Life in a one road town...

Over the last month since I last blogged, life has been so busy here and full of events and traveling! 

City of Derry in the Background

We spent the first week of February in the North. We stayed in a restored manner in Donnegal and then made day trips into Northern Ireland. We had guest speakers come to where we were staying and talk about their experiences with regard to the troubles in the North. We also went to the city of Derry for a day and walked around the ancient city walls and also down to the Bogside and saw where Bloody Sunday took place and looked at the murals on the buildings. We also went to Belfast and went to Stormont, the parliament building in the North and then drove to the Falls and Shankill Roads and saw the murals there as well. I never knew that the Titanic was built in Belfast and in our drive into the city we saw the cranes that were used to build the Titanic! We also went to the Giant's Causeway and spent a couple of hours climbing around the rocks and taking in the beauty. Our trip to the north was amazing! I learned so much in such a short period of time on a topic that going in to our trip I knew very little about. 

Murals in Derry

Group Photo In Derry 

Stormont in Belfast

Murals of Belfast

Giant's Causeway

Giants Causeway

Giants Causeway

When we got back from the north, I started going to my placement at Eagles Nest two times a week. I love going to school and working with the children. They are all so cute and I have worked one on one with them practicing their reading and maths as well. Being a playground supervisor has been interesting because it seems like lately the kids have been in moods to pick fights with one another but at the same time, they work out the problems amongst themselves and by the time I step in, everything has been resolved. I am going to teach my lesson in the next month or two on the solar system and planets and I am going to make star gazers with them. I am excited and nervous to teach kindergarten through second graders, because it is something I have never done before! 

I Made It!!!

I also have climbed a mountain!!! On February 11th, I went with the hiking class to Letterfrack and we climbed Diamond Mountain. It was a three mile(one hour) walk to Letterfrack and then we climbed up the mountain. The view from the top was spectacular and made the hard climb up totally worth it. After we made it down the mountain, we stopped at the pub in Letterfrack and all had a pint before walking the three miles back to Tully Cross, the whole trip took around 5 hours. Climbing the Diamond was so much fun and I hope to do it many more times before I leave. 

The Diamond

The best part of February has been the last few days when my mom came to visit!!! She arrived Friday Feb. 18th in Galway. We met at the hotel, had some coffee and then went out shopping for the day. We had dinner at the hotel and then went back to the hotel room and rested before going down to the hotel restaurant for live music that night. I was so proud of my mom for making it all day and night with jetlag! The next morning we woke up and walked around Galway in the sun, Friday it was rainy so we did not see much of the city. After walking around, we went to the bus station and took the bus to Clifden were we met one of my professors and had dinner at the Station House in Clifden. When we got to Tully Cross, we checked into the hotel and went to Coyne's for a few pints. It was so surreal to have my mom in Tully Cross! Sunday it was pouring rain, but we went to Kylemore Abbey and took a tour and shopped in the gift shop. That night we went to Sammon's and enjoyed lived music. Monday we went to the beach where part of the movie Tristan and Isolde was filmed and walked around for a while. We then had lunch and it was time for her to go :-(. We did so much in a short period of time, but I am so glad that she game for a visit. 

Tomorrow (Wednesday) we leave for Dublin for three days and then Saturday I start my two week spring break. I am going to Athens, Rome, Florence, Venice and London! I am so excited and cannot wait!!! I will not be able to blog for a while, but I will post all about it when I get back in March.