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!!!