Sunday - Week VI

Ireland is so breathtaking any day but when the sun is shining it it's truly an irresistible place to be. There was certainly a chill in the air today but you didn't mind it because you were so happy to be out and about on such perfectly lovely day.

I took a nice walk to mass at the Salt Hill church. I have been trying to go to a different church each week but today I just ended up going where I went last week and I'm glad I did. There still wasn't any music which was again disappointing but the homely was so nice. It's the Church's, I think 73rd anniversary and the priest got so moved during mass that I thought he was going to cry during the Our Father. You don't normally see such emotion on the alter and it was refreshing to see that he cared so much.

I took a fabulous walk along the Salt Hill promenade. It was low tide but unlike many seaside town Galway never has a strange or awful fishy smell. The air is so clean. I really enjoyed being near the water as did all the other people who couldn't resist being outside on Sunday morning at 10:00am.

I did eventually head to the gym where I spent several more hours working on my grammar reference. It truly has gotten out of control and is now 35 pages long. But, in my defense there is a lot to English grammar and I am still happy I'll have it all in one document on my computer. I know it will make life easier once it's complete.

On the walk to the gym though I did pass by the house where a week ago I came across a black and white kitty sitting outside on the second floor window ledge. Today it was his brother/sister brown and white kitty that was out enjoying the sunshine and fresh air. Last week brown and white kitty was hiding behind the glass so I could only surmise today that since black and white kitty was no where to be seen his brother/sister felt confident that it was safe to venture outdoors. I got a distinct feeling last week that the black and white kitty was a bit bossy, if not nasty, and it's sibling was fearful of treading too close on a high ledge with that one around. Or maybe I've lived too long with Zaboo and I have begun to see malice and demonic tendencies where there aren't any. Who can know.

Yes, here is just a picture of a green plant near they gym. I just like the color so I took a picture.

I went to theater performance this evening that was fantastic. My friend Ericka's friend Judith, Ericka is a dear, dear friend for New York who now lives in LA and was so kind to connect me with Judith who is a theater professional (and teacher) here in Galway. The production was a free event at the Nun's Island Theatre and it was the culmination of her student's work from their 10-week master class on acting technique and production. It incorporated the demonstration of the preparation techniques they learned during their sessions as well as rehearsed scenes from a Winter's Tale and Yurma. Judith, along with two or her friends, just opened this school, the Core Theater College two months ago and this is their first group of students to graduate and after seeing their performance this evening they are well-prepared to get out their and audition for mainstream theater as wells as more experimental work like tonight's.

And now I'm just checking email and getting ready for bed. I was excited to get an email from Louis, one of my fellow classmates who is the first of us to begin his travel adventures. He arrived safely in Poland yesterday with his Polish girlfriend where they will remain for the holidays and then he is off to China with her. She finished the TEFL course the same week we did but she had taken it at a different school. I just had to put my favorite Louis photo from all the weeks we were in class together. He just a wonderful person and I know his students will be so fortunate to have him as their teacher.

Saturday - Week VI

No sun, no rain, just blah. Just plain blah today but that's okay because I had set today aside to just work, work, work on my writing, my grammar reference sheet, etc. But I did start my day with a refreshing walk to the gym and stopped, once again to take pictures of more gorgeous hydrangea that caught my eye. I just love them and I can't seem to get over how beautiful the color is.

After seven and half hours working on my computer in the nice warm sitting area upstairs from my gym I couldn't take much more so it was perfect that Jean Marie met me up there so we could go to the German Christmas Fair that opened yesterday in Eyre Square (the center of town.) It was similar to the little shopping booths that are setup around New York City but smaller and mostly centered around food from Germany. We had some great German sausages for dinner, yum, yum. It started to get a bit cold for me so Jean Marie was kind enough to take me home.

Friday - Week VI

What a beautiful sunny, sort of warmish day. Just perfect to lift the spirits even if we still have in the back of our minds that at any moment the rain will come. It does help the over all mood of the town to walk past shops and and see festive holiday decorations.

I stopped off at the school this morning to get some work done on the one assignment I'd missed a few points on. It was so nice to be back working in the school and I had the pleasure of seeing Julie, our morning teacher and we caught up things. It's amazing how in only one week so much can go on that we have lots to share. And I was enjoying listening to her teach in the room next to mine. There was lots of laughter just like there was in our class and that is always a more pleasurable way to learn. One of my Argentine students from my first two teacher practice sessions, Nuria, is now taking Julie's class so it was great to see her as well. She and her husband, Diago just got back from Spain where it was warm and sunny the whole time. Yes, I am now totally obsessed with weather even if it's not directly effecting me.

