Tuesday - Week VIII

I woke up to find a overcast sky and such dreariness. The ground was covering in a thin layer of snow and it looked so cold from window. I was disappointed but running late so I had to get myself up and out of the house to meet my students. I put on two layers of leggings, two cashmere sweaters, a cotton top, a wool sweater jacket and my rain coat. Yes, I overestimated the cold and was wearing far too many layers but at least I was toasty warm as I walked along. On the walk into town it started to brighten up and the sun was shining when I got to the city center. Happy day after all!

As I was taking a picture of Quay street when I saw my student, Patricia coming toward me so I took a picture of her with her hands up in the air as she waved hello. I spent the morning and early afternoon teaching the Spanish girls at our favorite little pub on Quay street. See the picture here of the outside of the pub for reference. We had a lively discussion and the girls were all very excited to be talking about books and food and the myriad of things that came up and continually took us off track. The people at the pub are now getting to know us and the staff come over to participate in the lessons which I think is great. I think they must have gotten a kick out of our conversation about cockroaches. Yes, you read it correctly, the dirty disgusting bugs. How did we get on that subject you might ask, well it's easy, we were talking about what would make us uncomfortable at a restaurant. The girls said, if it was dirty and I said absolutely yes, like if a cockroach were to walk across the floor while you were eating. And the girls agreed wholeheartedly. I was surprised at first that they knew what the word cockroach meant and they said "the word is cucaracha in Spanish so it's easy to make the connection." I of course said you mean like in the song "La Cucaracha" and as a matter of fact that's exactly what they meant. It turns out, and if any of you reading this knew what the song meant I applaud you, because the lyrics "La cucaracha, la cucaracha, ya no puede caminar, porque no tiene, porque le falta, las dos patitas de atrás” means, unbelievably, “The cockroach, the cockroach, can't walk anymore because it doesn't have, because it's lacking its two back feet.” Now let’s face it the person who wrote this must have been drunk but the song does have a fun rhythm so this just goes to show you it doesn’t matter if you’re singing about a cockroach who lost her legs if song has a good dancing beat we’ll happily embrace it. We had a lot of laughs during our lesson today and here is a lovely picture I took Vanessa already enjoying herself and we had only just begun.

I left the girls and met Halil at 2:00pm and we went over to the Bridge Mills building to do Frank a favor and watch his new artists co-op gallery. He didn't have any of the participating artists to come and work the shop so he asked if I would teach my lesson there and keep and eye on things so of course I did. It was cold in the shop but Halil an I survived and we actually used all the paintings and pictures in the shop throughout of lesson. I had him pretend to be a shop keeper and I was a customer and he had to explain to me what was going on in each work of art. He did well and the three hours went by pretty quickly.

Jean Marie met me at the Budding Cafe and we were off to the gym. I was so happy to spend an hour or so sitting in the warm jacuzzi.

Monday - Week VIII

Okay, now my mood is beginning to change and I'm getting a bit annoyed. Yes, the morning started off with bright sunshine so I was perky at the start of the day but around 11:00am it turned over cast and the bitter cold was no longer the least bit enjoyable for me. I still lots of the Galway residents out and about dressed moderately warm but I right now would like to put on every article of clothing in my closet and wear them all at the same time. I am being a big grump, I know but I have never admitted to liking the cold so my aggravation with it all should be expected.

Now that I got all the moaning and groaning off my chest I can now say that I am grateful for all I have and that there are people who are living on the streets in this weather and I have a warm place to go home to and a comfortable place in the library to sit and write so all-in-all I am doing fine. And I do have faith this cold spell will vacate the Island soon and the moderate, dry, sunny weather will return. I do have faith and I will continue to remind myself of that when my spirits begin to get low. I did take a few moments this morning on my walk to work to take a few pictures of plants covered by a layer of snow. They looked so beautiful and even perky despite the temporary weather change.

I'm spending the whole day in the library as I don't have students until tomorrow morning. I've got a few good lesson ideas so I'm happy to have some time to prepare them before I meet with my students again.

A I write this I am looking out a large picture window on the ground floor of the library and I could almost swear I saw a ray of sunshine peek around a gloomy cloud. It's possible so my fingers are crossed.

Saturday & Sunday - Week VII

SATURDAY

It was a cold, blustery weekend with snow fall. It's so strange to see snow in Ireland and most people seemed okay with having it because it's such a rarity. Last year apparently they had a snow storm in January and that was the first of its kind in almost 20 years.

