School's Out!

Well, my time in Ireland is winding down quickly now! Friday was my last day of school and definitely one for mixed emotions. I am very excited to be returning to the States and to see my family and friends for the holidays. But at the same time, I will miss my school, teachers, and most of all . . . my students. I must admite, not much true learning occurred on my final Friday! We finished up some of our Art and English projects, and they actually asked me to test them one last time on their spelling words and multiplication tables! That's Jack in the picture, attempting to stump me on my 11 times tables!

In the afternoon, the kids threw me a "surprise" going-away party! It's hard to keep anything a true surprise when you're a group of 28 nine-year olds, but they actually did a pretty good job! They were really quiet as I walked down the hall towards the classroom, and that's me in the picture being very surprised as they jumped up and applauded as I walked into the room! Anyways, the kids all pooled their money together and got me a couple of lovely large gifts (a beautiful travel planner and address book), and then each student brought in something small specficially from them - I apologize in advance to those of you whom I will make sit and look at my impressive collection four-leaf clover teddy bears and homemade cards! We ended the day by attempting to get everyone (including me and my cooperating teacher, Joe) in a large class photo. While it's not the most flattering picture of me by any means, after several takes this is the one with the fewest bunny ears, closed eyes, and tongues sticking out! If you look closely you will also see some of those new teddy bears I was talking about! Very cute!

With school over, I'll spend the rest of this week travelling just a bit and doing my last bit of shopping (I know, how out of character!) And finally, as of December 9th at 3:50pm, I will back in the good old US of A! Looking forward to seeing everyone!!!

Warning . . . no pictures with this one!

I figured I should warn you at the beginning of the post that I was too lazy to upload pictures to go along with this entry . . . that way those of you who only tune in for the pics can log off and try again!

Anyways, it's hard to believe that things are actually winding down over here. Crazy! On Monday and Tuesday my inspector will be here to observe me and make sure that I am still fit to teach children . . . keep your fingers crossed and I'll keep you posted! After that, I only have two weeks of student teaching left and then I'm done! Then I've got a week off to do some of the exploring (aka shopping) that I haven't had a chance to do yet, and then I'm on my way home!

This weekend I went to a real, live, fancy fashion show. Yes, you heard me, I went to a fashion show. I had to put together the trendiest outfit I had just to feel semi-trendy. You can't even believe some of the things that people were wearing. I would have to say that it was some of the best people watching I've done in years . . . and I worked at the Mall of America people! Anyways, like I said, my friend Mckenzie and I got all dressed up, mingled with the beautiful people, got free beauty products, and got the scoop on all the upcoming European fashion trends. I've decided that if the whole teaching thing doesn't work out, I'll become a designer or a fashion consultant . . . something like that!

I am sad that I'll be missing Thanksgiving this year. In both Bray and Dublin yesterday the remaining Christmas trees/lights were lit. It's so pretty, but it's been very odd transitioning straight to Christmas without the buffer holiday of Thanksgiving. While it's obviously not celebrated in Europe, our schools and cooperating teachers are being very nice about the fact that we'll all be away from home on a holiday. I've got a half-day on Thursday, so I'll be able to get home early to put our turkey in the oven! Some of you may have heard this already, but we actually had to go down to the butcher and request that he get us a turkey for this week, we had to specify that we wanted him to take OFF the head, neck, and feet! I'm sure I'll have plenty of pictures to post after we attempt to cook a traditional American Thanksgiving dinner here in Ireland! On Tuesday night I'm actually going to have to head in to Dublin to try to find the "specialty" items we need - like canned pumpkin and pie tins!

Anyways, Happy Holidays to all! Have a lovely Thanksgiving, I'll miss you all!

Seriously . . . a Wisconsin fan in Dublin?!!?!?

In Dublin on Saturday night, Megan and I made fascinating and disturbing discovery . . . Wisconsin Badger fans are EVERYWHERE!!! We had to run this guy down and get our picture with him, otherwise we didn't think you'd believe us! You gotta love it!

