March 15-16, 2011

Tuesday the 15 the school had a Saint Patrick's Day Assembly where our whole year danced to two songs.
All of us did a traditional irish dance to a well known Irish folk song and half of our year did a more modern dance to the song c'est la vie, a popular song from the 90's. There were many other traditional Irish performances from solo Irish dancing to playing traditional Irish instruments like the Ilan Pipes. Even though we only practiced the dance one day we still managed to pull it off.
Today, Wednesday was thankfully a clear day with the sun coming down and little wind. Our whole year had planned to go down to the beach after school but only about eight of us showed up. Raquel, Isobel, and I were the only ones brave enough to go for an arctic plunge in the Irish Sea, while the others watched comfortably from the shoreline. The water was absolutely freezing but we still went completely under and after losing all feeling in all pediments we decided it was time to head to Ellie's house for dinner. Getting in and out of the water is the most painful part because you are already freezing and the sharp stabbing rocks aggravate your numbed feet. When we got to Ellie's house we listened to music for a while and talked then we ate dinner. Dinner consisted of delicious chicken and cooked broccoli in a yellow creme sauce. It was amazing. The chicken was served with white rice and a fresh green garden salad. After we let dinner settle it was time for dessert. Dessert was also amazing and homemade. Ellie's mom made meringues and a spongy cake with strawberry sauce inside. There are HUGE plans for tomorrow, hope they go well!

March 10-14, 2011

Thursday the 10 it was raining and I had no plans and did nothing. But on Friday the 11 it was my friend Andrea's sixteenth birthday and about fiften of us went to her house, ate, talked, messed around and watched a movie. It was very fun and I went home at ten. On Saturday Dana and I went into town on to O'Connell and Grafton Street. We went into a coffee shop to warm up and relax and luckily we did because while we were sitting there it started to lightly snow for about ten minutes. After town I went to my friend Rachel's house to watch some television and get ready for the fourth year club Wez. It was very fun and many girls from our school showed up. The night at Wez was freezing cold!!It was so cold that while we were waiting in line for the place to open my knuckles turned a black blue color, and Raquel's almost did and were turning a dark green color. But luckily there was no rain to mess up my straightened hair.
Today, Monday it rained some more. I was hoping the rain would continue and cancel today's Outdor Pursuits because we had absailing and rock climbing later and I am absolutely terrified of heights. Of course the rain stopped while we were getting changed into our tracksuit. So we walked up Killiney Hill and over to the other side to the quarry where we would rock climb and absail down. There were two sets of rock climbs to do and the man picked me, someone terrified of heights to climb a three story rock face first! I was stuck at one spot for a good three minutes  just standing there shaking holding in my pee with all my might because everytime I would put my foot down it would slip because of my muddy shoes and the wet rock. Then I finally reached the top! I was so proud but that moment of victory was then shattered by the fear of getting back down. Especially when the man said just lean back. It took all of my trust to lean back and hold on to one rope connected to my waist three stories up. But I did that too!! Getting down was fun because you basically just sit and walk backwards. Then it was on to absailing where you walk backwards off a one and a half story rock face. I was freaking out seeing that you walk over the edge rock face backwards but that was fun too. Except scarier because we had to control the rope that let us move down, but the instructor at the top had an extra safety rope. It was more fun than I ever could've imagined and I am very proud of myself today!

March 9, 2011

Today's Wednesday outings took up the entire day. It was self defense class where we learned how to react in certain situations, and kicked and punched these little pads. I really enjoyed the class. Unfortunately I didn't go to mass today because no one told me that there was mass at school before classes started and regular mass in local churches doesn't start until 9 a.m. and wasn't allowed to got to that one. After school my friends Raquel, Isobel, and I all went over to Rachel's house in Booterstown to watch some t.v. Today was much colder than yesterday and there are about 30 m.p.h. winds so when I was walking back home from the Dart station my feet were picking up and dropping in the same spot until there was a break in the wind where I would practically run.

March 7-8, 2011

The seventh was a normal day. But today, the eighth was completely different. Instead of Fat Tuesday here they call it pancake Tuesday where you're supposed to only eat pancakes all day. Since our school doesn't sell food hardly anyone here had pancakes for lunch because they would  get too soggy by lunch time. We did eat pancakes for breakfast though. I found out, while we were eating, that here they don't just put syrup on and cut and enjoy, here they put toppings on like nutella or jam or sugar then they roll it up and then cut and enjoy. So I was getting funny faces throughout my first pancake and then they told me I eat it weird so then I observed while they explained it to me. Also the pancakes are much thinner and more crepeey than most of ours back home.
Ms. Toomey told me to eat at this chipper in Dublin city centre across the street from Christ Church Cathedral called Leo&Burdock's. They sell fish 'n' chips and many other items alike. I have been waiting to go there since I arrived in Dublin so finally today Ellie and I hopped on a Dart to Tara Street station and walked down to the chipper. I ordered fresh cod fish 'n' chips and Ellie just got chips. One of their portions could feed about three people. We ordered our food and then walked up Grafton Street where we ate, walked, and talked.
I had plenty of chocolate today to last me these forty days of Lent. I am going to make my list and follow it better than I followed it last year. Today Ellie got another dog, his name is Rua a ten month old Golden Retriever. To me his coat looks too white, his head looks too broad, and his eyes seem too round to be a Golden Retriever.
Tomorrow we have Wednesday outings again and I am excited.

