Tuesday, March 23, 2010

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.

2 comments:

  1. HEY KACY!!! YOUR ENTRIES MAKE MY DAY!! I WAS A FEW DAYS BEHIND SO I HAD TO CATCH UP THIS EVENING. WHAT IS YOUR ADDRESS?? THE KIDS WOULD LIKE TO WRITE YOU. I NEVER REALIZED HOW BEAUTIFUL IRELAND IS, NOW I WANT TO GO!!! TAKE CARE AND THANKS FOR SHARING YOUR TRIP WITH US!!!

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  2. FORGOT TO SIGN YOUR POST!! LOVE YOU!! BRENDA

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