Tuesday, May 11

This morning started with me making my very short walk to Catherine's for a lift to school. I love spending time with her each morning, she is so kind and it's a great way to start my day. I am really going to miss her when my time is done!

I got to school without knowing which class I was supposed to be spending my day in. The principal was not there and had not left me any notes of what to do, so I ended up asking the Senior Infants teacher if I could crash her classroom for the day. Luckily she said yes. I LOVED her! She was so kind and really wanted me to be involved in the day. She told me I was welcome to come any day, so that felt nice. I really can't express how much one little act of kindness can make someone who is a foreigner feel good. Remember this! When I get home I definitely know I will be as kind and accommodating to anyone I meet who is not from America!

The kids in Senior Infants are the age of Kindergarteners. They were so very cute and polite. They all thanked me when the day was over without even being asked.

We went to the "hall" (gym) for P.E. today. I learned that jumping jacks are called "star jumps" here which makes a lot of sense actually.

Some of the interesting Senior Infant names:

Girls: Zara, Aoife (pronounced Eefa), Johannes, Leela

Boys: Hanni, Kuol, Maxim (pronounced Maxeem), Cyron (pronounced Siren.. speaking of, there has been a house alarm going off outside for an hour now. I'm not exaggerating either. I'm about to go nutty and call the Garda.. which is the police).

When I got home I took a nap.. I have been having a difficult time sleeping at night so I come home from school exhausted. After my nap I woke up and got to Skype with Andrew! Then I got a surprise call from my Indiana class! I was sooo excited because it was totally unplanned:) I really miss the kids so much.

I then packed my clothes and walked in the "lashing rain" to Steph's. I am going to her school to spend the day tomorrow so that will be fun! Right now we're actually really becoming worried about our scheduled flight to Venice on Friday morning. Steph has heard they are stopping flights at 1pm tomorrow due to the volcanic ash. It's such an awful feeling having no idea if:

a) We'll make it to Venice.

b) We'll make it back to Ireland from Venice.

c) We'll make it home.

We tried to purchase travel insurance for our flight to Venice, but apparently you can only buy it if you are from certain countries. Guess what country isn't on that list... you're correct, the United States. If that happens we are each out $260 and then another $60 for the hotel. Thankfully the hotel would only make us pay for one of the nights if we didn't end up getting there.

Random things:

-The word "keen" is used very often here. "I am not keen on the idea.. she's not keen on maths.. I am keen with technology..."

-Tic tac toe is called "noughts and crosses"

-I have learned that people here say "your man" and "your woman" here when referring to random people. It's hard to explain, but here are some examples:

"I was in line at the store and your man was stepping on the back of my heels." ---> This would mean, "I wan in line at the store and the guy behind me in line kept stepping on the back of my heels."

OR

"I threw my back out, Hayley hurt her ankle, and your woman was in the bathroom puking." ---> Nola said this to someone the other day.. she was referring to Anna, her daughter who was sitting right there.

Monday, May 10

I don't really have much exciting news today. Steph came with me to observe my school today. It ended up being quite a hectic day. Most of the teachers were gone at a funeral, so Steph and I covered Junior Infants for the morning. When the teacher came back we just kind of roamed the school so she could get a good feel for things.

After school Steph went home and I have just been sitting around, watching TV (for the first time on my own), and taking a nap. I was able to find American Idol on TV, although it was from a few weeks ago. I also watched two episodes of Friends :)

I'd like to not be so lazy, but going places every night begins to be tiring and not very cost effective. I'm trying to save a little money since I'm going to Venice in 4 days! That is if the volcano calms down a little.

Today in school I learned that they refer to scissors as a singular object. They say, "Can you bring me a scissors?"

That's about all I have to say for today. Sorry so boring! Tomorrow I have no idea what class I'll be in, but I'll be spending the night at Steph's because I am going to her school on Wednesday to observe. Her principal is also going to take us to Glendalough for the afternoon!

Saturday, May 8

Steph and I had an AWESOME day today. It was so much fun. We didn't have anything planned so we just went with the flow. We made our way into Dublin and walked by the National Gallery of Ireland so we decided to make a stop in. There were hundreds upon hundreds of wonderful paintings from even thousands of years ago. We really enjoyed it.