March 2-March 6, 2011

Nothing exciting enough to write about happened in the past couple of days. Until the fourth when I didn't have access to a computer and then the fifth when I fell asleep and forgot to write. On the fourth I was invited to a sleepover that I was able to attend in Dalkey, one stop away on the Dart. My friend Rachel organized the whole sleepover, there were about thirteen of us. We stayed up until about 6 a.m. watching scary movies. The sleepover was very fun! But most of us had an early start in the morning becase they either had sports, or had to go to city centre and sell lollipops for charity. We all woke up at 8 a.m. but then realized we couldn't handle it so we slept in until 10 a.m. which helped our exhaustion a little. We had a delicious breakfast and headed off our own ways. Well I forgot my keys and Ellie went into town but I thought I would just catch the Dart to get home and try to see if anyone was home but no one was when I got there, so I walked myself down to the beach and just sat and observed. I haven't a clue as to how long I actually sat there for because I have no concept of time, and no way to tell. But I sat right at the water's edge and watched the grey-blue water melt into the grey-blue sky, listened to the tiny waves hit the rocks and observed people and their dogs run by, felt the sharp breeze on my cheeks, and smelled the warm, light saltiness of the sea. After a relaxing and thoughful time on the beach I decided to go home to try to see if any one was home again. Rachel and Ion were both there so I got in. On the morning of Sunday the fifth I walked to a different church today, one much much closer and I enjoyed it. Then after my walk home Anne, my host mom and Ellie decided that we should go to Powerscourt Townhouse. It is more inland and about a thirty minute drive from Killiney in a less built up area. This is no ordinary townhouse. This is a mansion! The inside has now been converted into a little shopping centre but the outside gardens of the house and the structure of the builiding are all the same. This mansion was built in 1731, older than America! The gardens were absolutely fantastically beautiful. The front gardens area is the only are that has changed, it is now a golf course. The back has ponds, a Japanese garden, creeks, flower gardens, statues, wells, defense towers with canons, a pet cemetery, hundreds of steps and trailways. It was gorgeous. When we returned home from our two hour trip Ellie and I were invited to Rachel's house to watch a movie so we went where two other of our friends were. But we had to leave right after the first movie ended at about 6:30 because we had a family dinner at 7 p.m. in Monkstown at Fxb's Pub. Ellie's grandpa is the one who treated us to the dinner, nine of us attended: Ellie, Rachel, Ion, Ion's dad, Anne, Annes parents, and Anne's aunt. The meal was delicious and we even got desert. Diner was extremely enjoyable and pleasant. We got home at about 9 or 9:30 p.m. It's off to school again tomorrow.

March 1, 2011

The plans for the movies were cancelled but that didn't stop Raquel and I from going to Dun Laoghaire. We ran a couple of errands, got some money, put credits on our phones, and grabbed a bite to eat. Today and yesterday were absolutely gorgeous days. My favorite, big, clear, blue skies with the sun shining and freezing cold. The frost on the grass in the morning stays there for hours past when we leave for school at 8:30 so you know it's freezing. Another highlight of my day is that I saw Bono!!!!!! It all started a week ago when this man came flying up the hill on a deafening motorbike wearing a leather jacket with and eagle and the American flag in the background with big bold red letters USA, I only saw him from the back because we were walking to the Dart station. I said to my friends I wonder if that was Bono, then he made the turn up to the road where Bono lives! One of my friends said he had a beard so it wasn't Bono and I believed her. But today as Raquel and I were leaving my house on the way to Dun Laoghaire I heard the bikes roar and looked up and saw a man with a familiar unshaved face sporting yellow sunglasses, a helmet and a leather jacket and I put my head back down but in an instant lifted my head back up to follow the zipping motorbike now behind us with the same USA jacket. I then knew who it was and took off running to try to follow him and tell Ellie at the same time with Raquel trailing behind me. Unfortunately he was making a left hand turn and didn't need to wait for any oncoming traffic and took off. So I went back into the house and tried to explain breathlessly to Ellie what had just happened. To my disbelief I saw Bono, a world renoun rockstar! The first famous person I have ever seen was in Ireland! And this whole time students have been asking me if I have ever met a famous person, now I can say ya, here.

February 28, 2011

I was extremely exhausted this morning trying to get up for school because of how late I stayed up all midterm and the funI had the night before. We started our new schedule today because of the new midterm. Our class, 4-Alpha, now have outdoor pursuits every monday. Today and next week's outdoor pursuits is horseback riding in Bray. We are horseback riding English style though they call it here Irish style, for obvious reasons. I have only rode on a horse about three or four times and each time it has been Western style and along a wilderness trail. So English riding is a new thing for me, but I did learn how to do the rising trot bounce. You'll know when you're doing it wrong, it hurts. I also learned alot of names of the horses tack (straps and buckles that go every which way.) Tomorrow most of our class is planning on going to the movies after school even though we don't know which movie yet. The closest movie theatre is in Dun Laoghaire and a couple of my friends and I plan to hang out there after the movies too.
I finally got the most recent photos uploaded. There's the Usher concert, Victoria Square Mall in Bellfast, New Grange, O'Connell Street in the city centre, and Trinity College. Hope you enjoy!

