Níl gach uile fhánaí caillte

Hello everyone!

I have finally gotten home safe and sound :). The traveling was horrible and Newark airport seriously needs to work on their security checkpoints, but all is good and I am in the Windy city at last.

I wanted to thank everyone for reading my blog and for all the support and well-wishes. It helped a lot to know that I had people listening.

So, yah, thanks!

Also, it's so cool to have a cell phone back too.

Hi everyone!

I am so sorry I haven't updated. Life has been a bit boring lately so journaling wasn't really at the top of the list.

However, two things are worth attention:

1. I finished student teaching and having officially graduated! I was all set and done on Wednesday. The day was amazing. I ended up just playing Scatergories with my students, as a lesson would not have been cool for a last day ;), and hung out with the staff I have become friends with.  My students got me amazing presents as a send off and the staff and principal did as well. It was wonderful to leave with such amazing memories and great people.

2. I come home Sunday!! I officially leave Killarney on Saturday to stay in a hotel in Shannon (early flight) and so I will be spending tomorrow, rain permitting of course, wandering around and reminiscing.

I'll probably have some sob-story tale of remembrance for Saturday, so look for that, but for right now I am happy just to say that I have never been so sad to leave a place or so happy to come home to my loved ones.

3 days :) 

Here are some links to my pictures from Germany!

Part 1

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2151741&l=a39d8&id=31101642


Part 2

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2151742&l=816f4&id=31101642

Enjoy! :D

The best Hot chocolate ever:





Me enjoying the chocolate:

Hello Everyone!

I am writing from Duisburg, Germany! I am currently staying with my friend Ruth in her family's home and having so much fun!

New Year's Eve we headed down to a boardwalk in the town where people were lighting off tons of fireworks along the river and drinking champagne.

Yah, the fireworks were...um... interesting. People in Germany are only allowed to have fireworks once a year for the New Year. So, they are a little insane with them. Like they light them around other people, I saw way too many people standing next to lite firecracker.

Dad, you would have flipped. It was a little scary.

That's why we were away from them and having our own fun :)

My favorite part was when we wrote down our wishes for the New Year and sent them to the sky tied to bottle rockets and toasted with a great bottle of Champagne.

So, in other news :)

Today Ruth, her boyfriend Julian, and I went out to Düsseldorf and walked around seeing the shops and the sights.

And let me tell you, after going to the chocolate shop there and having the cup of hot chocolate that I did, I will never be able to have another cup without comparing them ever again.

It's like comparing humans to angels.

Amazing.

Oh, and then tomorrow we are heading off to Köln and will probably be seeing sights and castles and stuff :D

oh and I come home in two weeks!

I am sooo happy lately.

See everyone soon! I'll put up pictures in the near future I promise.

So, I am sitting in an internet cafe here in Killarney swathed in my own misery about Brian leaving and listening to the Mamma Mia cd.

They don't really go together I know, but it makes me feel better.

I hate being all woe is me because I am leaving very soon and heading off to visit Ruth in Germany on Tuesday, so I have it pretty good. More than good, I have had an amazing time here.

It was just nice to have someone familiar around again :)

Christmas was certainly interesting. Brian and I were for the most part confined to the upstairs because my landlord decided that her and her husband were going to have their Christmas here instead of Cork after a verbal miscommunication and, so Brian and I just tried to stay out of the way as much as possible.

We were able to make up for most of it though by renting a car and driving to Dingle and Blarney :)

It's been one of the best Christmas breaks I have ever had.

So, I am trying this new link through facebook, so you guys can see my albums fro Christmas and I don't have to just put them up here

So just click these:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2150453&l=83d81&id=31101642

and

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2150455&l=cabde&id=31101642

and you should be able to see my pictures from the break :)

My next entry will hopefully be from Germany assuming I can bring my laptop unscathed with me. I'll let everyone know how that goes!

Miss you all, see you very soon :)

Happy Christmas everybody! Brian and I wish we could be home celebrating with you all!

