One hour to Departure!

Yay! I am at the Shannon airport waiting at my gate. It seems that I was just at the Indianapolis airport waiting to leave... time sure does go by fast! I cannot wait till I get home.

The hotel was nice last night, I got in from the bus ride at about 9 o clock and ate some dinner at the bar in the hotel. I got to bed early and had good sleep, except for the fact that I missed my fan :( I got up early this morning at 7 and started off for the airport in the rain at about 9. Everything with security and customs went well!!! I am so ready to be home!!

See you all soon!!!
Love!

So excited to come home!!!!

So.. I am sitting here in my bed just thinking about going home! I cannot wait to see everyone and be back in my home town!!

I have some exciting times coming up this next month. I have two graduation parties to attend- congrats Katie Williams and Lesley! Then I go to the Coldplay concert on June 5th. After that my brothers best friend is getting married on June 27th! ---> Just thinking about all of this fun stuff just makes me want to come home even more!

My plans for when I get home: I got an interview with the Project School in Bloomington, which I am sooo excited about!!! I am one of twenty and I believe there are three openings!! Say a little prayer for me! Hope the interview goes well and they love me!

- I will keep working at American Eagle and look for teaching opportunities
- I will be living at home still


I am so lucky that I got this wonderful opportunity to come to this lovely country! I have learned so much in so many aspects of my life. I feel that I have really become more independent and confident in my teaching and life in general. I thank my parents for this once in a lifetime opportunity that they gave me. I cannot begin to tell them how much I appreciate what they do for me and my three big brothers. They are truely the best parents that I could have ever asked for. This was really a life changing experience and I would not have changed it for the world. Thank you so much to everyone who supports and loves me, cannot wait to see you all!!

- All my love from Ireland!

Dublin

Hey! So we just got home from Dublin. We left on Friday and took a plane up there. It was a lot better than taking the bus like we had in the past. The flight was only about 25 mins, so it was nice. We arrived at 8:30pm and tried to meet up with our friends but the phone number we had wasn't working so it was a little upsetting. Since we could not get a hold of them and it was starting to get late we just called it a night. We stayed at a nice hotel and got a good night sleep.

The next day we woke up early and got some breakfast. We decided to go see the Guiness Brewery next. While at the brewery we got a call from the girls which we were excited about!! We decided to just meet up later for dinner. So the rest of the day Amanda and I walked around and went to some stores. We also saw Trinity College, which was pretty.

We met up with the girls at about 6 and got some dinner at Hard Rock Cafe Dublin. After that we went to a local pub which was really fun. We had a chance to catch up and talk about teaching.

Overall Dublin was great and I am glad that we went. This week will go fast I am sure becuase I am really excited about going home soon! My plan for friday is to go to school half day then come home a finish packing. After that Amandas parents will be here and we are going to get some dinner. I will then take a bus to Shannon and stay the night in a hotel there. On saturday I will fly out at 11:30 am and get home at 9pm (indy time). I AM SUPPPER EXCITED! i miss everyone!!! yay!

"Do you have a long walk home every night to America?"

Greetings!!

This week has just gone by so fast. I taught Junior Infants again Monday and Tuesday this week which was fun. One morning I was walking into school after teaching the little ones the day before and one of the mothers stops me. She tells me that her daughter Olivia asked her if I had a long walk home every night to America! haha I thought that was so cute. The kids here ask me the funniest things but its hard for me to always remember them. I need to try harder to write them down!

Any who... We are leaving for Dublin tomorrow night, which I am super excited about! We are meeting the girls from England late tomorrow night when they arrive in. Hopefully we will have a great time and I will find gifts for the people that I still need to buy for!! ahh.. there are so many of you that I want to bring something home for.

Right now it is just pouring outside, which I've heard is the same at home. My mom tells me that it has been really rainy! Humm.. lets see, Some family news- Steve got a new car which I am excited to see when I get home. I am also excited just to see him and the rest of my family, I have been away too long.

I am currently working on my LAST paper that I will be doing as an undergrad! I am officially graduated after this paper!YAY!!!! Now it is on to the real world which scares me just a weency bit! But hopefully when I get home I will figure things out and get my life in order.