February 27, 2011

It was rainybut a little warm which later cleared up to little patches of blueish sky. Also Jasper went home today after only one night. Tonight Ellie, Rachel, and I went to Usher's concert at the O2 in the city centre. Usher's performance was good from his dancing, to backup dancers, to pyrotechnics and to keeping the audience on their feet. I took even more pictures and I found my uploading chord but I am too tired tonight so hopefully tomorrow I will have pictures up.

February 26, 2011

Today the sky had patches of blue inbetween big, puffy, white, clouds and dark clouds. So when I went on my run this morning I took a little different of a route and went the opposite way on the beach towards Dalkey. The ocean was really interesting today because there were absolutely no waves today and the water seemed like it was further out than it normally would be. I continued running and I looked out once more to the ocean and to my surprise there was this magnificent glowing rainbow in the middle of grey-blue ocean. This rainbow was humongous and bright, it was my first time seeing a rainbow in the middle of the ocean. Another moment when I wished I would've had my camera. But oh well, I am positive I will remember that rainbow forever. Today Ellie got another dog, its name is Jasper and he is an old black lab. We only have Jasper until tomorrow evening, it belongs to Aoife, a girl from school.

February 25, 2011

Today five of us went to town, it was me, Ellie, Rachel, Isobel, and Dana. We got to the city centre at about 2:30 and we walked through Trinity College to O'Connell Street to go shopping . On O'Connel Street there are designer name brand stores and Forever 21. We went back up to Grafton Street to walk for a little ways. Once it was starting to get dark out, which was around 6pm, we headed back home and caught the Dart. Ellie's parents were off at the rugby match while Rachel is at a sleepover, so Ellie and I returned to and empty house where dinner was waiting on the stove. Dinner was pasta with meatsauce, it was great. I took more picture but I can't find the chord to upload it to my computer. It was pretty warm today, I only wore a long sleeved shirt with a sweater and jeans with normal socks and tennies and I was completely comfortable.

February 24, 2011

Today was really warm and beautiful! I was wearing what I would in California; jeans and a t-shirt. I went for another run today but the grass was soppin wet with patches of hidden slushy mud so my feet got soaked and my running pants got really muddy. Isobel, a girl from school, slept over last night because Ellie and Rachel went to X Factor (U.K. and Ireland version of American Idol) last night and took one friend each. So today Ellie, Isobel, and I met with our friend Rachel in Dalkey at a park with five other people. We played with a rugby ball and soccer ball for about two or three hours. We just wanted to stop by the park in Dalkey because I really wanted to get this amazing bagel in Dun Laoghaire, but time just flew by. Once we realized it was five Ellie and I, because Isobel stayed at the park, took off for the Dart station to get to Dun Laoghaire. We hurried up to the bagel shop and they were closed and had just started mopping the floors. I was disappointed and walked to the nearest centra, basically a healthier 711, and picked up a chicken sandwich and yoghurt. Ellie wanted McDonalds so I ate my food in there. We took the Dart home and were greeted with delicious lamb steak, steamed veggies, and mashed potatoes. Ellie left for babysitting and her parents went to dinner, so it was just Rachel, her friend and I and we decided that we were going to make a cake. We wanted to be creative and not follow a recipe. The cake ended up having plain flour, egg, caster sugar, brown sugar, butter, vanilla essence, baking powder, baking chocolate, and my made up filling that consisted of icing sugar, butter, and vanilla essence. Rachel and I were the only ones who found it good. I mean it wasn't going to win any kind of award but it wasn't horrible. Rahel's friend Tessa after one bite said no thankyou when we offered her more, but Ellie and her parents thought it absolutely awful when they got home. But I liked it, so more for me!

February 23, 2011

We woke up at 8:30 am as planned to head for the U.K. My host dad surprised us by coming along, he drove the entire time. It did take us two and a half hours as planned to reach Belfast. Our first stop was Victoria Square it's a humongous mall about five or six stories like Dundrum but this one has this huge glass globe about eight or nine stories high. To get to the glass globe you must take the escalators all the way up to the highest floor in the mall and then either take the lift or three or so stories of flights of spiraling granite stairs. At the end top of the stairs there is just this little walnut looking landing that you stand on. When you're standing on the landing it feels like your byself in a giant snowglobe with a 360 degree view of Belfast. Opposite of where the stairs are is the H&W shipyard where the Titanic was built and a view of the bay. There are many old brick buildings with bright green tops that dont really show up in photos surrounding this modern mall. The people of Belfast have a different accent than the Dublineers I have been used to. Their accent is kind of British like, mixed with a tad of Scottish, and the rest is Irish. This mall contains the only Hollister in Ireland, well on the island of Ireland. It is still a touchy subject here, the Protestant Catholic IRA business even though there claims to of have been a peace treaty. But anyways Belfast has the only Hollister which is the reason we came to this mall. Belfast has a completely different feel than Dublin, it feels more built up and older. Like a more cityish city centre. It's difficult to explain. Once the shopping in Hollister was done we headed off to New Grange.
New Grange is absolutely fascinating! It is the biggest man made of rock mounds in it's area. That's not just the big whoop though, this man made mound of dirt and stone is huge! New Grange was built in 3200 B.C. which means it's 5,000 years old! It is much like Stonehenge, or I should say Stonehenge is much like this because New Grange is 1,000 years older than Stonehenge. But New Grange was thought to of have been built as a place to store cremated bodies and the only window inside the mound lets in full light only for a couple of hours on the winter solstice. So when we went in today it was pitch black inside with all the lights off except for a little line of dim light on the floor. The graffitti inside dates all the way back to the 1600's and has many many names listed with the years in the 1800's. Unfortunatley pictures arent allowed inside and is really difficult to explain in words it's much easier and makes a lot more sense to draw it out and explain. But it was very enjoyable and I cant wait to explain when I get back. I am posting pictures of the outside.

