Wednesday: Easter Break, I see Andrew tomorrow!

Steph and I woke up at 11:30 this morning. It was lovely. We ended up watching three movies yesterday, two of them being Titanic and Pearl Harbor. I guess we were in the mood to be depressed, haha. We had a good time though, and were able to get some much needed relaxation. The weather wasn't as bad as the forecast predicted today, so I'm a little bummed we didn't take a tour or anything, oh well.

I walked home at about 12:30. Saying bye to Steph was sad, we won't see each other for about 13 days! Traveling to a different "world" with one other person helps you to become close with one another very quickly. She is the only person here that I can really be me around. It's so nice to have her here, to share one another's experiences and vulnerabilities. She can really understand what it's like to be here as a foreigner. With that being said, I think we're really going to miss each other. At least I know I'm going to miss her!

My flight to London is at 8:40 tomorrow morning! Steve and Diane just got home from England a few hours ago, and they immediately started helping me with all my travel plans. Thankfully Diane realized the travel agents had given me directions to the hotel from the WRONG airport! I am very anxious about traveling alone, therefore I immediately became very nervous and stressed. Diane helped me find the routes I need to take though, and I'm feeling a bit better. I'm just nervous because there are so many things I don't know. I barely ever travel, the number of planes I've ridden on can be counted on one hand, and the number of countries I've traveled to can be counted on one finger. Therefore, combining the two and adding the "I'll be alone" factor is a bit unnerving.

Diane also helped me weigh my bag and decide what to take and what not take with me. We realized my suitcase itself is very heavy, so she is letting me borrow Hayley's. She also is lending me a purse of hers because my bag may be too big to be considered a purse. The rules and regulations for flying to and from Europe are not as lenient as flying from America to Europe. I'm so thankful Diane and Steve are here to help me. I also didn't know that I should have booked my luggage online. I decided to only have a carry-on though, that way check in will be easier.

My route to London tomorrow (each direction gives me a pang of nervousness in my stomach):

-Get on the Aircoach bus from my house at 6 AM.

-Arrive to Dublin airport at 6:50AM.

-Check myself in at the airport. That's all I know from there. I don't really understand what I'm doing and what lines to get in, but I suppose I'll learn when I arrive.

-Board my flight from Dublin to London Gatwick Airport at 8:40AM.

-Arrive in London at 10AM.

-Find a place to convert my Euro to Pounds. This will be difficult because I don't know if I will need exact change for the following modes of transportation, and if I do need exact change I have no idea what to ask for because I don't know the names and denominations of the Pound coins.

-Find the Southern Train going to Victoria

-Get off train at Victoria Station

-Get on Underground (Tube) going to Oxford Circus

-Get off at Oxford Circus

-Find the Central Line Underground (Tube) and go to Tottenham Court Road.

-Get off at Tottenham, then somehow find the hotel.

-Hang out alone for a few hours, then SEE ANDREW!

Oh my, just writing all that makes me so nervous. I hope I make it smoothly. I'm praying for no mistakes, because being turned around in a foreign country would be a disaster.

I will not be able to bring my computer because it is too heavy, but I will try to blog on Andrew's computer whenever I get a chance. That means I may not be able to upload pictures until I get back. We'll see though! I will do my very best.

Tuesday: Easter Break

Today has been quite... lazy really. Steph and I were exhausted last night, so we allowed ourselves to sleep in. I woke up at 9 this morning and looked out the window only to see snow flurries. Not what I wanted to see on my Easter break in Ireland, so I allowed myself to sleep some more. I woke up at 11:30, and Steph and I sat around for a while. We decided to get up and head into Dun Laoghaire for a few groceries and things. The weather was horrible! It was freezing, rainy, and so very windy. The gusts of wind were very hard to walk in, and our whole bodies were damp. We went into only a few stores for the very basics, and decided to head home. When we got home we watched a movie and took a nap. Then we ordered some Dominos pizza and we're watching Titanic. We've been really wanting to watch it because we saw it on TV the other day and the band from my last post was playing a song that is played in the movie. Quite a lazy day, but we deserve it, or at least we think we do:)

Random: Steph and I hear Justin Timberlake EVERYWHERE here. Before today we had heard his music at least 4 times in public. We were in a store today that was playing a song of his and we commented that we were hearing yet another JT song. We made our way into the next store, and I bet you can guess who sang the song playing in that one.