I look forward to coming home but I will certainly miss Ireland and my school here!

Love!

2 weeks Left..

Hi!!! I am doing great... School is still going well and my kids are great. I have been teaching a lot in another class which is okay but it makes me miss my other class.

We are excited because we are going to Dublin this weekend to meet four girls from Iu that are student teaching in England. We haven't seen them for a while so it will be fun to talk about living over here and student teaching.

I am sad about leaving but very excited to be going back home ( except for being stressed about finding a "real job") My plan is to take a bus after school on Friday the 22nd to Shannon Ireland. I will spend the night there by myself and wake up early the next morning. My flight is at 11:30 from Shannon to Philidelphia then to Chicago, then Indy. I will get into Indy at 9pm Saturday night the 23rd. My parents are going to pick me up and hopefully Joe will come over to say hi that night!!! I am so excited to see EVERYONE.

Some things that I want to do when I get home:
- CUT MY HAIR (it may be drastic.. who knows maybe even dye!!)
-go tanning... yuck im soo white!
-eat at deangelos
-go to target
-go shopping in INDY with mommy
-drive my car!!!---->and ride in joes jeep to the lake with the top off!!
-go to coldplay (June 5th!)
- look for a job =( .. stressed about this one. wish i could just be given one haha

Okay well have a great week and I love you alll!!!!

Kinsale

Good Morning!!

So this weekend is a long weekend for us becuase we have Monday off. No reason, they just call it a bank holiday. So that's okay with us!! Yesterday we went to Kinsale becsuse it was beautiful outside so we thought it was a perfect day to go to a harbor town! Well we forgot that something called the Kinsale 7's (huge rugby championship) were going on and literally thousands of people were trying to get to the town. We went to catch a bus at 12:30 but there were so many people, it was literally a mob to get on the bus... no line just people shoving eachother.

We were also surrounded by sixteen year olds that were dressed in neon tank tops and mini skirts that were smoking. ( Yeah neon is the fad here and EVREYONE under the age of 24 wears it and it is TERRIBLE!!!) Plus they all smoke, and really early! Like 12 years old!!!!!

Anyway... we finally got to Kinsale and we walked around for a while and got some lunch. We sat at this really cute cafe outside with a guy playing an accordian. It was sooo nice!!

We got some cute gifts and we were on our way back to good ol' cork.


School is going well. I am teaching the junior infants tomorrow becuase their teacher is out for the day. My class is doing great. We had a fruit party the other day, promoting healthy eating.


THIS WEEK:
- we are going to be volunteering at an after school program for two hours each day this week.
- Coffee with my teacher after school on Tuesday
- Our plans for next weekend: DINGLE!!!
-Our plans for out last weekend here (2 weeks): DUBLIN with the girls from England!!!!!


I think that is all I need to tell everyone!! Look at my new pictures!!! Love you all. Be home in about two and a half weeks! :)

http://picasaweb.google.com/home
Username: kmcardle@indiana.edu
Password: 123katie123

I am learning Irish....

Hello all! I had no idea what to name this post so I just thought about telling you that I am starting to pick up on some of the irish. I learned the sign of the cross in Irish and I know my numbers up to ten!! YAY! haha Well things have been good for the last week! It has been rainy for the past four or five days but today was beautiful!!

Last weekend we stayed in Cork and took in the beauty here. We met a new friend that just arrived here from Columbus IN to teach also. She is here to teach untill June 23rd. Her name is Brittane and she is super nice. She is twenty five and also has a serious boyfriend at home. We hung out with Brittane a lot this week. Kyla our other friend has been sick with a Kidney infection.. yuck! I hope she feels better soon! ---> also hope she doesn't have the Swine FLU!!! HAHA everybody has been talking about this and how I am not going to be able to make it home because the US is going to close the border due to the flu. HOPE NOT!

Over the past feww days we have been meeting a lot of new people which some of them are very interesting!! Cork has to be the only place where a fifty year old man will just casually sit down with a bunch of twenty year olds and act like thats okay!! haha We went out to dinner tonight and I got steak for the first time since being here!!! Yummy it was so good and I have been missing my red meat! The place we went to was really good, it was called Amicus!

