Hello again,
Just finished up week 3/4 in Ireland. Dana and I traveled to Belfast this past weekend. That was our "mandatory trip to Belfast". I am so glad we went; we had the time of our lives. We went up on the bus and arrived in Belfast around 3 o clock without a clue where we were going to stay, or where any hostel was. We wandered around Belfast with all of our luggage on us. I think we walked in a circle about three times before we decided to stop and ask where a hostel was.
There was only one hostel near the centre of town and we happened to be about a block away when we asked for directions. It didnt look too promising at first as it was deep into an alley off a main street. We dropped our luggage off and went to tour the town. It was an amazing city, top 5 of all the cities I have been to. We came to a conclusion that the reason we liked it so much was because it had blue lights everywhere.
We arrived during the middle of the annual Belfast international festival. They had food from all over the world, along with other arts and crafts. We decided to eat kangaroo which was quite interesting--a new taste for me. Beside the festival was the Belfast wheel which is a huge farris wheel with indoor compartments that goes up with an amazing overlook of the city. We happened to go on it right as it was getting dark so we saw all of the lights. It was quite a view.
After that we went back to the hostel and cooked dinner in the hostel kitchen like experienced travelers would do. After we ate, in came about thirty girls trying to watch the X Factor on the only TV in the hostel. X Factor is the American Idol of England and Ireland. Needless to say the girls were obssessed and glued to the TV. It turned out there was a huge group there from a college in Dublin on a class trip. We made ourselves a couple more friends for the trip. We had a great time that night. We woke up the next day but all of our new friends were gone once again.
We toured Belfast on foot again. They had a lot of malls there, it was more Americanized than Dublin. It was easy to tell that Belfast was a English culture, also it was twice as cheap which was good for gathering souveniers. We on another walking tour that night and saw the bridge all lit up, we went for a ride on the huge fish that was beside the water(I don't think we were supposed to, It was marble).
The next morning we had got up and booked a mini coach tour. We went to the Carrick a Rede rope bridge, the Giants' Causeway, the Dunluce Castle ruins, and Bushmills Whiskey Distillery which is the oldest one. We made a couple friends on that trip as well. All of those places were amazing. We took a ton of pictures but Ifeel like none of them did the places any justice.
Giants' Causway was awesome, definitely a must see. We also paid the few pounds to walk across the rope bridge which was well worth it. We got lucky because this was the first time the bridge has been up past October. Again we were extremely fortunate with the weather considering everywhere else in Ireland was flooded. That was about the end of our Belfast trip. Don't know what we might get into this weekend.
As for school and life in Glenageary, it went quite well. We had Tuesday off because of the national strike, and we may have next Thursday off for another national strike. Lately, I have been spending a lot of time with the students that need a little more help with reading and writing. They come down to a little room in groups of three. They are actually improving quite well. I have only been here a few weeks and already notice a difference in their reading abilities. About every morning I am with the same six kids. They are senior infants and first class students.
I play Simon Says with them at the end and they love it. After break I usually have a PE class everyday. It is much easier when the weather permits us to go outside. The PE hall is smaller than most classrooms which is ok for the younger kids but not the older ones. With the older kids I taught a few basketball skills this week which they enjoyed. There is only one class I still attempt American football with. I do a lot of lessons on soccer if we are outside. All of the second graders are better at soccer than my high school students were in America. If we are stuck inside I usually stick with team handball.
All the teachers here are really nice I don't know if I mentioned earlier that I am the only male teacher in the school. On Mmonday I am subbing for the second class. They are usually well behaved which should be good. Its hard to believe there is only two weeks left of teaching here.
My family is still really cool. They are all quite busy most the time. The girl Rachel is a college student and goes on college sailing trips all over Ireland every weekend. The boy Alphy just made the A team for rugby at his school. I guess that is like varsity which is really good. He has practice everyday, and weekends he goes to sailing if he doesnt have a rugby game. The dad works for Lucozade sport which is a sports drink that rivals Gatorade over here. He is an avid hunter and shooter as well. The mom just started her own jelly and jam business with a friend. She has made and packaged a few new flavors of jam every time I come home from school.
We all still make time for the family dinner every night though, followed by quality television time in the sitting room(living room). I definitely missed Thanksgiving back at home yesterday though. It was ok though because we had tacos for dinner. Thats about second best to a Thanksgiving dinner. All the food I have had at home has been quite delicious. I have had every type of potatoes you could imagine, and I am still not sick of them. The dessert has been pretty delicious as well. They call dessert pudding no matter what it is. Well I hope all is well with everyone elses travels.
Good luck in your last two weeks....cheers....Brett
Also I am still unable to upload pictures from here. Dana and I have a lot of the same ones though.