Day 13 (12/10-12/15)

Thursday (12/10)- Today Saddie took a "Principal Day", and so I taught the class with a woman named Resa. It was a great day and since I knew the kids and curriculum a little better I was able to teach the class. Unfortunately for Saddie an inspector from the Department of Education came to observe one of the teachers at the school. So Saddie ended up playing host to the inspector instead of getting all of her stuff done. I am writing about this because after school today we were going to go to the beach, Britta's Bay. I just felt guilty about her taking me because I knew she had a lot of stuff to do that she wasn't able to get done. But she insisted on taking me to the beach seeing as we don't have that in Minnesota. She brought along a pair of Wellies (rain boots)for me to use. The tide had pushed the sand up to form a little cliff, so we had to slide down to get to the walking part. Once again, I was able to ask her education questions, as well as, questions about Ireland and her life. She is a fantastic lady! It was a bit difficult climbing up the sand cliff when we were done walking. When we final got on top of it, we realized that we got off at the wrong spot! So we cut through someones field and eventually made it out to the main road. She dropped me off at my house and later that night I watched a movie with Anna.

Saddie (aka Mrs.Honner) and me at Britta's Bay

Friday (12/11)- Today at school everyone seemed to be excited for the weekend. The students were very hyper! I can't really remember anything to significant happening during the school day. I went home after school and tried to get things organized for the weekend. I could not get a hold of Alicia to see if her and her boyfriend wanted to go with me to Galway for the weekend. So I just signed up for things on my own. I got my hostel, tour for the Cliffs of Moher, and bus ticket to Galway all set up. The DART was late, but thankfully I was able to make it into Dublin at 7:05 to catch my 7:45 bus to Galway. The bus ride was 2 hr. 45min. long, but thankfully I slept most of the way. I had a really nice bus driver who pointed me in the right direction to find my hostel. I roomed that night with three other girls from France.

Saturday (12/12)-I woke up, showered, and had breakfast at the hostel. I then took a short walk down to the coach station where I met up with Alicia and her boyfriend Cyrus. We got on the Lally Bus Tour which would take us to the Cliffs of Moher. On the way to the cliffs we went through this bizarre land called the Burren. The Burren landscape consists on stony cement like slabs on the ground. There are small patches of grass, but mostly it is just rock. And it is not just a small amount of rock, it is all over the place. Our first stop was at the Aillwee Cave which I didn't know was part of the tour and was excited about. This cave goes down deep into the Burren and the hills. After the cave we went to the cliffs. The Cliffs of Moher are Ireland's number one attraction and they sure are a sight to see! We had a cloudy and windy day, but there was no rain and the sun was doing its best to shine through the clouds. The cliffs are 615 feet high! It is a natural beauty and I am very happy I got to see it! Even the visitor's center was cool because it was built into the ground like the Tellitubbies house or a Hobbit's home. On the way back to Galway we saw a cute castle (I forgot the name) on the Galway coast. After making it back to Galway, we all went to the grocery store to get food for dinner. We made pancakes that night at the hostel! Alicia and Cyrus wanted to stay in for the night, so we played cards and watched The X Factor (American Idol type show). I went on the computer for a while, showered, and went to bed.

Cliffs of Moher
The Burren landscape
Inside the Aillwee Cave

Sunday (12/13)- The three of us had breakfast at the hostel (made a jam sandwich for lunch too!) and then got on our bus that took us to the Aran Islands. The bus picked us up right outside of our hostel and us about an hour ride to our ferry. We were going to the largest of the three Aran Islands, Inishmore Island, and it took about 25 min. on the ferry to get there. Once we got off the boat we rented some bikes to bike around the island. I am so glad we rented bikes because it was a beautiful day and we were able to go see the things we wanted to see. We stopped at Kilmurvey Beach and watched the waves for awhile. Then we headed to the main attraction, Fort Dun Aonghasa. This fort was amazing not just for the stone work, but the spectacular views that we had. Unlike the Cliffs of Moher where we were blocked off the edge, we were able to go right next to the edge of a 315 foot cliff. The view was a little scary, but absolutely gorgeous! And like I mentioned I am so grateful it was a nice sunny day. We then went to go find this wormhole which is a place where the ocean water is suppose to spout really high. We had missed our turn for the wormhole, but the Information office lady told us to cut through this one person's land. We cut through the land which was really stony like the Burren, but we never did find the wormhole. It was okay though because we were able to see some more great views and had an awesome lunch along the cliffs. On our bike ride bike we biked on the other side of the island along the coast. It was a great ride with the sun coming down. The ferry ride back was most interesting because there was a rescue helicopter connected to the ferry! Apparently the coast gaurd was practicing or training and they had men coming down from the helicopter with stretchers and then going back up again. I have never seen anything like it! When we arrived back in Galway, we stopped at Subway for dinner and then got on the 7:45 bus back home to Dublin. By the time I actually made it back to my house it was 11:30pm. I was very tired and ready to go to bed!

The rescue helicopter and coast gaurd

Monday (12/14)- Even though I woke up in the morning with a stuffy nose, I was still really excited for school because this week I was going to teach the student's full time (except the Irish). I started the morning out by having the senior infants work on their workbook pages and then taught the junior infants the letter u. I used an my umbrella and had them make the u sound as we pushed the umbrella u..u..u..up! The students took out their own umbrellas and practiced the sound. Then they fill out their umbrella worksheets. For math the senior infants reviewed 3D shapes from last week and the junior infants worked on patterns. During religion, I read the story of Mary and Joseph's journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem. I had the kids follow me as we took a walk around the classroom! Mrs. Honner warned me, but during the afternoon we had a fire drill (and yes it was a little chaotic!). The school's bell consisted of Mrs. Honner standing in the school yard ringing an old fashion bell! For the last part of the afternoon I talked to the kids about money. It was very weird for me to teach the student about Euro coins! I gave each a student a bunch of coins that they looked at and organized. When school was finished, I took a bus into town (They call Dublin, town) I went to the National Art Gallery and saw some neat paintings. Then I went to the National Library of Ireland where they had a William Yeats. All I knew of Yeats was that he was a famous poet (before coming here, I hadn't even known he was from Ireland). I learned a lot about him and that he was much more than just a poet. Yeats was a very influential Irish leader who gave many speeches and was involved in political movements. He also was one of the founders to start the famous Abbey Theater in Dublin. After the Nat'l Library, I went and finished some my Christmas and gift shopping.

Tuesday (12/15)- This morning was a windy walk to the train station. I was grateful to get inside the classroom when I got to school. To begin the morning I continued teaching the students the letter u. They all got a chance to practice on their chalkboards and then filled out their workbooks. We then went into our math lesson. I taught the senior infants more about money and being able to add two coins together. The junior infants worked on matching groups that have the same number of items. I read them a book I had bought that talked about Giants Causeway. For religion, we continued to talk a little more about Mary and Joseph's journey to Bethlehem. Later in the afternoon I was able to teach a fun lesson about the postman and writing letters (oh and by the way, their address system is way different than ours!). The students made really cute Christmas cards and tomorrow we are going to mail them to their houses! One thing during the afternoon that scared the living daylights out of me was when two birds smacked into the window! It made the loudest crash noise! And of course, all of the kids ran out of their spots to go see what it was. Turns out a falcon (some bird of prey) and been chasing a little bird and they both ran into the window and were laying on the ground. The falcon must have been okay because when we looked outside later it was gone. Never a dull day here in Ireland! Ha ha. I walked the beach a little after school and then came back to the house to get some things done. I did laundry, wrote thank you cards, and took an online Sports First Aid Training Test (an online course I am taking to get a coaching certificate)