I enjoyed the weekend despite the weather because Jean Marie took me to Dublin. She had been given two tickets to a concert/dance event by the 2008 XFactor winners, Diversity. They are sort of a break dancing/hip hopping/acrobatics team of young men and for this show, which they are currently touring around the UK and Ireland; they present a Christmas themed story to go with all their dance routines. More on this later.

So we left Galway bright and early on Saturday morning and arrived in Dublin just before 11:00am. Jean Marie left me off near the center of town because she was heading up to Newry, Northern Ireland to do some shopping and needless to say I wasn't the least bit interested in going back to that shopping town no matter how charming it's city center was.

So I started walking in the Temple Bar neighborhood of Dublin which is lovely with lots of great shops and restaurants. I first came upon their open air market where the locals were out to buy fresh vegetables, cheeses and other yummy treats.

I eventually made my way up to St. Stephen's Green, the park in the center of Dublin. It's a beautiful small park and there were so many people out despite the cold because it was simply gorgeous with all the snow that had blanketed the park. Despite the snow cover the feisty Irish flowers refused to shrivel up and instead remained strong and let their colors shine through. I walked all around enjoying the beauty of it and knowing this is something most visitors never get to experience. I think even the locals were enjoying it knowing that they too won't have the experience of walking in the snow very often.

I then took a walk through the St. Stephen's Green shopping center because it's just so beautifully decorated this time of year. After that I walked to the Power's Court center which is an extremely large yet elegant Georgian style 18th Century townhouse that, in the 80's was converted into a gallery of antique shops and fine restaurants. It's an incredible place and in the center, where there once was an outdoor courtyard, there now is a glass roof that seals the warmth and creates the perfect place for a ground floor restaurant and indoor balconies that lead to all the shops. It was exquisitely decorated for the holidays.

I then walked just a block across town and came to another creatively repurposed building. It looks like it may have been a train station or something in the past but is now a wonderful semi enclosed market with lots of carts selling a multitude of wares. It's a beautiful red brick building on the inside and out but also features smaller, two story buildings in various colors that are snuggled between the main entrance of the market building and the side entrance. It's a wonderful place to stroll, perhaps more happily on a warmer day but still worth it even in today bitter cold.

I finally stopped for a much needed lunch and found the perfect place to warm up my now fully chilled body. The restaurant was on the first floor of an old building and had large windows so I could enjoy the bright sunshine while the rest of my body enjoyed the warmth. As for the food, they offer a fantastic brunch menu at Salamanca Restaurant on St. Andrews Street for only 12.95 euros. I had homemade pasta with poached salmon and the wonderful Italian bread basket was yummy all by itself. And dessert was included in the price and they brought me a generous portion of strawberries and whipped cream in a tower of flaky pastry. I could have sat there for hours but I knew there was more exploring to do in the city before I had to meet Jean Marie around 5:00pm.

I got to the main shopping street which I would say was similar to our 5th or Madison Avenue but the shops where not that high-end. It was more like Boston's downtown crossing shopping area. They have several large department stores including Arnotts shopping center on Henry Street which was established way back in 1843 and even features an outdoor ice skating rink on the roof. It's an interesting old building and very modern inside to satisfy today's customers.

I was shocked given Ireland's intense economic climate that the streets and all the shops were simply packed. Every cafe, fast-food and pastry shop were all equally jammed with customers and they were clearly shopping because there weren't many people coming out of stores without bags in hand. I was actually happy to see it because there seems to be a sense that somehow they will make it through this crisis and they'll come out on top in the end. One can only hope so. And even the weather didn't deter these intrepid shoppers from their quest. I do think that in general the Irish people are a hearty do what needs to be done kind of people and they are just happy to out and about doing something they enjoy.

