Another Weekend of Touring

Hello!

Well I am just taking a little homework break right now.  This weekend has been a great weekend!   On Friday, Brendean and Emily went to the Cinema and saw the film "Black Swan".   They said it was quite the movie..  While they were out doing that, Megan and I went over to Cassie's and watched "P.S. I Love You" and had wine and snacks with Miriam.  I had never seen the movie, and since it was filmed in Ireland, we thought I should see it! haha.  It was a very nice Friday night!   

Yesterday, Saturday, we went on another bus tour.  We went through the same company as last weekend.  We took the Connemara and Cong tour.  Again, we stopped at many places along the way, seeing many very neat things!   Also, just like last weekend, this bus driver had lots of information to share, and jokes to tell.  His jokes were more appropriate than Dezi's jokes but he did make some inappropriate jokes as well just not as frequently as Dezi did! haha.  I learned that a lot of movies have been filmed in Ireland, and now I feel as though I must see them all!  We saw where the movies "The Field", "The Quiet Man", and "Marley and Me" were filmed all on todays tour!!  And then there is "P.S. I Love You" and "Leap Year" for other movies that have been filmed in Ireland, but we just didn't see where they were actually filmed.  For instance we saw the house where the old man dies in the film "The Quiet Man".  Then we saw a part from Jennifer Aniston and Owen Wilson's honeymoon in the movie "Marley and Me" along with a hotel or B&B that they stayed in during the movie.  For this bus tour we got to see things like the city of Cong, Ross Errily Abbey, Lough Nafooey, Kylemore Abbey, The Quiet Man Bridge.  These places were very neat!  We also got to see a unique breed of horses called the Connemara Pony.  It was the neatest thing, so we see this Connemara Pony, and so the bus stops and the bus driver says lets see if we can race this pony.  So we start driving and the pony starts chasing along with the bus!  It was so neat!  We then stopped and the bus driver asked if we wanted to get out and take a picture of the pony, so we did.  Only to learn that when we get out the bus driver gives the pony a treat, a carrot.  So the pony has basically learned to chase the bus and it will get a treat! haha.  It was still cool though!  The views at Kylemore Abbey, were absolutely stunning!  The mountains and buildings reflected in the lake like a mirror!  Th Abbey itself was huge and very gorgeous!   

"The Quiet Man"'s house

Connemara Pony chasing the bus

the Connemara Pony

A Beautiful view of a lake with sheep in the backround

So excited to see the Kylemore Abbey

The group at Kylemore Abbey-me, Brendean, Emily, Megan, David, and Cassie

look at the reflection in the lake!!

Gothic Church out at the Kylemore Abbey

Another great reflection in the lake

So amazingly beautiful

Saturday night we all went out to the pub called "The Front Door".  It got very crowded there, so we eventually left and went to this other pub called "Fiber Maggies".  This place was so much fun!  We did a lot of dancing there! :)  

Now for today, I will be getting back to homework and lesson planning.  I am full-time teaching this week for my 4 second class students! EEk!

<3 Amber

Teaching

Well this week has been quite the busy week!  I have been teaching two different math classes all week long.  The one math class is more challenging than the other, but overall those lessons are going pretty well I feel.  On Thursday I am teaching a lesson about pronouns, and on Friday I am teaching a lesson on the ear.  I have lots of planning and prepping to do for next week, because I will be just about full time teaching for my 2nd class students!  Also this week I was told by my cooperating teacher that I am making copies wrong...I didn't know that was possible, but apparently it is.  The two teachers that I eat lunch with are just great.  They are so very friendly and always wanting to hear about how I am doing and what I have been doing on the weekends.  I really can't believe my third week of teaching is almost over! It has really flown by!  UMD classes have now started, so I am also keeping very busy with classes and then lesson prepping.  As for this weekend, I will be doing plenty of homework and lesson planning...although I will be taking Saturday day off to go on another bus tour! :)  

I hope everyone is having a fantastic week! 

<3 Amber

Cliffs of Moher

Hello!

Sorry I didn't do much blogging this week.  I was very busy with planning for teaching, so I could have some fun this weekend! :)  And that I did!

My week of teaching went pretty well.  I taught a unit on Time, I taught another unit on Area, and a lesson the history of chocolate, and then a lesson on the Eye.  My students seemed to really enjoy the chocolate lesson.  They told me I should have brought some chocolate to eat with the lesson, and that if we learn about food again, I need to bring food to eat! haha.

