were led in a cricket game by the one and only me! I never would have thought I'd lead a game of cricket, but I'm really starting to fit into the Irish life so I did a nice job if I do say so myself! There was a tie during the first game, which they call a "draw."




When we got back to the school I actually headed over to the Kill-O'-the-Grange church to do some volunteer work. Every IU Cultural Immersions student has to do some sort of volunteer work during their stay overseas (is it really volunteer work if you have to do it to pass a class?). Anyway, I decided to help with a mums & tots group called "Shake, Rattle, and Hum." It's a group of "mums" that come with their babies and toddlers each week. It's a chance for the moms to get out in the community and gives their children an opportunity to play with others. The woman who heads up the group said many of the moms that come are very lonely at home and are just looking for a friend to talk with. Some of them are foreign and are just learning Englishl, so this is a great opportunity for them to practice. So basically, my responsibilities are to play with babies and talk, could life get any better? I had some really great conversations with a few moms.. it was a good experience.

This week is "arts week" at the school. There is a different sort of art taking place each day. Today the kids got to dance with an instructor from a dance studio. It was a blast. They were getting so into it, no reservations at all. Miss Caulwell and I even got in on some of the action :)

After dance was lunchtime. After lunch the students read letters I had my Indiana students write to them, and they wrote back. We set up a little pen-pal system. The Irish kids were really excited about it, and I KNOW my Indiana kids will be too. I can't wait to send them!

So a little recap of my day:
1. Cricket
2. Talking/playing with mums and tots
3. Dancing
4. Lunch
5. Letter writing to Indiana

LOVE IT!

When I was walking to the bus stop there was a cross guard who was supposed to be helping local students cross the street. I was the only one right there and she wasn't sure if I was a student or not since I didn't have a uniform on. She asked if I was a student, so I said, "No, I'm actually 22." She could not believe it at all, she had thought I was 15 (lovely). She yelled across the street to the other cross guard "SHE IS 22!!!!" I told her I was even engaged, so then she yelled that to the other guard as well. Usually I hate when people tell me I look like I'm 15, but she was pleasant to I really liked her. Plus she told me I had nice teeth, so I began to really like her. It ended up that we were stuck at a red light for a long time, so we had a nice conversation. She told me about all her travels to America, particularly Chicago. She was really nice and wished me very well for the rest of my teaching. I hope to see her again.


After school Steph and I travelled to Blackrock for the first time for a little shopping. We found a Starbucks and plan to meet there tomorrow. I ordered my regular iced skinny caramel latte, yum! They taste as delicious as Indiana's, but they NEVER come stirred, no matter what Starbucks it is. I kind of like how it looks. Oh, and they don't have cinnamon lattes, bummer!


My way home from Starbucks was really pleasant. I saw one of my students playing with lots of friends in my neighborhood. He was excited to see me, which made me feel like I really fit in here; I actually know people when I'm out and about! Right after this I saw a plane in the air which is a bit relieving. I hope to be on one of those to come home someday soon!

Randoms:
-I told the Irish kids today that the kids from Indiana would be pumped to receive letters. They thought the word "pumped" was hilarious.
-Toothbrushes here are ridiculously expensive. They're like 4-6 Euro, which is about $6-9
-At the shopping "centre" today we saw an escalator that didn't have steps. It was kind of like the ones at airports, bit it took you on a slant to the top level. I should've taken a picture.
-I heard a mom tell her child today to "put his tears away."
-Gas stations are called "petrol" stations.

Wednesday, April 20

As I am sitting here writing this post, there is a house alarm going off somewhere nearby. It's been going off for about 15 minutes now and is about to "drive me mad" as an Irish person might say. I don't understand the point of a house alarm if police don't come when it goes off. Oh my goodness, this blog must have magical powers, because just as I was typing that last sentence it finally turned off. Hallelujah!

I haven't written about the past several school days, so I have quite the collection of random facts and stories. This post won't have much organization to it.