The decorations on the main streets were stunning and I loved the 50 or so large brightly lit wreaths that hung along the whole of Henry Street. There is such a sense of joy in the city and its infections even if the crowds did overwhelm me a bit. I ducked on to a side street and into the nearest seemingly quiet pub I could find for a hot coco. The pub I managed to find had only about 10 people in there and they were either watching the game on TV or sadly drunk and finishing off their beer. It was warm and I had a nice corner to sit and read for a half hour so I tried not to let the drunken woman who was singing very loudly make my resting period too bothersome. If anything it was sad to see this woman in her early to late 60's clearly just wanting some attention and sadly with nothing better to do on a Saturday night. The bar attendant was very nice to her and would periodically go over and say "you doing okay, Mary?" And usually Mary would quiet down for a few minutes or so. The strange thing was she had a whole pint of beer and a half class of beer in front of her but instead of finishing either she gave the full pint to an older guy, who she clearly knew and who truly had had his fill already and took a last swig from the half-full beer leaving a swig or two at the bottom and than said good night to all at the pub and presumably headed home. I guess even she knew she'd reached her limit.

So after that brief, but warm, people watching period I ended up meeting Jean Marie near the large brightly lit Christmas trees on the main shopping street. We headed to the Maldron Hotel on Cardiff Lane just a bit removed from the City Center. It was half a block from the new Samuel Beckett Bridge which resembles a whale’s tail I suppose and was interestingly enough designed and built in the Netherlands and arrived by boat in Dublin in 2009. The bridge apparently moves to one side to allow marine traffic to pass. We didn't witness that happen but it was fun to walk over the bridge especially covered in snow.

After checking in and getting our stuff to the room we headed out for the concert/dance performance at the O2 performance Center about a 15 minute walk down river from the hotel. It was a cold and slow going walk trying to take precautions not to slip on the ice. We walked over the unique new bridge and down past the new brightly lit (rainbow themed) convention center to the huge white Ferris wheel which sits happily next to the O2 center.

The performance was interesting and the venue which probably holds about 6,500 people was nearly full and mostly with parents and their teenage daughters who are most certainly obsessed with these young performers. The two 15 year old girls behind us nearly burst my ear drums with their continuous hi-pitched screams. But all-in-all it was a nice experience and Jean Marie loved it so that was good.

We walked back to the hotel with the hoards of fans all excited and energized by the performance and within a half hour or so I was sung in my bed and happily off to slumber land.

SUNDAY

Yes the day was cold and there was new snow fall on the ground but the sun had graced our sky once again and all was fine.

We had breakfast and I left Jean Marie to go shopping in town and I headed to mass about a 10 minute walk from the hotel. The old Immaculate Heart of Mary parish was charming and friendly and yes, they sang. Finally a mass that had lovely singing and happy people. The priest was lively and gave an inspiring homely, just what I'm sure we all needed.

I walked to the main shopping street again where I sat and had what you might ask, yes, a hot coco while I waited for Jean Marie to finish her shopping. It was only a half hour or so before she called so it was just fine. Then we were off to do some shopping at the home center in Liffey Valley just outside Dublin's city center and from there we drove an hour toward Galway to Athlone, one of my favorite small towns in Ireland. Jean Marie did a tiny bit of shopping at Penny's and we ate dinner and did the final hour drive home.

It got incredibly foggy the last half hour or so which kind of freaked me out but Jean Marie assured me she drives in this all the time. I'm sure she does since there is more rain here than other weather but still at night it's disconcerting to have such low visibility.

So now I'm in my room at the apartment where it's warm and cozy and I'll be off to be soon, hurray!

Friday - Week VII

I was so excited when I woke up to see the sun shinning once again. I almost couldn't get out of bed fast enough. I had another lovely walk into town where I first stopped off at the budding cafe to pick up my hat and camera having forgotten them both last night after the children's party.

I then proceeded toward the library to spend the afternoon getting prepared for next weeks lessons and just getting some writing time in.

On my way, I was excited, yet shocked to see the same emergency workers from a month ago doing practice rescues in the raging river. I am clearly not the only person to find this interesting because there was a group gathered along the bridge and river bank watching and taking pictures. I just can't imagine how cold it was in that water this morning but I am sure it is better to be prepared than to risk not being able to perform a successful real water rescue when it is needed.

I met my friend Maura, from the class, at a yoga studio near the Budding Cafe for a two hour Kundalini yoga class. The class involved a lot of breathing exercises with gentle movements really working the core area so my abs and thighs were aching by the end.

We stopped off at the Budding Cafe where a celebration of the shops 25th Anniversary was winding down. Maura and I got to try the incredible mince pies that Ellen's staff has been making for days and had a little time to chat before she had to run off home to relieve her babysitter.

