Continuing On

I have officially been in Ireland for one week. Looking back on my week I am realizing how quickly these couple of months are going to go. My first week in Ireland was wonderful. I am starting to feel pretty comfortable with my surroundings. As I mentioned before I love my school. Everyone continues to ask how I am adjusting and if there is anything they can do to help out. I am starting to feel really comfortable, and I think the students are now aware that I will be around for a while. I was able to help out in the fourth class on Thursday, which was really interesting. Fourth-class means the students are right around the ages of 9 and 10. Their teacher had to go to a meeting so I offered to watch the class while she was gone. It was really a treat. The first thing I heard when I walked in the room was "oh the American!!!" The girls in fourth class had SO many questions for me and were so curious about America. Some of these questions include, "have you meet any famous people, have you meet the president, do you know Justin Bieber, how old are you, is America safe, etc." I actually really enjoyed the brief amount of time I was there. I am hoping to pop in and say hello, and answer more questions in the near future. In the junior infant classes I am working with a number of small groups on a lot of different things. Tomorrow I am starting my five-day unit plan on America. I have planned a number of different activities for the kids to help them learn all about America. (I will try to take some pictures to show you how everything turns out). In the senior infant class we are still working hard on our robin bird project, which we will hopefully finish up this week (pictures to come). The school days go by so quickly; there just isn't enough time in the day! Other than school, my weekend was pretty relaxed. I am still adjusting to the time change so I have been very exhausted this week. I really didn't feel like doing much of anything. Friday after school I took the long way home. I wandered through town doing some window-shopping. That night my host mom, sister, and I watched a movie and then went to bed extremely early. On Saturday, I walked into town and visited my host sister at work - she works at a place called scribes, which is a little coffee shop right in town. I can tell it will be a place I will be spending a lot of my time. I spent most my day at the coffee shop reading and relaxing. I drank about two pots of tea, to which I am completely addicted. After that I walked around town and did a little bit of shopping. I spent the night working on some lesson plans for the week ahead and relaxing. My host brother was home for most of the weekend with his girlfriend. He is in a band that plays at local pubs on the weekend. I am sure in the near future we will go have a listen. He also offered to teach me how to play the guitar so I am super excited about that! Today I went to church with my host family. My host dad is a pastor at a local church just about 15 minutes away from home. I really enjoyed the service. It was about 2 hours long, which I am not use to at all, but it was very refreshing. I met a bunch of really nice people and was at church from about 11:00 until 3:00. After the service all the members eat lunch together and talk. Overall I would say that my first week in Ireland was great. I am still adjusting, but I absolutely love it. I am planning all of the places I would like to travel, and hopefully I will start this coming weekend. I am hoping for another wonderful week in Ireland!