Wednesday-Friday (March 3rd-5th)

Wednesday

Things were much better today than they were yesterday. In fact, it was yet another fun day in Ireland.

We had another pottery class today and I think I am in love. I really think I’m going to beg my parents to let me do some kind of pottery class over the summer because I fully enjoy it and how relaxing it is.  I am so sad that I will not be having another class while I am here because we have the next Wednesday of school off for St Patrick’s Day. Pottery was also fun because we got crazy with the clay and made clay prints on my shirt (I brought and old tee shirt) and on our faces/arms. It was a blast!

Our host parents had a movie night downstairs, so we were banned from going downstairs for the night. Catherine and I brought the small tv up to our room and watched Pride and Prejudice. I absolutely love that movie.

Today really did make up for the tiring day I had on Tuesday.

Thursday

What a crazy, crazy day!!

The day began normally. We had computers, where Catherine and I took our Geometry test (shout out to Ms. Ernest, wooh wooh). I went to the computer room for Irish. And all our other classes were just dandy!

But at lunch, it got crazy! We were having a pep rally for the hockey team because they were in the semi-finals for their league. This is a huge deal for the school and the pep rally certainly showed it. The 6^th years (seniors) made up songs to cheer our girls on with and dressed up in chicken suits (their mascot). They had people walking around with green and red face paints to paint our faces. Naturally, we all wanted to do this. I got mine done with a USA on my forehead. (Yeah, Americans). After the pep rally everyone was all pumped up and excited, so the rest of the classes weren’t all that productive.

Since the match was at the school, we all were able to get out at 3:15 (15 minutes earlier) to watch it. The whole sideline was packed! I had such a good time rooting on the HCK girls. Oh, and we won! Now this means that on Tuesday they will be going to the finals.

Following such a fun day was an evening of rest and homework. Ahhh lovely homework!

Friday

What a great day it was today! It was sunny and kind of warmer which put everyone in such bright spririts. Our first three classes were spent watching the DVD of the musical that the girls put on right before Catherine and I arrived. It was very well done and entertaining to watch. After that we had English, Irish (aka free block), and Geography.

Lunch was a blast. We decided to sit outside because it was so sunny. After we all ate we walked around getting pictures of the school and of each other. We eventually found a hill and got the idea that we needed to roll down it. We have some of the best videos rolling down this hill, including one where I completely roll on top of my friend Lizzie. Three of us later joined up with some 1^st years in their game of “Stuck in the Mud” We were surprised at our lack of physical ability because we were pooped after 10 minutes of it.

Following this was Chineese and religion. Oh so special classes. But then after school we had our big moment. The POLAR BEAR SWIM!!!!! This means that we were going to take a swim in the freezing cold irish sea. We roped our friends Anna and Hannah into doing it with us as well. The water was about 40 degrees. It was horrible and every moment we would scream because of the ice-coldness. Though it was awful, it was a really fun experience to have and I’m glad I did it. I’m even more happy that I am warm now.  

It was such a fun day today and I’m so happy with my trip so far. It saddens me to think that I only have two more weeks here.

February 28th-March 2nd

Sunday

PARK DAY PARK DAY!!! We went to the park today! I love going to the park and it was so fun. It was super bright and sunny, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t cold because it was FREEZING. Catherine and I stole our friends stuffed hedgehog (again) so we took him to the park with us. I also took my child, Mr. PEG, along. I have so many fabulous pictures of Mr. PEG on the swings, on the teeter totter, on a dolphin toy thing, and many many more. I also have pictures of Catherine and I being children again on all the fun park equipment.  

The rest of the evening we relaxed and did homework. After a busy weekend it was nice to just kick back and not have anything to do.

Monday

Today was a blast, to say the least. The classes were easy and fun. Oh and what totally made the day was that we went rock-climbing! We had to walk about 20 minutes, mostly uphill, to get to the quarry we were climbing, which is not my idea of fun, but when you’re with your friends all is good.