Now for this weekend!!!  On Friday night, we just stayed in.  Emily and Megan were going to catch the 9:15 bus to our house but it never showed up....so we came to the conclusion that on Friday's there is no 9:15 bus because last Friday it never came to pick Cassie and I up to bring us into town.  On Saturday,  the five of us went on a bus tour to the Cliffs of Moher.  Our bus driver was an old man and he was super funny.  He was telling us stories and cracking jokes the whole way there.  He had many great things to share with us.  On our way to the Cliffs we stopped at a castle, we stopped just on the side of the road when going up the mountain to take pictures, stopped at this other castle where this lady killed her six husbands for their money, and at a tomb that was out with the cows!  So when we were out visiting the tomb, we were just wandering around with the cows.  They were more scared of us, but we could get pretty close!!  Also along our drive we saw some adorable baby sheep!  Dezi made a special stop there so we could take pictures.  The whole time we were stopped there he was making the sheep's Baaa sound.  It was hilarious.  Just before lunch we stopped at an old catholic church.  For lunch we stopped at a pub, and the first thing we saw when we walked in was a MN License plate! :)

all of us girls at the castle

the view at the stop when going up the mountain

Our travel companions on the bus, courtesy of Dezi

Oh HEY mr. cow!

Cassie and I at the Tomb

Emily, Dezi, Brendean.   he loved us MN girls

Baaa Baaaa baby sheep!! :)

The house of the lady who had 6 husbands

The catholic church that we stopped at

Haha The Matchmaker Bar...it is exactly what its name is! 

Yay Minnesota in the pub that we ate at for lunch on the tour

Now for the Cliffs of Moher!!!  It was spectacular!  There are two sides you can walk to.  One side has a tower that you can pay to go up in, and the other side is just a walking path that ends and it is your option to continue walking, but its not advised because there is no wall to keep you safe on the cliff.  Dezi said last year there were 14 deaths at the cliffs.  There is even a memorial there in memory of those who have lost their lives!  There were at least three different signs posted all around warning you about the dangers of the cliffs.

Cliffs of Moher

Me and the Cliffs of Moher

The Tower

So I guess I should be careful?!  

Absolutely beautiful!  

Love the waves crashing in on the cliffs in this one! 

Such a lovely view! 

The view from the one side looking towards the tower

The Memorial

A beautiful sunset to end the tour! 

To end a wonderful day of touring, we went out the the Kings Head Pub.  It was a lot of fun.  We met some Irish guys, who were in town for Rugby.  It was a very fun night out! Until next time!

<3 Amber

"Scratch Paper"

Happy Tuesday!

(Good luck to all my ECH girls who started their last student teaching placement today!)

Well it was another sunny day in Galway.  It has been sunny since Sunday!!! :)  There isn't too much to new that has happened since Sunday, just been going to my teaching placement.  Although, today I started teaching a Maths (yes there is an S on the end) unit on Time.  It starts today and ends with an assessment on Friday!  I am just teaching the youngest students that are in the class.  There are four of them ages 7-8.  Here is something funny from today when I was starting my time lesson with them, I told them to go get a piece of scratch paper and a pencil and bring it to the back table..well they started laughing really hard, and said its "scrap" paper not "scratch" paper.  So I had to explain to them that some of the words they use are not the same as what I use.  That different places use different words.  Even with this explanation they still thought it was so funny.  I heard one of my students jokingly say as they were up getting their paper "does your paper have a scratch on it?!" Then when I was teaching them about time and being a 1/4 after and a 1/4 to, I got them confused for a split second.  They say a 1/4 past not a 1/4 after.  So there are soooo many things that I say differently, that I need to change for when I am teaching.  Also, the last week when I had to tell them that they had to actually listen to me, I had said the word goofy or goof off, and they thought it was so funny.  It must not be a word they use..or it means something that I don't know... :/   Well I need to get back to writing lesson plans, I have to finish prepping and writing my time lessons for the week, my eye lesson, my history of chocolate lesson, and my other math classes' lesson for tomorrow!  

Take Care!

<3 Amber

A Sunny Sunday! :)

Cassie, Megan, Brendean, and I waiting for the bus to town

Hello!