After the gallery we walked to Temple Bar for the Mexican food I have been craving so much! I saw my student, Isabel, and was able to talk to her family who was making the food as well. They were so kind and said very nice things. Steph and I both ate chicken fajitas that were even better than we had hoped for. It satisfied and went above and beyond my Mexican food craving.

Once we ate our delicious food we decided to stop into Dublin Castle. Unfortunately we had just missed a tour, so we only got use out of the restrooms. I was SO excited though because it was the first time I've seen the word "restroom" on a sign since I've been in the States. They always call them "toilets."

We then headed to Christchurch Cathedral to try and tour that. For some reason it is closed for the weekend, so that was a fail too. We then made our way to Dublinia, a museum about the Vikings entrance into Dulbin in the 800's. It was really neat actually. We learned a lot about what Vikings did for medicines, work, armor, etc.

This is me with a Viking helmet. I think I would have really fit in during those days. Too bad I was born about 1100 years too late and on the wrong continent.

This was absolutely hysterical. This part of the exhibit taught about how Vikings used the restroom and what they used for toilet paper, which was apparently moss. There was actually some moss in that basket near this guy's foot. This poor gentleman was accompanied with some sound effects. I'm sure if you use your imagination you can think about what they sounded like. At the end of his struggles he said, "Don't just stand there, bring me some more moss!"

After we went to Dublinia we decided to make our way over to the National Museum. Once we got about half way there though we decided it didn't sound all that exciting because we were pretty tired. We turned back around and walked against wind, which made something fly into my eye, which caused my eye to swell. It grew rapidly for about 15 minutes and I was actually very nervous about what I was going to do. I can just imagine being in a foreign country with an eye that is swollen shut without knowing what medicines to take or what to do.

Thankfully it went down a little and it's not too bad anymore. Phew. Kind of gross, I know.

We got back onto the bus and decided to get off at Dun Laoghaire for some ice cream that everyone talks up quite a bit. We found Teddy's after a bit of searching and were a little disappointed at what we saw. We had expected to see an ice cream store with lots of flavors and toppings. Instead it was just a small stand with soft serve ice cream, and the woman who served it was quite rude actually. Oh well, it was a sunny day and ice cream was nice to have.

Steph and I stopped into a grocery store today and found some GIANT tissues. They are called man-size tissues.

I liked this one because it says they are "gorgeous." In the states we use this word to explain something we have seen, but people here describe nice people as gorgeous, things that taste good as gorgeous, things that smell nice are gorgeous, and apparently even soft tissues are gorgeous as well.

Diane told me I must try a candy bar here called Mars. I bought one a few days ago.. it was pretty good. It kind of reminded me of a 3 Muskateers and a Milky Way put together.

Steph is spending the night at my house tonight. We're not sure what our Sunday plans are, but I'm sure they'll be fun.

Oh by the way, I graduated college today.

Friday, May 7

Sorry I didn't get around to blogging yesterday. Steph and I went into Dublin to walk around and shop so I was too tired by the time I got home.

I subbed in 5th class yesterday. The day went just fine. I have had a pretty bad cough yesterday so two teachers have given me Strepsils which are a medicated cough drop. One teacher actually gave me her whole pack of them to take home. Little things like this make me feel so good here because it's hard to be away from home where I am more independent and can do things like go to Wal-Mart to get my own cough drops when I am sick.

The class learned about the Renaissance today. Don't even go to Ireland and try to pronounce Renaissance to a bunch of 10-year-olds without thinking you're going to be corrected. "Miss King, it's Re-NAY-saunce!" A lot of times when they correct me they honestly think I have never heard the word before.

I kept saying Dollars instead of Euros again today. Surprise!

Today a boy from fourth class brought me a Chips Ahoy that he got from his mom. She was stuck in New York a few weeks ago when the volcano first erupted... he thought it would make me feel more at home to have a cookie from America. He wrapped it up in a paper towel and saved it for me. How precious.