The rock-climbing was a real confidence building thing to do. We had to do this thing called abseiling first. Basically, what is it is you, attached to a rope by a harness, walking off a cliff backwards and then proceeding to safely/slowly walk down it. If it doesn’t sound scary enough in words, I suggest you try it. The first couple of steps before you get going off the cliff are the hardest things to bear. You literally feel like you are going to fall and die, especially since the cliff was a good 25 meters high.  Once I got going with it I was thrilled and so happy I did it.  Then I had to rock-climb. I am typically horrible at it so I was terrified at the fact that I had to do it again. I had an easy start, but when I was almost to the top I reached a point that was difficult. I probably sat there for about 3-5 minutes, in one spot, telling Catherine to release the safety and let me down. She refused. So grudgingly I had to climb to the top. I am so happy she wouldn’t let me fail to reach the top. It gave me the sense that I could overcome any challenge. That’s what I think rock-climbing is all about though: facing your fears head on and doing something about overcoming them.

On our way back we saw Bono’s house, some other beautiful homes, and the gorgeous Irish seascape (which we will be swimming in on Friday). Catherine though she could make the DART that we usually take so she ran all the way up to the school and back down to the station and caught it with 4 minutes to spare. What about me? Well I don’t run for anything, so I moseyed along back to school and easily strided home.

Tuesday

Today was possibly the worst day I have had/will have on this trip. What says a lot about the trip is that today wasn’t all that bad, just parts of it were.

Parts of the day were actually pretty fun. Like in Chemistry we made aspirin and we had art class. Of course, hanging out with friends at school is also fun. But first thing in the morning we found out we would be having a geometry test and then about 20 minutes later wer received news that we would be having a chemistry test in a few weeks. Not necessarily new that anyone wants to hear. But I should have been expecting it.

Next week we have another work experience week. Catherine, Colleen “Michigan” (the other American girl), and I were planning on going to the Irish film making course again, but it was cancelled. This meant that we had to find last minute work experience placement when most people plan this months in advance. Most people would have some sort of connection to business people that would make this a little easier, but since we are foreign, we did not. This afternoon we went into Dun Laoghare with hope that we would find work placement. It was proably the most depressing afternoon I have had. After 2 horus of searching  and going in 40-50 stores, we had NOTHING! We were all getting tired and grumpy so we called it a night and hoped the school would help us find a placement of some sort.

Friday and Saturday (February 26 & 27) – MUN (Model United Nations) Weekend

Friday

Today was the first day of the big MUN conference.  We were all very excited, even though we didn’t have a single clue what would be going on when we got there.

The first three classes was a triple block of musical practice, but all the Irish students in our year had to take a driver’s test. And the next three were English, Irish, and Geography. Catherin and I didn’t have to go to the driver’s test or Irish and the rest of the MUN group was excused from all their classes. Oh, and our friend’s mom was picking us up at 1:30 to “get ready”, even though it began at 5:30. So up until 1:30, my day consisted of hanging out in the computer room, writing resolutions, helping  others write theirs, and playing on the computer. It was fun to say the least.

We got to the conference excited for the free banquet ahead and that was where the excitement stopped. We quickly went around trying to meet people and make friends. I was on a mission to find the USA team so we could bond.

After the free food, we had to split up into our committees. I had heard that they would make you get up and make a speech about your country in these committees and I was terrified. Turns out the speech was a mere introduction where you had to state your name, country, and what issues you (as in the country) most looks forward to discussing.  Turns out all the work that we attempted to put into our resolutions was useless because we didn’t have to write them.

 Our group finished early so we had a debate on the rights of ginger people. It was really funny because there were several gingers in our room and many people were anti-ginger rights.

After all the committee sessions we had a “late late jazz café”. I know the name makes it sound pretty silly, but it was really fun. It was here where we met all our friends that we have now fallen in love with. I’m not going to lie, about 90% of those friends were made by going up to random people and touching their velvet jackets, super soft hairs, or baby-soft skin. I have learned that this is how you make true friends in life!

Saturday

Today was super fun too. At MUN we have made so many good friends and have had a blast.

When Catherine and I first got there, it was a little intimidating because we couldn’t find our friends and there were so many people there.  But once we found people we knew it was okay. They had free tea, coffee, hot chocolate and muffins. That was a very big plus side to the morning.