The weather did take an unusual turn this evening with a quick dusting of snow. It was all gone by the time we left yoga class but the temperature was a few degrees lower by that point. Brrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

Now here in Ireland there of course were no signs indicating it was Thanksgiving since they don't celebrate it but the sun was shining and it was a beautiful clear day and that was enough for me to be in a happy holiday mood. Although it was extremely cold and the sidewalks were very slippery I took my time walking into town this morning and enjoyed every moment.

Also, here in Galway, you don't expect to see many, if any, celebrities. But today I stopped by the river to take yet another picture or two of the beautiful multi-colored row houses along the water and when I turned around and there in front of me was a beautiful blonde women and her ruggedly handsome husband both smiling hello at me as they passed by. Now it would not be hard to recognize Jessica Lange and Sam Shepard on the streets of Hollywood or even New York City where you expect to see celebrities but in Galway, Ireland it's a bit more difficult and certainly a surprise. The only reason I knew instantly it was them was because Aiofe, my classmate from the ESL calls is friends with Jessica Lange and Sam Shepard's daughter, Hanna and tomorrow both Aiofe and Hanna graduate from the Masters degree program at the University here. It was a fun surprise to see them up close and personal and like the rest of us who visit this beautiful city it's hard not to take a long walk around the waterfront even when the weather is so bitterly cold.

I met my Spanish students, including a new girl, Alba, at 11:00am. It was a very productive four hours and I am continually impressed with their dedication to learning English. Alba had lots of specific questions like when do you use "either" and "neither." I had just gone over this same thing with the other girls a lesson or two ago but they were just as interested in going through it all again. This seems to be a difficult concept and I realized that we really don't use the either/or and neither/nor that often in our daily conversations. It's just as easy to say "You can have this or that" than to say "You can have either this or that." And think about it, when was the last time many of us used neither/nor in one of our every day conversations.

Now Marisol, out of the blue, decided to tell me about her roommates. I'm happy when any new topic comes up becaue it's great practice for them to talk as much as possible. So Marisol has three roommates and she said the women who she shares her actual room with is old. I said "well we don't usually say the person is old it's just not polite. We usually say the person is older and that pretty much takes care of it." So we continued on with the conversation and she explained that her youngest roommate is about 23 and she, Marisol is 31 and the roommate who she initially referred to as old is 42. Now Patricia and I both began to laugh because Patricia knew I was 43 and clearly Marisol didn't. Marisol than tried desperately to get out of this embarrassing predicament by explaining that I misunderstood what she meant by old. She was trying to say that her roommate is ONLY 42 but looks and acts like she is 62. She has aged far beyond her years apparently. Marisol and all the other girls tired very hard to reassure me that I was not old and that I did not even look like I was 40 I looked more like I was in my early thirties. That was nice attempt to make things better and it's a good thing Marisol is such a sweet person in general or I might have to hold this "old" thing against her. Just kidding!

Patricia who is very precise about everything I teach her and everything she hears around her so when I said "I'd been" she stopped me and said what is the "Ben" you keep talking about. You say Ben this and Ben that." Now I was confused for a moment and then spelled out the word "been." She smiled and said you mean "been" pronouncing the e's like in "green." I had to laugh and applaud her for being correct and for catching my poor pronunciation of the word. I'm telling you I can't get away with anything in this group because they are so happy to point out when I'm wrong. They always do it nicely so I never mind but also I think it's just a confidence booster when they can pick up an error and correct me because usually I'm correcting them on something just about every minute or so. I think it's very good for the student to be the teacher from time to time and clearly I must be more careful when I speak.

So after my lesson I went to the Budding Cafe to help Ellen with her children's holiday party. She invited some kids and their mom's to come and make gingerbread cookies and have hot coco. It was a lot of fun and the kids really enjoyed themselves and ate almost all their cookie creations. Hana who works for Ellen and is from the Czech Republic brought her 5 year old twins Katia and Muriska who were adorable and were very industrious making almost 15 cookies between them.

Jean Marie met me and we went to this charity food tasting at the same hotel where our gym is. It was very crowded so I went to the hotel pub and had some cheese and cold cuts while I waited for Jean Marie who didn't spend too much time there either because the crowd was out of control and the room was stuffy.

So the day passed in the complete opposite way my Thanksgivings usually do but change is always good from time to time but next year I hope to be in Boston eating my Aunt's incredible home cooking.

