Coral Beaches, Cliften School and Tin Whistle

Over the weekend we stayed in Tully Cross and the surrounding area. Saturday we left our cottage around ten o'clock to go grocery shopping and visit a few beaches. Last time we were in Ireland there was only one grocery store but since then two other stores have opened making prices drop considerably. The main place we go to shop is the Aldi in Cliften about five minutes from my school. After grocery shopping we visited a beach with a megalithic tomb on the shore just above where the tide comes in. In Ireland there are lots of places like this scattered in the country side that are there just to stumble upon. After we got in the car and headed out to look for a famed coral beach around Ballyconnelly. We stopped along the road at a beach for lunch and to have a look around before realizing that we had in fact stumbled upon the coral beach. Only in Ireland can a place with two pages in a guide book have no sign by it. The sand was made of all coral some pieces were almost as tiny as sand and other pieces were up to seven or eight millimeters. Although it rained almost the whole day the beaches we beautiful covered in shells and being ever changed by the tide and its huge waves. Sunday we played soccer for about three hours with the students down on the local pitch. Then we went to a Valentines day party thrown by some of the students.

While in Ireland I have been learning to play the tin whistle sometimes better known as a penny whistle. The tin whistle originated in China around five thousand years ago and then made its way to Europe around the eleventh century. Although no one is quite sure how the penny whistle got its name some people think that the name my have originated from when people would throw pennies to street players. In the video below I play three songs. The first is called "Going to the Well" the second "Kerry Polka" and the last "Bean si Jig." I learned some this the first time I lived in Ireland and since returning have begun to practice again. In the primary schools it is taught to all the children but once you reach the secondary level the only year you have music is fifth year which would be the equivalent of sophomore here.

Below is Liam and I on our first day of school in our school uniforms.

School is going well and I would like to point out some main differences I have noticed between Irish public schools and American public schools. First of all I have a religion class here this is because public schools in the Republic are Catholic. Another difference between the two schools is that education at the secondary level is centered around two exams which decide if you can go to college or not. First years (seventh graders) and second years (our grade) spend class time studying and learning material for the first of two tests the Junior Certification. Then third year is spent taking the test and taking classes that are meant to help you decide what job area you want to go into. Fourth years (sophomores) are also sometimes called transition years. They take classes that help them decide what job area to go into and learn basic life skills such as cooking, swimming and healthy living habits in classes like home economics, wood working and P.E. Then in fifth and six years you prepare for and take you Leaving Certification. Sixth year is the equivalent of junior year and after that students graduate. During the year America's of that age are seniors, Irish kids are job shadowing. This narrows down the number of students who go to college waste a year deciding what to do with their education. This supports the mindset that not everyone should or can go to college, vocational training is encouraged and valued here much more than in the United States.

Another difference between my new school and home is the facilities are much better in East. For example we have no cafeteria and there is only one girls bathroom for about two hundred and fifty girls. The school is very old and about two hundred kids over capacity. However in the next two to three years they hope to have a completely new school building. All most all of the kids come into school on buses including me. Every morning the bus picks me up at eight o'clock and it takes about forty minutes on the windy Irish roads to travel the twenty miles it is to our school. The bus ride is quite a experience because there are upper-class men who shout and fight in the back of the bus. The fact that I start and end my day with a forty minute bus ride makes for very long and tiring days. I still don't have a locker or a time table of my own but by the start of next week I'm hoping to be settled in with my own schedule.

I hope to be able to make a small post before we leave; however, the next time I will be able to make thorough a post will most likely be around March tenth. This is due to the fact that we will be taking the students to Dublin and then flying to Malaga Spain for around two weeks. In Spain I will have no Internet connection so I will be out of touch from around next Wednesday to March tenth. Hope everyone is enjoying school and all the snow. Miss you guys! Hopefully I will be able to hear/read some of the American History Idol projects when I get home.

Last Days in the North/Cliften School

Our last two days in the North were busy and very interesting. On Friday we went to Belfast to see left over murals of the struggles and see the city. Most of the murals had been taken down because the country is trying to move forward instead of dwelling on the bitter feelings of the country's history. The few we saw varied greatly depending on the neighborhood. The first set of murals we saw were mostly colorful and commemorative. A striking contrast was the next street over where most of the murals were men in masks throwing bombs and holding guns. After the educational part of our visit was over we were dropped of in the city center for lunch and for some students shopping. We stooped into a little cafe for soup and sandwiches (paid for in pounds). After lunch we toured the city hall and bought a Gaelic soccer jersey for Liam.