Monday: Easter Break

Today was an absolutely fantastic day!! When we woke up it was raining, when we got ready to leave it was raining, when we walked to the bus it was raining, when we rode the 40 minutes into Dublin it was raining, when we went to Trinity College it was raining, BUT THEN MATT PROPOSED TO STEPH!!!!!

It was the first proposal I've ever seen and it was amazing! It was raining (as I said multiple times before), so Matt suggested we stand under this tower to get away from the rain. Once we got under it I was starting to put my umbrella down and all the sudden Matt was down on his knee asking Steph to marry him! I was so shocked, and my stomach was producing thousands of butterflies. I was reaching for my camera in my pocket as if a robber was asking me for all my money. I was so flustered, but I was at least able to get a few pics!

Oh, she said "yes" by the way:) Lucky him.

Okay, so now I need to back up. I just had to tell the exciting news first:) The rain was definitely a bummer today, but Matt made it all better for us with the proposal. This morning though, the walk to the bus was not my favorite. When we got into Dublin we waited on the guys for a bit, and once they arrived we hit the ground running!

We headed to Trinity College with our huge umbrellas. It is NOT easy to maneuver your way through narrow European streets in which people have no regard for which way they are walking. Steph and I have noticed that although Irish people drive on the left side of the road, this does not necessarily mean the walk on the left side of the sidewalks, hallways, stairs, etc. They seem to just walk wherever there is room, and if there is no room they walk on you. Someone said something very Irish and inappropriate to me today because my umbrella was in his way. It made me sad.

Anyway, after the rough walk to Trinity College we went inside to take a tour to see the Book of Kells. Sadly, we were not allowed to take any pictures. The Book of Kells is the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John handwritten by Irish people on the island of Iona in the 6th century. It is extremely intricate and has lots of artwork. There are beautiful colors and the handwriting is amazing. It was mostly meant for sacred and special days, not to read on a daily basis. We learned how they made the ink, what the pages were made of (calf skin), and all sorts of other neat things. It's unbelievable that they have been able to preserve it for so long. It was incredible, I wanted to stand and stare at it for hours.

Then Matt proposed, and we of course we went to a pub after that. We had some delicious cider:) After that we walked around for a bit (as always), and then we decided to make our way to Malahide on the Dart. Once we got to Malahide we really had no idea what we were doing, but we happened to make our way to some castle. The walk to the castle was in a beautiful foresty area. It was so green and lovely, I could walk it every morning.

Have you ever seen work out materials in forested areas? Leave it to the Europeans.

It was pretty neat, but it was under construction and closed by the time we arrived. It was a pretty site though, we were glad we went.

Malahide was a more rural area, the roads were even more narrow and it looked more like what I think of when I think Ireland.

Afterwards we headed to another pub. The boys ate dinner, Matt had some Irish beef stew, and Dan had an enchilada. He said the enchilada had BBQ sauce and was disgusting, which doesn't surprise me because Mexican food is not easy to find here. The first night I arrived Diane asked me what my favorite type of food was. When I told her it was Mexican she said, "Oh no! You're going to have a terrible time finding Mexican food here." She was right.. I've seen none so far.

At the end of the day we were absolutely exhausted. Dan decided to get comfortable on the Dart.

We wanted to take a tour to the Cliffs of Moher tomorrow, but apparently it's supposed to snow?? We'll wait for a better day:)

Randoms:

-Instead of saying "Watch your step" they say "Mind your step." On St. Patrick's day Diane told Steph and I to "mind our purses" so we don't get them stolen.

