First Day of School Today!

This morning I woke up and was ready to go! I curled my hair in my room and Hayley came in and asked if I would curl hers too. I just love her:) I came downstairs and Steve had gotten me a bowl, spoon, cereal, and milk out. Dad, take note of this! Steve took me to school just for today since I didn't know where it was yet. It's a pretty straight shot.

When he dropped me off this was the first time I had actually been alone in Ireland. It was scary, but exciting at the same time. I met the principal, Hilary, and she took me to meet every single teacher. There is one class of each grade. They call them "1st class, 2nd class, etc." It goes up to 6th class. I spent the day with Mr. O'Dwyre in 1st class. The little 7 year olds with their Irish accents are just adorable. Oh, and note, Irish kids pick their nose and venture their little fingers over to their mouths right afterwards too, it's not just an American thing. Haha. Anyway, the kids all were wearing green and orange to celebrate St. Patrick's Day. Usually they wear uniforms, but today was special.

The morning started with a lesson about Palm Sunday. Most schools in Ireland are religious, so they have Biblical lessons. They also learn the Irish language. I had never heard it before so that was interesting. They also learned a little bit of how to tell time. It's funny because they learn it a bit different than we do. This is how they say times, I'm trying to get used to it because people look at me funny when I say it differently.

4:15 = Quarter past 4

4:20= Twenty past 4

4:30= Half past 4, or half 4

4:45= Quarter to 5

I'm still not sure how they would say 4:40, 4:10, and others. I'll have to learn as I go.

Most schools in Ireland don't have a music, art, P.E., and library teacher. The general teacher is expected to do all these things. I was really impressed with Mr. O'Dwyre's ability to sing and play the piano!

Some of the kids' names were interesting.

Boys: Theo, Kian, Asa, Eoin (Owen)

Girls: Laoise (Leesha), Maeve, Luisa, Anvitha, Iona

I of course got the age old question, "Why is your name Mrs. King instead of Mrs. Queen?" I can't seem to ditch that question even in another country, haha!

The whole school came together in the gym to learn an Irish dance today. It was in honor of St. Patrick's Day. It was a blast! I partnered up with some boys and joined in. Definitely my favorite experience of the day!

I ended up walking home instead of taking the bus. The bus is kind of expensive and I figured I could use the exercise, plus it was nice. I stopped in a little supermarket called Lidl on the way home to get some soap. The walk home was actually a little scary because there were some major intersections and roundabouts I had to cross. This is confusing enough for me in America, but adding left-side-of-the-road-drivers is a bad situation! I felt like a dingbat when I was trying to cross the street. Better safe than sorry though!

I had fish & chips and baked beans for dinner with the family. Delicious! I was afraid of the baked beans at first because they were much runnier than I'm used to, but they tasted just fine. Afterwards, Steph and I met at the bus stop and went into Dun Laoghaire together. It was kind of a wasted trip though because EVERYTHING was closed already. We ended up having to go to McDonalds for some drinks, how lame! We came all the way to Ireland and we settled at McDonalds, haha. I got a small Diet Coke and it was actually small unlike drinks in America! It was tiny, the size of a kids drink.

Now I'm at home watching The Green Mile with the host family. I just attempted to make tea for myself but screwed up. I didn't realize you had to turn the kettle on. Every family has these certain kettles because hot water is used so often for tea and coffee. They are really great, I've never seen one.

Steph and I are going to meet at the bus stop in the morning for a day of craziness! We're going to try and see the parade, but I'm not sure we'll be able to. I hear it's a madhouse in Dublin, but we can't come all the way to Ireland and not at least try to experience it!

Fun things I learned today:

-Car boot: Similar to a yard sale. People stuff a bunch of stuff in their car trunks, then drive to a yard and sell it.

-Teachers often say "good boy" and "good girl" when their students do well.

-"Brilliant" is a word I hear about 30 times a day