Committee sessions started after this and they were really fun/interesting. What we do during those? We basically spent the next three hours of the morning committees debating resolutions that others had made and sent in the night before. We would also propose amendments for those resolutions. Oh, and we had to know our countries so well that we had to vote in our countries favor (this was not an easy task).

After three long hours of debating world resolutions, we had lunch! I was STARVING and all around me were amazed at the massive pile of food that I was able to pile onto my plate. Yes, I do enjoy eating. At lunch I met up with our new friends and our “old” Irish ones from our team. It was a very epic lunch to say the least.

We had another 3 hours of committee in session time. It was LONG. I discovered earlier that if we wrote a note and gave it to a secretary with where we wanted it to go, they would send it to them for us. This was so cool for me because I spent my time in my committee writing fun notes to my friends and of course listening to the debate.  Our committee finished early, so we had a rap-off. This was super fun, and I even got up and did a rap! Just saying, I am a pretty amazing rapper.

We had a short break between our committee and then we had a General Assembly. This means that everyone had to go into the hall to sit in on an “emergency” debate on a superficial crisis that had occurred.  Our table sent notes to people and had a blast doing it.

Throughout the conference there was a newspaper and in the paper was a “love corner”.  People could submit hints for the love corner in the “gossip box”. Let’s just say, the gossip box gave us in the Bolivian team much joy. We wrote so many entries, real and fake, that one of the newspapers practically had an entire gossip section devoted to us.

We made so many friends at the conference and had a great time. I even made a new brother, a ginger pet, and many many loves.

Sorry it has been so long since I last posted a blog. It has been very busy here and I have had a hard time finding time to write. I will just give a basic outline of what I have been up too.

Friday

On this day Catherine and I spontaneously planned to go into town (Dublin) with some friends. We just hung out there and shopped a little. We sat in this park called St. Steven’s Green. It is really small, but teribly gorgeous. As evening turned into night, we just sat around and hung out.

Saturday

I would like to call this magical homework day! I awoke early to do homework while Catherine slept in. When Catherine awoke, the whole family (but me) went on a walk. I was too tired/busy/lazy to go, but they sounded like they had fun.

We had gotten a call from our friends earlier that day that they had extra tickets to a rugby match. We aggreed to go and had an amazing time. I think I like rugby more than football!  Though it was fun, it was also super super cold. On our way to the DART station, after the game, it began to rain. Throughout the nihgt we kept hearing reports that in some countryside towns it had been snowing. The prospect of this obviously made me flip out with joy.

Sunday

Turns out it did snow last night! None of it stuck in our area, but while driving along the street you could see it on all the cars and streets. On this day Catherine and I and our sister went shopping. On an ordinary day I would be excited to shop, but I was really tired and the mall was really hot. Plus my mom cut me off from spending anymore money because I have spent to much. All those factors together made me want to just sit and rest. Eventually Catherine and I just gave up, sat on a couch and read.

While shopping, we all bought footie pjs. We even got a pair for our brother. I have pictures of us above.

Monday

First day back at school from break! Uggghhh! It was so hard to wake up this morning. But it was so fun to be back at school. It was even more excitine because we got a new schedule with all new classes. The classes I have are so cool and different from the ones I have back home. Just a few of the include Pottery, Art, Chineese, and Geography. It was a fun day to say the least.

Tuesday

Another fun day of school. It was pretty normal. We had Chemistry, where we are going to make asprin in next week! :) I am very excited for that.

During school it began to snow. Naturally, I was very excited and stuck my head out the window. This wasn’t enough for me. So, since there was no teacher teaching our class, my friend Hannah took me outside to take pictures in the snow. It was amazing, but it didnt stick.

Wednesday

EEEEEK! We had pottery today! It was the most amazing class I have had in a long time. I had a blast doing it. I absolutely love pottery and cannot wait to use a potters wheel next week. Other than that, all the rest of my classes were quite delightful and it was another great day in Ireland.

Thursday

So when we woke up on thursday there was snow on the ground. It was soooo cool! As we took the DART to school, we could see it on the sidewalk and all over. I would of been in heavan, but it melted rather quickly. That was sad. They day as a whole was fun until evening came. Catherine and I realized that our MUN (Model United Nations) conference was friday and we still had not written resolutions. For those that don’t know, resolution papers are papers written by a commitee member that proposes a way to solve the issues at hand. They turned out to not be mandatory, but we thought they were, so we spent the whole night going crazy over it.