Today the kids were asking me what my favorite food was. I told them how much I miss Mexican food! I asked them where the heck all the Mexican restaurants were and they didn't know of any nearby, EXCEPT one girl whose family is actually Mexican! She said her parents actually make and sell Mexican food on Saturday mornings in Temple Bar (which is an area in Dublin). You better believe Steph and I are headed there TOMORROW!

Today has been a fine day.. nice and relaxing actually.

School was very sad today. I was subbing in 5th class and we found out one of the 6th class girl's mother died unexpectedly last night. The news was announced during assembly. All the kids in the school are very close to one another because it's so small, so it was a hard day for all. Needless to say, we didn't get a whole lot done in class, but we managed to get through it.

A funny story: Today I was reading a story to them as they were following along in their books. The word "route" came up, and I pronounced it like I normally do- "rout." All the sudden every student was either laughing, or saying "it's ROOT!!! Not ROUT!!" They honestly thought that I, their American teacher, didn't know the word "route" and had said it wrong. I started laughing hysterically at their reaction, the teacher assistant was laughing too, and before I knew it the class was quite out of control. I had to explain to them that people pronounce it both ways in the States, and that I actually was familiar with the word. It was pretty funny. In the back of my mind I am always wondering when I will say the next thing that will set the class off. I seem to do it at least once a day.

There was a bake sale at the school today. I didn't have my money and THREE students AND two teachers asked if I wanted anything. I just thought that was really sweet; fifth class students were noticing that I wasn't buying anything and they offered to buy me something. I refused their offers because I didn't want my students buying me sweets, but I found a cupcake on my desk later in the day from an anonymous students. I love them.

This afternoon I made a happy mistake after school- I missed the bus! The weather was beautiful and I enjoyed the hour-long walk home. I did some laundry and am hanging out with Hayley now. Stephanie is doing her volunteering for IU tonight so I don't have anything to do. I have promised myself though not to be depressed that all my friends are getting ready to graduate tomorrow. I must remember that I am in Ireland and am going to Venice next weekend even if I am missing my last semester at IU and graduation with all my friends.

We had ice cream sandwiches for dessert tonight. Hayley just came home and asked me what she should eat. I told her to eat an ice cream sandwich and she had a puzzled look on her face. She said, "Ice cream with bread?" I tried to explain to her that it was ice cream inside of cookie/biscuit things. She said, "You mean chocolate wafers?" Once I said yes and cleared up what I was talking about she immediately ran downstairs for one.

Wednesday, May 5

Let me start out by saying I wish I could be at El Jaripeo today. I love going there on Cinco de Mayo because they always have fun lining in the chip baskets. Come to think of it, I really really really miss Mexican food. Tacos are my favorite food and I haven't been able to have one for 7 weeks. I think I'm going to have to make tacos the first night I get home, enchiladas the next, burritos after that, Taco Bell the next day, and so on.

Today has been a good day, but I'm really tired for some reason. I did not do one single thing after school other than nap, eat, and watch a show on my laptop. Very adventurous- I know.

I spent the day in 5th class again. I'll be honest and say it was quite boring. Miss Caulwell didn't even know I was spending the day in 5th class, so she didn't have anything planned for me to do. She also didn't have any open time slots that I could do something on my own. So I just spent most of my day observing.

The mums/tots group that I volunteer for took place again today. I love getting a chance to talk with the moms and get to know new people. There is a Japanese woman who comes, I spoke with her quite a bit today. We each asked one another how we ended up in Ireland and she told me about the Japanese alphabet. She is really sweet and her two toddlers are cute as can be.

The weather was quite Ireland-ish today. I woke up to cloudy skies and misting rain. It was cold too, not the type of weather I like to wake up to! It surprises me too about how much people here complain about the weather. I feel like they would be used to it and wouldn't mind the rain much, but they really hate it. I guess rain is miserable no matter who you are! Miss Caulwell kept saying it was "grotty" outside today. I had never heard that term but Steve told me it means gross or "yucky" or dirty. They use the term for anything such as a grotty house, a grotty hotel, etc. It's good to learn new things :)

Today the kids were talking when they weren't supposed to be. Miss Caulwell said, "What's all the chin wagging about?" This is another term I've never heard, but yourdictionary.com says it means "to chat or gossip."