While I was working in classroom number 5 Fiona brought me one of their students, Artur, from Brazil who needed help editing a cover sheet for a graphic design position he was submitting for. So, I took about an hour to help him and if I do say so myself it came out great. My fingers are crossed for him that he at least gets an interview and even better the job. He's clearly very talented and his web page is artursg.deviantart.com. It's more along the lines of popular/comic book style art work and the first picture on his web page is a CD cover for a band in Brazil.

Clearly I wasn't going to get much work done on my assignment today and that's fine because Patrick, the Director of the school said he there is no rush to get it back to him. All my other assignments were accepted and I passed and also several of the other students have to correct things so there is some time before he needs to send them all to the Irish Education Board for our final approval. We'll all hopefully have our certificates by the middle of December.

I ran off to meet my Spanish students at the Spanish Arch Pub. We had another three hour session and it went really well. We had a lot of laughs as well as got a lot of work done. Vanessa's boyfriend joined us for an hour or so. Marc is very sweet and adorable and not quite at the level his girlfriend is at but he's been getting lots of practice speaking English at work. He holds a sign in the center of town for a burger restaurant encouraging people to go there. He said he doesn't mind standing outside all day because he gets 5 or 6 hours of practice speaking English with all the passerby's and gets paid for it so it's great. I love being around such positive, enthusiastic young people.

I headed to the Budding Cafe to help Ellen a bit with her decorating efforts. By the time I got there Jean Marie had already been there for several hours and happily had helped Ellen finish it all. We all went out to dinner at a lovely restaurant in Barna right on the sea.

I was exhausted by the time I got home though. I actually think I may have found out what it takes for me to be talked out.

Wednesday & Thursday - Week VI

WEDNESDAY - The sun was certainly shining bright this morning when I pulled open the curtains but within a few hours it all went wrong as they say and it's cold and wet. Very cold and that kind of wet that chills the bones. I'm glad I took a long walk this morning along the water since the fine weather did not hold out. One must take advantage of any sunlight and get out and about quickly.

I had my first solo teacher practice today with Inma, a girl from Malaga, Spain who was in two of my teacher practices at the school. The session went exceptionally well and I think she benefited greatly from it. She's a very good student and she learns pretty quickly. I have discovered that I like correcting people. Maybe I like it too much, I don't know, but it was fun just constantly correcting her word choice, sentence structure and pronunciation. I don't know what this says about me but it's probably why I like directing plays as well. There is always a sense of being the person in control when you're directing and it's sort of the same thing with this. We spent three and half hours working on past, present and future sentence structure and the time really flew by because we were talking about travel she has done, what she is doing now and what she wants to do in the future.



Then it was a visit to library to get more work done on my grammar cheat sheet. So much to include but I'll get it all down with a little more time and focus.

I met Fiona, who runs the off at school around 7:00pm and we went for coffee at Java Cafe which is nearer to the center of town. The streets are now all decorated for Christmas which is nice. After Java Cafe we went to a creative movement class near the Town Hall Theater. It was an hour and half of just being creative and dancing any way that the spirit moved us. There were only four people, myself, Fiona and nice man named Michael and the women who organized it all, Tina. The class is based on the 5 Rhythms Dance process which is, according to a web page on the practice, a creative movement practice with no set steps. A moving meditation suitable to all bodies and souls that long to be free and love to dance. The class begins with a warm-up where we just got ourselves up and moving around and then according to the music playing we moved our bodies in relation to the five rhythms of Flowing, Staccato, Chaos, Lyrical and Stillness. I had taken a course in the Five Rhythms about 8 years ago in New York so it was very familiar and for only 5 Euros it was a great thing to do on a rainy night and a perfect way to unwind after spending so many hours sitting down talking or working on my lap top. The room was lit with only candles and natural light streaming in from the windows so I was able to really let go and get into the flow.

Fiona and I walked home. She lives right next door to my apartment complex so it worked out perfectly and she's so sweet. She's going to keep me posted on job listings that come through the school office. She has one now for Vietnam but she said it's in the North and extremely cold and wet in the North country. And you all have kept up with how unhappy the rain makes me here only imagine if I was 20 hours away from New York and contracted to be there for over a year. Needless to say I said thank you for the offer to recommend me but I think I'll skip Northern Vietnam.