Day 21 (February 18)

Catherine and I had our mini grand tour of Dublin today. Our brother offered to take us into town, show us a few museums, and just take us around.  Of course we didn’t get out until 2pm, so we  only were able to make I to one museum and some churches, but it was still fun.

Our first “point of interest” was a history museum. Though it was small, it was so cool. The whole first floor was mainly about the Neolithic era and they had a lot of exhibits on the jewelry form ten. On the second level were exhibits on Rome, Egypt and the Vikings. I must say, my favorite exhibit was the Roman one because they had artifacts of clothing that people wore and diagrams of the different fashions or the era.  

Ever since she saw it on a postcard, Catherine has been dying to see St. Patrick’s Cathedral and I really happy we did. This cathedral was GORGEOUS! Not to mention, it is the site where St. Patrick converted many people Christianity, which is also pretty cool. I can’t wait till my mom comes out here on her business trip so we can go to mass there.  I will put pictures up, but they don’t do the place justice. Both inside and outside were incredibly, strikingly beautiful.

On our way back we passed another cathedral called Christ’s Church. It was beautiful here too, but we couldn’t go inside because visiting hours were over. Instead we just sat on a bench outside of it in wonder. Soon I got antsy and demanded we go walk somewhere to get food because I like to be fed every two hours. :)

We ate at the same place we had on Friday at lunch, Lemon. It was so good, but I was so stuffed. As we walked back to the DART we decided to walk through Trinity College. We came across a giant field. We had to convince Catherine to run across it, and eventually she jogged a little. I sprinted across it and people were yelling “You’re not being chased!” Who needs to be chased when you have the ability to run any and all your streses away?? For the the very first time, I had fun running.

When we got back we ate dinner and at 9 we settled down for “family movie night” and watched Borat. I call it family movie night, but really it was just the kids watching a movie like we always do. We also watched a cool show on gypsy weddings. Even though some are looked down upon for thievery,  it was so neat to know that gypsies really do exist because we don’t have them in America.  

I really enjoyed touring around town today. I had a great time with our brother and Catherine. It is also pretty neat to know that I am positive that I can navigate my way around the city on my own!

Day 20 (February 17)

I can describe my morning in one word, lazy. The morning was like it usually is and we did nothing. Well not nothing exactly, we just sat around with our family and watched TV.

Catherine and I had plans this afternoon to go see a movie in Dun Laoghaire with some friends. We got there early so we (more like just I) stocked up on candy and went to Tesco to get waters. We saw the movie Invictus. It was all about Nelson Mandela and his push to promote the South African rugby team in an effort to promote the mixing of the black and white communities. I really really enjoyed it and thought that it was one of the best movies I have seen in a while.

After the movie we walked around. I needed to mail a few things while we were there so we went on a hunt for a mailbox. We got to the mailbox just in time, I guess, because the man was picking up the mail just as we were leaving. Of course we had to have him pose for pictures! Since the others were tired of waiting for us to get our pictures they left to McDonalds and we caught up with them. Let me just tell you, the McDonalds here are AMAZING! The interior of the looks like a designer did it and they have comfy chairs!

When Catherine and I got home we all (the children of the house) hung out downstairs. Catherine was getting help on her Geometry home from our sister while our brother and I made fun of her for not being able to draw a triangle. I know it was not very nice to make fun of her for it, but she knows we were kidding.  Catherine gave up on the work and we spent the rest of the night playing with glowsticks and I showed my family the crazy/amazing dances that my friend Dania and I dance whenever I go to her house.

Day 19 (Febrary 16)

Hello world, TODAY IS PANCAKE DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes, that is right, pancake day, the most epic day of the year. Back home we usually call it Fat Tuseday or Mardi Gras, but here in Ireland, we truely know how to celebrate the last day before Lent. So we did not have pancakes ALL day, but we definately had them most of it.

