WINDY DUBLIN

I can handle the rain, and a little wind, but the wind in Ireland today has been nonstop and noisy. Despite the horrid weather Cassie and I still braved the elements to go into to town to go souviner shopping. On two occasions it started to snow while we were walking. We went to these really kitschy souviner shops for tourists to go and spend money in to buy things with DUBLIN plastered on it. I tried to be as discerning as possible when selecting gifts. When we were in the stores they would be playing Irish folky songs, and Cassie always knew them! I guess it's an Irish thing. In fact as I type Cassie is next to me on YouTube looking up the songs she remembered from today. Our trip into town wasn't that exciting or eventful today, just cold. I did get to have an insomnia hot chocolate, which I am now convinced is the greatest hot chocolate in the world. Today is Mother's day here, which is weird because it's a different day in America. I didn't know that at first though, so I was feeling really guilty until I googled it. Tomorrow I will officially only have one more week in Ireland, which makes me really sad. Next week is an Irish Heritage week leading up to St. Patrick's Day (including my sure to be fabulous rendition of Locked Out of Heaven) which should be fun. We will be going into town next weekend for the big holiday which I am really excited for. I don't want to leave here, but I'm also really excited for Cassie and all the girls to come and experience America. I know we are going to have so much fun, I am so glad I decided to come here and have the chance to meet all these wonderful people. I'm getting ahead of myself! I still have one more week and I am going to make it count!

The National Gallery

The National Gallery is a beautiful art museum, unfortunately about half of it is under construction so not everything was available to the public. We got to look at come really great Irish painters that I have never heard of. One of my favorite pieces was one that I couldn't take a picture of because it was on loan. It was called For the Road by Jack B. Yeats. It was so beautiful to see in person that I don't think a photo could do it justice. One of the exhibitions there was devoted the sketchbooks of Yeats (who Cassie and I thought was pretty attractive), it was really interesting to see all his scribbles of the world around him. Turns out for a while he lived in Greystones! They had a lot of his paintings there which were really great, I would like to learn more about him. There were a few Rembrandts, a Vermeer, a Picasso, and a few other great pieces as well. Cassie had already visited the gallery with school so she was able to give me information on a few pieces that she remembered form her tour. Every time I go to an art museum I always get a strong feeling that this is what I want to do with my life. Not necessarily create the art in the museum, but be a part of bringing great art to others. There was a man there who was with his three small children in the gallery who would ask them what they could see in the paintings and what they thought. It was so wonderful to hear the opinions of kids who would find something in a painting that I had overlooked. It made me really happy to see them excited about art. In town today Cassie and I kept seeing lots of men in matching hats and scarves, and lots of French people, we couldn't figure out why. It turns out that there is a rugby match today, Ireland vs. France, and it is a pretty big deal. There were so many people on the dart home because the stadium of the match is one of the stops before Greystones. The dart was so full there almost wasn't enough room. I don't know what we are doing tomorrow, but as the day go on I am realizing that my time here is almost done. In a little more than a week I will be back home. The upcoming week will be my last in Ireland, AHHHHHHH.
CONGRATULATIONS TO THE SOPHOMORE CLASS FOR WINNING BEST CLASS PLAY I AM SO PROUD OF YOU!!!!!!!!!

I Cannot Sing in Irish

*sorry again for posting late, I was up late last night and didn't have time*
This morning instead of having Musical practice, because the class has already completed their musical, we used the time to learn a song and dance for St. Patrick's week. The song was locked out of heaven by Bruno Mars, however IT WAS IN IRISH. I kinda just hummed along with it most of the time. The dance that we learned to perform with it includes a lot of shoulder bouncing and jazz hands, fun stuff. Irish is such an interesting language, everyone here has to take it. Cassie used to fluent in it and is always trying to teach me words. We didn't end up going anywhere after school tomorrow because the weather is terrible. Instead Cassie and I went to a get together at her friend Kevin's house. His house was really cool, it looked like a converted church but was a really interesting blend of modern and historical decor inside. I also had a Malteser for the first time, which was realIy delicious. I had a lot more fun this time around probably because I had met everyone last week, and I actually decided to be social. We got home at about 12 after dropping everyone off which is why the post is so late. Tomorrow I will be going to National Gallery!