The Ruf Girls in Ireland, Part 2

Thursday – After a night of partying, we then pulled ourselves out of bed and onto a large tour bus headed for the Cliffs of Moher. Keep in mind, we had definitely enjoyed ourselves the evening before . . . what with the amazing food and large selection of alcoholic beverages . . . so sitting on a huge bus, swerving/bumping/dipping/rocking/and jerking all over the tiny Irish roads, was a bit of a challenge! But, we made it through and got to see some of the most beautiful and famous cliffs in the world. Words cannot describe how beautiful they were. I decided that in the future if I am ever asked to picture my happy/safe spot, it will definitely be these cliffs . . . they definitely were a wonder. Thankfully, the weather held out for us rather nicely and we were able to get some spectacular pictures! After the cliff tour, we piled back into the tiny car (this time with 2 additional passengers) and headed back home. I'm sure you can tell by the pictures that one of our favorite things in Ireland quickly became the wonderfully helpful warning and street signs. Also, don't you just love Megan's uni-bomber look!

Friday – Again, Megan and I got brave and decided we’d once again brave the tiny, windy roads of the coast of Ireland. We left the house very early in the morning and this time traveled south down the coast to the city of Cork, home of the famous Blarney Castle. Once again, Megan proved to be a great navigator, and managed to find the castle even though it was extremely poorly labeled! Inside joke is that when Megan was trying to be prepared and figure out where we were actually headed, I had said "Don't worry about it, it's the most popular tourist attraction in Ireland, they'll be signs everywhere." Megan managed to keep her cool even though there was seriously not ONE visible sign! The castle itself was incredible. We got to walk through the entire thing on our own, visiting all the rooms and making our way up to the top. The top is where you then get the lovely opportunity to kiss the Blarney Stone, which is then supposed to give you the "gift of gab", aka. make you a better speaker. To actually kiss the stone there is a man sitting over an edge of the top of the castle who then holds you as you bend over backwards and down the side of the castle to kiss the stone. Some job huh?! As you can see from the pictures, not exactly a flattering position to be in (in front of lots of other tourists too!) Anyways, I am sad to report that neither Megan or I have been reaping the benefits of kissing the stone . . . our speech is pretty much as bad as ever. But, we had a great time and get to check a bit one off our "must-do" list!

Once again, to be continued . . .

The Ruf Girls in Ireland!

So my week-long break is over and boy . . . was it a good one! Megan was here all week and we covered a lot of ground, and a bit of beer, here in Ireland! Here’s a very quick snippet of our week together!

Monday – Megan arrived, looking awesome in her blue sweat suit and I met her at the airport no problem! Following proudly in the footsteps of our father, she’d even struck up a random conversation and made friends with a tour group of older folks on the plane! After we made the journey from Dublin to Bray, and in a desperate attempt to keep Meg’s from immediately falling asleep, we took a short trip to Powerscourt Estate and came back to my house to cook dinner. Megan then conked out at 6:00pm!

Tuesday – We took a well-rounded trip into Dublin . . . first to Christ Church Cathedral and then to the Guinness Storehouse. We figured that we’d better visit the church BEFORE the Guinness plant because . . . well, you know, it just seemed like the right thing to do!

Wednesday – This is the day that a chill ran through the spines of all pedestrians in Ireland, also known as the day we picked up our rental car! Now, Megan might tell a slightly different story, but I believe it is accurate to report that I am an extremely good Irish driver. I embraced my inner-crazy, NASCAR self and just went for it! We drove from the east coast to the west coast of Ireland (all in 3-ish hours!) and spent the Halloween evening in the city of Galway. We met up with our party partners (my roomie Mckenzie and and her boyfriend Brian) and hit the town. We found a great Irish pub with a live Irish band - they were fantastic, and even through in a couple American, country classics! When we left the bar (a few drinks later) we ran into complete and total chaos on the streets. Drunk people in costume had flooded the streets and were simply running/walking around, lying in the street, skipping through the park. It was pretty hilarious, and I definitely got some great video footage of it. Megan and Brian also made a fantastic discovery - pay toilets! On the corner of this small park in Galway there were 3 pay toilets (Megan and Brian are pictured outside one of these toilets). The funny thing is though . . . you pay for the door to close . . . and a funny thing about drunk people . . . they don't particularly care if the door closes while they're doing their business or not!!! So, we created a nice, human wall and helped some locals "hide"! It was great!

