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!

Enniskerry and The Powerscourt Estate

This weekend we took a trip to the beautiful, Irish estate called Powerscourt. It took us about 15 minutes to get there, which pretty much means it’s right here in our back yard. The bus dropped us off in the adorable village of Enniskerry and we tromped our way through a forest to the estate grounds. One bad thing - while the forests here are beautiful, they are also chock full of huge spider webs and yes . . . huge, freaking spiders! Anyways, the estate building itself was built back in the 1800’s. The house is HUGE and it is reported to have the most beautiful gardens in all of Ireland.

Our luck held out, as we have continued to have absolutely gorgeous weather for our weekend trips, and the weather this weekend was particularly amazing! Bright and sunny, and about 65 degrees – perfect for a walk in the gardens! But I suppose that my weekends have pretty much been evened out by the unbelievable amount of rain I’ve had to tromp through each day during the week on my walk to school! But I digress . . . At Powerscourt, we started out in the grounds section called Tower Valley. As we walked the trail we came around the corner and saw this ridiculously picturesque tower sitting among these beautiful trees. Obviously we climbed to the top of the tower and did a little “Rapunzel, Rapunzel let down your hair” routine . . . we couldn’t resist! The place was full of tourists, so we figured we could let down the "we're locals" routine for a short period of time! We then continued our journey through the Japanese Peace Gardens, into the Pet Cemetery (with stones dating back to the 1800’s), out to the Dolphin Pond, and into the amazing Walled Gardens. This is definitely the place that movies are made of . . . and actually we found out that the estate was used in the film “The Count of Monte Cristo”. We were very impressed.

I’m now using the rest of this gorgeous weekend to prepare for my upcoming observation and evaluation! My student teaching supervisor flew into Ireland today (he lives in Wales) – what a job, huh?! He gets to fly around Europe, visiting different countries and towns, evaluating teachers and generally having a good time! Anyways, we’re meeting for drinks tonight and then it’s all business . . . he’ll be observing me teach for the day on Tuesday. I'm thinking it's a little too much to ask that my kids be angels that day, so while I'm hoping for perfect behavior, I'll settle for no kids breaking down crying!!! Just kidding, sort of . . . seriously, it happens more often than you'd think! I'll keep you posted!

Thanks for checking in on me! Hope to talk to you all soon!

A "Low Key" Weekend At Home!

This weekend was supposed to be a "low key" weekend at home, but that didn't really turn out to mean that we actually stayed at home! Somehow we still managed to walk for miles and drink for hours!



On Saturday morning a few of us got adventurous and decided that we would do the cliff-walk from Bray to the small, harbor town of Greystones just to our south. The walk took us right along the coast of the Irish Sea and was extremely steep and "close to the edge" at times. We came across some really pretty ruins (that's us posing in them) and also caught a pretty good picture of the DART cutting through the countryside. (The DART is the train that runs along the coast from Bray up to Dublin and beyond. It's the train we take to Dublin when we go). It was an absolutely gorgeous day, which I'm learning in Ireland means that it was about 60-65 degrees and only rained for a couple hours! Anyways, what better way to follow up a day of cliff-walking than an evening of pub-hopping! We decided to make a night of it in Bray in celebration of one of my roommate's birthdays. We encountered an Irish bachelor party out on the town, and I must say that an Irish bachelor party is much like an American one, only with a different accent! In case you're wondering, I won't be posting those particular pictures (or many of that sort) just in case I decide I want to run for politicial office one day! You'll have to see those in person!

On Sunday we headed into Dublin, and visited the Dublin Zoo. The zoo was really nice, located right in the heart of Dublin in this huge, grassy park. They had an absolutely amazing "African Safari" exhibit and I got really close to some of the biggest rhinos I've ever seen! It rocked!



A bit off the subject . . . a few other interesting/different facts about life here in Ireland have popped up for me this past week, so I decided to share them with you all! Please feel free to ignore this section of my blog!

