Day off!

Today was a day to catch up on my rest since I haven’t been feeling too great these last few days. I initially got sick on October 25th, and unfortunately still have a touch of it. Actually this damp cold weather has made it a bit worst these last few days. For the record, I don’t often recall the exact date that I get ill, but I will forever remember October 25, 2008 as the day I attended game 3 of the World Series. Teaching a graduate class from 8-noon, driving 7 hours across the state, sitting through a two hour rain delay, watching 9 innings of riveting playoff baseball, connecting with my sister at 2am when the game ended (neither knew the other was there), getting back into the car for the long drive home, and arriving in my driveway at 9am MAY have contributed to my impeding illness. But it was so worth it!!!! (Yay Phillies!) Forgive me for talking about the Phillies in my Ireland blog, but it's been 28 long years. Humor me. It may be another 28 before it happens again!

I had a lazy morning of watching the Irish equivalent of the food network and rugby (not at the same time), in addition to the normal routine of checking email and my blogs. Our Dean of the College of Education was arriving today so we were sitting tight to make sure he and his wife arrived safely. When we got word that they did, we ventured out to meet Carmel, our tour guide’s sister, for a late lunch. She rode the bus an hour and a half to meet us at Kilkenny’s, which is a wonderful multilevel store on Nassau Street. It has a cafeteria style carvery on the second level looking down on the main floor. We had a wonderful two and a half hour lunch where my colleague and she caught up on all that has happened since they last visited three years ago. She met the president of Ireland last week and had pictures to share and stories to tell. She really was a delightful woman.

After leaving Kilkenny’s we went back to the flat for a few minutes before heading to Jury’s Inn, the hotel right next door. The Dean had invited us to stop by for some snacks and catch up on how things were going here, and also on campus. He will be visiting the schools with us this week, which is great. He will also be with us for the first two days of our Thanksgiving trip. I think he will be impressed with our students and especially with the Irish schools we will visit.

Tomorrow a few of us are going to Howth, a wonderful seaside town about an hour outside of the city. The kids have the weekend off from any group tours and so ten students flew to Paris and the rest are doing their own thing. I’ll be anxious to hear how the Paris trip went. Tomorrow I will tell you all about Howth.