February 22, 2011

I forgot to mention that this week is midterm break. This morning we woke up at 8 am to catch the right Dart so we could have a going away breakfast for Laurna before she left for the airport in her mom's cafe. It was just Ellie's cousins (they'e all sisters) and Rachel, Ellie and I. We ate French toast, sausage, and bacon. The meal was delicious. The aunt's cafe is in Monkstown which is right next to Dun Laoghaire, so we walked over to Dun Laoghaire to get on  a bus that would take us to Dundrum the mall.  Ellie and I only stayed at the mall for a little over an hour because we needed to gogrocery shopping because tonight was our turn to make dinner and desert, while Rachel and one of their cousins stayed for about four hours. Ellie and I took the Luas, a train system, home. After our long walk home from the Luas station we started on dinner and desert right away. Ellie and I agreed that tonight she do dinner and I do desert. She made this really good shrimp sausage bacon spaghetti tomato cream dish. It sounds gross saying the main ingredients but it was amazing! I made these weird little biscuit cookie things with filling in the middle and icing on top, all from scratch. The recipe told me it would only take ten minutes, well it took me about an hour and a half. Tomorrow we are going to the U.K. We're going to Belfast the capital of Northern Ireland, just my host mom, Rachel, Ellie, and I. Were planning on leaving at 8:30 am to get there at 10:30 am.

February 21, 2011

I started today out with a run. I didnt have to run very far or fast to prove how out of shape I am, especially from my three week break of absolutely no exercise! I am absolutely tired from my jog and am not looking forward to tomorrow's run. I took the dogs on a walk afterwards but it turned out not so good. The dogs had way too much energy so they were constantly pulling on the leash and as I passed by a long driveway they both took off up it. I unded up being dragged on my side a couple of feet. While I was hitting the concrete I landed on the side with the deep pocket that had the set of keys in it. Did that hurt! I got an immediate bruise on my thigh. To top it off a couple people witnessed my being dragged on the floor on my side with both arms up clenching leashes with two big dogs on the other end. Then it started pouring not even a minute after that so I took the dogs back home where I was greeted with a freezing shower. But I didn't hop in thank goodness I felt the water befor doing so! Ellie got home from staying at her cousin's house and then her dad came home and then her mom woke up. (Her mom's a nurse who works nights.) We later had dinner and the water was hot again so I enjoyed a nice warm shower.

February 20, 2011

Last night and this morning were freezing! I think it's interesting how one day can be the hottest I have experienced here and sunny and then the next day is the coldest and rainy. This morning Ellie and I walked to Mass about a mile away. Ellie is in the church's choir. The mass out here is conducted a bit differently than it is back home. First of all I feel like at home we do a lot of standing during the mass, but here it is a lot of kneeling so I constantly had to watch what everyone else was doing. Second of all they dont raise their hands palm up at all when we do three times, so I mustve looked really intersesting when I raised my arms up. And just about every single person in their had two kids each and child room to keep them entertained in, so it was very loud. To top the noise off a large amount of adults were talking the entire time too! Me already struggling with poor hearing was about to go crazy on the talking people because I could hardly even hear the priest when he was raising his voice in a microphone. There also wasn't that part in mass where you all hold hands and recite the prayer. What shocked me the most was that there wasn't any wine during communion for the people, only the priest got it. After mass we walked to Ellie's cousin's house, the ones that hosted Mina, and we got there dog and walked back to our house grabbed our two dogs and went down to the beach. I found a sea shell, sea glass, a piece of a crab shell, a bright green, and red rock, and many other beautiful rocks. The rocks on this beach are mainly solid black, there are quite a few solid white ones, and some black with white lines on them. But to my surprise there are a lot of rocks with Micah in them. After the long walk and beach time with the dogs we put them back and walked up back to Ellie's cousin house where they were having a going away party for one of her cousins, Laurna. Laurna is I think twenty two and she is going back to college in Vienna, she was just visiting home for her break for a couple of weeks. The dinner was chicken curry with white rice and desert was brownies with ice cream, it was delicious.  But I am very tired tonight from all of our walking.