• The police force (called the garda) do not carry guns. Their most "threatening" piece of equipment is a billy club. There has been quite an uproar lately about the garda not stopping enough of the crime, however they argue that with no weapons to protect themselves, what are they really going to be able to do.
• There is definitely no "leash law" here in Ireland and the dog's are ridiculusly well-behaved. Example: People take their dogs everywhere including shopping in town. When the owner goes into a store, their dog simply sits on the sidewalk at the door/window of the store and waits, not tied up or anything. I watched a dog sitting at a store doorway the other day when a second person came up and also left their dog outside. The two dogs simply looked at each other and then sat there and waited for their owners to emerge. Mind you, this was on an extremely busy street with people and cars everywhere. I find random little things like this surprisingly fascinating!

That's it for now . . . have a fantastic week everyone!!!

Pictures of St. Fergal's!

Okay, so not much new to say today, but I couldn't resist taking the time to post some pictures of my students. For those who were wondering, my two "Garys" are in the third picture leaning on either side of their food pyramid. These pictures are from our science class this past week - the school has this big science room that never gets used because the teachers have a hard enough time getting their own classrooms put together, much less a completely different room. I volunteered to take on the science room and it's coming together really nicely - we've got skulls, bones, dead butterflies, jars, microscopes, fish tanks, worm farms, and all kinds of cool stuff set up! Tomorrow we're going to go outside and explore the "nature area", which is really just a nice way to talk about a tiny pond in the back!

This final picture is a left over from my Belfast trip (obviously a "the morning after" picture). Please note what's on my plate. I obviously had no clue what I was doing when I ordered, and ended up with a sausage and some mushrooms on a piece of bread. Yummy!!!

A Weekend in Northern Ireland

This weekend my roommates and I got crazy and decided to take a trip up toNorthern Ireland. We planned it completely last minute and even stayed in a hostel . . . yes, you heard me correctly . . . Trisha Ruf stayed in a hostel, in a room with 14 other people, in a somewhat sketchy part of Belfast, with a COMMUNAL SHOWER! Talk about taking a step outside your comfort zone! But, I had a fantastic time, we saw some amazing sites, and I lived to tell the tale!

Saturday . . .

We caught a train from Dublin to Belfast at 7am in the morning and travelled north for about 2 and a half hours. We arrived in Belfast and hopped on a tour bus that would take us to some of the most scenic places in northern Ireland. Our first stop was a bridge called the Carrick-a-Reade bridge - which is a wooden and rope bridge suspended over 150 feet above the Irish Sea between a cliff and an island. I will not lie, I was terrified - it was windy and no one else seemed to be as concerned as I was about the fact that people didn't seem to be obeying the "No more than 8 people at a time on the bridge" sign. Oh well, I couldn't pass it up, so I crossed the bridge (and crossed) back, and took about 30 pictures to commemorate the moment. Don't worry, I only posted a few!

After the bridge we drove to some white rock cliffs and a sea side village. We also passed the ruins of an ancient castle built on the sea. The name of the castle was called Dunluce Castle . . . this site was definitely the kind of Ireland scenes you see on postcards and in movies. It was absolutely breathtaking. We ended the day on Saturday at a famous coastal landmark called the Giant's Causeway. There are these amazing rock formations that extend out into the sea, and to get to them you have to brave these steep, narrow cliff walks . . . along which there are signs that say "Danger, high winds, people fall" - seriously, it seems like if you really want to see it in northern Ireland you have to be willing to risk life and limb! But once again, Ireland did not disappoint and we were treated to yet another set of amazing views.

Sunday . . .