To be continued . . .

A Very Busy School Week

Two posts in one day . . . I've been saving up!

This school week absolutely flew by – the week before an entire week off (an Irish mid-term break) definitely caused the kids (and teachers I might add) to be just a bit crazy! Anyways, on Wednesday my cooperating teacher was actually out for the day, so I was the substitute teacher! I had the kids all day completely on my own and it was great! They were well-behaved and I really enjoyed being “the adult” in the room. My principal came in a couple times - I’m pretty sure that he thought the kids might have me crying in the back corner – as they have apparently done with 1 or 2 other substitutes! But by the end of the day, he was actually offering me a job! I simply just tried to make the day as normal as possible – I even somehow managed to teach an Irish lesson (even though I don’t know a bit of Irish/Gaelic)!

On Friday we let the kids dress up in costumes seeing as though they will all be on break for Halloween. Let me tell you, it was hilarious! Everybody picked a fairly normal thing to be, examples: cheerleader, hippie, butcher, etc. BUT then they all put a gory spin on it, examples: dead cheerleader, decapitated hippie, murdering butcher. Heck, I even had a dead Tooth Fairy! They're a bit bloodthirsty at that age apparently, and all really just wanted to add blood to their costumes and get their faces painted! Also, "Star Wars" is huge with kids over here, so you will notice both Darth Vader and a Storm Trooper in my pictures! I simply put on a witch hat for the day (insert witty comment here)! We played traditional Irish Halloween games (like "snap-apple" - don't ask!) and read scary stories pretty much all day. Not a lot of learning happening, but definitely a lot of fun!

On the horizon . . . Megan will be arriving bright and early tomorrow morning . . . so stayed tuned to see how much trouble the Ruf girls can get into in Ireland. Did I mention we're renting a car?!?!?!?!

Minnesota Meets Ireland!

Sorry for the delay in BLOG posts (I’m sure you’ve all been sitting on the edge of your seats . . . or at least I’ll keep telling myself that!) Anyways, it’s been a bit of a hectic two weeks, but I’m still plugging away! Last weekend I had a welcome bit of Minnesota (in the form of three fantastic friends) visit me in Ireland. Mary, Molly, and Ryan came to visit and we had a great time (if I may speak for everyone!)

They arrived on Thursday and we hung low in Dublin that evening, dining on Irish boxty’s (potato pancakes) with meat soaked in Guinness of course. Friday we woke up literally at the crack of dawn and I took us on a bit of a wild goose chase through Dublin at 5am – we took a taxi from the hotel to a bus station that was closed when we got there, we then ran across the street to the train station which had no train leaving on time, we then took another taxi to the Dublin airport, and we finally found the 6am bus leaving for Belfast! It was my second trip back to the northern coast of Ireland, and I saw even more amazing scenery than I saw the first time. We got some great pictures and perfected our “three girls posing on a cliff in Ireland” positioning.

On Saturday, the real adventure began! We rented a car . . . yes, a car in Ireland, where they drive on the other side of the road! While I was promised that we would have a car with an automatic transmission, sadly they only had a manual for us. I will therefore have to save my “Trisha attacks Ireland in a car” experience for later. Ryan and Mary did the driving, and after introducing themselves to the curbs just a couple of times (and one or two stone walls), both did stellar jobs of navigating the tiny roads, crazy fast speed limits and virtually non-existent street signs. Saturday night we returned again to a Dublin pub to watch the world championship game of rugby (which only takes place once every four years). After the game the live music started and after a couple traditional Irish drinking songs, the awesome American 80’s music started. The entire bar was crammed full and everyone – Irish, American, French, etc. – were singing along. It was a great night.

Ryan and Molly departed on Sunday morning. Mary and I then got out the map and once again navigated the treacherous roads of Ireland! We found Trim Castle in the aptly name town of Trim. It has many claims to fame, as the oldest castle in Ireland as well as being in the movie “Braveheart”. We toured the castle grounds, complete with a moat, a great hall, and multiple religious sites, and we took a guided tour of the keep (place where the royal family lived). It was all very historical, the end of a great weekend!