I am so surprised at how difficult it can be for me to teach here. The school seems to teach things so much different. Here are some examples:

- I was in 5th class last week and am again this week and they have been doing calculations of percentages. This requires some long division, which is impossible for me because they do their long division completely different. The sign is on the bottom and I haven't quite figured out how it works. Hayley was asking me to help her with her homework the other day and I started doing long division my way only to look up at her with the most confused look on her face. Oh my..
-I won't even mention Irish. I clearly can't help with that!
-Today I was asked to help some struggling students comprehend some pages in their workbook. Sounds easy enough, but when the content is about Normans arriving to Ireland and invading in the 11th century, things get a bit confusing. I had to reread it multiple times to grasp who was who. It mentioned cities and people I had never heard of. It was good for me to understand how the kids were feeling!
-A girl asked me what 100 divided by 4 was today. Since I can't help with long division I started to tell her to try and think about it in terms of money. I asked her what 4 coins make up a dollar. After I got about halfway through that sentence I realized she wasn't going to understand things in dollars and quarters. They don't have a 25 cent coin either, so I couldn't even explain it in Euros.
-They use the metric system here, lucky them. Unfortunately though, I'm not 100% comfortable or quick at converting grams into milligram into kilograms, etc. I was supposed to be walking around helping "correct" their papers, but it was taking me forever, so Miss Caulwell and the class ended up giving me a little lesson on the metric system.

Some other random things:
-The way they eat lunch in the schools is so interesting. They have 2 breaks in the day, one is 15 minutes and the other 30 minutes. They take out one piece of lunch for the first break. They take the food out in the classroom and eat it as they are walking down the "corridors" to go outside in the "yard." It's like lunch/recess. It's so weird to see them eating as they leave the classroom and in the halls. They aren't allowed to have any snack food except on Fridays in which they are only allowed to have one piece of junk food.
-There are zero snakes here. When I told them my college roommate had a snake they had almost the exact reaction I had when I saw the snake eat a mouse for the first time. Some of the kids have never even seen a snake. Wouldn't that be nice?!
-There are no pencil sharpeners in the whole school. They have to use the little handheld ones.
-They often say "thanks a mill!" for "thanks a million."
-The kids actually have quite a bit of homework here. Miss Caulwell forgot to put the homework on the dry erase board last week, which meant they didn't have to do any. They were SCREAMING because they were so excited. It was hysterical. I think they have so much homework because they are only at school from about 8:50-2:15 per day. There's not enough time to get everything done!
-I was wrong about the word "craic." It actually means to have a good time with people. You often hear people or see things that say, "The craic was mighty."
-They say "eejits" instead of "idiots"
-Fridays in the school start with assembly. The pastor from the Kill-O'-the-Grange church comes to give a small sermon and then we sing songs. Most of them are very close to kids' worship songs in America, but a lot of them have different melodies or rhythms. It makes it difficult because I know the song my way and I want to sing it so bad, but they are singing it differently!
-999 is the emergency number here.
-Breaks are called "holidays."
-"Quotation marks" are called "inverted commas"
-Teachers often say "that's deadly!" about assignments students have done well on.
-I've heard people say, "Did I give you a fright?" often. I like the way that's phrased:)
-"That's a novel idea!" is another phrase I've heard a few times. While it often sounds to me like they are saying "That's an awful idea," it actually means something completely different.
-They put a dot over a number that is repeated instead of a line.
-The stereotype that Irish people drink a lot of tea is soooo true. People drink it all day long! They drink it at the first break of the day, the second break of the day during lunch, when they come home, after dinner, while they're watching TV, before they go to bed, etc. I asked Diane to count up how many cups she has a day and she says she averages about 9.

This was so funny. Yesterday the kids learned about people trying to cross a creek in Australia hundreds of years ago. They didn't know what a creek was! She asked them and one of their responses was "a squeaky sound in a door." There were some other really off-the-wall answers as well. I thought that was so funny!