We took a "black taxi tour" through some of the hot spots in Belfast where, what they call "The Troubles", have been happening throughout the years. For those who are unsure, "the troubles" are the problems between the Protestants and Catholics in northern Ireland. The picture I posted is of the "Peace Wall" - a huge wall that has been built throughout the city of Belfast - designed to keep the two sides from shooting at each other and burning each others homes. While the troubles have calmed down considerably and a ceasefire was called in the late 90's, everyone we talked to was quick to tell us that there is still a lot of violence. In fact the day before we got there, one of the Protestant terror groups were commemorating the death of their "military commander" - which sparked a violent reaction from some of the Catholic terror groups. It was front page news, along with several other related accounts of attacks and vandalism. It was definitely a bit tense, but our tour was amazing. It was completely overwhelming to see these memorials, walls, and scenes of recent vandalism and violence in these totally normal looking, residential areas with kids playing in the street. Very sad. So . . .

Sorry to end on kind of "downer" note. Our entire weekend was absolutely fascinating and full of amazing Irish history. It was definitely worth a stay in a bunk bed in an inner-city hostel! I believe that next weekend however, I will take it a little easier and definitely sleep in my own cozy bed - no strangers allowed!

2nd Week of School

Greetings all! Week 2 of student teaching is now complete and I must say, I continue to love it! My cooperating teacher and I are getting along extremely well, and this past week Mr.Enright (Joe) taught the first half of the day and let me teach the second half of each day. It was great and challenging and really fun. I had a fantastic lesson on Wednesday - we studied poetry and the kids all wrote their own "daydream" poems, that started "Ms. Ruf thinks I'm listening but I'm really . . ." They wrote adorable poems and I was so proud of them and myself that I walked around taking pictures of all their poems! I also put together a science lesson on food and the food pyramid and we got to take a trip to the school's science room to do all our fun interactive stuff. I'm sure that at some point in time the newness of this whole teaching business will wear off a bit and I'll calm down, but right now everything is exciting to me!!!

A couple other interesting things to note . . .

1) Even though we all speak English there are several terms or things that we do NOT use the same words for. Example: my students had no clue what I was saying when I told them to use their eraser to erase any mistakes. Instead an eraser is actually called a "rubber" and I have to tell them to "rub out" all their mistakes. A little odd! Also, a checkmark is a "tick", you must say "trousers" or "slacks" because "pants" actually means "underwear", and there is no such room as the "bathroom" - the whole room is actually called the "toilet"!

2) My students start with a music lesson each morning - which translates to 27 tin whistles being "played" at the same time by 8-year olds who are really more interested in being the loudest player, rather than most accurate musician! A lovely wake-up call, especially since I've always been such a morning person!

I have pictures of my students and our classroom coming soon! I haven't mastered the whole digital camera thing quite yet (yes I KNOW that sounds ridiculous), and I keep forgetting to transfer pictures from my camera to my computer to my memory stick to the computer at the internet cafe! Whew, that's a lot of technical steps . . . especially for me!

Trisha's Weekend . . . In Pictures!

First and foremost . . . Happy Birthday Megan!!! Sorry, I'm missing it, but please know that I have had a drink(s) in your honor!

I figured that some of you might be tired of all the dialogue, so I decided to throw up a sampling of some of my pictures from this weekend. It started with a nice walk into the centre of Bray to catch the DART (train) to head into Dublin. This picture is the view from the main street bridge that I cross every day to get into town.

We spent some time sightseeing and touring in Dublin - we visited Christ Cathedral Church and the Guinness storehouse (it seemed like a good match!!!) The church was breathtaking, very Gothic - as you can tell by the sideways picture, some aspects of this blogging business are still just outside my expertise level, sorry!

The Guinness storehouse was amazing too, so huge that we could have spent the entire day exploring. I'm excited to go back again in October - plus the free pint of Guinness at the end doesn't hurt! In this picture me, and three of my roommates, are posing just outside the brewery and storehouse (Trisha, Bri, MacKenzie, and Katie).

And last but not least, thanks again to everyone who is keeping in touch from home. While a lot of you have said you enjoy reading my blogs, please know that I love hearing from you just as much, probably more! So a special thanks goes out to the folks at Underwater Adventures Aquarium this week. Mike Pomeranz, a local TV news anchor and someone I have a HUGE crush on, was guest-hosting a radio show that aired live from the Aquarium earlier this week. While sadly I had to miss this historic event, it was lovely to see that I haven't been completely forgotten! And I'm going to want that sign by the way, afterall . . . Mike P. touched it! Just in case you can't see it - the sign says "Miss You Trisha!"