Mind the step.

Mind the gap.

Saturday & Sunday: Easter Break

Good news! Matt and Dan (Steph's boyfriend and his friend) decided they want to meet an hour later this morning, so I have time to blog!

On Saturday Steph and I went to meet Matt and Dan at the Guinness Storehouse, but we were an hour and fifteen minutes late. We underestimated the amount of time the bus would take, and then we had to walk about a mile and a half to get there. It. took. forever. Sadly they were no longer there, and they didn't have cell phones. We were super bummed at first, but we decided we wouldn't let it ruin our day! We just walked around Dublin and took some pretty pictures, and did a little shopping of course:)

Not sure what this one is called, but it was beautiful. Cathedrals are hard to get good pictures of because they are so huge but so close to everything. It's impossible to back up to get the best picture.

This is the Christ Church Cathedral. It's the oldest building in all of Dublin. It was unbelievable. They weren't doing tours that day, but we plan to go back for one someday.

On Sunday we finally made it to Matt and Dan's hotel! Steph and I were really proud because we found the correct buses to take and we did a great job. This is a great accomplishment, because the buses here aren't quite as simple as the Bloomington buses, and that's an understatement.

The first thing we did with the guys was go to a pub to have a traditional Irish breakfast! Well, Dan did at least. Matt, Steph, and I all had fish 'n chips. Delicious! We then walked pretty far to find a different pub that was selling tickets to a Literary Pub Crawl we wanted to do. Once we finally made it there we learned that they sell them in the evening, bummer! So after all that walk what did we decide to do? Sit at the pub and do it all over again!

We found another band!

Afterwards we ventured to the National Wax Museum. It was neat, but we didn't really know who were looking at half the time. We had a lot of fun though.

We were pretty proud of this one.

Love Yoda, I do.

This thing was creeeeepy.

Hannibal!

This girl was fighting some wolf-beast thing. She was apparently some sort of Viking.

At one point in time we made it to the Dublin Castle. They had a tour, but we couldn't find where it began, so we just kind of hung out. After a while we finally found a tour, and we hopped in during the end of it. We aren't sure if we were supposed to pay, but no one said anything and we didn't want to interrupt, so we just enjoyed it:)

This was a small chapel inside the castle. Scenes from the new movie "Leap Year" were filmed here.

After this we of course did quite a bit more walking around Dublin. We finally met at the Duke at 7pm for the Literary Pub Crawl. There were two actors who quoted and acted out scenes from traditional Irish literature. We stopped at four pubs, Trinity College, and the St. Andrew's Cathedral. It was really neat and we had a great time. When everyone would gather around to watch the actors they would ensure all the short people were in the front. I of course didn't mind that one bit:) Especially because there was a girl who was legitimately 6'7" trying to get in the front every time.

These were the actors.

This is the Duke, where the pub crawl began.

During the pub crawl I saw this! I thought it was cool since Lebanon was named after the Cedars of Lebanon in the Bible. I felt right at home here :)

Afterwards we made our way home. It was really late and we were exhausted, but now we're ready to do it all over again!

No time!

The past two days have been crazy! It is currently 1:20AM and I'm wiped out. I don't have time to post much, but I promise I will as soon as I get the chance! The next two weeks are going to be quite busy though, so bare with me :)

Girls Brigade Display

The Girls Brigade Display was really neat! Girls Brigade is a girls "club" that can sort of be compared to Girl Scouts. They meet once a week and do all sorts of things. Sometimes they do crafts, learn dances, or compete in Girls Brigade competitions. There is a certain march they learn with all sorts of different commands. The littlest girls were SO cute when they were marching. Girls Brigade can begin at age 3, and you can be a member forever. There are multiple different levels: Tiny Tots, Explorers, Juniors, Seniors, etc. It only takes place from September to March, and the end of the year ceremony is the display we attended last night. Nola is the "Captain" of the "company" we went to see last night. It was almost 3 hours long and consisted of marches, dances, jump roping, skits, etc. It was fun for me to watch because not only do I know Hayley, Emma, Laura, and Anna who were in the display, but a lot of my students were in it as well. I took lots of videos because my pictures weren't looking good.

