Trim & Dublin

This past weekend I set across Ireland to Trim. Trim is the small city that Angela has been living in. It's about an hour northwest of Dublin. So Friday was a looonng day of traveling. And of course to make that long day even better, it was the first sunny day that we have had in about.....ummmm....2 weeks! It was almost depressing looking out the bus window for 6 and a half hours at the sun and blue sky.

Trim, a Heritage town, had a wonderful castle and other historical sites.

Here is a picture of Trim castle. We were not able to go on the tour, but Angela has been on it twice already, so she was our tour guide and filled our brains with loads of history. Apparently, a couple scenes from the movie 'Braveheart' were filmed here!

We went to Dublin on Saturday and put a major dent in our shopping. I actually had some luck this weekend which was great. And it was another beautiful day, so that could have lifted my spirits a bit too! We spent most of our time on Grafton & Henry Street, the two major shopping streets in Dublin.

Here is the River Liffey in Dublin. We walked along it several times, going back and forth from shopping and to our B & B. It has many different types of bridges which cross it.

We didn't do much sightseeing this weekend so I have no really cool pictures to show you. I am very excited and in shock that this will be my last week in Ireland. I am not sure how I am going to react when I have to say goodbye to my family and the girls at school. Chances are that I will never see them again, so that makes it very difficult for me to say goodbye. I have cards for all of my teachers and a book to give to each of my 3 classes. I am also making puppy chow to bring in...which I am sure that they will love!

Listowel & Week 7

This past weekend I decided to take a rest from all of the traveling that I have been doing. I do not sit to breathe over here with having family visiting, teaching, and traveling. Ang came to visit me this weekend....which was great. We did some shopping because that seems to be a stress of hers as well.


This weekend I finally had a chance to take some pictures and see a bit of Listowel. Yes, that is the city I am living in and you would think that I would have lots of pictures of it already. I haven't really had time though, and usually it is raining so the pictures wouldn't have turn out anyways.

Here is a picture of the street right off my road. This is the main road in Listowel. It looks so normal to me now, but this picture definitely was not taken in America. Notice those stone walls that everywhere (the ones here are yellow).



Here is the same street further down. It leads into the city square. All of the restaurants and shops that are on this street are right next to one another, and all are connected. There also Christmas lights hung up all through the town. You can see strings of them going back and forth.

The picture on the left is the square or city center in Listowel. I love the different colored buildings everywhere. And the church, St. John's, is located right in the center of the square. My town is very small, only about 3000 people. We do have 99 pubs though, which is quite impressive. Many of the small towns in Ireland look the same. So these pictures would be typical of many smaller Irish towns.

Here is Listowel castle. Unfortunately I do not know much about it, and was not able to climb it or go in it. It's located right along the river. I will do some research with my family and find the significance of it!

School of course was extremely busy this week! All of the classes are preparing for their Christmas concerts. Rather than having a school wide one that is done on one night, each grade prepares their own separate concert. They choose a day close to Christmas to perform it. Parents can then come in during the day to wach their children.

I am working with 1st class on their concert. It is a bit stressful because the girls have a hard time standing/sitting still for us to practice and there is pressure because parents will becomming in to watch. The two first class teachers and myself have been planning it for a couple of weeks and now are working with the girls. It's called 'The Sleepy Shepard'. It's a very cute play and the song selections for the play are great. The girls know all of the songs because we have been practicing them for about 4 weeks. They learned them from me, so we will see how well they do. My singing is so awful. It is torture getting infront of 6 year olds to sing...it really is!

Here are the girls at our first dress rehearsal. The costumes that they have the girls wear are hilarious. They are older ones and they are used with every play they do. They just try to make them appear as though they fit the part the girls are playing. The girl who is Mary has the most ridicilious costume. I helped her get ready, and I couldn't stop laughing. I would show you, but I don't think that would be right. She has a big lacy bow that goes around her head. I can tell that she feels very uncomfortable with it. At least the other girls haven't laughed at her or really seem to notice.

My fourth class started painting their planets. I know it seems like I have been working with them on the Solar System forever, but I am only in their classroom 3 times a week for about 40 minutes. You can't really accomplish that much in such a short period of time. The planets are actually turning out a lot better than I am imagined. They are so precise with how they paint it and try to make it look exactly like the pictures that they printed off. We still are trying to figure out how we are going to add rings to them. I am sure that one of them will come up with something. This week half the girls painted and the other half worked on making a poster to show off their reserach that I had them find. Apparently they just LOVE doing posters and projects.

As you can tell, the planets are turning out great!

I also enjoyed some time with my 4th grade girls at their break. This was the only nice day for the past like 10 days. When I say 'nice' I mean not pouring rain and ridicilious winds that blow you everywhere. So I felt that I should show off some of my jumping moves. They were quite impressed!