I'm beginning to worry a bit about how I'm going to get home to America in 5 weeks. This volcano business seems to be pretty serious. There are absolutely no flights going to or from anywhere near here. They've actually said we may be seeing some ash here in the next few days. While I think that would be cool to see, I also think it would be cool to go home when I'm supposed to. The secretary at my school has a daughter who is a pilot, and she supposedly said that if it erupts more, or if the other one erupts (the true facts got lost in translation a bit, oh the accents), she has been told it could be 6 years until they get things cleared up. While that's obviously quite extreme and I don't think that will happen, I still am aware and have been told that flights still may not be going up 5 weeks from now. Apparently there is a boat that leaves from Western England. Of course I wouldn't be able to fly to England to get to that boat. I would have to take a boat there, then get the boat from Western England. I've heard it takes 6 days to get to New York. Then of course I'd have to arrange a way home from there. I'm praying the volcano will just stop instead.

Cliffs of Moher, Burren, Killarney, Blarney's Castle

What a weekend! Steph and I left our homes Friday evening to enjoy a night on the town in Dublin. We stopped at a pub somewhere for some fish & chips (what else?) and walked around all evening. Afterwards, we stayed in a hostel. It was only 17 euro per night! We were a bit nervous to stay in a hostel alone, but it ended up being a neat experience. The room we stayed in sleeps up to 12, but there were only 2 other girls there, one from Australia and one from Israel. One was stuck here due to the volcano and the other was just touring around.

On Saturday morning we woke up bright and early to catch our Paddywagon tour! We met 5 girls from North Carolina (we knew they would be there- two of them teach at Diane's school). They were really nice and we all had a fantastic weekend together.


Paddywagon tours are famous for being very lively and energetic. Our first bus driver's name was Shawney. He sang lots of songs and even persuaded us to sing a little Backstreet Boys with him. If you know me at all you'd know I was TOTALLY IN. I'm a true BSB fan.

This is just a small clip of Shawney singing to us.

Our first stop was at some sort of Abbey. It was interesting.


Then we stopped at the Burren. I think Burren stems from an Irish word meaning stone, which you can probably understand why from these pictures.




After this we stopped at the Cliffs of Moher! They were absolutely gorgeous! I've never seen anything like them. I wanted to just stand there and stare forever. I believe they're something like 170 feet high. We went past a sign that you aren't really supposed to go past, but I think the sign is just there to protect from any lawsuits. We got right up on the edge of the cliffs. It was kind of scary, but don't worry mom, we were safe ;) A couple stopped and asked us to take their picture, we ended up finding out they were from Indiana!!! They live in Avon, and the guy grew up in Brownsburg. What a small world! They were honeymooning, so of course Steph and I had to tell them we had gotten engaged here. It was so crazy.


Okay so we weren't supposed to go past this point, but we just HAD to! And seeing the next few pictures I think you'll understand that you'd probably make the same decision.


We were truly right next to the edge in this picture. A couple steps away would ensure a 170 foot dive into whatever body of water this is.



Being just a little immature here, but having fun of course:)




Then we headed to a beach in Galway.



Then we headed to Killarney, which is one of the most popular cities for young people. It was neat, but it was late and we were super tired so we didn't explore much. We trekked around the place trying to find something cheap to eat. We ended up getting sandwiches from a common convenient store called Spar. We then headed back to the hotel, and I unfortunately had some vertigo so I went to bed right away.

We woke up early again this morning, got ready in our glorious bed and breakfast, then made it back to the Paddywagon bus. Today we stopped at Blarney's Castle. This is a really famous castle and apparently if you kiss this stone you will get the "gift of the gab" for 7 years. I don't really know what the gift of gab is.. but I kissed the stone so apparently I'll have it. Discovery Channel lists kissing the Blarney Stone as one of the top 99 things to do before you die, so apparently it was important and worth my time :)

Kissing the stone was actually really scary. We were all the way at the top of the castle and could see down to the ground. You lay on this ledge and then bend your head backwards and kiss the stone upside down while this man holds on to you to make sure you don't plunge to your death. Okay, so maybe that was a bit dramatic- there are bars to catch you if you fall, but they weren't really THAT close together...




The steps to get to the top were SO narrow.


This is where guards would sit and watch visitors enter the castle. If they were unwanted visitors the guards would drop heavy rocks and things on them to kill the enemy.