February 19, 2011

This morning was a beautiful sunny Saturday morning. Ellie and I took Millie and Rocky down to the beach today where we played fetch and let the dogs swim for a while. Today got really warm, I was able to walk around in a t-shirt and a thermal with just tights and jeans, apposed to that plus a sweater plus a wool jacket while wearing gloves and knee high socks under my jeans. I was planning on swimming at the beach today because the water wasnt too bad and you could actually feel the sun's heat on your skin, but Ellie had tennis practice and we needed to run a few errands. By the time we got back from finishing everything the temperature drastically dropped dimininshing my hopes of going for a swim. Ian, Ellie's dad, made a delicious dinner with chicken, roasted potatoes, and grilled cherry tomatoes in a white cream sauce. After dinner I watched for the first time the movie Valentine's Day. I was actually surprised that the movie was good and had a logical story line that played out. I liked the movie.

February 18, 2011

The last day of work experience came and went, the school gave Dana and I gifts and each kid went in the front of the class and either danced or sang. Overall I enoyed working with the kids but I don't think I would have the patience to work with them as an occupation. There was a farmers market in Dun Laoghaire today where I bought a loaf of sourdough bread. Ellie has her own little business of dog sitting and today we got two dogs, Millie and Rocky. Millie is a three year old Golden Retriever and Rocky is an all black six year old Golden Retriever/Border Collie mix. Later Ellie and I went to the movie theatre at Dundrum, a mall, and saw A Little Bit of Heaven. Kate Hudson is the star in this movie. To be honest with you I had no idea that this movie even existed it was by accident that we saw it, because in these move theatres there is assigned seating and for the movie that we wanted to see with Adam Sandler only had seperated seats, so we took the only movie with available seating of our preference. This movie was great and really depressing, even men were crying. Before the movie we ate in the mall at a very modern conveyer belt sushi bar, where to my surprise water cost money! Today was very long but enjoyable, and rainy.

February 15 - 17, 2011

The past few days were just normal days, on the 15 it was pouring! There was so much rain that on my walk home from the Dart station parts of the roads were flooded and water was pouring over sidewalks into people's yards. I had to wade through the puddles in my canvas keds, and my pace walking home sure did quicken after that. My brother's third birthday was the 16 but I wasn't able to wish him a happy birthday because my dad's phone and skype weren't working so that was disappointing.
 This whole week Dana and I have been doing work experience at Holy Child Sally Noggin working with children who have learning disabilities. Getting to that school requires taking the Dart to Dun Laoghaire and then the 7 or the 45 bus, well Dana and I thought it was the 46 bus and hopped on. We decided to stay on the bus and let it take us in a loop back to the stop where we got on because we just thought this bus was just going around Dun Laoghaire. Two hours later on that same bus in rush hour traffic we ended up in the city. We were looking for any streets that we recognized and luckily from being in town for the weekend we recognized Grafton Street and we remember taking the Dart to Pearse station to get to Grafton Street. We got off the bus on Grafton Street and asked for directions to the Dart station. Luckily a local college student knew where the Pearse station was and we thanked her and went on our way to buy a ticket for Dun Laoghaire. We safely made it to the school, late. But the staff was very nice and understanding. After school we got the correct bus back to the Dun Laoghaire Dart station to catch the right rails. I saw my correct train, or so I thought, and hopped on. Once the train didn't stop at the stop before where I get off I realized I was on a Commuter train and not the Dart. The Commuter only stops at every five Dart stops, which means I had travel past my destination and walk on the other side of that train station to get on the northbound rail side and wait for the correct train. Once again I finally made it safely to my desired destination past my anticipated time of arrival.

Photos

I have created a photobucket account where I will post photos. I have already posted about 100 photos on their. To access you go to photobucket.com and in the search bar you type mdriggsy and it will say no match, but if you scroll down my album will be there. Hope you enjoy!

February 14, 2010

Happy Valentine's Day! Working with the students at Holy Child Sally Noggin was fun, and are excited to go back tomorrow. The school is right next to Dun Laoghaire. To get there Dana and I must take the Dart into Dun Laoghaire and then a bus that drops us off right near the school. Surprisingly the double-decker bus faire is only .65 Euro. Their school day started off with us meeting the students, there are about fifteen of them. Many girls from our school had volunteered at this school before and warned us that these boys like to flirt. And boy were they right! The ages range from thirteen to twenty and the disabilities range from ahtism, to down syndrome, and to being deaf and dumb. After being introduced we were split up into two groups to go into Dun Laogherie where we ate toast and tea and walked to many stores to observe the different Valentine's Day cards. After about three hours in town we returned to the school on a public bus and sat in class to discuss what we saw in the stores and what we did during the weekend. We then had lunch in the dance studio above the school's gym. After lunch we went downstairs into the gym and played fun games with squishy balls and trash bags which lasted a couple more hours. Then it was time for dance class where the students rehearsed the dances they would be performing in a couple of weeks. Once the day ended Dana and I hurried for the nest bus into Dun Laoghaire to drop us off at the closest Dart station to get back home. Around noon today the grey clouds cleared up to reveal a beautiful blue sky, but that doesn't mean it got warmer. At around 9:30 pm this night there was a sudden downpour of rain for about five minutes. Tonight is really cold.