This was the smallest Brigader there. She was adorable. All the Tiny Tots got a chance to jump rope, and when she got up there she just started jumping with no regard to where the jump rope was. It was hilarious.

Hayley is in the middle with the red ribbon. Unfortunately I think the Taylor Swift song is overplayed in Ireland as well.

There was a huge Disney display. There were about 10 different groups of girls dressed up as different Disney characters. I thought this was the cutest one, The Little Mermaid.

Hayley doing a jump rope routine

Tiny Tots beginning their march

After the display Nola had a big gathering at her home. There were maybe 40 people there. There was lots of good food and it lasted until almost 1AM. I had a lot of fun talking to everyone and getting to know people better.

Steve, Diane, Nola, and John left this morning for a small vacation. Diane didn't even know they were going until last night, it was a major surprise. I think they went to England. They won't be home until Wednesday. Hayley is staying with "Gran" (their grandma), and Jamie and I will stay here. I think I'll actually stay at the Lambert's with Steph though, because we plan to be out late and I don't want to walk home in the dark alone.

Steph's boyfriend and his friend arrived in Dublin a few hours ago. We are going to meet up with them at 3 and go have some fun! I have no idea what the plan is yet, but I'll surely write about it later:)

Easter Break Begins!

I just got home from school 2 hours early! We had a half day due to the Easter break. I now have 2 weeks off to travel and have a blast:) Steph's boyfriend and his friend are coming to visit. They will be here tomorrow. I think we're all going to do some sight seeing while they are here. I will be visiting Andrew Thursday in London. I will then travel with his group to Scotland and back to Dublin. We will be together for 11 days. I CAN'T WAIT to see him.. we said goodbye January 5th. It's been too long! After that visit he will go back home and I will have 6 more weeks here.

Sorry no blog last night! I had a busy day. I moved over to 5th class. This is where I will be for 2 weeks after the Easter break. I love the 5th class teacher, Miss Caulwell. She is young and very energetic. She is hysterical really. Every Friday morning the school has "assembly" where they all get together, sing songs, pray, and have a mini-sermon. Today's service was special since the Easter holiday is approaching. Fifth class put on several skits and things, and basically ran the assembly. Miss Caulwell was running around yesterday trying to get things done for the assembly, so I helped her a lot with that. I made a simple powerpoint with the words of the songs (to be projected on the wall) and she could not believe how "brilliant" it was. She has never worked with powerpoint, like many other teachers in the school. She was watching me design the pages and truly was so excited. She kept saying, "That's just brilliant! The parents will be so impressed!" It was so funny because it really wasn't very exciting at all. I put two pictures on it, and the rest was black writing with white background. Miss Caulwell and I then went over to the church to set everything up. We had some difficulty with the microphones, but in the end it all worked out.

Miss Caulwell had a "practicing teacher" (like a student teacher sort of) for the last three weeks (today was her last day), so she organized this big art project during this time. Each child in the school got a piece of wood to paint, which will go up as a mural soon. I helped her a lot with that yesterday. We really just hung out all day. It was fun.

I am going to teach a unit on Australia when break is over. It will be a week long. So random! I need to do some serious brushing up on my Australian facts though. I also will be helping Miss Caulwell teach a poetry unit. I'm bringing in my favorite poet- Shel Silverstein.