We finally headed home after the Blarney Castle extravaganza. When I got home Eileen was there. Everyone wanted to know about my entire weekend. We talked and had a curry dinner Diane made. Then we had tea and chocolates and we talked some more. It was an awesome weekend. :)

Friday, April 16

Yesterday and today have been wonderful! I don't have time to post though, but don't worry I will! I am leaving to meet Steph in Dublin right now. We are staying in a hostel tonight, then we're leaving very early in the morning to take a tour of the Cliffs of Moher. We'll be staying in a Bed & Breakfast tomorrow night, then we'll be home late Sunday. I promise to blog on Monday all about my Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday! I'm really excited because we're meeting some girls from North Carolina- they're going on the tour with us. It should be a great time!

Our Story From Andrew's Perspective

Andrew wrote this to the people who helped get my ring to Paris. I thought you may want to read his perspective, he tells it much more romantically.

Since leaving Paris with the ring, I met my girlfriend (now fiance) Kacy in London the following day. We spent the afternoon together, enjoying each other's company after two and a half months apart. I kept the ring hidden in the safe in my room. The following day I collected up all of the souvenirs I had accumulated for her over the trip, each now wrapped in newspaper (from Paris) and placed them in to a small tin box (also purchased in Paris). The tin box waited patiently in my bag that day as we explored London together for the first time. Secretly, I was scoping out a perfect place at which I could later come back to with Kacy and propose to her. The day couldn't have gone by quicker, and before I knew it is was almost sunset and had gotten pretty cold. I was beginning to wonder if I'd even get my chance today. We ended up at an area which I believe is called "the Queen's Walk" near the new London City Hall. We walked to the water's edge and enjoyed the view out to Tower Bridge and across to the London skyline. I felt as though I had found the place where I could propose. I wandered away from Kacy, over to a friend of mine and told him that I thought this was it. I told him I was going to stay behind with Kacy to give her the souvenirs I'd been toting all day, and that he and the gang should go on ahead. He, of course didn't know what I really meant when I said "give her the souvenirs", so I had to bluntly tell him that I wanted to propose here. He and the rest went on to dinner just down the street. I told Kacy our new plan, and she was very excited. I suggested we move down in to the small amphitheater space called "the Scoop" adjacent to the City Hall building. There I began to give Kacy her hand-wrapped souvenirs, one-by-one. The first item I gave her was a box of apple tea from Istanbul, Turkey. She is a big fan of tea and this had been one of my favorites. The next item I handed her was a small container of condensed, lotion-like perfume from Eze, France. This was made by a company called Fragonard which is nestled in the hills just beneath the city of Eze. The third gift was a bundle of stationary with the initial "K" at the top in green- her favorite color. This and the following gifts were all from Venice, Italy. I bought them at the smallest store where a woman single-handedly made hundreds of journals, sketchbooks, stationary, and so on. Each was leather backed and hand-bound. Her products were truly beautiful. Kacy's next gift was a stick of wax. She was confused, as I'm sure you are. Expecting this, I quickly handed her the last souvenir: a metal and brass seal, used to seal an envelope by stamping it in to hot wax. Kacy looked it over carefully, but overlooked the one detail I was hoping would catch her attention. On the seal were the letters "KA", intertwined. I asked her if she noticed them and told her to take a closer look. I said to her, "the letters are 'KA', for Kacy Anderson, because (I removed the last gift from the box, the ring, and opened it before her)... I want you to marry me." Her face was priceless. She truly had not expected it. Not in London of all places, after 2 months of traveling. She sprung to her feet and hugged me. She kept saying how she couldn't believe it and asked me repeatedly if I was serious. Somewhere in there I believe she said yes. After the initial shock wore off I looked at her, still holding the ring, and asked her if she wanted the ring. Clearly it was not the most important thing to her, but she didn't know the effort it took to get it there. She took the ring from the box and exchanged it for her parents' promise ring which she had been wearing on her ring finger for the past several years. The new one was a perfect fit. She was, and is, so excited to be my fiance. We took a few pictures and then went down the street to meet our anxiously awaiting friends for dinner. I'll never forget it.

Wednesday, April 14

Today has been a fantastic day, but I'm about to fall over dead! I'm so exhausted!

As always, my day began with a glorious bus ride. I saw one of my students on the bus, so we walked to school together after we got off the bus. She told me she had a water gun fight with her cousins last night, but that "the boys were mad because we wet them, but we didn't let them wet us." I thought that was phrased cutely.