THURSDAY - Okay, there has been some sun today and some rain and some more sun and some more rain. Typical!

I stopped off at school today because the Director, Patrick needs me to add a few things to one of my assignments before he can pass me. Apparently I forgot to analyze all of the vocabulary and pronunciation problems Lars, the young German kid I interviewed a month ago, made during our interview. I do still have the recording of the interview so I'll get that too him by tomorrow afternoon.

I met with Marisol, Vanessa and Patricia all from Spain this morning at 11:00am and we worked for two and half hours. I did mostly the same thing I did with Inma which was working on past, present and future. The girls are great and so enthusiastic about learning. They did throw me some curve balls with odd questions like why do you say either instead of neither? Now that really isn't a hard question on the surface but then I had to get into "or" and "nor" and that led to further questions about "within" and "between" and the conversation continued like that for a while. They are like sponges and they just want to absorb all I have to say but truly I have to stop and think about what and why we say what we say before I can respond. This is great practice for me because it's working with just one student at a time or a small group like today and not 12 students all wanting attention.

After my teaching practice I headed to the library where I bumped into Inma who sat next to me to study. A 40 something Irish man came over to flirt with her. I got such a kick out of it because she had just told me yesterday that Irish men try to pick her up a lot and that she knows that many of them are just looking for sex. This guy may have just been being nice and she had clearly met him before today because there was some familiarity in their conversation. I think he likes her and he offered to help her practice her English. She doesn't seem interested in him so I'm sure it won't go very far. Here is a picture of her while she studies in the chair beside mine.

A few moments' later Eloy, also from Spain and also a student from school saw me and came over for a chat. He's so sweet and at an advanced level. He's studying her to take the English language proficiency test so he can get a good job. I introduced him to Inma and in just a quick moment they discovered they were both from Southern Spain, he from Saville and she from Malaga. It was so sweet because Eloy jumped up and went over to Inma and kissed her on both cheeks and introduced himself more formally. I love that people, from Spain, Italy, etc. even if they are strangers; greet one another in this lovely way. It's so civilized. And yes, I am fully aware that sometimes you don't want some stranger kissing your cheek but in cases like this where they are both young and attractive it can be a good thing. That sounds so superficial, I know. It was also funny to see them interact with each other in English because I was there when they clearly wanted so much to speak Spanish instead. Eloy even said, as he crouched down between mine and Inma's chairs, that normally he would have continued speaking with Inma from his original seat to the left of me because in Spain, for some reason, they like to talk loudly to each other from longer distances than necessary. I guess it could be like two people in a room and they'd have a conversation with each other while being in opposite sides of the room. It was good he didn't try to do that here since it is a library and there is some decorum necessary despite cultural preferences.

It was off to the gym where I took this picture of a tree because something about the unruliness of the branches against the night sky just caught my fancy.

Tuesday - Week VI

Okay, cold and rainy again. Yes, I'm sure you all expected that by now. A day of sun then three days of rain or something like that.

I spent the day at the library which was incredibly productive. I didn't even realize how much work I'd gotten done until I looked at the clock and it was 5:00pm and I hadn't left my chair since 11:30am. I just buzzed along. I started work on my Grammar cheat sheet and although I spent a lot of time on it there is still so much more to do and I've already completed 5 pages. What was suppose to be a quick reference is now going to be a bit of a grammar thesis or something there abouts. I am going to try and be more concise but it's me and let's face it I just ramble on sometimes.

I stopped off at the Budding Cafe for about an hour and helped with the holiday window display. It's going to be so beautiful when it's all done.

I took no pictures today so I'll keep the entry short. Jean Marie and I went to the gym tonight and now I'm in my room typing this. So that's all for now.

Monday - Week VI

What a gorgeous day on the Emerald Isle. The sun was shining all day long and although it was a bit nippy it was the perfect day for this country.

I got up early and headed to the gym via my new, more interesting walking route. When I arrived at the hotel's back entrace I took a different path to the lobby and found that there is a garden with a stone wall and white rod iron chairs. I can imagine in the spring and summer with all the flowers in bloom that it is a really lovely to relax and there is even a small walking path near the garden with what I'd call a mini-woods like design where I was able to see over the Salt Hill neighbhorhoods and get a glimpse of sea and mountains in the distance.