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night.

So, I am pretty sure I am the most dupp-able person on the planet. (i.e. I am easy to surprise).

The day of my inspection, a very harrowing and stressful day turned out to be probably the best day I have ever had.

1. The inspection went amazingly. All my inspector guy had to say was "Well, I have no negative comments. You are a born teacher and you did a very good job."

YAY ERIN!

2. A little later in the day, I was running off a small high from the events of the day and ran to jump on my bike, get out of St. Brigid's, head home and eat a whole tub of ice cream to reward myself.

Then I hear "Hey, Miss Collins?"

I turn, stop my bike, and see Brian sitting on a rock wall outside of the school.

A goofy-ass grin and a bunch of flowers in his hands. He was two full days early. 

To be honest I kind of just stood there and looked at him. I didn't think he was real.

Now...

I am so freaking happy right now it is unreal!

Brian brought with him presents from my friends and my family for Christmas and an amazing care package from my friends with all the little bits one tends to miss over here in Ireland (Hello Mac'n cheese and ranch dressing!)

I seriously have the best family and friends in the world. So thanks everyone. Especailly If you knew- thanks for keeping it a secret, it's the best Christmas present I have ever gotten.

So my inspector is coming today to obeserve me and I have to say I am more than a little nervous.

If you don't know- the person comes in and basically just watches one of my classes and then judges me on my performance. My cooperating teacher also gives him her reflection on my overall performance and I am graded.

So with that and classes and my homework, it's a little bit stressful in my world right now :)

But....on the brightside, Brian is coming in two days!!

He will be here on Friday and we will be traveling around before Christmas and hanging out for the first time in 3 months!

I am way excited :)

I'll let you guys know how the inspection went and everything!

Happy Holidays!

I got to show a clip from Dead Poet's Society today in one of my classes and I probably enjoyed it more than they did.

None of them had even heard of the movie! What a sad, sad world.

This week is going to be so hectic!

I have a ton of my own homework to do (i.e. reflections, papers, a power point, ect.) and I have the last two weeks of class for the semester! This means putting in grades, finishing up units, or in the case of my 5th years, semi-starting a unit, and lots of grading.

Why am I in this profession again?

:D Lots of prayers would be appreciated

Thank goodness Brian comes in 10 days! Atleast I have something to look forward to.

Happy Holidays everyone!

So today I recieved a present from the place we took the students to go sailing. All of the teachers who went got a present.

It was a fish.

A foot and a half long salmon to be exact.

I tried to cook some, I mean I marinated it and everything. But it wasn't until I took a bite that I remembered I really don't like salmon.

I'll give it to my neighbor I think.

Ireland can be so weird sometimes.

:D

Hello everyone!

I apologize for not having written since Thanksgiving, lots has been happening. I only have the time at the moment because I have unfortunately gotten sick, so I’m not up for much else.

On Thanksgiving, the actual one at home, I went with a class of my first years and the school’s gym teacher to Kenmare on a sailing trip.



The day started out pretty bad and rainy, but by the time we got to Kenmare the sky was clear and gorgeously blue.



The girls and us teachers got dressed up in our wetsuits, overalls, jackets, and life-preservers and headed out with the sailors. They were able to give us three options: a speed boat, kayaks, or a sail boat.


See me in the middle? It's a lot of red i know...

My first trip was out on the sailboat with about 8 of the girls and the sailor guy. This was quite possibly the best part of the day for me. The boat was small, so I always had someone clinging to me, and the sailor-guy was a little mean and always tipping the boat so the girls were screaming constantly. I was pretty much laughing the whole time.

From the sailboat we also were able to see some wild seals on the small islands around the bay. The girls were quiet for this because they didn’t want to scare them away and so we were able to watch the seals dive into the waters and watch us from the distance. It was seriously one of the coolest things for me here—even if only for a moment.

After getting off the sailboat, the girls I had been with went onto the kayaks and I went with three girls onto the speedboat. The girls on the speedboat couldn’t go into the water for different reasons, so they stayed on there the whole time and I was able to just enjoy the scenery around me from the fast little boat.

