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