Okay sorry for jumping around but I haven't written in a while... School is going well, I am getting more and more comfortable with everything! Today we had a fruit and mini sandwich party to promote healthy eating. This all came about when we had a guest speaker in and she did a sugar demonstration. She was talking about how much sugar was in a coke and a bar of chocolate... uh 18!!!!! So she whips out this clear glass and starts spooning the tablespoons of sugar into the glass. She holds up the glass and says this is how much sugar goes into your body after eating just a chocolate bar and a coke!! AHHH that was a wake up call! Well I still can't give up the chocolate here, not even after that haha! It is too amazing!

Okay well I think that is enough info for today!! Hope I didn't jump around too much for you haha!! can you say A.D.D? well love you all ... ill be home in three short weeks... BITTERSWEET!

Hello Everyone!

Hi! I thought that maybe I should write becuase I haven't in a while. This week just flew past.. I cannot believe it is already Friday! Well I started off the week full time teaching Monday and Tuesday becuase my teacher was still on Holidays. It was a great experience becuase she didn't leave me any instructions or plans, I got to figure out everything on my own. The girls were great for me, which I was happy about!

Amanda and I have had a lot of nights in this week becuase it has been kinda of rainy outside. Last night we did go see a movie and get some dinner though. We went to see "I love you man", which was really good.. funny! Then we went out to Luigi Malones and I got a spicy chicken dish.. I know I know chicken again!

I got a package from my mom and pen pal letters from my class at home this week and I was so happy about both! I loved getting things from home! My mom sent me some dvd's and magazines. Also so put in some chocolate for easter.. yummy! I just had my girls write back to their pen pals the other day and I sent them back, so hopefully Lakeview gets them soon!!!

Well I think that is all I have to report for now... We are planning on visiting Kinsale this weekend with Kyla and her mother becuase she will be in town to visit!!!

Love you and miss you all like crazy!

Love you daddy!

...miss my boy!

Galway

Hi all! Sorry it has been a while since I have written! We just got back from Galway which was Beautiful!!!

Wel left on Wednesday and took a four hour bus ride to the city. We checked into our hotel which was nice then got some lunch. We went exploring around the city for the rest of the day and saw the coast. It was a little rainy and windy the first day so it wasn't the best but it was still so cool! I really liked being on the coast! The city was a lot smaller than Cork but it was really fun. We then went to dinner and went our to a pub for a little while. It was an early night though becuase we had to get up the next day (Thursday) at 7am.

The next day we scheduled a bus tour to the Cliffs of Moher and The Burren. We took off at about 9:30 am and the first stop was The Burren. This is an area of Galway with mountains and a very ricky surface. The rocks came from the ocean hundreds of years ago. It is so cool becuase the whole surface of the earth through these parts are just made of huge rocks. We saw a couple of "wedge tombs" which I have pictures of.

We then went on and stopped at a ton of "fairy rings", I guess the people here believe in these rings of trees that were formed a long time ago. They are supposed to be kind of like haunted and if you disturb the trees or stones at all you will have bad luck and probably die, haha! So they are all over Galway but no one disturbs them.. its a little odd and funny!

We then travelled on and saw some other things like castles and cemetarys but the big thing we were going to see were The Cliffs of Moher. These cliffs were HUGE!!! We walked around them for about two hours and took tons of pictures! It was probably the coolest thing i've ever seen! Ireland is applying for them to be in one of the wonders of the world.

After the Cliffs we took the bus back to Galway city. We freshened up and went for some dinner. We ate at a cute little pub, I got a cheesburger again haha. After that we went to a pub that was playing live traditional irish music! It was soo fun. We meet some nice people so that made us feel not so lonely.

We just came back today around noon... the plans for tonight are unsure but we may go out to eat again becuase we don't have much food here.

