Back to my Roots: City Centre...

Day 4 in Dublin!

So much has happended! The time difference is 5 hours (Daylight Savings) Mara and I began our Student Teaching yesterday at St. Mark's School in Springfield. Everyone has been so inviting and welcoming. We go to school from 8:30 -2:30 and the teachers even take a tea time break for ten minutes in the morning! The kids all learn to speak Irish and do Maths (not Math). They also seem to think that anyone from the U.S. is famous or knows someone famous. Its very funny. The students have interesting names like Oion (Owen) and Gashan, and each one is incredibly unique. They have "copy books" to keep all of their lessons in and the teacher rarely makes photo copies - very different from the American Schools. Everything is different, but in good ways. The pace is slower and the people are friendlier. Luckily we live right about a great cafe/bar (depending on the time of day!) and they play "American Music" - hilarious. It has been nice to live with college students because they are all very much the same as us. It is hard to think that people who live on the otherside of the world can be interested in the same things, but they are! The town of Tallaght (pronounced Talla) covers a large area just about 9 miles South of Dublin. There is an IT campus nearby and we are able to walk to Springfield. We have been into the City Centre (Downtown Dublin) twice already and the St. Patrick's Day festivities have already begun!!! Luck for us, there is no school this Thurs or Fri and we will be celebrating with the rest of Dublin in the Homeland : )
More (so much more) to come...
Pictures are from our night downtown ...