Today we woke up and the sun was shining!  We knew the day would be good.  We caught the 1:15 bus into town.  We had intended on going to see the play "Sleeping Beauty" at the town hall theatre, but when we got there they only had three tickets left.. :(   We were all a bit bummed because we were so looking forward to seeing a that play.  So instead we wandered around Shop Street again.  We went into some very expensive stores, but they had such cute things!!  We also took a walk down by the river and then over to the Galway Cathedral.  The cathedral was so big and beautiful!  I don't think I have ever seen a church that big!  The inside of the church was just gorgeous.  There were a lot of lovely stain glass windows in the cathedral.  The river was a very fast moving river.  They had Ringbuoy's every so often that if someone fell in you could throw to them, but I am thinking that with that fast current by the time you threw the Ringbuoy out they would be long gone..but I guess maybe it would work.  We ate in a cafe off Shop Street today.  It was a very nice cafe.  Tomorrow is a new and busy week of teaching for me.

As we were walking up to the Galway Cathedral

Galway Cathedral

Piano Organ Pipes and the beautiful stained glass window

There were many windows like this one that lined the walls of the Cathedral 

The center of the Cathedral

The raging river!

<3 Amber

It's raining???!

Hello!

Well so last night didn't go as planned for going out...Cassie and I waited to catch the bus to meet everyone in town at Monroe's again but the bus never came.  We waited at the bus stop for about 20 minutes in the rain.  Finally we decided that well the bus wasn't coming and that we should just walk up to the Grocery store called Joyces and get some wine.  So off we went in the rain to Joyces.  On our walk we were called to by some guys that were walking.  It was kinda funny but we just ignored their comment. We had an American/tourist moment when we arrived at Joyces.  We tried two different sets of doors and neither we could get in, were completely fooled by them and were so confused, when some teenage boy was like "the doors over there"!  hahaha we felt REAL stupid.  Then we get inside and me not being much of a wine drinker (all i know is i like sweet wines not dry wines) leave it up to Cassie to find us a wine...well the problem is she knows what wine she likes back in the states, but of course they don't have that here..so we were like well crap what to do now?  So we asked the guys working, and we weren't quite sure if they completely understood what we were asking, but we got a couple bottles of wine to try and the one we did have last night was pretty good!  On our walk back home, we saw a "stray" dog.  Around Ireland, there are a lot of cats that just wander around, and I have seen a few dogs wandering as well.  This dog though was very scared of us, and ran away as we got closer to it.    When we got back we went to Miriam's to drink some wine with her.  She said "Wow, you girls' jackets are very wet! I hung them on the radiators to dry!"  Ha yes they definitely were wet from standing for the bus for 20 minutes and then walking to and from the grocery store!  haha.  It was a very nice relaxing night, even though it would have been fun to go into town.

Today and well last night, it has been unbelievably windy here!  It sounds like things could just be blown away out there!  I almost feel like I am back in Duluth with this wind.  Once again it was raining on and off today, and Cassie and I had talked last night about going into town for some shopping and to go to the Market that they had this Saturday.  The wind and rain didn't stop us! We caught the bus into town and did some shopping/wandering around.  We are still trying to familiarize ourselves with the town.  The market was very small, but maybe thats because of the bad weather.  At the market there were food stands, and a picture wall decoration stand.  Cassie, has been on a hunt for a hat for the longest time, so today that was our goal.  After spending a long time in a store trying on different styles of hats, she left empty handed..they were a bit too expensive (30 euro--which would be even more in the dollar).  Finally in the last store before we got on the bus to come back home, she found a hat! :)  By the time we got home the bottoms of our pants were soaking wet!  Steve is here for the weekend, and when we got home, he had some friends and his brother over helping him set up the third bedroom for the new renter who comes on like the 24th.  They were shocked at how wet our pants were, and they find it so interesting that when we go into a house we take our shoes off.  Here they do not take their shoes off, they just wipe them on the rug and wear them around the house.  I have tried that, but I just feel like I shouldn't be wearing them in the house, plus I don't like wearing shoes all the time.  Steve's brother is a bus driver, and the bus pass I have is for the bus that he drives.  So he said that if I ever get on his bus, I don't have to pay! :)  So hopefully I end up on his bus, except that well, if I have already bought a bus pass, the free fair doesn't matter cause I would have already paid for it...but maybe sometime I will get a free bus ride! haha











Well tonight I believe all the girls are coming to my place, and we are going to hang out and play some games.  Have a good Saturday!

<3 Amber

TGIF

Happy Friday!

