It's Been A While.. I'll Sum It Up!

Edinburgh, Scotland:

One of the most beautiful cities you could ever visit. It is nestled in between a set of mountains and water. After the city was originally built it continued to grow but the only place for it to grow was up. In Edinburgh you will find very tall yet old buildings! Let's see... 

The train ride there was about three and a half hours. Not too bad, I guess. I slept about half the way. The rest of the ride was  spent looking out the window at the beautiful scenery of the coast. It is quite different than what I am use to. Cliffs instead of a beach filled with sand met the ocean, but it was still so beautiful! 

When we arrived in Edinburgh... all 9 of us! We checked into our hotel and then grabbed some lunch at this cute little Italian restaurant! After lunch we decided to go see the sights. 

First we went to the Edinburgh Castle. It's pretty amazing and it is still used as a Military base/ headquarters today!

After the castle we walked around and then we all met up again for supper and then we went on a ghost tour. It was not as exciting as we anticipated, but parts of it were scary. Plus, we got to go into the underground vaults.

The next day we went to the Scot Monument. We walked ALL the way to the top. Some of the stairwells were very narrow. At the top, I literally had to turn sideways to go up the stairs. But we made it and it was worth it. The view was fascinating! Although  foggy, you could see a great distance out.

After walking up the Scot Monument we found a place to eat lunch… who would have known… It was Edinburgh’s Hard Rock Café! Yummy! (anyone who knows me knows that if there is a Hard Rock Cafe in the town, I will find it!)

Once we finished our lunch, we bought a few last minute souvenirs and then headed back to the train station. The train on the way back to Sheffield was not as pleasant as the ride up. We had some very rowdy neighbor passengers! We were so happy to finally get back to Sheffield.

So overall, we only spent one night in Scotland. It was definitely worth it. We a;; needed that Sunday to rest, having been on the go literally everyday since our arrival.

What did we do on the Sunday????

Well for starters we SLEPT IN… may I remind you that this was the only day that we slept in while we had been in England! It was needed! I spent the day working on my “England Portfolio” aka school work! After working on that for several hours, a few of us decided that we needed a break so we went to the movies and saw The Hunger Games! Ahh, amazing movie!

THE LAST WEEK AT RAINBOW FORGE PRIMARY SCHOOL:

 This week went by soo fast! On Monday night a few of the girls including myself went to the Meadowhall mall and bought another suitcase in order to get all of our belongings home!

Tuesday night, we washed clothes and packed!

Wednesday night we ate dinner with 4 girls that are doing the same thing we are doing except the opposite.They are from England and are going to be traveling to Georgia (Statesboro) to observe in Elementary schools. They were so nice, although I do believe they will be in culture shock when they arrive in little ole Statesboro!

Thursday was Erin’s birthday! So of course, since she was away from home, we had to throw her a birthday party! And she loved it! It was so sweet! Andrew & his family (our host family), Ms. Ali (our school mom), and both of the head teachers from the primary schools came! It turned out great!

On Friday, we had tacky day at Rainbow Forge. HAHA! It was too cute! I also taught my students about pen pal letters and they write a letter back to my students back in Georgia. They all enjoyed it! We had a celebration assembly that afternoon. We played a goodbye video to school! (it was soo sad) Then the school and staff said goodbye and we even got a cute little present! It was very thoughtful!

After the assembly we headed back to our apartments and quickly gathered our belongings and headed for the train station! Good-Bye Sheffield!

*** Sorry.. There are no pictures! I am soo far behind! I have so much to add about Italy!

But I will add pictures soon! Hopefully tomorrow night!

XOXO, 

KM :)

Dublin, Ireland: Part Two

AFTER THE PARADE:

            We walked around for about an hour and a half trying to find a pub. Every pub we tried to go into was full to capacity. So after we wandered around town for what seems like forever we finally found a pub called the Brazen Head. This was not just any old pub. It was Ireland’s oldest pub! Kind of neat, if you ask me! It was packed here, as well. We finally found a table and ordered some food. It was pretty good, considering it was so busy.

            After we ate and talked for a while we decided to walk around and observe some of Dublin’s history. Well shall I say we tried! Dublin is a large city and the public transportation is not that great. We did walk by St. Patrick’s Cathedral and some polish church (that was pretty neat).

SUNDAY:

            We checked out of our hotel and went back into downtown Dublin. Our flight wasn’t scheduled to leave until 10:00 pm. Let’s see… what did we do on Sunday???