For breakfast, Catherine and I kindly begged our brother to make us all (Catherine, Erica ‘sister’, Maurice ‘brother’, and me) pancakes. He kindly did and we were very excited and happy. Oh, by the way, pancakes are crepes, not big fluffly pancakes.  Either way they were so good. I’m just going to put it out there that one day I am going to get diabetes one because all the sugar I eat. My favorite kind of crepe is one with a load of Nutella, a gallon of lemon and a ton of sugar. Mmmm yummy.

After “breakfast” (more like lunch) Catherine and I went upstairs. I did homework for my classes back home and she took a nap. I felt studious (for the first time in a while) and got alot done. 

We had swim and dinner and the usual stuff. Oh yeah, it was our host sisters birthday tonight, so she had friends come over to watch movies. Catherine and I go to move the small t.v. upstairs so we can continue our Grey’s marathon. This was the best idea ever. Between episode breaks, we got more pancakes and other food from downstairs. For those that want to know, we acomplished so much during this time. Catherine cleaned (who knew Catherine made a mess?). And I did some more history homework, did my eyebrows (they were feral!), and painted my nails so they are sparkly now!!

Our evening was quite fun. Oh and I just want to say, my outfit of choice this evening was footsie pajamas.  One the guys that our “sister” had over said that footsie pj’s were awesome. So take that all who deny the amazingness of them!!

Day 18 (February 15)

Accccccck!!! Today was amazing. I say that too much, but today really was. Everything here is!

I got up earlier than everyone else and no one was downstairs, so I settled down to watch movies and tv. As more people came downstairs we did the same thing. It was a lazy morning.

Later today we went up to Dun Laoghaire (pronounced: dun leery). It was our friend Anna’s 16th birthday today so we were all meeting at five to go to dinener and a movie. Behind her back, we planned to meet 2 hours earlier to shop for her gift. Instead of buying individual gifts, my friends all decided to pitch in on one massive one. This was much easier and cheaper this way. We had so much fun with our friends buying silly gifts and real ones too.

After shopping we went our friend up at this Italian restaraunt called Milanos. It is a real small Italian restaurant that was sooooooo yummy. One girl got an apetizer of bread balls that had a garlic butter dipping sauce. Oh my goodness!! The bread was so warms and soft and the butter was so good. I find it gross to eat straigt butter, but once the girl finished the bread I took the butter and started eating it. My arteries won’t be very happy that I ate it, but I certainly was. My friend Michagan and I shared a pizza. We randomly picked something off the menu, so I can’t say what kind it was we ordered, but it was yummy.

After dinner we saw the movie Youth in Revolt. The plot of the movie was really pointless, but it really liked it too.

The movie theatre here is so cool. Inside they have a candy shop that in like the Sweet Factory back home where you pick out your own candy and and are charged on how much you get. Before the movie, my friend Hannah decided we would share our candy so we bought LOADS (10 eros worth to be exact). This was a massive bag and all were in awe. By the time the movie was done, I was soooo sick. I usually eat something before I go to bed. But when I got home I didn’t eat a single bite, I was done with food.

Days 16 and 17 (February 13 & 14) HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!!! I have gotten behind on the bloggingness and I haven’t done much this weekend, so I will combine my Saturday and Sunday blogs. Saturday: Basically I sat around all day doing homework and watching tv. Before I knew it, the clock had struck 9pm and I was wondering where my day went. I stayed up the rest of the night chatting with people back home, eating, and basically all other activities that a couch potatoe invests their time in. Sunday: We got up early for church today, which meant that we got a real breakfast! Daddy made us crepes and mmmmmm, they were yummy. Nutella + Sugar + Lemon = HEAVAN!!! We also went to church, well Catherine, mommy, and me did. I was in such awe with the beauty of the church that I had a hard time focusing on the mass itself. Well that and I the fact that there were a ton of cute little kids running around that were so fun to watch. After church we settled down to work on our Model UN positition papers. Catherine and I are representatives for Bolivia in MUN and we had a meeting this afternoon about it. By the time we got home, dinner had just been made. We had a traditional Irish meal of lamb, mashed potatoes, green beans, and this mush of carrots and parcnips. For dessert we had rice pudding. It was yummmmmmy. Now we are on Grey’s Anatomy, season 3, of our marathon and it is very fun.