St. Colmcilles

Today was the day to check on the boys. They are student teaching in the very nice Knocklyon section of Dublin, at St. Colmcilles Primary (Luke) and St. Colmcilles Seconday (John and Adam). Yesterday I took Bus 15B, today it was just 15 (about a 40 minute ride). The bus stop for the primary school is right across the street from the Super Quinn, and the school is right behind it. The Super Quinn is an extremely nice supermarket anchoring a strip mall of all the necessary stores: post office, florist, hardware, pharmacy, bank and bakery. Last week I received an email from one of the students from last years trip and she told me that when I am at St. Colmcilles that I needed to stop at the bakery. They have the best scones ever. So....I took Jessica's advice and had me a raspberry scone, warm with butter. It was pretty awesome. My mother, a fan of raspberries, would have loved it.

Notice the Palm treat to the left of the door. Who knew they had palm trees in Dublin!

After my scone and tea, I walked around Super Quinn to the primary school. Luke was teaching physical education to 1st class (6-7 year olds). He was doing parachute activities and they loved it. After snapping some pictures during his class and catching up with him a bit during his break, I headed to the Secondary school. Remember when I said before that I was a tad directionally challenged? Well, there were two options at the SuperQuinn to walk to the Secondary school. After about 20 minutes or so I knew I was in the wrong direction. I saw the distinct pink colored building ahead and knew it was Delany's. I did however, see a wonderful rainbow as the rain was letting up and the sun was peaking through. On our trip to northern Ireland last week we saw at least one or two every day. Pretty cool. So, I turned around and went back to the Super Quinn, hung a right and ten minutes later I saw the green flags of St. Colmcilles Secondary. I found John in the teachers room and another teacher, Shane (who teaches Physical Education, Religion and Irish - interesting mix), went to find Adam. As I was catching up with the guys a lovely woman, the school chaplan, came and introduced herself. We all chatted for awhile about all kinds of thing. She was very kind and gracious. But then again, she's a chaplain, so I guess that's a given. :)

After I left the guys I waited about ten minutes for the 15 back into city centre. While on the top level of the double decker bus I saw signs for Tenure College and St. Louis Secondary, two schools I have to visit tomorrow but have never been to before. I'm hoping I can find them again tomorrow. I went to the Kilkenny Shop for a late lunch and a hot meal. It was extremely busy at 1:30, and I got the last free table. After I finished my meal of chicken something, mashed potatos, cauliflower with cheese and pea puree, I sat and mapped out the next two weeks of school visits. If I can let the students know ahead of time what day I expect to be there then they can work with their co-op to have a lesson ready to teach when I arrive, since there is no way of pinpointing a definite time with the bus schedules and the connections I often have to make. The teachers have been flexible in the past and have changed up the days events to accommodate my visit. One thing for sure, the Irish schools are much more flexible than in the states.

I visited a few stores on the way back to my flat. I have a few gifts to buy and haven't a clue, so I didn't buy anything. I probably won't until crunch time. I did stop at Dunne's for some groceries. I had such a big lunch I didn't eat dinner until 8:30 and enjoyed some soup I had in the fridge. It was nice to not go back out to forage for dinner.

John called tonight. He was able to get six tickets for the France vs. Ireland football (soccer) game on Saturday night. It's a huge game. They play again in Paris next week. This determines who goes to the World Cup. I got to go to a game last year at Croke Park, Poland vs. Ireland. It was pretty awesome. I'll defer this year and let the kids go. They are excited.

Tomorrow I head to four schools. It will involve three connections, so hopefully it will work out ok. Always an adventure!