I miss home a lot but haveing a lot of fun here too!!! Be sure to look at the pics!!------->http://picasaweb.google.com/home or you can click on the picture of me and amanda at the left side of the blog and enter my infor

username: kmcardle@indiana.edu

password:123katie123

London

I just got back from London last night! Wheww.. We had a great time there! We pretty much saw everything that you could see while there. We left on Monday morning and took a bus to the cork airport. Our flight was at 12:55 and we arrived in London about an hour later. Everything went smoothly on the way there. Once we landed in the Gatwick airport we took a train to the city then took a cab to our hotel. The hotel was ok .. we each had a bed which was good. We started right then and there seeing things. We went to the eye, which is a huge ferris wheel. We got to see the city from the sky which was so cool! We then bought tickets for the river boat cruise which we did the next day. That first night we ate at a really cute Italian place with huge menus!
The next day we woke up early to go see Oxford street, which is supposed to be really good for shopping. It was a good place to shop but really expensive. We walked around there for a couple of hours then decided we had to go back down to the city center to catch the boat cruise. The tour was soo cool. It took us all through the city and described all of the buildings and bridges. We saw London bridge and tower bridge! After the boat cruise we went back to the hotel room to chill out for an hour. We then went to a fancy dinner at a resturaunt called the Island. Once again we all had pasta.
The next day was our final day so we really wanted to see a lot! We started out with Buckingham Palace! It was so cool becuase when we got there the changing of the guards had just started! It was really neat to see but there were so many people there it was kind of hard to see. From there we were trying to get to St. Pauls Cathedral which was a hard task I guess. We took the correct bus to get there but we had no clue what stop to get off on, so we asked the driver to tell us and he said he would. I guess he was just trying to see how stupid we are so he didnt tell us and watch us basically sit on the bus for about an hour untill we realized that we were in a terrible part of town. We just looked at eachother and said.. uh... I think we passed it! haha So we got off and got on the bus going the other direction and the lady driver on that bus was nice and helped us out!!

So we finally got to St. Pauls and it was BEAUTIFUL!!! We paid about 15 us dollars to get in and explore it! We went up these spiral stairs to the top of the center dome! Then we went up even higher to get to the top and go outside!! It was the most beautiful place I have ever seen, but you couldnt take pictures which was sad!

After the church we went to Trafalgar square which was nice but the fountains weren't working. We also went into the National Gallery for a little bit before it closed. That was really interesting. After that we decided to go back by our hotel and get some dinner. We ate at a little place called Med Kitchen! It was really good, I got a greek salad and French Onion Soup!! Yumm...

Ok... Now I am going to tell you the story about coming back to Ireland....

The night before we left, I was in the hotel room and I thought to myself I better check the flight information and thigns before tomorrow. I thought our flight was at ten am, but when I check I had 1:15 written down. I said to Amanda, oh our flight is at one not ten. So we woke up the next morning took a bus to the train and the train to the airport. When we went to check in for our flight, they could find my name but not hers. We went to the ticket desk and realized that we booked two different flights and hers was at ten and she had missed it. OH NO!!!! So they said all we can do is put her on this flight with you but the cost will be 215 pounds!! So of course we both freaked out! But we just had to do it, there was no other choice. So she paid the money and got the ticket. We take the ticket to the check in counter and they say, oh check in has already been closed for this flight I don't know why the lady sold you this ticket. Right as we start to cry... she says well let me try to call the flight control becuase the plane was delayed and we might be able to get you on. So then luckily get us on then we cant find the gate.. so were running around the airport in London for like 20 mins. We find out that becuase the plane was delayed there was not an assigned gate yet so we just had to wait. So we finally get something to eat and calm down.

We get on the plane and land in Ireland an hour later. We then take a six hour bus ride back to cork from dublin. We were in the very front seat and the driver had the heat on the whole way so we were sooo hot and sweating.. which just added to our frustrations. So we get back to Cork, walk to our house and open the door. We knew that the lady we are living with was gone and she had set the alarm for the security system, and we knew the code. So we open the door, try to put the code in and it didnt work!!!AHHHH... So the alarm goes off for about 30 mins. and everyone in the neighborhood could hear. So by this time we were SOOO MAD! We are trying to call the alarm people and all they are saying to us is we will call you back, but they would not turn the alarm off. So we call the lady we live with and tell her and she tells us how to trun it off. But then just when we are hanging up with her she says, well if you would have brought the code with you and done it right you wouldn't have disturbed me and all my neighbors!!! Ahhhhh that is not what we wanted to hear!