The staff at Kill-o-the-Grange had a bowling night last night. Twenty-one people came. It was a lot of fun and I bowled pretty well! I was, without a doubt the most experienced bowler there. Some of the adults had only bowled once or twice in their lives and it was rather obvious. I pretty much saw every bowling offense there is such as: stepping over the line, bowling your ball while the machine is still down, etc. Many of them didn't know you had two turns each frame (and don't even bother using the word "frame" because they definitely don't know bowling lingo). Once everyone understood you get two bowls each frame, they totally were confused on why you only get one bowl when you get a strike. Many of them bowled when it wasn't their turn. And forget trying to explain the scoring after a strike or a spare. Watching several of them bowl was hilarious. Lots of the women would run up to the line, then stop, swing the ball back and forth a few times to give it some momentum, and then let it go. They also had 14 balls up on the thing that holds all the balls which resulted in a few finger smashings. After witnessed all this I was totally glad I was not an Irish bowling in America, that could be quite embarrassing. Although they weren't very experienced, they had so much fun and so did I. They were laughing, cheering one another on, "That was excellent, brilliant!!" It was a great time.

Afterwards we went to a pub down the street. After browsing the menu I decided I would be safe and stick with chicken tenders. One teacher said, "Coward! You should have gotten the stew cooked with Guiness!" I should try new things, but I just knew chicken tenders would hit the spot. After seeing someone else's stew I was sure I made the right choice anyway. And, my chicken fingers came with a chili-sauce to dip them in, so that was a bit of a cultural difference, right? Oh and, I noticed the other people ate their chicken tenders and "chips" (fries) with forks, and they mix the two together so I did the same. That was another cultural difference:)

I sat next to a teacher named Gwen and we talked a lot. She is very kind and was curious about my life in America. The whole staff sat and talked for hours! People started trickling out after a couple hours, but my ride stayed, and stayed, and stayed.. I was exhausted and wanted to go home so badly! I like talking with people one-on-one, but when they all together it is extremely difficult to follow what they are saying. I tried my best, but I ended up just dazing off for about 2 hours. We didn't leave the restaurant until "half eleven" (11:30), and I didn't get home until about 12.

I must go now! Steph is on her way here.. we are going to see Hayley, Emma, Anna, and Laura in a big Girls Brigade show tonight. I am not sure what it's all about, but I will explain once I find out:)

Some things I have learned:

-A backpack is called a "rucksack"

-During my conversation with Gwen last night I learned that Euro bills are actually called "notes". Their smallest note is a 5 instead of a 1. They are very pretty, each one is a different color, and each note is a different size. The larger the amount, the larger the note. The denominations are the same as ours, but they don't have a 1 Euro note. Unfortunately I don't have a 10 Euro note to show, but if anyone wants to send me one feel free:) Here are some pictures of my Euro notes.

-The coins do not have specific names like ours. They just call them by their amount: 1 cent, 2 cent.. The denominations are 1 cent, 2 cents, 5 cents, 10 cents, 20 cents, 50 cents, 1 Euro, 2 Euro.

-If you have more than one Euro, they usually don't add an "s" on the end. For instance, 5 of them would be "5 Euro," not "5 Euros."

Wednesday, March 24

Last night's concert was unbelievable! It was a concert put on by Rathdown junior and senior schools (elementary and high school). The girls were absolutely amazing. There was so much talent like I've never seen before in such young people. There were singing acts, singing/dancing acts, instrumental acts, choirs, etc. Some of the girls even sang opera. I can't say enough how impressed I was, I kept getting the chills. It's not even a very big school, yet every girl who performed was incredible. Hayley was part of a choir that didn't sing for long. I didn't even realize she was out there until half way through their act. Duh. The concert was a bit long though, 3 hours and 20 minutes. I unfortunately forgot to bring my camera. I was so bummed! I decided to take pictures from the internet to show what it looked like.

You'd never know I didn't take them!

After my cream cheese incident at the grocery yesterday, I somehow ended up home without my bagels. Are you serious? I know I bought them, I just don't know where they landed. Now after all that trouble getting cream cheese I don't even have bagels to go with it. Oh my.