Oh yes, we went to the Guinness Storehouse/Museum. It was actually interesting to see how Guinness beer is made. It also showed the variations in equipment from when the brewery first opened to modern day. They even had computers set up where you could type in your last name and see if you had any relatives that had ever worked for Guinness. Overall the Guinness tour was okay, I could have done without going, but one of the other girls really wanted to go. Oh and they gave your free samples of Guinness on the tour and may I say… I am NOT a beer drinker to begin with, but that was the worst tasting beer ever!! EWW.

            After we finished the Guinness tour we went to the National Leprechaun Museum. This was very different yet neat at the same time. We learned lots of stories and folk tales about Ireland. We also learned about the real “leprechaun.” Did you know they did not actually wear green!? They also had a room that made you feel like a leprechaun. It had lots of GIANT furniture that you could climb up and sit on. It was interesting. At the end of the museum/tour they made everyone draw a picture of a leprechaun. Mine looked like a 3 year old drew it. Haha. I’ m not the best artist in the world.

            Once we finished up at the museum we grabbed some lunch at a local pub. It was Mother’s Day, so of course everywhere we tried to go was packed. We finally found a place to eat and it was pretty good… but the service was terrible. We met some people from Italy. They gave us several good tips for our travels on our last week.

            (A short excerpt about Mother’s Day in the United Kingdom. Mother’s Day is celebrated on the fourth Sunday after lent, however sometimes the date may vary depending on when Lent and Easter fall. Most Sundays in the year church goers would worship at their nearest parish or "daughter church". In olden times it was considered important for people to return to their home or "mother" church at least once a year. So each year in the middle of Lent, everyone would visit their "mother" church. As the return to the "mother" church became an occasion for family reunions when children who were working away from home returned. (It was quite common in those days for children to leave home to work in service from ten years of age.) The majority of historians think that it was this return to the "Mother" church which led to the tradition of children, particularly those working as domestic servants, or as apprentices, being given the day off to visit their mother and family. This special day has now become a time when people give thanks to their mothers and offers an opportunity to express both love and thanks for the work that they do.)

            I found that tid bit of history to be very interesting.

Back to the Ireland Trip….
After eating a late lunch we made our way back to the airport where we met up with the rest of our “whole” group. We waited for several hours to get on our plane. We did not want a repeat of Friday night. So this time everything was done correctly. The flight was great on the way back as well. It was very short and sweet. When we got back to Manchester we had a “minibus” (a large taxi) waiting on us. Ms. Ali, our school mother, had arranged this transportation for us since we didn’t land until 10:50 and the last train for the night was at 10:30.  I think everyone except two girls slept on the ride back to Sheffield. We finally got back to our apartments at 1:00am!

Good thing we didn’t have to be at school early on Monday morning. It was quite a long trip.

Overall… Dublin was very disappointing. It was nothing like I had imagined in my head. Mostly because we were in a major city and we didn’t really get to see the countryside. Either way, I think if I could redo that weekend I would have planned it totally different! After that weekend, I really did not see or experience anything that would make me want to go back.  Unlike London and Sheffield. Both of those cities have so much to offer and see. Those are just my thoughts…

That’s the end of Ireland!

J KM

Dublin, Ireland: St. Patrick's Day 2012

Wow, what a weekend… where do I begin?

Friday after school we rushed home to gather our bags/suitcases for the trip. We quickly left our apartments and headed to the train station. Once we got to the train station we found our platform and waited patiently for the train to arrive. We noticed that there were more people than usual waiting for one train. So, we began to listen to the other passengers’ conversations. We found out that a train had been canceled and those passengers had to merge in with our train. In addition to the large number of passengers waiting for the train, we found out that our train had been delayed due to someone throwing themselves under the train in London. WOW! What a crazy start to the evening! Our train was supposed to leave Sheffield at 5:11; it finally arrived at the station at 5:25. 

            As the train began to pull up to the platform everyone quickly rushed to the loading areas. The train was already packed and only a hand full of passengers got off. We quickly all pushed our ways toward the train. (Some people pushing more aggressively than others.) Jackie and I held hands so we wouldn’t get separated during the mass chaos of boarding the train.