I was early for water aerobics so I sat up stairs in the lovely, warm hotel lobby and worked on some rewrites to a play and did my periodic email check.

Water aerobics was good and although there were less women today, only 25 compared to last weeks 35, it was still a bit crowded and at times noisy. I managed to get a good workout none the less and then visited the jacuzzi for some much craved warmth.

I still had so much more writing to do so I headed back up the lobby where I got a bowl of soup and a scone and enjoyed the afternoon in relative quiet getting all I'd hope to get done finished.

By 3:30pm or so I was ready for a nice brisk walk in the sunshine. Down Taylor's Hill and by the Crecesent buildings I quickly zipped and made my way to the Budding Cafe via Sea Road. Just perfect as perfect can be in this country. I spent the next four hours helping Ellen and Frank start the shop's Christmas decorating regim. We accomplished a great deal in just that time and it's starting to look very festive.

To thank me for my help, Ellen and Frank took me to their favorite Thai restauarnt, The Thai Garden which is near the Spanish Arch in town. The food was fantastic and they are like local celebrities there. The staff seem more like family when they walk in. And since this town is so small it was only expected that Frank would bump into a friend, a childhood friend at that. Tosh, he's called regalled us with lots of funny stories, many of which I could not understand more than a word or two of, but he was a happy sort and would have gone on for hours had Ellen not interceeded and said they need to get me home. Yes, by 10:30pm I really was pooped as I am sure they were and I was the perfect excuse to get Tosh to wrap up his last tale.

I went to bed straight away when I got home and except for a little before sleep reading I just wanted to lay my head on the pillow and drift off to slumber land

Saturdy & Sunday (Week V)

Saturday was overcast and off and on rain. Jean Marie assures me that the weather in this country is not always like this that November and July are the particularly rain months. I'm not sure if she's trying to make me feel better that in three weeks this insane weather will cease.

I walked up to the gym early and spent a few hours just hanging out in the warm water and relaxing. Jean Marie met me there and then we had a nice lunch at one of my favorite restaurants in Galway, Bethlehem. It's an Italian restaurant, don't ask me about the name, but the food is consistently good and the wait safe are very attentive.

We headed off to the movies to see You Again which was funny and entertaining just what we were looking for.

Now it's time to be snuggle in my bed and read before heading off to bed early. I'm always so tired here by 9:00pm. I think it's the weather.
Sunday was a lovely day with bright sunshine and a little nip in the air. I walked to Christ the King church in Salt Hill this morning for 9:30 mass. Again no singing. I think I'm just picking the wrong times. They must sing here at the 12:00 noon masses or something. It was a lovely church no matter. The kids in this parish and I believe all through the city have been decorating shoe boxes and putting gifts in them for impoverished children in Africa and some Eastern European orphanages. There were lots of beautifully decorated gifts just ready to be picked up and shipped to their destinations. A little girl and her family came in late and she was carrying a gift wrapped box. She was going to bring it to the alter with the rest of them when she got side tracked and picked up a coloring sheet and some colored pencils that are kept near the alter to keep children amused during mass. It's a great idea and the little ones go marching up there all on their own to get their art supplies no matter what is going on in during the service. This country truly makes everything about the kids which is great.

I took a wonderful walk up to the gym through another Salt Hill neighborhood and found a new path leading directly to the hotel. Since it was sunny it seems all the animals in the neighborhood were out and about. I met a beautiful white fluffy dog named Andy who was wearing, (as my friend Stacy would call it) the cone of shame around his neck. He had just gotten fixed and was none to happy with this plastic thing chocking him but he graciously let me pet him. Although I think he was just hoping I'd release him from his misery. Not far from where I met Andy I saw a black and white kitty sitting on the ledge of his families 2nd floor window. His less daring cat sibling was close by but still on the inside part of the window just looking out enjoying the sunshine. They watched me the whole way as I walked by their house with a look of your not welcome here so just keep on walking on their little kitty faces. You know that look of utter distane for the human race that only cats can give.

The gym was brimming with kids accompanied by only their dads. It was so strange to see all these dads out with their children and not a mommy in sight. There were five fathers and eight little kinds when I first arrived and the dads were incredibly attentive to them. It's so nice to see and I think it's the norm in this country.

Jean Marie picked me up at the gym and we had a nice lunch and saw a movie. It was a very relaxing afternoon and weekend for that matter.