When I woke up today I crossed my fingers for good weather. I have a blind that completely closes my view, so I have to get up and raise it before I know what I'm in for. Luckily I have to get up to do this, because the weather was disgusting, I would have never gotten out of bed if I would have known! It was rainy and extremely cloudy, I could barely even see anything. It was almost eerie and scary-looking. Yuck. The rain is never a downpour though, it's just a mist. By the end of the day the weather was gorgeous with beautiful clouds and the warm sun.

I taught my first lesson in Ireland today! It was an "arts" lesson. Instead of taking the kids to art class once a week, the teacher must actually teach art once a week. Since spring is here I decided to have the kids make birds out of paper and tissue paper. They did a really great job, I was impressed. They were even allowed to use glitter, which was of course the highlight for them because it's messy!


I also got to teach a small lesson on verbs. It was very last-minute, so I didn't really get to do anything creative. It was fun to get to teach again though. I have noticed that the kids constantly work on worksheets here. They don't seem to do much "hands on" activity.

Miss Rankin was teaching the kids how to write dates today. Here they write them with the day first, then the month, then year: 24/3/10. One student mentioned that America does it differently so I showed them how we do it. Second class loves to ask me how I say things. They thought "soda" and "pop" was hilarious. They say "cola." They also think "french fries" is really funny because they call them "chips."

I noticed today that there aren't telephones in classrooms. One boy was sick today so Miss Rankin had to go down to the office to "ring" his "mum." Their technology is a bit behind ours. Their TV shows are too. Most the American shows they have are a few seasons behind. The Blind Side movie with Sandra Bullock comes out in "cinemas" on March 26. I saw that movie months ago!

Tomorrow I will start in 5th class. I am supposed to be there for two weeks after the Easter break as well. I'm getting a little tired of switching around because once I get warmed up to the kids and they start to like me I have to leave. One girl said to me today, "I wish you could stay here forever." I agreed.

I also am going bowling with several of the Kill teachers tomorrow night for a staff get together. We are going somewhere afterwards, but I'm not sure if it's for dinner or what. I couldn't understand, so I will just bring cash and figure it out then! I am excited, I hope to make some new friends.

Things I learned & other randoms:

-Not all streets have speed limits. It's more common not to have a limit, and when there is one they aren't enforced as heavily as America's are. My family mentioned this to me on the first day I was here, two days after I had just paid a speeding ticket. The speed limit signs look as if they have come out of "Cat in the Hat"

-Cursive writing is called "joint writing." A student asked me if he had to write in "joint writing" today, I had no idea what he was asking. (My Indiana students know I would respond to this question with "That's a silly question" because they know they always have to write in cursive:) If I was a teacher here I might say "That's a daft question.")

-The letter "r" is pronounced "or"

-This is the Lidl's grocery I shop at sometimes. It looks like it's a spaceship because it's all silver.

-Instead of recess being taken away, it is common for students to get extra homework when they don't behave

-The letters "n" and "l" often sound very much the same when they speak. I have been confused several times. Example: I didn't know whether Steph's host sister was Nora or Laura when I first arrived.

-I mention the bus often, so I thought I'd give a visual. They are two stories high! It is not easy to walk up and down while the bus is moving, so I usually stay on the first floor.

Tuesday, March 23

Today has been a really fun day, but it's not even close to being over! Hayley's school has a big concert/program tonight from 8-11 and it's about 30 minutes away, so I won't be home until about midnight probably. I am looking forward to it though. I don't really understand what it is and why it's three hours long, but I'm excited to find out!

I brought some thin mint Girl Scout cookies here to share them with my family. I let Hayley try some last night. She was afraid she wouldn't like them because she "doesn't take mint well," but she ended up loving them! Who doesn't love a thin mint? She even asked for some for her lunch today.

I decided to take pictures of my school today. Its colors are quite bold, but I actually kind of like it.

My day started by calling the second class students up one-by-one to listen to them read. I enjoyed it. I learned a new word today during this! One girl was reading and came to the word "daft." She laughed as she read the sentence and then looked up at me expecting a laugh out of me as well. I gave her a courtesy laugh, although I had no clue what was so funny. I just checked on dictionary.com, it means "silly or foolish." Maybe this word is used in America too and I just don't know it. I definitely hear it a lot here though.