4 Days of Teaching Under My Belt!

Hello all! It's been a busy week here in Bray, I won't lie . . . Friday's looking pretty nice!

As this post's title suggests, this was my first week student teaching. I am teaching in St. Fergal's Senior National School which houses 350 third through sixth grade students. I am in Mr. Enright's class with 27 third graders. I was a little nervous at first about working with the younger students (I've mostly been with 5th and 6th graders before), but I have fallen absolutetly in love with this class! I won't bore you with ALL the details, but will give you a little taste of what each day was like!

Monday - I was picked up and brought to school where I met with the school's principal, my cooperating teacher, and the rest of the staff. Please note: Irish accents can be INCREDIBLY hard to understand, and along with learning 30 to 40 new names and faces - I can honestly say I was a bit overwhelmed within the first 15 minutes! I made my way down to my classroom where I was introduced to yet another 27 people (little ones this time!), where I again had to start deciphering accents and learning names. That afternoon, Mr. Enright had a meeting and let me know that he felt completely comfortable leaving me alone with the class for 2 hours! I'm glad someone was comfortable! Actually it went very well. I read several chapters from Charlotte's Web (with voices thank you very much!) and enthralled them with my "accent" - they all seem to think that "that's exactly what Charlotte would sound like in real life!". All in all, a fine day.

Tuesday - Today I remembered a few more names and faces, and actually got up the nerve to participate in conversations in the teacher's lounge - even when I didn't completely understand what was being said . . . or the rules to rugby or soccer! I must say, everyone here has been unbelievably nice and welcoming. I taught my first "real" lesson this afternoon, entitled "People Who Help Us" and when we got to the part about "people who teach us", Gary O'Sullivan raised his hand and with his Irish accent said, "Ms.Ruf!" Seriously, it was adorable. The deputy principal poked his head in about halfway through the lesson and seemed happy to note that the students had not yet been able to bowl over me. Again, a good day!

Wednesday - So, in the teacher's lounge - I am now completely comfortable. We have progressed to inappropriate jokes, swear words, and risque stories . . . I feel very at home now! By the way, here in these Ireland schools - we have "little" lunch and "big" lunch, which means we eat a pretty good-sized snack at 10:45am and another lunch at 12:30pm. It's pretty sweet, but I've definitely had to adjust what and when I'm eating (emphasis on the what!) Also today, a good lesson on the challenge of not playing favorites! Gary O. looked at me and flat out told me he "fancied" me (the men are quite forward here, even at a young age) and Gary S. told me that even though right now I was just practicing being a teacher, that when I became a real one I was going to be a very pretty teacher! Now what do I say to that!!!

Thursday - today was art day! We learned about primary colors (all of which are now adorning my favorite black sweater) and painted our modern art pictures. I'll make sure to bring my camera to class tomorrow to catch these little Van Gogh's in action! I haven't said much about Mr. Enright, my cooperating teacher, but I should mention that he has been fantastic! He's genuinely excited to have me in the room, is letting me teach a lot already, and is very nice with the compliments! We have one "working" computer in the classroom and when I created an Excel spreadsheet for him in about 5 minutes, I thought he was going to kiss me! We're getting along really well, and I can already tell we'll make a great team (his words too!)

Well . . . if you've made it this far, thanks for reading! This week has definitely been a fun one here in my classroom. I will admit I am more tired than I've been in a long time and on Tuesday I woke up with a pretty intense chest cold! Awesome! The nice thing is, pharmacies are incredibly inexpensive in Ireland and I was able to purchase medicines resembling NyQuil and Tylenol for about $5 American dollars total! Tomorrow is science day and the students are very excited. The school has an entire science room that hasn't really been used in the past few years because none of the teachers have any time to focus on it. I volunteered to spend some time in there, and am now apparently St. Fergal's official "science coordinator" for the next few months!

