This will be my last blog post because on Monday I will be in class with all of you! These last few weeks have been full of school, soccer with the students, beaches and in general good times. Instead of writing about everything I did over these few weeks I decided to post some of my favorite pictures from my trip. Hopefully this will help everyone to understand why I love it here so much. Picture one: The Irish flag flying over Kilmainham goal (jail). This was for the most part a British jail until it stopped being used. Then when Ireland became independent the jail was fixed up and became a tourist attraction.
Picture two: Tully beach is about fifteen minutes away from our cottage. There is a pier where they pull up lobster traps and the beach is covered in large rocks. When the tide is out the picture above is what it looks like. Inside those crevices are sea anemones, shrimp and sometimes starfish.
Picture three: Liam and I on our first day of school. All schools even public schools have uniforms here.
Picture four: This is the view from our bus window we were about two feet from the edge of a Cliff and there was in some places no guard rail. The view was amazing.
Picture five: This is Newgrange. It pre-dates places like Stonehenge and it is unknown what it was used for and who build and used it.
Picture six: This is a traditional thatched roof cottage. Peasants lived in homes like these around their landlords castle during medieval times. In Tully Cross there are nine of these cottages. These cottages are also home my family and I during our stay in Ireland.
Picture seven: This is a coral beach about forty five minutes away from our cottage. For about a mile it is all coral that has washed up from the ocean.
Picture eight: We lived on the Renvyle Peninsula during our stay. In Ireland things are very regionally oriented. For example rugby and Gaelic football teams are organized by region. At Cliften school there are two different rugby and Gaelic football teams, Cliften and Renvyle. Renvyle is all of the kids that live on the Renvlye Pennisula and Cliften is all of the kids who live in town (often called townies by kids who live outside of town) and the surrounding area. One week during my stay Cliften was going to play Renvlye in a Gaelic match after school. For me this made it interesting to watch as the day unfolded. At home school is a place to be built up before a big game but here it was a place to intimidate and trash talk your opponents. Of course I was forced to pick sides in the great divide and because Tully Cross is on the Renvlye my choice was already made. That night Renvyle U16 beat Cliften U16 by one point. In Gaelic this is a tiny difference because there is more than one way to score. School the next day was in a word crazy.
Picture nine: This is the view from outside our back door. Rainbows were a common occurrence here.
Picture ten: This is our favorite beach on a rare sunny day. At low tide there is a tidal island that we walk out to.
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