After their first bit of work, the students learned a new religious song. It's so interesting to be in a public school that has religion lessons. This is so different than America!

This was interesting: today the kids had a big lesson over the difference between "were" and "where" because they pronounce them both the way we pronounce "where." The teacher had to give multiple examples to help the kids remember that the word pertaining to a place or direction had an "h" in it.

I have noticed that students at Kill-o-the-Grange are so polite. They ALWAYS say excuse me Miss King, or thank you Miss King. They even thank me when I'm passing out their homework! Some of them are very eager to teach me things. Today they began to play a game of "Chinese Whisper" and one girl, Naomi, ran up to Miss Rankin to say, "Miss King might not know what that is!" Sure enough, I didn't. So Naomi explained to me what "Chinese Whisper" is, it's basically the same as the game we play called "telephone." Today she said to me, "I like you." So cute.

Miss Rankin asked me to teach an "arts" lesson tomorrow. I can pick anything I want to do. I think I'll do something Easter related since their two week Easter break is coming up next week!

In an earlier post I mentioned that I wasn't sure how they say "math." I finally have concluded that they say "maths," but when they say it, it sounds like "motts." You know, like the apple juice.

Here are some pictures of their cursive letters. Some of the capitals are quite different such as the I, J, Z, G, and E.

There was a small music lesson today. Here is a video of the kids playing their recorders.

At the end of the school day, Miss Rankin allowed a girl to show the class a new birthday gift she received, an electronic whoopi cushion!

After school I kind of hung around town for a little while. I made a stop into a little library. I had heard there was one behind Lidl's grocery store, but I wasn't sure exactly where. When I came up to this building, you may understand why I wasn't so sure.

I took a peek in the windows and thankfully saw lots of books. Apparently "Leabharlann" means "Library" in Irish. Unfortunately I can't check any books out until I prove residence here, which could be hard to do.

I also went to the grocery store today. I have noticed that bagels are everywhere, people eat them plain, toasted with cream cheese, on sandwiches, etc. So I decided I would like some bagels too. I picked some out and was merrily on my way to the cream cheese section for my favorite: strawberry. I was extremely sad to learn that they apparently don't have strawberry cream cheese here. They have a few different kinds, but not my favorite:( So I settled for the regular because garlic and chives didn't sound like it would hit the spot. I got up to the register and put all my stuff on the conveyer belt. Right before the cashier started scanning my items I realized I had accidentally picked up extra light cream cheese, not even just light. That didn't sound all that tasty to me, so I debated running to exchange it, you know, just like people do in every American Kroger (I used to work there, I've experienced a lot of that). And of course there was no bagger to run and exchange it for me, because they don't put your stuff in bags, so after a bit of debating I decided they may consider it very weird and rude if I left to exchange my cream cheese while she rang everything else up. So I scooped everything back up into my arms, and made my way back to the cream cheese.

I have mentioned a few times that life is so much slower here. Yesterday I attempted to make a trip to the post office, but they were closed for their lunch hour. This is so much different than America. I feel like you hardly see places closest due to lunch hour anymore. I finally got over to the post office today though. The stamps they gave me are the old-school kind that you have to tear off then lick.

During lunch today some of the teachers started talking about public "toilets" for some reason. One of them said she notices that American public restrooms seem very clean. I wasn't sure whether to agree.

I just had dinner and tea with Steve. We had tea and "digestive biscuits" (similar to Girl Scout trefoils) first, then we ate pasta bake with tuna. It was quite delicious. We will be headed to Hayley's concert soon.

Something I've learned:

-They call dinner "tea." One day Hayley was going to a friend's house and I overheard Diane say, "Siofra's mom will fix your tea." I figured it was just common for every child to have tea after school each day, but I learned a few days later that "tea" just means dinner. By the way, Siofra is pronounced Sheefra.