The Table Quiz

Today has been a really long day and I would really like to sleep right now, but I must blog first (or else people get mad at me *cough cough Jackie*. My day started with classical studies, which I really enjoy, we are going over Greek tragedies right now and the girls will be reading Madea after I leave. It helps that I've already read Oedipus Rex and learned all about Greek plays last year. In religion we are going to start talking about the death penalty. The death penalty is illegal here, but being American they want my views on it coming from a place where it is legal. Yay for opinions! I am still confused in Maths, so at least that hasn't changed. After school today I volunteered with Cassie to help work a table quiz fundraiser for the school. We basically just had to collect money, sell raffle tickets, and collect answer sheets. The quiz was really fun, and i actually knew some of the answers. i have a weird knack for remembering weird bits of information that occasionally comes in handy. By the end I was seriously tired, but it was all worth it because they gave us all huge Cadbury eggs as a thank you gift. It rained really hard today, it was the first proper rain we've had while I'm here. Cassie had a lot of fun at One Direction yesterday night, it was quite the topic of conversation at school today. In our double chemistry blocks we had we were making molecule models, which I guess was so interesting I had to take a picture of them. Tomorrow is national women's day, I think, so we will be having guest speakers come and talk to us which is always nice. FUN STUFF.

CHILDREN

*sorry I didn't post this one last night, here it is now ahhhhhhh*
Today was a very normal day, there were no late darts, I didn't get lost, and I spent a lot of time in the library. On Tuesdays a large majority of my morning is devoted to study periods, more than any other day in fact. Tuesdays are also the day of the week that I have pottery, one of my very favorite classes I'm taking here. We made more pinch pots, I'm getting very good at them. We should be able to paint the ones we made last week soon. However, after lunch the real fun started, this Tuesday, instead of having PE I went with a group of girls to Homework Club. Homework Club is when fourth years go to a disadvantaged primary(elementary) school and we play math games with them. The kids are really sweet, and they were really nice, well, most of them anyway. Alyssa and I were with a group of four kinds which we stayed with as they rotated through various games. Three of my kids were angels, the fourth, was "difficult". As some people know I don't exactly have the gift of easily working with difficult children, thankfully Alyssa does. Most of the kids just thought we were really cool because we were American. That only lasted an hour, and it wasn't even that bad, I'm just being dramatic. Tomorrow we are going to the Criminal Courts in Dublin and I'm really excited!

The Criminal Courts

Today our class took a field trip to the Criminal Courts in Dublin. We were told to make our own way there and meet at 9:15 in front of the building, which meant I had to wake up at 6 this morning! I got a bus into Dublin with Rebecca, Alyssa, and Ciara. The Dublin Buses were not meant for tall people, the legroom was not meant for this 6ft gal. It was about an hour bus ride (I woke up at 6, out the door at 7, in a bus stop in Bray at 7:20) we got in to town at about 8:30 and walked around. I had a hot chocolate from insomnia, the Irish Starbucks, which was the best hot chocolate I've ever tasted. The criminal courts are huge, the seem incredibly new and modern, probably because they were only built 3 years ago. The elevators were pretty cool, they were made of glass, which meant you could see the way it worked. Their law system is similar to ours, but not exactly. All the "lawyers" and judges wear wigs and robes, which looked pretty funny to me. When we arrived we got to participate in a mock trial. I'm not one for public debate, and I hadn't been briefed on the case as well as the other girls, so I just opted to be the sketch artist. Alyssa was a witness, she did a fantastic job, she was in mock trial at home so she knew all the tricks of the trade. Being a sketch artist was pretty fun, it was a little hard, because I've never had to draw real people that fast before, but I think my drawings turned out well. Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of them because the courts keeps all the sketches from the school and they have a competition. The mock trail went well, and was good way to introduce us to the court system here before sending us out to observe cases. There were two murder trails while we were there that we could sit in on, they were really interesting to observe. We met together again at 11:45 and were told to make our own was back to school. A group of us decided to take the bus back and then walk the rest of the way. The ride was long, but we had a lot of fun goofing around. After the bus we had make about a 20 minute trek back to school. We sang songs. In first aid today I learned how to bandages, which might be useful someday. We also went to English where we talked about short stories and Sylvia Plath. Also, Alyssa and I bought Macklamore and Ryan Lewis' new album, it's amazing. We totally recommend it, I enjoy the song "same love" on it. These are the things you discuss when you have been on a bus for over an hour. Cassie is going to One Direction's concert tonight with a bunch of other girls, I'm sure she is going to have a great time. Tomorrow should be pretty calm, but it is expected to rain...

Back to School!

Woo hoo! The day didn't start as planned however, our dart this morning was delayed and we were late for school! We didn't miss too much though and easily made our first classes. Today all the girls were switching their classes and beginning new modules, but we stayed in our same classes. The day was relatively uneventful, we studied, we took notes, we ate. Cassie had choir, so I took the dart home with some other girls, but that one was delayed also! I FaceTimed with some of the girls this afternoon (shout out to little Halford) and had salmon for dinner. Cassie and I were watching High School Musical 2, i used to love that movie! looking back now it is SO CHEESY. There shouldn't be too many surprises tomorrow, we have pottery though, which I thoroughly enjoy. Here's a picture of Alyssa and Rebecca being studious...