So I went up to my room talked to my mom, who always makes me feel better then called joe and I was okay!!! So it was a very crazy and FUN couple of days

miss home

The first Prize Egg!!!!

Today we only had a half day so we only went till noon!! While on break the teachers were all buying raffle tickets, so I leaned over and asked someone, what are those for? They said that it was a raffle for the easter eggs. I had seen these eggs for the last two weeks on a table but I didn't know what they were for. So I thought okay Ill but some... 1 ticket for 2 euro and 3 tickets for 5 euro. I bought three tickets and I thought even if I didn't win at least the money would go to the school.
We went back to class and watched a little High School Musical and had an easter party. At the end of the day they announced the winners. The first one they called was the grand prize!!! They said and the first prize egg goes to the American student teacher Katie McArdle!! I was so excited... all the girls ran up to me and said I love you and gave me hugs. It was so cute!

It was rainy and I had a large egg to walk home with so the principal of the boys school gave us a ride home!! haha

well that was the exciting news for today!

HAPPY EASTER BREAK.... cant wait for England on Monday!

Updates!

Hey! I was talking to my dad last night and he said, "why aren't you writing on your blog?" So I thought I would update everyone with what we have been doing, even though it isn't a lot of info. The last couple of days we have been trying to plan for our easter break which starts friday at noon!!! yay! We are going to stay here for the weekend then fly to London for Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. Once we fly back to Dublin I think we might stay there for a couple of nights then maybe move on to Galway if we are not to tired! Next week will be so fun!

I am starting to love my students even more! They are so cute... also my teacher is really great! I have started teaching some lessons but I can't teach all day becuase there are so many things I don't know like Irish, Prayers, Religion, and Music. So I just observe and help with those things. Yesterday we had Irish dancing with the kids and their parents came to see them it was awesome! I actually joined in with a student that didn't have a parent. After that we went to the field across the street to do running races. We were trying to see who the top runner was to send to the city championship I guess. haha

Last night Amanada and I took a bus form our school to the city to do a little shopping. Neither of us got anything, everything here is kind of bringht and tight haha! Weird stlye. Then when you find a cute store the clothes is sooo expensive. Maybe London will be better???? After shopping we ate an early dinner at a place called SOHO. It was yummy!

So far all the resturaunts are american food... it is acutally hard to find traditional irish food and pubs with traditional irish music.. everything is American!!! AHHHH....

Thats all I have to say for now... I am getting ready to leave for school!
Love ya!

Killarney!

Hello all!!

Boy where do I start.. I have so much to tell. Amanda and I decided that Galway would have been too far for just a weekend trip, so we decided on Killarney which is only an hour and a half away. We got a bus on Saturday morning and met a great group of people from Spain. They entertained us the whole ride with jokes and stories!!! The funniest thing was when we told them we were from Indiana, there was one guy who was like oh! Then you must like basketball. We said yes and started to tell us that Larry Bird was his childhood Idol! We thought that was soo funnny! He also knew Bob Knight .. (who doesnt though).

When we got to Killarney we had absolutly no idea what we were going to do. (which is not like me at all but it worked out!) We checked out the town and went to the tourist office. They told us that we should rent bikes and ride to Muckross National Park adn check it out. So we did!

We rented a biks from an old irish man that was so funny! We walked in to rent the bikes and we said hi we want to rent some bikes to ride to the park. He answered with just give me your money and some id. We were kind of like uh.. can you tell us rates and times first? He was very absent minded!! The bikes were 25 euros for both which wasnt bad.

After we rented our bikes we checked into the "nicest" hostel in town or so we were told. It was called Neptunes. We then rode our bikes to and through the park. It was the most beautiful place that I have ever seen!! I really felt like I was in Ireland while we were there. We saw the waterfall that is somewhat famous and even climed a little.

After we rode back to town we freshened up a little and went out to dinner. I got a salad at this one pub we went to named Murphys. We stayed there for a little while becuase there was a "futbol" match on that everyone was watching!