There was a lesson today on adding and subtracting time. They learn 2400 hours here, which I'm not too experienced with. It took me a bit of extra time to get my mind straight. I think the kids thought that was funny.

Today Miss Caulwell asked me to teach badminton. Yikes! I think the last time I played badminton was in middle school gym. I felt bad, but I had to tell her I didn't know how to play it. Then she asked me to just come up with any game for them to play. This made me uncomfortable because I don't have the slightest clue what materials they even have, so she ended up helping me lead them in a game of cricket.

After school I walked to Steph's. We made our way up to Killiney Hill and went a little camera crazy :) It was so amazing. The water is bluer than I've seen. It is so neat to be standing above everything and to be looking down on the town we live in. There were cute little pathways and people walking dogs everywhere. Such a beautiful time!












I never was able to climb this tree.. I couldn't lift my leg high enough on the left side, and I couldn't jump high enough on the right side. Woe is me. Steph was able to :(


When we got back to Steph's "tea" was on the table. Nola invited me to stay for dinner, so I did. It was some kind of pasta dish with corn, beef, and sauce. They were putting it into pita (they pronounce it "pitta") bread. It was really good.

I walked home afterwards and tried to finish my IU assignment. I'm banking on getting it completely done tomorrow. For now I need to go to bed! Steph and I will be meeting in Dublin tomorrow, so I may not get a chance to post.

Randoms things:
-cling film = saran wrap
-Today Miss Caulwell said, "Oh my, Lordy me!" I giggled inside.
-They use the word "giddy" a lot.
-Advertisements is pronounced much differently. They put an emphasis on the "ver" syllable. Then, the "tis" is pronounced "tiss". adVERtissments.

Tuesday, April 13

I'm still having some difficulty getting back into the swing of things after my 10 days of bliss, but I'll get there eventually. Today was an alright day, but I have to admit I'm beginning to become a little bit homesick. I am trying to mentally prepare myself for the next 6 weeks. I think I'm just in a rut, I'll get out of it soon enough.

My day began with a bus ride that was extremely full of people. The weather was beautiful this morning, so I'm not quite sure why there were so many people wanting to ride the bus. It became so full that the bus driver eventually decided to stop stopping at all the stops (is there a better way to say that?). It was sad to see all the people who watched the bus drive by their stop, some looked panicked, others seemed confused and angry. At one point, the bus driver passed a bus stop and then had to stop at a red light. Three people ran from the stop he'd just passed and started angrily banging on the bus door while he yelled "THE BUS IS FULL!" through the window. It was a little uncomfortable, but actually a bit humorous as well.

Today was a crazy busy day at school! I got to do lots of things, which I was excited about. Miss Caulwell and I taught a poetry lesson, and I got to introduce Shel Silverstein to them. None of the teachers in the school had heard of him, I couldn't believe it! How can you be a child without reading Shel?

After the poetry lesson we went to the "IT Room" (computer room) and I got to teach the students how to use Powerpoint. Most of them have never even used it, so it was quite an experience. They of course caught on very quickly though. Tomorrow they will be doing powerpoints on Australia since I'm teaching them an Australian unit.





Afterwards, I taught a lesson on Aboriginal dot painting. Like I've mentioned before, there aren't "specials" teachers in the school. The general education teachers are in charge of music, art, PE, etc.

When I got home from school I began working on an assignment that is due to IU this weekend. It's really long and I worked on it for over three hours and I'm STILL not done. It was sadly a waste of a BEAUTIFUL day in Ireland, but I had no other choice.