February 13, 2011

Today was a workout. Rachel, my host sister had a hockey match today and it was too cold for them to play because of too much frost on the field even though it was for division championchips. Ellie and I hiked up Killiney Hill to the obelisk, past Bono's mansion where we met Raquel, a Spanish student. I took so many pictures today that my camera died! We then hiked to the other side, the North side of the Hill to Dalkey where we caught the Dart to Dun Laoghaire. In Dun Laoghaire I bought a few books and an Irish phone. There is also a bagel version of Subway which was delicious. Once we left our delicious warm lunch we got soaked in a sudden downpour of rain on our walk to the Dart back home. The France vs Ireland rugby game was on today but France won by three points so there were many disappointed fans, especially the ones in attendance, like my host father. We had delicious chili for dinner when we got back. Tomorrow our whole year has work experience and Dana and I are assigned to work at Holy Child Sally Noggin with the mentally disabled students.

* I cant figure out how to post pictures on here yet, sorry.

February 12, 2011

Today was one of the most gorgeous days I have ever experienced, bright blue skies with a perfect chill. I went down to the beach for about 30-40 mins just walking around and taking photos, there were loads of people there. There were people swimming, kayaking and walking their dogs. Once I realized what time it was I ran up to the Dart station and went into town to meet with a group who dressed as superheroes and did random acts of kindness. I loved town and took a lot of pictures. There were many tourists from France in the city centre because there is going to be an Ireland vs. France Rugby game. The city centre on Grafton St. reminded me a lot of a morphed version of New York and Vegas. New York because how crowded it was and street vendors everywhere handing papers for advertisement out, and Vegas because of all the touristy things to buy and the street performers. I was in town from 12 pm to about 7 pm, two of those hours were spent listening to just one guy play the guitar, another listening to a band, and the other four hours were spent walking around. Today was great!! Now I am back home and am going to eat dinner in about an hour. I will try uploading photos and hopefully it works.

February 11, 2011

Today was GREAT!!! So first of all today was my half birthday meaning I am officially old enough to get my permit now!! During luch our whole year went to a room to have a going away lunch for the two Japaneses girls Mina and Mickey After school we went to Mina's house and had a going away party for her and about fifteen of us showed up, I have alot of pictures but don't know how to transfer them to computer yet. At the little get together we had loads of sweets to the point where my stomach is hard and bulging. We played our music really loud and took loads of pictures. When the time came for everyone to leave, everyone started balling their eyes out. We will all miss Mina very very much. Certain people are probably reading this and are asking how could I miss her if I hardly know her and that should tell you what a wonderful person she is and how she was able to leave an impression on me so quickly. Tomorrow is also going to be a fun day because we are going to town with our year because certain people are doing a project called random acts of kindness and are going around town helping people. Were going to try to find me a cladder ring on grafton street and explore the city centre of Dublin

*I apologize for misspellings and I can't hit tab on here to differentiate paragraphs.

February 10, 2011

Today just kinda went by. It poured again, but the clouds were different today than any other day, they were extremely high up in the sky. I could also tell that the cloud layer was thin because it was a blue grey, the exact same color as the ocean. So again no sunrise, but right above the horizon where the monochromatic clouds and ocean met there was a bright orange line from one end of the bay to the other, at first I thought it was something in the water but it wasn't and theat's when I realized that was the best sunrise I would be getting that morning. The line stayed there for over an hour while I saw the sun's bright yellow light bursting in one spot through the clouds, as the sun continually made it's way into the sky way up above, that orange line was still there, it was a perplexing phenomena. At about 2pm almost all of the clouds disappeared, well there werent any over the ocean anymore, and the blue sky just grew. Tonight Ellie's family and I are having a goodbye dinner for the Japanese foreign exchange student, Mina. Tonight was the only night that her host mom, Leslie, Ellie's aunt, had off of work. I am excited and saddened that Mina is going back home to Japan, she has been away from home for nearly a year now.

February 9, 2011

Last night after I posted my blog, when I was doing homework and Ellie's sister Rachel was watching t.v. in the front room, her dad came home and he took Rachel and I out to a modern pub owned by one of his friends. The pub was called FXB's, it was two stories high with a formal dining area upstairs, and the bar and lounge downstairs. The walls were covered in local artist's masterpieces, and I even met the owner, he was giving out these little stuffed teddy bears with a devilish theme for Valentine's Day, we got one. I ordered an open faced spring chicken sandwich with a side salad which was very tasty and had very fancy, hard, dark bread underneath, Rachel got orange chicken skewers with a side of chips and Ellie's dad got a huge plate of fish'n'chips. One thing that I learned at the meal last night was that Irish people put vinegar on their chips, luckily I love vinegar. We then visited Ellie and Rachel's grandpa who is really funny and easy to talk to. The quick visit concluded our rainy and cold night. Today wasn't a very busy day at all. The sky was filled with heavy grey clouds spilling out rain all day so I wasn't able to admire the sunrise. Every Wednesday we have a speaker for around an hour come and speak to our grade, today we had a French man who volunteered at a program for elderely people called ALONE based in Dublin. He very much enjoyed working for the program helping the lonely, depressed, and elderly of Dublin county. I have nothing else planned for tonight except for studying and for homework so goodnight Ireland and have a good rest of the day California.