We didnt stay out very long becuase we were so tired from the day. The night was okay, the people in the next room were kind of loud but it wasnt to bad. We just got back to cork a few hours ago!!

Also there was a time change here last night so we are now five hours ahead of Indian =(

okay I think that is it... I added so many pictures so check them out!

http://picasaweb.google.com/home

- or you can just click on the picture to the left of this of Amanda and I ... it will take you to my pictures.

Again...

username and password:

kmcardle@indiana.edu

123katie123

Hi!

Last night Amanda and I met up with Kyla and her friend Colm for dinner. We went to a little place called resturaunt 14a. It was good, chicken again! I know I know... I did try a shrimp thought! haha For those of you that really know me know that is a huge deal for me!!

Today at school was good. I painted almost all day with the girls. They would come back with me to paint their "easter baskets" that they made out of clay. It was a messy job but it was really fun... I love my little girls already they are super cute! After school amanda and I grabbed some food and headed home.

This weekend we want to Galway... there is a bus that goes there but it is a four hour ride. I think we will get up earyl and just go then come home Sunday evening. Hopefully it will be beautiful like everyone has told us. I just feel unsure becuase I am such a big planner but we
dont have set plans yet so it makes me feel uneasy!

We are still thinking about what we will do for the two week easter break also. We wanted to go to Paris for sure but we dont know where else. We should have probably planned this before but everyone has their own opinions and ideas so its kind of hard.

Well thats all I have for now sorry it wasnt so interesting... love you all

Camogie!

Today was a good day at school! I started out in my usual class and we had an awards day for all of the girls who got perfect attendance last year. Then we went to do some Irish dancing. Watching the little girls dance is so fun!!! After break my teacher asked me if I wanted to go to the "bar" with the sixth grade girls for camogie. I really wasnt sure what the bar was or if it was really the kind of bar that I was thinking of haha! So I went with them to the bar which was a camogie field about five minutes down the road. I watched them practice and play a camogie match. Camogie is a girl version of hurling. They have wodden sticks and they have to hit the ball with the stick down the field to score. It is like soccer but only with hands and clubs instead of feet.

On the walk to the "bar" the sixth graders literally surrounded me like I was famous or something. It was so funny. They ask me things like are you the American girl?, who did your hair?, do you know any celebs? Do you know my cousin wil, he lives in chicago?, Have you ever seen a real live squirrell (they dont have those here and they are really interested in them), have you been to new york, disney world, or california? Hahaha I think it is sooo funny!! They also try to impersonate my accent... they always say oh my god!!! in such a vally girl way!!!

tomorrow our shcool only goes till noon for the girls then the teachers have a staff development day. So I guess that will be nice!

Amanda and I are going to get something in town for dinner tonight!!!!

love you all and miss everyone!

BLARNEY!!

We took a short bus ride to blarney today to see the castle and of course... kiss the stone! We meet Kyla downtown and tool the bus to blarney. The castle was sooo cool. We walked up a very narrow and windy staircase to the top to kiss the stone. The top had a beautiful view! You have to lay on your back and put your head back and far down to kiss the stone, while some old guy is holding you ahha! My picture was form a bad angle but I bought one of the professional pictures that they took. It was so much fun.

When we got back to Cork city we went to dinner and had a burger and chips!

We went out to the pubs last night becuase Ireland won the"grand slam nations" (rugby) which was the first time in 61 years!!! It was a huuuge deal here, like when the colts won the superbowl. It was so fun. We met up with Kyla and her friends that she has met. It was so much more fun actually having people to talk to. Some of them were from the states and some were from here so they had a lot of insight and good advise!

ok.. well tomorrow is monday, back to school! I will write again soon.... check the pics!

Junior Infants...

Today the junior infants teacher was out for a wedding today so they decided to put my in charge of teaching the class for the day... yikes!!! I walked in this morning and there were plans on the table but half of them were in gaelic?!?!? Luckily there was an aide in the class that was clase to my an aide in my class that was close to my age so she was there to help me. The girls were sooo cute! They were like kindergarteners. At lunch time I went to the boys school and ate with Amanda! It was so much better, the teachers over there are a lot younger and there are not so many people in there during break so its not so stressful! It was a much better day!