Now don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed the hell out of my time with the students. I Loved being out of school with them and getting to know them a little better, but I have never been so cold in my whole life. It was wet and about 30 degrees. I think my toes are still a little frozen.

I bring this up because of what I witnessed and laughed at next.

I had the joy of watching a few of my students try to change kayaks with each other on the water. This, of course, was not successful. Three of them fell into the water promptly and floundered there until they were able to pull themselves out.

All the girls were then led to a water-trampoline out in the middle of the bay. The other teacher and I watched from the dock as the girls jumped and slid down a slide into the absolutely freezing waters of the Atlantic Ocean. You seriously have to see it to believe it. Those were brave little students of mine.

We ended the day with a hot lunch and a romp around a play ground were the girls tried to ask me about Brian and guess my first name. It was a really great day and I am so glad I went.

So, nowadays, Killarney is getting colder, though not cold enough for snow (which I hate). But everything else seems to be moving along. Ruth and Katie have both finished their student teaching and are now in Germany. Katie will be coming back from her visit with Ruth to meet up with her parents and sister and will then be going around Ireland for a little while. Amber will be here with me for the next week and a half, and Brian will be here in almost two weeks to celebrate Christmas with me. After Brian leaves, I am going to visit Ruth in Germany for the New year and will come back to Killarney for one last week of teaching before I come home.

It’s funny how the days seem to move so slowly, but everything seems to be happening too quickly. These next few weeks are sure to be amazing!

Oh, before I say goodbye, Amber and I are supposed to be going Irish step dancing tomorrow. So, I’ll let you know how that went….

should be interesting.

Bye!

Because we won't have time on Thursday, Katie, Amber, Ruth, and I decided to celebrate Thanksgiving a little early. The day started at noon and lots of cooking insued!

We managed to make all the regular things we would normally have with our families: stuffed basil and rosemary turkey breast, broccoli casserole, corn, rolls, garlic mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole, stuffing, and gravy!

We may have had to ad-lib a few things (like french fried onions are non-exsitent here) but all in all, it really was an amazing Thanksgiving, and it really did remind us all of home. Well, it did for Katie, Amber, and I, but Ruth has pledged to celebrate Thanksgiving in Germany from now on! :)

Here's some pictures of our own little holiday: 

Getting my cheese sauce ready. They don't have Velvetta here, so I had to make my own for the broccoli casserole. I'm also posing for Ruth if you hadn't noticed.... 



Katie and Amber getting the marshmallows ready for the sweet potatoes



Turkeys ready!



Doesn't all that look amazing!? We were very proud of ourselves.



Good memories with great friends and a bottle of wine :D



Carving is a lot harder than it looks, thank god we didn't get a whole turkey...



My yummy plate of food complete with all the fixin's



and German chocolate mousse for desert courtesy of Ruth!




I'll miss you all on the actual holiday! I'll be sailing in Kenmare with some of my students. I'm still not sure why as I'll freeze to death, but it should be an experience.

This weekend John took Katie, Ruth, and I around the Ring of Kerry. It is fall here in Ireland, so the drive around turned out to be absolutely beautiful with the orange, yellow, red, and brown leaves covering everything. We started our drive going the opposite way that the buses normally go, heading south and west rather than north and west and stopping in cities like Kenmare, Sneem, Cahersiveen , and Caherdaniel.  

We first stopped to see Torc Waterfall again (it was just as beautiful)

And then we stopped at..

Lady’s View-which is named after Queen Victoria’s ladies in waiting

 

Moll’s Gap (Moll is weirdly is short for Mary)

 

Kenmare, for a look around and some hot chocolate (the buildings were really colorful!)

 

Ireland’s supposed “best view.”  Fog permitting of course, it is Ireland.

A place where we where we were also chased in our car by wild dogs who were mad I didn’t finish playing fetch with them and their rock. He's going after the rock in this picture...