February 8, 2011

This morning was freezing! I looked outside the window in the entryway and there was frost on the grass, so I was sure to wear my jacket to school today. My brown boots hardly have any traction at all and none on ice so I lost my step every now and then on our walk this morning. I was talking with Ellie about how clear and blue the sky was today without a single cloud in sight, and how impressed and excited I was. She told me that this morning we had a red sky, that really shocked me, and I argued with her about why she didn't pull me out to see it. Apparently there is an old saying about the red sky; "A red sky in the morning is a shepherd's fright, but red sky in the evening is a shepherd's delight." What it means, I have no idea, Ellie doesn't even know. And once again I watched the sunrise, but today was different, the water was shimmering brightly, to the point where I couldn't look for more than a few seconds without squinting and quickly turning away. The brightness of the water actually irritated me when I was trying to take my math test that I finally drew the shades. The grey clouds quickly rolled in again, but there is just a slight breeze today, which I am etremely pleased with. I'm thinking about going to Dun Laogherie tomorrow, we'll see.

busy week

Wow. I cant believe a week has already gone by. I know many people have been wanting me to blog for a while now and I told them I would so for those of you out there I apologize. My trip all started with an 11:00am flight out of LAX where I got patted down in security, and where I met Dana (my Ireland buddy) and we continued our four hour flight on to Chicago, O'Hare, Airport (getting an early taste of the Irish names) our one and only layover, thank goodness. Our two hour layover consisted of us eating and being lost. We ate at a Greek fast food restaurant inside one of Chicago Airport's food courts right before going through security for a second time. Having my luck of course I got dragged to the side and patted down...again. But after being patted down again they decided I look like such a threat to an international airport, TSA took out all of my stuff out of my well packed bag and run half of the items through the private scanner in the back while they swiped my palms for any evidence of suspicious residue. Then they had the nerve to just shove my things haphazardly back into my backpack so it wouldnt zip up. Off to our seven hour red eye plane flight from Chicago at 7:30pm to Dublin at 9:00 am. Of course I slept only about twenty minutes on each flight even though I purposefully slept only two hours the night before so I would fall asleep in the planes for the next days travels. We landed safe and sound in Dublin where we took a much needed pit stop to the bathroom before going to "baggage reclaim"(as was written in the airport) I found this amusing because I am used to people and signs reading "baggage claim". The airport in Dublin is extremely nice and modern with, as I say, magic carpets, or moving walkways. We were following signs to the exit, excited and expecting to meet my host family I turned the corner, and to my dismay was the horror of customs. How could I forget about customs? So Dana and I were the first ones, we walked right up to seperate windows because were big kids, and we greeted the officers and they did likewise and that's where the battle began...They drilled us with a series of questions I hardly understood half of what they were saying, partially because of my horrible hearing, and my first time being exposed to any form of an Irish accent. We stated our business, and common information you learn in kindergarten, who our hosts were, showed our notarized statements, but that "wasnt enough to let two foreign girls go by themselves" as one officer told us. So I was sent to the window where Dana was so only one officer could deal with us.Thank goodness I was with Dana, she was more prepared than I, but not enough for the guards, they wanted both our host parents phone, and work numbers, their email, and their home addresses. All I had was my host moms email, who wasn't even picking me up, her husband was but I still didnt have any phone numbers and that's where Dana saves my butt from being sent straight back home. Dana's host family wasnt able to pick her up from the airport so my host father was picking us up, Dana had the telephone number of her host mother who we called so she could talk to customs and call my host father to let him know the situation. When everything finally was sorted out and we were on our way to foreign exchange student freedom we had to search for my host father and sister whom I have only seen pictures on Facebook, once. The search was over within seconds, we exited the stuffy airport to the parking garage, Dublin smelled of the sea and it was just a little chilly with a gently wind and the sky overhead was grey and low. All I could think of is, I'm in Ireland, I'm in Europe, and that same thought just echoed and echoed through my head on the walk to the car. My thoughts were interrupted by the roundness and compactness of all the cars. We had assistance chucking our bags into the trunk of my host father's benz. I entered the seat behind the driver and I saw my host sister Ellie sit in the driver's seat which made me a little nervous to think a sixteen year old girl is going to drive us out of an airport, in a Mercedez-Benz, in Europe. And that's when I realized, were not in Kansas anymore! We drove through the city-centre, our equivilent of downtown, the city had extremely modern, sky scrapers right on the water. The roads are extremely narrow with a very old wall lining the side of the street away from the water, once again not used to the opposite driving, left hand turns made my feel nervous when he didn't pause a split second, but did for right hand ones. There are many round-abouts all throught out Bail-atha-clain (Dublin) county and all of the road signs have Irish as the top language.