            Through all of the pushing, during which I felt like I was on the Titanic trying to get on to a lifeboat, I finally stepped up onto the train. As soon as I got both feet on the train the man behind me proceeded to shove his suitcase in farther than there was room. So his suitcase was literally pushing into the backs of my knees. People kept pushing and pushing to get on the train and there was literally no room. Another girl and myself were pushed/trampled to the ground. I felt so bad for the man whose bags were crushed literally by my knees. It was absolutely ridiculous they way these people were acting to get on the train. I finally rose to my feet and stood face to face with about 100 other people. I have never felt claustrophobic before, but this set if off in full motion. I could hardly breathe and it was so hot!  The train doors finally closed and 4 of us looked around for the 7 other girls. They were nowhere to be found! We had no clue if they made it onto the train or not. The train left the station…we stood face to face with strangers for almost an hour and a half! Not my favorite thing to do! We were so happy when we finally got off of the train. Also the staff on the train was unable to walk around, therefore our BritRail passes were not stamped. So we kind of got a free ride.

            Once we got off the train we walked quickly to terminal three at the airport. (The train station and airport are connected in Manchester) We ran into the other 7 girls on our walk to the terminal. We already had our boarding passes printed so we went straight to security (7 of us. The other four had to check bags so they went to check in.) We get through security and make our way to the lounge area because our gate had yet to be posted.  We are casually talking and snacking on food when a guy over heard us talking about our airline (RyanAir). He asked us if we had been to check in and had our boarding passes and passports stamped. We looked at him confusingly and replied with “no!” He told us that he had missed his flight earlier because he did not have his boarding pass stamped. We looked at our watches and realized that we only had 15 minutes to get back to check in and go back through security. We all took off RUNNING, once again, through the airport. (it never fails, anytime we are at an airport we find ourselves running!) We finally got to the Ryan Air check in counter and wait in line for our turn. As we began to lose our patience we stepped up to the counter. The check in lady told us that if we ran we could make it back through security and on to our flight. So we all get our passports and boarding passes stamped. Then off again we go, running through the airport. You should have seen some of the looks we received. As we reached security we grew angry at the fact that the line was terribly long. We just knew that we were going to miss our flight. We finally made it back through security and ran to our gate. As we get closer and can finally read our gate number… Katie (the quietest of the group) yells out “HOLD THE PLANE.” It was hilarious. We finally got on the plane and found a seat. This plane is definitely not in the same race as Delta. It was like a bus that could fly! Haha. Anyways we took off. The flight was very smooth. The flight was also short; it was about 40 minutes long. When we landed the captain played the tune that is played at the beginning or end of a horse race. Pretty funny, if you ask me.

 Once we got off the plane we called the hotel we were staying at and requested a shuttle. The shuttle finally arrived and we all loaded in. We had to split into two different shuttles. Our hotel was very nice but it was also an older hotel. May I also add that it was in the middle of nowhere. We thought we were going to end up on “Wrong Turn.” Especially when the two shuttles parted and went two separate ways. It was very scary. But we got to our hotels safely and checked in. In our room we had three girls to one bed! Ha, I guess it wasn’t too bad considering it made the price cheaper.

The one bed we had to share.

We tried to make our own tea... Mine is on the right, Jackie's is on the left.

I'm not sure what happened to hers.

The next morning we woke up and got dressed and met some of the other girls out front. We all went to breakfast, which was delicious! After breakfast we attempted to make our way downtown to catch the St. Patrick’s Day Parade. We ended up catching a bus, which took forever!! We finally arrived in downtown Dublin and we were out to see the sights. The parade was not anything in which we had anticipated. There were lots of marching band and lots of mystical “characters” in which we did not understand the concept of. CRAZY! There were also tons of people everywhere! The crowd was so large that parents even brought ladders for their children to stand on so that they could see. Very interesting. Although i’m not sure  if I would have my children out around all of the “drunk people.” Yes there were people who were drunk by noon!

On the way to the parade.

Erin & I

Jackie & I

Nelson's Pillar Statue  

(we actually learned about this statue in World Literature!)

The crowd, waiting on the parade to start.

Nelson's Pillar again

If you look on the man's back... there is a baby sleeping! 

May I remind you it was freezing out and it rained!

The Crowd again

Some weird man.... and me looking AWFUL

The ladders for the the kids to stand on.

In the back... people are sitting in windows above ATM's at the bank.

I'm not sure how they got up there, considering they are fairly high off the ground.

Another picture of the crowd... People as far as you can see.

A marching band

Bag pipers in kilts

aww. they had the American Flag!!

some military men

St. Patrick's Day Bus

Not sure why a vampire was in the parade.

Police on horseback

Here comes the WIERD Stuff.

haha... a rhino in a wheel chair???

To say the least.. this was nothing like a Disney Parade or Macy's Day Parade. It was very "out there."

Well… Once again I am tired and still have other work to do. I will have to make a part two for this trip as well. Hopefully I will be able to have it up by tomorrow night!

**English word for the day: DAFT

                        which means silly.