I also learned that "giving out" means to scold.

It's crazy that I've been here for 7 weeks and I'm still hearing at least one new thing each day. It makes me wonder how much crazy slang I use on a day-to-day basis.

My Central students got the letters my Irish students wrote them last week! I told Miss Caulwell they were planning to write back and she said, "That's smashing!" She saw a picture of Andrew once and said he was "mad handsome." I love to listen to her talk.. she has the best expressions and the most interesting slang terms.

Hayley is sitting across from me on my bed singing the Alicia Keys song about New York. She is goofy.. I'll really miss her when I leave.

I will be subbing for 5th class tomorrow and Friday. That should make the rest of the week fly by. Tomorrow evening Steph and I plan to visit the Dublin Castle, I'm excited!

Tuesday, May 4

Today has been such a fabulous! Ahh I can't believe it.. Steph and I met someone from Indianapolis who goes to Purdue today! We were sitting in our usual Starbucks corner and Steph was Skyping with her mom. She was talking about some schools in the Indianapolis area she has applied to, and all the sudden this girl comes up to us asking if we were from Indianapolis. What a SMALL world! We talked to her for about an hour. She is studying at a college here and will be going home at about the same time we are. She was super nice and we have planned to hopefully hang out with her sometime. We totally wish we could have met her in March.

Today I subbed for 5th Class. It was a good day, but goodness they are chatty. They are a very social group of 10-year-olds, that's for sure. The principal has told me to give a warning and then extra homework to any students who are misbehaving. The funniest thing happened today. She came in to ask me if I had given extra homework to anyone yet, so I told her I had only had problems with one student. She said out loud, "Let me see if I can guess who looks guilty." As all the students tried to put their innocent faces on she scanned the classroom. About 10 seconds later she said, "Mr. Boylan, it was you wasn't it?" Sure enough, she was right! I could not believe the talent. She is a true principal at heart, that's for sure.

There were a few teaching struggles today. One of them ended up being actually kind of funny. The kids are learning about pie charts, so I made one up on the board. I made up a story about how I had eaten a bunch of cookies.

"Miss King.. we don't call them cookies."

So I changed it to "biscuits." Now, half the biscuits were chocolate chip. One fourth were peanut butter.

"Ewwww!! You eat peanut butter biscuits?? That's gross."

Yes, we like lots of things with peanut butter in America. Now, the last fourth of the biscuits were oatmeal raisin.

"What is oatmeal raisin?"

You know, what you call porridge.

(Laughter everywhere). "Eww that's disgusting!! How could you eat porridge with raisins as a biscuit?"

As you can see, this lesson was going no where fast.

Then, I was trying to demonstrate to the students what 9% of 90 was. Most of them thought it was 10, but I was trying to explain that the answer was actually 8.1. I was doing all this cross-multiplying and dividing and they were looking at me like I had come from another planet, not another country. We don't divide the same, we don't add quite the same, which makes it extremely difficult to calculate percentages together. None of the kids could explain it to the rest of the class either, so we left that problem for Miss Caulwell to do tomorrow. Sometimes I feel so helpless.

One thing I have found very difficult is to say "Euros" instead of "Dollars." After 7 whole weeks here I still can't get it through my head. I was standing in front of the class today saying "Dollars" over and over again during math problems. I finally told them to just shout it out when I make the mistake. Ten seconds later I had 27 students shouting at me.

As always, we had a small Q&A session in 5th class today. I love when they ask me questions about America.. I can't get over it. A lot of their perceptions of America stem from MTV.. what a tragedy. They think we all have extravagant 16th birthday parties, and they think people really live like the girls from Laguna Beach. One student asked me, "So what do the famous people do all day?" I had no idea how to answer that one. It was interesting for me to explain that there weren't famous people just walking all around the United States, especially not in Indiana.

One student's mother is a flight attendant. She got stuck in New York during the volcano a few weeks ago, so she brought him back Airheads, Warheads, and Chips Ahoy. He was asking me all about those candies and whether I liked them. He even brought me some Chips Ahoy to eat to make me feel more at home. What a sweet kid.