On Tuesday the Junior Infants teacher was not in. She asked me on Monday if I would take over her class for the day on Tuesday. She would rather have the girls with someone they knew then to ship them off two by two to different classes. The principal said it was fine. I was so excited to be on my own in the room and kind of pretend like it was my own class. I had such a great time with them, they are so adorable. They behaved really well, which is good because noone came to check on me once. It is so weird that they just completely trust an American girl who has been there for 7 weeks with 4 year olds. Regardless I loved it!

We talked a lot about Advent with the Junior Infants. I read them a book called the Manger everyday this week, while we had our Advent wreath lit. They loved it and were so into the book each time that we read it. We also practiced writing some sentences dealing with Advent and drew some wonderful pictures throughout the course of the week.

1st class girls impressing me with their Irish dancing skills. Unfortunately there wasn't a camera around while they were trying to teach me :)

Week 6!

Did I seriously just title this entry as week 6?!? I cannot believe it. Time has seriously flown by. This week was no exception. I was so busy with school and lesson plans...it consumed my week.

And I am really starting to talk Irish over here. Not the language, but things I say are totally like what they say. I guess it has partly to do with being around these young girls and I try to make myself understandable to them. But I really am 'conforming' to the culture. I catch myself telling the girls that their art projects are lovely, I would have never said that prior to Ireland. I say the word 'loads' when I mean many of something, and 'thanks a million', when I am really thankful. 'Well done' has been heard coming out of me. And I also call the girls 'love', which is something that they use all of the time over here. 'Excuse me love, or what is wrong love' are often ways that I use that word. I don't know what is getting into me. I also say certain things with a bit of an accent. Some of my teachers start laughing, but I seriously cannot help it. Apparently I am in this for the entire Irish experience!

4th class
I think that I have become a solar system expert after this week! We did solar system activities all week. I think by far their favorite was paper mache on Friday. I blew up a bunch of balloons to represent the planets. Obviously the sun and Jupiter were the largest and the rest were all different sizes in relation to these two. The girls dipped strips of newspaper into the paste (simply flour & water) and wrapped it around the balloons. I think that this was the messiest art project I could have ever done, in any class. I was very organized with everything though. On Thursday night I made the paper mache, put them all in different containers so that each group would have their own, and ripped the paper.Here are my helpers. Lisa, one of the girls in my family is in the white. Yes, my little Irish girl. This was us on Thursday night making a mess in the kitchen.

Friday was very chaotic with the girls. But I imagined that it would be. There were two girls to every planet, and then two girls for the sun, two for the moon, and four girls worked on making asteroids for the asteroid belt. We will paint them all next week after they dry. I know for sure that the girls really enjoyed doing it, so it makes it all the more worth my troubles and time. They had so much fun. They made a huge mess, but I had newspaper everywhere and it was easy to clean up. I, however, walked out the biggest mess. There was paper mache all over my pants, and my black shirt (which really made it stand out). I even had it on my neck and in my hair. I apparently was really into the project as well. They told me that I would be the only teacher who ever dared trying this with them. But I don't blame the other teachers. There are 26 ten-year old girls all in one room, always talking. I suppose I am too naive and inexperienced to have really understood what I was taking on.

The girls really weren't too thrilled that I made them wear their art shirts. But they very soon understood why.

IrIsH lAdS & pApEr MaChE!

1st class

My 1st class girls were very energetic this week. So to say the least, they were a bit exhausting. I also had to be a bit spontaneous this week. On Tuesday the teacher did not show up for school. She pulled a back muscle and was unable to make it. Apparently they do not have a sub come in if the teacher only calls in sick the morning of. The girls are instead shipped off two by two to other classes and do loads (see there it is) of work that they are assigned to do.

Since I am very comfortable with this class, and in there quite a bit, the principal, Mrs. Mulvill, asked if I would feel comfortable taking over the class for the day. I of course said yes, and the girls seemed as excited as I was for me to be there all day. The day went very smoothly, and I had so much fun being the one 'in charge' and kind of creating my own schedule. Interesting though: not the principal or one teacher came to check up on me. I really don't think that this is something that would be allowed back in America. I didn't need anyone, thankfully, so it was not really a big deal. There was a slight accident where one girl became so excited while playing the fly swatter game that I taught them, she kind of wet herself. I literally bit my lap to stop my laughter. But all in all, it was a great learning experience for me, and forced me out of my comfort zone!

Junior Infants

I was not with my Junior Infants as much this week due to me being the substitute and all of my work with the Solar System. I did continue to work with them on their paintings. It is a lot of fun to do with them, but so much work. I have to set all of the paint up, and mix colors to make ones that we don't have, make sure that all of their uniforms are rolled up, and aprons on, and keep eyes on every girl to make sure she is painting her neighbor. I love how hectic it is, but it can be a bit exhausting.

We also started our Advent wreath in the class and I explained to them a little bit about Advent. We are currently reading the book 'The Manger' and the girls are loving learning all about the birth of Jesus. They were also thrilled to perform their song that they have been practicing for the last couple of weeks. We had mass on Friday morning with the whole school for the beginning of Advent, and they were glowing as they sang their song. They did wonderfully!