Tuesday & Wednesday - Week VII

TUESDAY

I love seeing the sunshine when I wake up. I know I will never take it for granted again. My whole mood is lifted with just the sight of a ray of sunshine peeking out from a cluster of clouds. It is cold however, but it doesn't matter as much when it's not dark and wet at the same time.

I taught all day today starting with the Spanish girls, Marisol, Vanessa and Patricia who met me at a pub on Quay street where we talked for 3 hours. It's an interesting old pub which has multiple floors and beautiful stained class windows. It doesn't look much like a pub to me which is just fine. Also Quay street was being decorated with live Christmas trees when I arrived and ti's looking more and more festive with each passing day.

We worked on telephone etiquette in both business and personal situations. They did fabulously and are really working so hard to master it all. I also had them reading some passages from Pride and Prejudice which is for readers of the highest English speaking level. So yes, it was extremely ambitious of me to think it was possible to do but I did find on the internet a few passages where the text was translated into simpler language which made the lesson much easier. The girls embraced it all enthusiastically and they all promised me they'd read the book in Spanish and then try reading it in English. There is no way right now that they could attempt to read it in English alone at least not pleasurably because they would have to look up every 10th word or so in the dictionary and they'd never get to finishing the book.

I left to girls with only 15 minutes between their lesson and my session with Hilal, my new student. He is at a beginner level so it's a challenge for me to teach him but it went really well today. We worked for three hours straight at a coffee shop near the Spanish Arch. He bought us a pot of tea and we talked and talked and talked. For someone who is a beginner he managed to express himself well and we talked about past, present and future tenses and he did well with each form. He has problems with pronouns and often says "he" when he means "she" or "They" when he needs to say "them." It just takes practice and he'll be fine.

I met Jean Marie at the Budding Cafe and we were off to the gym for a few hours. I am getting so lazy now I usually just run right into the Jacuzzi and stay there for an hour or so. It's just so warm and soothing and I'm always just so darn cold. I am truly a wimp and I'm proud to admit it.

WEDNESDAY

Another lovely day of sunshine, I could not be happier. Yes, it's cold but it doesn't matter as long as there is no sight of rain.

I met the Spanish girls at the pub again this morning and we had another three hour lesson. Today turned out to be all about food. Vanessa was telling me about the spaghetti bolognaise she made for dinner the night before and then three hours later we were still talking about food. I know, not that surprising since I like food so much but they were practicing telling what they did in the past in great detail so they asked me how to say certain words in English relating to cooking. I was okay for the most part but let's face it I don't even boil water let alone know how to sauté something. I was very hungry by the time we finished though but I had to rush off to meet my student Hilal for another three hour session so I only had time to grab a scone and some hot coco.

With Hilal we worked mostly with synonyms and antonyms and amazingly enough that took over two hours. You don't realize how hard it is when you already speak the language to understand even the simplest things like the connection between day and night. I was looking for the sentence "They are both times of day" but that's not such an easy thing to elicit with a beginner student. It all worked out great in the end so I'd consider it a successful lesson.

Monday - Week VII

It turned out to be another beautiful day today. The morning was dark and foreboding but by the afternoon the sun was out and managed to stay out all day. Hurray for the sun! And hurray for me who got to enjoy another lovely walk into town. I only just recently, in the past week, noticed that there is a charming house only a few doors down from my apartment that has a thatched roof. You don't see them much in the city center area so I was surprised I hadn't noticed it before now. I guess while I was in class I was just too exhausted and focused on school in the morning to notice this wonderful home. I also am including a new picture of Sea Road where the budding cafe is simply because I was moved to take a picture so I did.

I was at school finishing the missing parts of my number 5 assignment and I had the pleasure of having an impromtu gab session with some of my favorite students who were their studying for the English proficiancy test they'll be taking in January. It was Eloy, Pascaule, Felicia and Mickael and they were all so chatty today. We talked about books and the similarities between the Swiss language and German and lots of other topics that just pop up when you're in a room with people from different countries. It was so sweet though that when they were getting ready to leave Mickael came back to my classroom just to say how much he really enjoys getting to talk to me. He was one of the students who was in my first teacher practice over a month ago and he has such an amazing energy. He's always happy and talkative and I only wish I knew a 22 year old girl who was looking for a wonderful young French man who, by the way, is studying to be a doctor, how great is that.

Jean Marie was kind enough to pick me up at the school tonight and take me to the gym where we talked with Fiona for an hour or so.

All-in-all a very nice day.