At 1:30 when the younger girls that I was teaching went home, I went back to my first class. It made me feel good when I walked in the room and all the girls were so happy! I also got a chance to talk to my teacher for a little bit longer today which was good. She is really nice and funny!!!

Tonight Amanda and I are going to meet with Kyla (a girl from montana, who also teaches here) downtown and maybe go out for a little while. Tomorrow we are going to watch a HUGE rugby match. It is in Whales but I guess everyone goes out to the pubs to watch it, they also wear red jerseys. I am excited becuase I actually just bought a red jersey!! Maybe Ill fit in haha!

On sunday I think we are going to try to go to Blarney? We will see.....


love you all.. and already miss you so much!!!

Second day teaching

We walked to school today which took about 30 mins. It was a little longer than expected but it was ok. When we woke up it was foggy and misting. The day went okay except for lunch time. I really don't like lunch or "break" becuase this is the time I feel most out of place. I feel this way becuase there are always so mant teachers in there and they are all talking to eachother and not me. When they do talk to me, its ususally the older ones that I have trouble understanding so I would almost rahter just not talk! haha They they all have tea and coffee again with just like a scone. They dont really eat a lunch. So I feel weird with my salami sandwich, bananna ,and water bottle. haha But I think ill just have to get over it!

The only time when I am at school that I really feel comfortable is in the classroom with just my teacher and the kids. I can really relate to the kids well becuase they all really like me. So I am almost relieved when they came in from break today!

Okay.. so I think they are really big on saving money at the school becuase the kids bring their own toilet paper from home and keep it in thier "wash bag". I found this out when I went to the faculty restroom and there was no toilet paper!! oopss... :) They also have bagged lunches that I think the school makes and each child gets their own. They do not have a cafeteria or kitchen, they just bring their bags out with them from break and I guess eat on the playground- then they have to put their trash or rubbish in their backpacks and take it home to throw away! weird!


I also learned some new words today! I was helping a girl with her math and she had made a mistake so I said get your eraser.. and she just stared at me? They call them rubbers. Also I said oh! you need a period at the end of your sentence. She stared again, I asked... do you use periods and pointed to one. She said oh you mean full stops? haha


Irish words:
full stops- periods at the end of a sentence
rubbers-erasers
runners-tennis shoes


thats it for now... Amanda and I are going shopping now!

*oh and last night we went to dinner at a place int he town called Liberty Grill- it was good. I got a chicken sandwich and fries anyone that knows me knows thats I eat haha. what an american


*also we waited on the wrong side of the road for the taxi and wondered why no one was stopping... we got in one and he said i figured you were americans since you were on the wrong side of the road hahahah

All about school...

The first day of school went well! We took a bus to the school becuase we weren't sure where it was. After getting on the bus and waiting about five or six minutes before getting up enough courage to ask someone which stop the school was, we had missed it. We asked a younger girl and she said oh love you missed it, its back over the bridge two stops ago. haha! We walked home though.. not to bad about 15-20 mins!

School was good we met our principal and teacher, and both were really nice! My teacher is young and soo nice. I can understand her really well too. Since it is close to St. Pattys day the girls are studying Irish. I am in an all gilrs school by the way, if you didnt know haha! I am in first class which means first grade here.
So we had stations where the girls learned different things about the Irish heritage and history. The teacher was only speacking in Gaelic which was really cool! They had Irish dancing and singing, it was so cool! We then had a 15 mins break which was in the teachers lounge. I thought this was lunch but it wasn't haha! I was trying to eat so fast! I didn't know that we would have another 30 mins break for lunch hah!

Also, I do not drink coffee or tea which is big over here. So on the short break everyone was offering me tea or coffee so I tried to make a tea which I didn't know how so I felt like an idiot haha!!!!