 

The best view also had a really funny sign- apparently aliens follow the people who try to swim there.

 

Sneem (pronounced Shneem)

 

 

During our stop in Sneem, we stopped in a small diner and I had Shepard’s pie for the first time here! It was delicious; even if it did need a lot of salt (most Irish food seems to anyway).

and we finished the tour at Rossbeigh beach.

 

Where we also met the cutest puppy ever. He was must nicer than those stupid other dogs.

And finished up in Killarney with some Irish coffee!

 

 

The car rides with John, Ruth, Katie, and I are usually full of random singing (this trip it was songs from the Sound of Music and West Side story), Katie and I asking John what different things are in Irish (like “John, how do you say ‘Give me cake?’” John giving us these phrases usually results in us running around saying things like “kiddies agus ponies!” and stupid things like this), and car sickness.

At this I feel absolutely terrible. John has gone out of his way to be unbelievably nice to us, and even though I sit in the front and try my hardest, I always seem to dissolve into terrible sickness. I totally blame the tight, small, and windy Irish roads because it wasn’t just me this time- Katie got sick too. But all in all, the trip was amazing and we got to see the most amazing views and some puppies too :)

 

I am so excited!

Katie and I are currently over another COST student Amber house. She, like Katie, is from Ohio and we have all been hanging out lately and having tons a fun. Amber is also joining us for our makeshift Thanksgiving this upcoming weekend.

I probably won't be coming home with an Irish accent because I seem to only hang out with Americans and one German  :)

Anyway... we are currently stealing internet at her bed and breakfast and I am having way too much fun with all the fast internet access.

I also get to webcam and see Brian for the first time in two months!

YAY!

Thank goodness for modern communication.

I have to say, walking into a classroom and asking my students "Ok, are you guys excited for your presentations?" and having them reply "YAH WHOOO YAY!" is quite rewarding :D

But, on the other hand, being in a classroom and hearing "miss miss miss miss miss!" for like 20 mins is not fun. I am barely called Miss Collins, only MISS!

And it usually results, like during the middle of my poetry lesson recently, in something like this:
 
"Miss miss miss!?"
 
"yes?"

"Did you vote for Obama?"

"You know that has nothing to do with the topic at hand hun..."

"Oh, I know, just interested."

Oi.

Ok, I am finally going to talk about my fall break, and all that happened- though it really wasn't that exciting. Not as exciting as home seems to be at the moment.

Let me just say that I am so very jealous of all my friends and family for getting to be in Chicago when Obama was elected. I hear Grant Park was amazing.

Driving North

Before the break came up, Ruth told me and Katie that her boyfriend Julien was coming to visit her and that they had planned a trip around some major sites in Ireland. She invited us to go on the first leg of the trip (drive there, we take a bus back) and we readily agreed. So, early Sunday morning, we set out north heading for the first stop on the trip- the Cliffs of Moher.

We took the car along some pretty normal Irish roads (meaning windy, crazy, and random) and saw many things- namely cows and sheep and stone walls- they kind of make Ireland what it is and are pretty much always there. But we also saw some dogs in the sky, or as normal people know them- rainbows. Not, I'm not sure why the Irish call them that, but they were HUGE! And we could see where they ended! We kept asking Julien to drive and find it, but unfortunately a crock of gold was not in store for us. We did get to go on a ferry though. We took the car onto a ferry in order to cross into Shannon and continue our drive. It was really cold, but very pretty.

The Cliffs of Moher

We finally got half way through the drive and arrived at the Cliffs of Moher just in time for a storm. The wind alone was unbelievable, but what's interesting about the Cliffs is that you can literally watch a storm come right at you. Fighting the wind to the ticket counter (unfortunately it's sideways so the wind can attack you) we were all ready with our money when Julien spotted the coming surge of wind and rain. We jumped behind the stone ticket counter just in time, and huddled so the storm couldn't touch us, well, except for Katie. Katie decided to brave the rain and wind and get her tickets- which ultimately got her right side completely and utterly soaked. Julien bought Ruth's and my ticket, so we were only slightly soaked and we all waited in the visitor area until the storm passed.