There is a woman named Catherine who takes me to and from school every morning now. I really like her so much. She's kind and makes me feel at home. I told her today how much I appreciate her "giving me a lift" each day, and she told me she really enjoys the company. It made me feel good to know someone actually wants to be in my company. Sometimes I feel a little bit lonely, and when people do me favors I feel a little like they're just doing it to be nice. It's nice to know she actually enjoys having me around.

Random:

-Sometimes they say "It's bucketing!" This is another way of saying it's pouring down rain. They also say, "It's lashing rain!" quite often.

Sunday, May 2

Wow, what a day it has been. Steph and I began the day with the same breakfasts as yesterday. We headed to the bus we were taking for the day, we were the first ones on the bus which is not surprising because we are always so early for everything. I felt sorry for the people who got on the bus next; they chose to sit right in front of Steph and me which was a bad choice because we’re both sick. We were hacking up some serious lung, they were probably wanting to move. We felt bad, but we couldn’t help it!

Our first stop of the day was at this castle. The bus driver said he has a daughter who is having her reception after her wedding here next summer. He told us it is so popular that you have to book in three years in advance!

The bus ride was absolutely beautiful throughout the entire day. At one point of time we could see a beach, green hills, cows, farm houses, and beach houses, . It was an interesting combination. The water was the bluest, most sparkling water I’ve ever seen. Pictures can’t show how truly amazing it was.

Our bus driver said this is the cleanest beach in Europe!

We saw lots of sheep and other farm animals today. Most of the sheep have spray paint on them. The bus driver told us the orange sheep are the Protestant sheep and the green are Catholics. This is funny because that’s actually what the Irish flag represents. He also said the black cows are the ones that make Guiness, and the black/white cows make the Bailey’s Irish cream. Too funny.

I had no idea what I was in for today before I began this tour. The bus driver stopped at this place that had some beautiful scenery with a few mini-islands. Sounds nice until you find out that we had to get to the next island by a rope bridge. It was ridiculous, shaky, and didn’t seem sturdy. It was obviously a “must-do” though, so we risked our precious lives. It ended up being worth it because we lived and it was a neat experience.

The bridge.

On the other side!

After this I was exhausted and thought we were probably about done for the day. I then realized we hadn’t even stopped at Giant’s Causeway yet, which was pretty much the main reason for going on the tour. We finally stopped there and it was, like everything else, amazing! I am having a difficult time coming up with better words, but I can’t describe how beautiful it was. Giant’s Causeway is an ancient volcanic eruption site. Somehow a volcano that erupted thousands of years ago formed countless basalt columns that are all shaped like hexagons. Everywhere you look you seem them. They’re really neat to walk around on and just look at. We had lots of fun jumping across the rocks and columns.

Doing some stretching after a long day on the bus.

Our next stop was at the oldest distillery in the world. A lot of people were really excited about trying Bushmill’s whiskey, but Steph and I weren’t too excited about it so we took one picture.

Then we went to the Spar across the street for some food. Did I mention I thought this tour stopped for lunch, therefore didn’t bring any food? I was wrong. The bus driver was very serious about leaving ON schedule today. He mentioned to us at every stop that he WOULD leave on time, whether or not everyone was on the bus. He even told us he left 12 people once. Once it was time to leave Bushmill’s there was one woman who hadn’t made it back on the bus yet. We waited for her for about 7 minutes, then we took off. The bus driver was telling us how unfortunate it was for the woman because taxis back to Belfast would be about 150 pounds (about $240), plus there wouldn’t be many since it’s a bank holiday weekend (not to mention all her stuff was still on the bus). Thankfully for her someone on the bus spotted her RIGHT as we were almost too far away to see anymore. The driver was kind enough to stop for her, and we all watched her BOOK IT back to the bus. Poor lady.

When we got back to Belfast at about 7pm almost everything was closed. Steph and I were super hungry so we were worried about being able to find food. Thankfully Subway was actually pretty much the only thing open. We bought some subs and made our way back to the hotel. Now we’re just hanging out here and getting ready to fall asleep. Tomorrow we’ll be going back to our houses at about 10am