The girls are all really cute and nice. They love hanging all over me and they are always holding my hand! I think that is all I have to tell you oh and I learned some new irish words:

Rubbish- Trash
Footpath-sidewalk
there were other ones but I cant think of them right now!!!

more pictures:

http://picasaweb.google.com/home

St. Pattys Day

Hey!
Okay.. I know the pictures weren't working so this is what you have to do...

when you click on the link and it takes you to the google sign in page just enter my email and password and that will take you there. That is the only way I know how to make it work so everyone can see it. I trust you guys anyway haha!
e mail: kmcardle@indiana.edu
password: 123katie123

On to St Pattys Day...
We woke up today and got ready for the parade. We walked into town and on the way met a girl from the states!! She helped us out a bit becuase she had been here since january. We went to the parade which was okay... not too exciting. haha We walked around town for about four hours after that. We found some cute shops!! Yay! After going into town we decided that we should look for our school for tomorrow becuase anyone we asked had no idea where it was. While we were on our way, we stopped at a pharmacy and I asked the lady that worked there if she knew where the school was, and it turns out she actually went there! She helped us with directions and told us about a bus that goes there!!! She was soo helpful! I am ready for tomorrow now!

Irish words or sayings
rubbing alcohol = surgical spirits haha
can i have a ride= can i have a lift
pants= trousers
cell phone= mo "byle" haha

Oh and Amanda and I went out on the town last night which was a little scary at first but it turned out to be ok. All of the girls were realllly high heels and skirts? we looked a little out of place but it was ok. The pubs were really crowded, we could hardley walk!

I will try to post new pictures that I took today!!!
miss you alllll!!

Top of the morning!

Good Morning!
So last night went well! There are four other guys from New York living with us and the owner. Everyone is nice and helped us get setteled in! My fan broke last night so I am going to have to get another one! When I opened up my curtains this morning I saw the most beautiful view I have ever seen! I can see the whole city from a distance! It is awesome! We still dont feel like we are actually in Ireland yet, just feels like were on a vacation! We are getting ready to go to the graocery store now! I will update later....
Hope everyone has a great morning!

here are some of the pics that I got uploaded!!!

http://picasaweb.google.com/home

so we are finally here...

After a lonnng 24 hours we are here! The first two flights in the us were fine untill we landed in the UK. When we were going through immigration they asked us why we were going to be in Ireland. We said we were student teaching untill may, so they told us to wait in the "asylum" whatever that is with another huge scary guy! An hour and a half later they told us they called ireland to see if we needed a work permit, which we knew we didnt but oh well! So nothing got accomplished becuase they couldnt get ahold of ireland and they just let us go after missing our flight! The next flight was at 12:15 so we waited four hours to find out if we could even get on this one because there was only one empty seat left. We found one super nice lady that helped us out and got us on the flight! Once we arrived in Dublin we then had to take a four hour bus ride to Cork City then a cab to our house! We just arrived and we are hungry tired and ready to shower..... were thinking about ordering pizza?

ill type more later! with pictures


by the way ireland is BEAUTIFUL!

Airport..

I am sitting here at gate B22. I just got through security and that was all ok! It was hard to say goodbye to mom and dad but Ill be fine!!! haha. I just wanted to take the time to thank everyone that has called and stopped by my house to say goodbye!!! I just hope I don't get sick on the flight.. you should see the airplane (super small) :(

HI LAKEVIEW AND MRS.MUEHLINGS CLASS!!!

MOM AND DAD I LOVE YOU!

Alright... I just woke up and its almost time to go! I'm not nervous yet but I'm sure I will be. My flight leaves at 3:43! First stop is Chicago then Manchester then to Dublin! We will see how it goes!!! Wish me luck! Love you all

Here is a picture of the house that I will be staying in... oh and by the way in order to make a comment you either have to have a google or yahoo id, so if you don't have one you can make one!

Six Days to go....

So it is the Sunday before I leave and I am super excited but also nervous. I don't really know what to expect in terms of teaching and everything else but I am anxious to find out! I will be teaching here in Bloomington at the wonderful Lakeview for five more days then off to Ireland it is! I will be traveling and living with another IU education major and friend named Amanda! We will be arriving in Dublin at 8:55 am (dublin time) on Sunday March 15th. From there we have to figure out if we want to take the bus or the train to Cork city then a taxi from the city to Wilton, which is the town in Cork where we will be living!