I'm really excited! Five girls from North Carolina just arrived to Ireland. One is living with my principal and another is living with a teacher at my school. Two of them are student teaching at the school Diane works at. I got in contact with one girl tonight, and we all planned to go on a tour this weekend together! We are going to the Cliffs of Moher and some other places. Steph and I are going to stay in a hostel in Dublin on Friday night, and then the tour leaves early Saturday morning. We will be staying in a bed and breakfast Saturday night, and we'll arrive back into Dublin at 8pm Sunday. I can't wait to have some new friends:)

Randoms:
-The principal here says, "Yes, pet?" when the students ask her a question. I think this is very odd. I don't know if I would want to be called "pet."
-It's common to say "good man" and "good woman" to the kids when they do well.
-"It's my go" means "It's my turn."
-Instead of saying "Should I..." they say "Will I..." For instance: "Should I turn this paper in?" would be "Will I turn this paper in?"
-The students here think that ALL kids in America have these huge extravagant "Sweet 16" parties. Apparently there is a Hannah Montana movie where she celebrates her Sweet 16. Although my friends planned a surprise party for my 16th birthday, I can imagine it was nothing like a Sweet 16 party Miley Cyrus might be having.
-Corridor = hallway
-"How are you getting along?" = "How are you doing?"
-They work really hard to conserve energy at my school. The lights are off in the hallways and classrooms that have windows, and there are signs encouraging you to "be green" in all the halls.

Back to the Real World

My alarm went off at 7 this morning. Thankfully I've been getting up quite early for the past few weeks, because I don't think I would have been able to roll out of bed if not. I opened my blind to discover beautiful blue skies. Bonus! My journey to school was nice, I didn't mind walking outside because it is so beautiful today. I didn't even wear my jacket on the way home!

When I got to school this morning all the teachers gave me a funny look, and I knew that had somehow found out my exciting news. Instead of the usual "How was your break? What did you do" I got the "I heard your news, CONGRATULATIONS!" Then they would all come over to "have a look" at my ring. They all though it was beautiful and that Andrew did a good job, I agree:) My principal thinks I'm young to be engaged, so she said "I still think you're mad, but I'm happy for you!" I don't agree, but it was funny to hear her say it that way.

The day started with all the students telling about their Easter break excursions. I am so surprised at all the places they go. Some of the places that were mentioned were Dubai, Egypt, Barcelona, and Munich. I wish I could travel to all those places like it was no big deal! Like I've said before, people here think it's strange that many Americans don't even have passports.

Interesting names in fifth class: Ivan, LucyLou, Alistair

I am spending the next two weeks in 5th class with Miss Caulwell. Today I got to teach about Australia. I think it's funny that I am from the US, spending time in Ireland, and teaching about/researching Australia. I am so impressed with how much the kids know about other countries. They are much more educated about the world than I expect them to be. They knew about as much about Australia as I did. I prepared a memory game for them to play.


During language arts today the students studied poems. They had to answer questions in their best handwriting about one of the poems. They whipped out these awesome pens called "feather" pens. I was so interested in them. I think the kids thought it was hilarious to watch me ask questions about them. I need to try and write with one. Then they showed me these markers they use to white out any mistakes they make. They told me that the marker actually "rubs the mistake out," but once you've rubbed it out you can't make a mistake again because the marker won't work overtop of itself. If they make a second mistake they are instructed to put the mistake inside parentheses.



The feather pen. If you click on the picture your computer should show you a larger view.


The white out marker.


You can see here above his knuckle that he made a second mistake over the white out marker because he put it in parentheses.

They were laughing at all these pictures I was taking. Alistair asked me if it would be illegal for me to buy some of the markers here and then resell them in the states. I told him that would probably be illegal. He was bummed because he was thinking about moving to America and starting his own business.

I am currently trying to finish an assignment that I have to turn in for IU. It's totally huge and is taking up my entire evening (minus the time I've been distracted talking to friends and Andrew). I haven't done anything for IU during the past month though, so I shouldn't complain.

Random fun information:
-They say "back garden" instead of "backyard"
-Today one of the students was talking about a water gun fight he had over break. The teacher asked, "Did ya get saturated?"
-The teacher also said, "Jeepers, that's terribly snazzy!"
-Cookouts are referred to as "barbecues"
-One of the students told me today that a "jiffy" is 1/100 of a second. Now I understand the term "I'll be back in a jiffy!"
-They use the term "strappy" when they're referring to people being rude or disrespectful.
-They say "craic" for "crazy"
-They also use "My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas" to memorize the order of the planets
-They said "correct the papers" instead of "grade the papers"
-One of the girls said "mightn't" today. It was so cute to hear.
-They say "look after" instead of "take care of"