Saturday we went to the Giants Causeway. On the bus our guide told us the story of Finn McCool. To make a half hour story short the Irish legend goes that Finn the Giant had a enemy giant in Scotland. Finn fell in love with the enemy giant's sister so when his enemy was gone he built a causeway across to Scotland and brought her back to Ireland. When the enemy/brother giant found out that his sister had run off with his arch enemy he was furious so he decided to go to Ireland a fight Finn. But in the end Finn was able to scare the giant away and as he fled back to Scotland he destroyed the causeway so Finn couldn't follow him. And that's why there are only two places in the world that look like the Giants Causeway. One in Ireland and one about eleven miles away in Scotland. However scientists know that the unique rock formations were formed when volcanoes erupted. As the tide came in the causeway began to disappear. It was windy so we there were huge waves that would hit the rocks and send ocean spray at us from about twenty feet away.
We spent most of Sunday on the bus heading back to Tully Cross. Monday morning I got up early for my first day of school! We spent about fifteen minutes in the headmasters talking about the weather, sports, the economy and pretty much everything but school. Then he told me to come back tomorrow. On Tuesday my mom drove me to the school for my first real day. For this week I'm just following one of my friends form last time around until I get my own schedule. Also I don't have a locker or books but I'm determined to make it work. The school is grades seven through eleven. In Ireland there are no seniors instead, kids that age job shadow as a way to decide what they want to do before they go to college. Although six different classes attend the school the school is still smaller than East Middle School. In my class there are about seventy kids. The school was originally built for one hundred twenty five kids but there are now about three hundred kids. Because of this about half of my classes are outside in small trailers. Another major difference between home and here is the length and number of classes. Here it is block scheduling so every day of the week I have a different organization of classes. Because of this I could go a two days without a math class but then have double math the next day. There are eight class periods in a day and they last forty minutes. My classes include French, Gaelic (neither of which I know), English, Geography, History, Math, Science, Religion, SPHE (social and physical health education), Culture, Home Economics, and Business studies. This combined with the fact that teachers share and rotate rooms makes figuring out where I'm suppose to be when very difficult. Another difference is there is no cafeteria so the only time to eat is during
the fifteen minute break halfway through our day. The school day starts at nine twenty five and ends at four o'clock but my bus picks me up at eight. And drops me off at home around five. This makes the school day very long and tiring but so far school has been a good experience. I'm working on learning and in some cases pronouncing my class mates names. I hope everyone at home is enjoying snow! Cant wait to see everyone! Sorry for the lack of pictures the wind is making our Internet very slow and choppy. I will try and post more pictures next time.

First Days in Ireland/Northern Ireland Trip

We arrived in Ireland around one thirty pm local time on Friday. Our flight was delayed from seven thirty to eleven o'clock pm because of all the snow in new york. Once on the plane we sat on the runway for about two hours. Over all getting to Ireland was stressful and tiring but now that we're here I have no complaints.

Day one was spent unpacking and trying to stay awake to adjust to the five hour ahead time change. Saturday and Sunday we spent the day at the beach, exploring the town and visiting friends from our last visit. Tully Cross is a tiny town in Co. Gallway. Only eighty people live in Tully Cross and the surrounding area. The town has a small hotel (only open during the summer), two pubs, a tiny general store that sells cereal, candy, cookies, tea and not much else, a church and the small tourist cottages that we call home. Our cottage is very different from our home in East. First none of the cottages and most homes in Ireland don't have a dryer. Although trying to dry clothes on a line in between rain storms seems ridiculous to us "yanks" the Irish don't seem to mind. Everything here just seems to move at a slower pace. A second major difference between our cottage in Ireland and our house in the U.S. is how the two houses are heated. At home we have a furnace that runs to keep our house at a constant temperature all day during the winter. In Ireland we have a furnace that we only turn on when we are home and even then only for short periods of time. Instead of using only our furnace for all of our heat we burn peat. Peat is basically compacted moss and dirt that has been dug up and set out to dry. Building a peat fire is a tedious task but once it gets going it really does help heat our cottage. Although Ireland's winters are warmer than the U.S. the damp cold combined with our poorly heated house keeps us bundled up even while inside. Another difference between Ireland and America is that Ireland is on the metric system like most of the rest of the world. This takes some getting use to when you ask a Irish person the weather for tomorrow and they tell you "oh only zero degrees." Another difference is food. The Irish eat lots of beef and root veggies because fruit and other fresh foods not grown locally are very expensive. Some juice comes concentrated so that less energy is wasted transporting something that you can just add water to.

Monday morning we got up early to be on the bus by ten o'clock. Although this doesn't sound too bad we are still not quite use to the time change which leads to lots of time staring at the ceiling around two o'clock am. Our destination was the Inch house where we will be staying until Monday. On the way we stopped at William Butler Yates' grave, Creevykeel (a ancient burial site from the Neolithic period), and the Foxford mills. The Inch house is located about ten minutes by bus from the city of Derry~LondonDerry. Derry is located in Northern Ireland. Northern Ireland is a different country from Ireland and is still a part of England. On Wednesday we took a walking tour of Derry to learn about the political struggles of the Northern Ireland. Our guide was one of the teenagers who was fired at during Bloody Sunday. He ended our tour by taking us to the place where one of his friends was killed during a attempt to flee from the British solders on Bloody Sunday. Bloody Sunday happened on January 30, 1972 when a group of unarmed citizens were marching for civil rights. British solders opened fire on the marchers and killed thirteen people the youngest being seventeen in the Bogside area of Derry Northern Ireland. We walked around the city and it seemed like at every street corner our guide knew someone killed walking home from school, work, or the store. One of the most striking stories was one of a fourteen year old girl who was shot dead walking home from school. She was the hundredth person killed during the civil unrest in Northern Ireland. Over all our tour of Derry was very eyeopening to how recently Northern Ireland was facing terrible political problems.

Tonight we met the mayor of Derry. He was the youngest mayor of the city had ever had. Unlike in the United States the mayor only serves for one year. Because of this he has little power and seems to be more of a figurehead than anything. He wants the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland to become one country.

Before heading back home to Tully Cross we are going to the Giant's Causeway and Belfast. Over all Northern Ireland has been a good experience but, I'm ready to head home to little Tully Cross and go to my new school. I hope everyone enjoyed their snowdays! Good luck with the American History Idol projects.