Well I made it through my first week of teaching in Ireland.  Today, I taught a lesson on the brain.  It went pretty good.  One of my oldest students said to me "that was a lot of fun".  That was so nice to hear!  I am feeling a bit overwhelmed at the moment with the upcoming week's teaching.  Next week I will be teaching about the eye, and teaching a unit on time.  So I have a lot of planning to do this weekend, along with figuring out the history/geography unit that I would like to teach later on in my time here.  Yesterday, I was left in charge of the class for quite a long time because my cooperating teacher had to be out of the room (because she is the principal too) to deal with some flooding and leaks.  So during that time, I really had to show that I was a teacher and that they needed to listen to me...it was a bit difficult because they were just constantly talking which they are supposed to be silent...so I had to explain that I was going to be here for 9 weeks, and would be teaching so they needed to listen to me. haha.  It sort of worked but they were still very chatty compared to when their teacher is in the room.

Tonight for dinner Miriam made Lasagna.  It was pretty good.  We had fruit and ice cream for dessert, which was just what I needed! :)  Also, when Miriam went to the grocery store,  she bought us some chocolate chip cookies! I cannot wait to have one later on for a snack! :)  Tonight we are planning on going out in Galway.  We aren't really sure where we are going to go but we intend to go out.  Well I think I am going to go and take a nap before we go out.  Have a great Friday everyone!

<3 Amber

An Irish Dance

Hello!

I finally got a good nights sleep last night!! Thank goodness!! :)

Yesterday was a pretty good day. Not too much happened.  I didn't get lost in Galway again, so that is good.  It was really just a typical day..wake up early catch the bus to Eyre Square then catch another bus from Eyre Square to the stop near my school.  School from 9-2:30 then back on the bus I go.  When I got to Eyre Square I met up with Cassie and we did some wandering and shopping in town.  We didn't get anything accept some more Euros to pay Miriam for rent and food.  For dinner Miriam made Chicken Curry.  It was very good.  Then I took a 20 minute nap cause I was so exhausted from not sleeping well for about five days.  Brendean, Cassie, and myself then caught a bus into town to go to a pub called Monroes to have a drink and watch some Irish dancing.  The dancing was so neat!!  It was couples/partner dancing not individual dancing.  I was amazed at how they moved so quickly and never ran into each other!  It was very nice to get out and experience the Irish culture.

Well here we are today, Wednesday.  Got a decent amount of sleep last night! :)  I purchased a weekly bus pass, to hopefully save some money. The only thing is now I have to figure out the bus times again because I have been taking two different bus companies to get to school and back but I don't want to buy two different bus company passes so I am going to have to figure out when the one bus comes and take it for all of my trips instead of just two.  It will be nice having the pass though, so that I don't have to worry about having exact change for getting onto the bus.  Tonight Brendean, Cassie, and myself are on our own for dinner.  Miriam's sister had a baby boy today, so she has to go watch her niece.  She told us to just make pasta or something since she bought us stuff to make pasta but she just wont make us pasta for dinner.  Miriam will buy us whatever we want to eat but if it is something like pasta, or pizza or something she will not make it for dinner--these would be something we would make for ourselves on the weekend.

<3 Amber

Grianach House School

Hello.   Today I am just exhausted.  I only got about 3.5hrs of sleep last night. I just couldn't sleep, I kept tossing and turning last night.  This morning Brendean made sausage and bacon for breakfast for the two of us.  The bus this morning was a nightmare.  I ended up lost in Galway by myself.  I couldn't get a hold of Miriam and Louise on my mobile, but then Louise did end up calling me and got me to my school through directions.  So by that point I just wanted to go home and not go to school.  Another girl had some problems getting to and from school as well.   She missed her bus stop in the morning and had to walk back to her school with the directions from the bus driver and then on her way home, she got off too early and so Miriam had to go pick her up cause she didn't know where she was..so we all kind of had quite the day with taking the bus.  My cooperating teacher is named Shirley Ford.  She is actually the principal at the school.  She teaches a combined class.  There are three or four different grades in the class, but there are only 11 students total in the class.  I am not sure how I feel about this placement.  It is a bit overwhelming trying to figure out how she teaches three to four classes in one.  The students do a lot of workbook learning activities.  I actually feel that the students teach themselves more than the teacher does..so I don't really know what I will be teaching.  Today my teacher only taught 2 lessons to the class (1 for the whole class, and 1 for one of the groups of students)..which makes me wonder how much will I really be teaching?  Today during P.E. I played ping pong with the students.  It was pretty fun.  The school day is from 9:00-2:30.  The bus ride home went well.  I didn't get lost and I found the buses that I needed to get on! :)

For supper, Miriam made Salmon, baked potatoes and peas.  I actually did eat half of my piece of Salmon! Let me tell you, Ireland is making me eat/drink things I never would have (tea, Salmon, etc).  I am thinking that I will sleep well tonight after not sleeping well last night and having the day that I did.