Forcing myslef to get used to the time change with virtually no sleep in 72 hrs and thirteen hours of traveling was difficult! But I did it! Since it was Sunday I had school the next day, I retired early, at 8pm it was the latest I could stay up, but I was proud. The next days of school just flew by with the same repetitive questions and responses; "where are you from?", "welcome to Ireland", "so how are you liking Ireland so far", "what's it like living in California", "I see we have the two American students with us", and "are you Irish"(mainly pointed to Dana). But I must say everyone here is extremely welcoming, even though half of the students just stare at you even if you notice them, they keep on staring, but I admit I would probably do the same to a foreign exchange student. I live about a five minutes walk from the school. The shool here is as I like to say and have no other way of explaining it, four and a half stories with cement buildings connected on either side of a very old fashioned house with the walls knocked out to create hallways. There is also a gym and two "pitches"(fields), very well kept. The school is a two minute walk from the rocky beach, and from most classrooms you can see the sunrising above the grey, choppy Irish Sea around 9:00am. We can also see, well I seem to be the only one excited, the sunrise light up the green land and mountains in the distance for just a half an hour before it rises and disappears into the grey abyss of the quick moving clouds. The local public transport system is the DART which makes its way up and down part of the Eastern coastline from Dublin city centre, to Greystones depending on how far your travels are will dictate the cost of a ticket. Within only the first day I felt the liberty of the average Dublin teen. With my host sister Ellie and about five of our friends, we went to Dun Laoghaire on the DART right after school, which cost 1.45 Euro, a nice town with many shops and the only McDonalds for miles, the nicest one I have ever been to, with a Euro Saver Menu instead of the Dollar Menu, and hot tea instead of cold. I really enjoyed it there, we walked around for hours as I stared in awe at how old the buildings are, it kind of reminded of Boston. The cheapest department store around is in Dun Laoghaire it's called Penney's. It surprised me at how much people around here smoke, thankfully my host family doesn't. The next day I felt adventurous, I grabbed one of my friends after school, Mina, an exchange student from Japan who is staying with my host family's cousins, and I said let's go to the end of the tracks on the DART and get off and walk around. With much convincing we went, the end of the tracks we decided to go was all the way south, to Greystones. I also like it there with the many small shops and mansions with a view of the ocean, but it started to rain and get dark so we visited a mall in Greystones called Meridian, it only has about ten shops and was empty but it was very architectually modern. We finally went back home and Mina came to my house with me and we were welcomed with dinner consisting of prawns and roasted potatoes with string beans.mmmmmmm. Then the other weekdays passed by with delicious meals and learning Irish-English vocabulary. In school my favorite things so far have been learning Irish, studying physics, watching  The Pursuit of Happyness   , and going into the city centre to see an art gallery. Unfortunately I have been sick since the day after I got here, too much clean air and plants will mess with a Los Angeles' girl's lungs. Ellie is a dancer and choreographed dances for a panto at a local primary school, she was in a scene as well, and wanted us to be there so Mina and I went on the first showing, Friday the 4th, it was "Tom Thumb", I was pleased with the play and found it very funny. My favorite scene was when a teacher, a middle aged man, dressed as an old ugly woman, and started singing and dancing to Single Ladies, by Beyonce, and when another older man sang to Bad Romance by Lady Gaga. The next day, Saturday we went to a club for kids in an old rugby hall, this night was just for our grade. There are three classes in each grade; Alpha, A and Form. I'm in Alpha and we all got ready at one friend's house, and A got ready at someone elses house and Form at anothers. We rented a party bus which cost seven Euro each and was so worth it, the bus was blacked out from the inside so you couldnt see out, and so the lasers could reflect of the blacked out windows, the music was blasting and we stopped at the other two houses and picked up the rest of our grade, about 55 of us ended up going, was that loud! The club was very fun, I plan on going again before I leave. Unfortunately Ellie couldn't go because she had two more performances that night so I stayed with Mina and we got picked up at about 11:45pm. I wore my new black Forever 21 dress with the heels I wore to Homecoming. I woke up very late Sunday morning after dancing forever the previous night, and relaxed, and did a little bit of homework from back home. I was surprised by the amazing dinner Ellie's mom made for us, and of course, our friend Mina was over, shocker, we had cooked carrots and string beans, and the main course was delicious chicken in a creamy sauce with veggies and white rice, and a homemade baked apple treat with cream.mmm mmmm mmmm tasty!! And now I will actually keep up this blog everyday. Starting with today, today I watched the sunset again and watched the luminous grey clouds overhead move and clear out of the land and to the sea so it was sunny today but so windy I was getting pushed! I've never had so much win to the point where my legs were being pushed into eachother and have trouble even just standing. I went down to the rocky beach ad watched the wind just go right along the top of the water and carry it up into columns of heavy droplets and be released back down, it looked like a diagonal water fountain show over and over again. But I was happy the clouds were gone to let the sun just beat down on my cold windburned cheeks, then it started to rain!! I couldn't understand how it was raining in the sunshine, then I turned around to face Ireland and way far off in the distance and I mean pretty far, there were grey ominous clouds once again. But really, how can rain travel so many miles to a sunny area? Then I thought whatever Nature does what she wants, and on our walk back home I was talking with Ellie about the sunny rain and how I just couldn't get it she says its not uncommon and then she pause and said ya I just saw a rainbow. I couldn't believe this behind us there was a huge bright beautiful rainbow, with atleast the top half disappearing into the moving in clouds starting from behind our school and ending behind a hilly beach point, and I just thought of all the times I dont have my camera it would be the time it was sunny outside and raining with the best rainbow ever, which would have a better chance at having leperchauns and a pot of gold under it than the ones back home. So that was pretty much my day and week, oh ya and Irish people have no idea what corned beef and hash is, I asked alot of them, trust me.