I'll keep posting! I miss you all, so please send emails AND pictures!!!

Love Trisha

Actual pictures of Hillcrest!

Sorry, trouble with the first one. Here are those pics!

Pictures of Hillcrest

Here are a few pictures of the house I am living in - one is the front view of the house and the other is part of our patio/garden area, just next to the house. The official address is as follows (again, no numbers, just a house name) . . . if you were to send anything (wink) this is where you'd send it!



Trisha Ruf

c/o Hillcrest

Dargle Road

Bray, County Wicklow

Republic of Ireland

Well . . . here I am!

Hello everyone! As you may have guessed, I landed safely in Dublin this morning and have since then made it to my Irish "hometown" of Bray! My pilots did a fine job, it was instead the non life-threatening mechanical parts of the plane that made it an extremely long flight. They announced that our in-flight movie would be Shrek 3 (sadly I was actually pretty excited), however we then discovered that the sound was not working . . . no in-flight entertainment. THEN at around bed-time, they discovered that the interior lights weren't working in the plane either - rows 25 through 42 were unable to shut the lights off - guess what row I was in?!?!?

Anyways, with all that said and done (and really not that bad), I met up with my roomies and we are all safe and sound in our adorable house in Bray! One slight change, we (all 5 girls and 1 boy of us) are in the same house now . . . rather than in 2 separate houses. While we all agree that it might get a little crowded at times, everybody seems to be really hitting it off already, most are planning on traveling on the weekends anyways, AND with much cheaper rent, we will now be able to do some things we wouldn't have been able to afford before. It's a win-win!

So, my first impressions of Ireland . . . it's absolutely beautiful, extremely green (big surprise) and the coast is breathtaking. If you get a chance you should Google "bray head" - it is this amazing coastal mountain/hill that overlooks my town of Bray, with a giant Celtic cross at the top. Apparently it is a full day's climb - so I think we are going to tackle that one tomorrow. I'll post pics ASAP! It's approximately 60 degrees and this evening we sat outside a local pub on the oceanfront and it was definitely sweater weather. Other than that, the scenery has been kind of a blur and with absolutely no sleep in the past several hours, I fear I cannot do this country (or what I've seen so far) enough justice with this post.

For those who were taking bets, I did cave in and get a cell phone! My advisor said it would be good to have when traveling locally, etc - so it's all his fault. Outgoing call rates are pretty steep on it, however I can receive incoming calls for free (get out those old, unused phone cards folks!) Anyways if for some reason you need to call, my number is: 087 2034209. I'll stay up to date on the Blog's and will most defintely continue to read the comments (thanks for those!) I also don't really have an address to share with you yet, they don't actually have numbers here - the houses simply have names! So I'll figure that out and post it when more accurate information is available.

I start school bright and early on Monday, so I'm sure I'll have much more to share then. Love and miss you all!

Let the blogging begin!

I said I'd figure it out . . . and lo' and behold . . . I think I actually did! This is the start of my on-line log of "adventures" in Ireland! Now I won't have to bother anyone with those pesky, mass emails! Instead, I can simply guilt you into reading my postings (please note: there will be a quiz when I get back)!

For those who were curious, my schedule runs roughly like this:

• September 7th - fly out of Chicago at 7:30pm
• September 8th - arrive in Dublin at 8:00am
• September 10th - first day of school at St. Fergal's Senior National School :)
• October 18th - 21st - Molly and Ryan fly over to see if they can hold their in the pubs of Dublin
• October 31st - November 4th - Megan flies over for a whirlwind, cross-country tour (yes . . . that just might mean that I am going to try and drive a car in a European country)
• December ??? - return flight from Dublin to Chicago

There's the basics in a nutshell folks, I'll keep you posted as my schedule gets a bit more "filled in". Thanks to everyone for their words of encouragement, love, and advice! I appreciate it all! I'll try to post on a regular basis - with quick stories and pictures - so tune in when you get the chance!

Love Trisha