Here is an interesting thing that I forgot to share with you from yesterday when we were out shopping:  We learned that when in town if you want to use the public restrooms that are in Eyre Square or in other places you must pay to use them!  I think that is just crazy to have to pay to go to the bathroom!  So note to self, if going into town, go to the bathroom before! haha.

Well tomorrow is a new day and hopefully it goes better!

<3 Amber

First full day in Galway

Hello!

Well I eventually fell asleep last night after some tossing and turning.  The whole time difference made it a bit hard to fall asleep.  Guess what!?!?!  I am now a tea drinker!  I will fit in just perfectly since they love tea here! :)

This morning Brendean and I had toast for and tea for breakfast.  It was very nice.  Steve our landloard is only here on the weekends.  Today we met him.  He seemed very nice and he likes things neat, which is good cause so do I!  haha  After breakfast, we went across the street (which is more like a culdesac) to Miriam's house to visit her and Cassie.  Soon after Megan and Emily came over and the five of us went into Galway, with Miriam as our tour guide. I am still getting used to driving on the opposite side of the road.  The streets are very narrow here and we all feel like accidents would happen often but Miriam said they really don't.   Oh and I forgot to mention this morning when I was getting ready, my one outlet adapter stopped working so I went to use the other one that I brought and it doesn't work...so that wasn't good.  So when we went into town, we were on a mission to find a new adapter, but let me tell you that was very hard.    Not many stores carry adapters for those coming from America to Ireland.  They more have adapters for if you are leaving Ireland going to America or a different country..but good news after about four stores we finally found one! Phew, otherwise my blogs would have ended very quickly! haha.
On our way to town, Miriam showed us where our schools are and where probably would be getting off the bus at...so hopefully I make it there and back tomorrow!! In town today we got cell phones!  So I now have an Irish number (just so you know my regular cell phone is deactivated so dont try and text or call it--it wont work).  The phone is a pay as you go phone but we have free calling and texting to those who have the same phone as us, which the five of us got the same phone so that is good.  The cost of the phone plus the 20 minutes that we purchased was 29 euros, so not too bad at all!  Don't be disappointed but today we didn't really eat any Irish foods, we had Burger King for lunch and then frozen pizza's for dinner. haha.

Taking the bus.....boy reading these time tables and figuring out what bus to take and where to get off is very complicated.  We ended up missing the bus we had wanted to take back to the house, so we went to the pub and got a cider.  It was a nice way to pass the time.  Now here I sit, getting ready for bed and my first day of teaching.  Hopefully catching the bus tomorrow will go well.  Wish me luck!

<3 Amber

My bed

My house

Brendean, Cassie, and me at the pub waiting for the bus

Day 1 and 2

Hello Everyone!  

Well yesterday we left for Ireland at 7:55am and arrived today at 8:30am.  The flights went very well--minus the part where we had a 10hr layover in Chicago.  That got pretty long, but the other 3 girls and I took turns napping and watching our luggage, eating lunch at Chili's and just wandering around the Chicago Airport.  

So today after we arrived in Dublin we had to wait around for our bus to arrive.  When we got to our bus we saw that it was to have free wi-fi, which was true except that as soon as we started moving the internet connection was gone...so we were all a little bummed about that.  The bus ride from Dublin to Galway took about 3 hours.  So we arrived at the Galway bus station at 2:15pm.  One of the lady's who we are staying with (Miriam) and another lady who helped get us into the schools (Louise) met us at the bus station and drove us to our houses.  Brendean and I have our own rooms at Steve's house, and Cassie has her own room at Miriam's which is just across the street from us.  Miriam will be making food for my house and her house! :)  Emily and Megan are at a different house, which we heard is about 10 minutes away from us.  

When we got to our house Brendean and I flipped a coin to decide which room we would each get.  I got the small room, but I will manage.  So far our house is pretty cold.  The heat doesn't run all the time, and so when we were getting ready for bed we realized that boy our house was wayyyyyyy cold, just to learn that it shuts off because it is on a timer. So now we have fixed that and it should be running when we are home! phew!  It's about 7:35pm right now and I am so exhausted from traveling and the lack of sleep the last two nights, that I will probably go to bed soon! 

Take care!  

<3 Amber