When we were finally able to make it up the hill to the cliffs we were blasted by more wind and one of the most beautiful views I have ever seen. The ocean stretched out for miles and miles on end. The Cliffs were so large, you could barely see the seagulls swooping and diving near the water down below. At the innermost points the wind was so powerful against the cliffs that it pushed water from the ocean up and over, drenching everyone who walked by. It was truly amazing.

Galway

Galway was a really pretty town and it was lovely to actually see a real city again. Galway is seated on a bay and is really tightly jammed together—this makes it especially easy to get around. Ruth, Julien, Katie, and I were able to meet up with a friend of Ruth’s family, a professor at the University of Galway, and he helped us with our hostel arraignments and maps and stuff. He was amazingly helpful and really nice and all the information he got us helped us wonder our way around.

We got to walk all around and visit a beautiful cathedral named Saint Nicholas’, where I was able to say a prayer for the anniversary of my Uncle Tom’s passing, walked down through the Claddagh, and hung out in all the shops and stores. Galway is really a shopping town; there are a lot of shops to visit and way too much temptation—this also applies to the bars. We found a bar named Tigh Coili’s had an awesome night out.

Katie and I had to go home for the few days after we came home from Galway, to catch up on work and enjoy a few lazy days, while Ruth and Julien made their way around Ireland on a quick try-to-see-all vacation. We agreed to meet them in Cork, their last stop, for a day trip and travel to see the Blarney stone.

Cork and Blarney

Cork was beautiful and not at all what I expected. It was much bigger than Galway and though it was just as jam packed, it felt more spread out and was really pretty.

The best part of the day was going to Blarney. Because it was November, there were not many tourists, and the day had absolutely beautiful weather. We were able to wander around Blarney castle, weaving in and out of the 600 year old ruin’s rooms and scarily small stone staircase, and climb slowly to the top to see and kiss the Blarney stone. The castle was much larger than I had expected (about 3 stories tall) and walking through all the cramped rooms made it was hard to imagine what life must have been like there.

We got to the very top of the castle and walked around the rampart to the small man at the opposing end. To try and explain this: Imagine the side of a castle, there is a section that juts out at the top, now imagine that the bottom part of that jut is missing. The bottom part of the overhang is the Blarney stone. A wonderful older man helps you lay on your back, with your shoulders and head over the edge (not a pretty site if your scared of heights) and you kiss the Blarney stone. You are backwards and upside down basically, but it’s a great experience and a ton of fun.

The rest of the day was spent wandering about the grounds of Blarney castle and checking out all the funny, very touristy things, they had to offer (wishing steps, druids stones, and the like). It was really the best tourist thing I have done here so far.

Sorry this has been so late in coming, things have gotten really busy. We might be doing some more tourist stuff this weekend, and I promise to update sooner on that. I hope everybody is having a wonderful November!

Well, the ones I have come across anyway.

Cliona: pronounced "Cleana"

Niamh: pronounced "Neev"

Caoimhe: pronounced "K-wee-va"

Aisling: pronounced "Ash-ling"

Beibhinm: pronounced "Bevin"

Aoife: pronounced "E-fa"

Eilish: pronounced "A-lish"

Eimear: pronounced "E-mer"

Roisin: pronounced "Row-sheen"

Then I also have a few other international students names that are interesting

Iratxe: pronounced "Eh-rat-che"

Olatz: pronounced "Oh-lat-z"

Nermine: pronounced "Ner-mean"

Alya: pronounced "Al-e-ya"

Fun, huh? I still am constantly butchering a few of them, and I know there are more crazy ones out there. Enjoy!

Hey everybody!

So I hope everyone gets the chance to vote. I was able to vote absentee here in Ireland and am very happy about it! I hope you all get off your butts and vote too! There are no excuses aside from grievous bodily harm!

peace. love. vote!