Bank Holidays

One of the great things about living in Ireland is the countless number of bank holidays they have. Sometimes these days fall on real days of celebration, such as Christmas or New Years Day or the greatest holiday of them all, St. Patrick's Day. But other times they fall on a random Monday, which gives the Irish more than a decent excuse to drown themselves in pints on Sunday morning, afternoon, and the entire evening. For us, it gives a great chance to do some travelling, so we're going to make our second trip to the west of Ireland next weekend, to Killarney, down in the southwest. We're going to return to hostel life (hostile life?) for 3 days and do a tour of the Ring of Kerry, ride bikes around Killarney National Park, and just maybe see what's so great about those Sundays before a bank holiday. :-)

Drinks With The Prime Minister

Since Brian has been the primary "blogger" for a while, I figured it was my turn to post a blog (actually he just hogs the computer the whole time so I can't blog-haha).

Everything has been going really well here the past couple of weeks. I am still enjoying teaching, even though it is quite different from teaching in the United States. Just a few examples of differences here-there's no nurse in the school so if a child is sick, bleeding, etc. it is up to the teacher to take care of it(the other day I went to go tend to a bleeding child and I found that since there were no bandaids, I was left to use the other first aid supplies which consisted of scissors, rubber gloves and tissues), there is no cafeteria, so basically the kids have about eight minutes to eat their lunch in their classroom (guess the Irish aren't paranoid about peanut allergies like we are in the U.S.), and the boys all address the teachers very formally, such as "yes, miss" or "sorry, sir", etc. There are lots of other differences, but I won't bore you with all of those now. The staff I work with is so great- they are helpful, very sociable and have a wonderful laid back attitude. The boys are good too, and I am really enjoying doing counseling sessions- I do groups with two autistic boys, a social skills/self esteem group, and an anger management group (so far no broken chairs!).

Quick funny story. The other night I went out to dinner with a few of the girls that I work with to a restaurant/pub in Dublin. Apparently it is known that the prime minister of Ireland, Bertie Ahern, frequents this pub on occasion. Well, as we were eating the prime minister came in and sat down at the bar right next to us and had a few pints with a few of his political friends. No one really paid too much mind to him except for a drunk girl who started chatting to him. No real big security guards, just him enjoying some pints with friends. Now can you imagine George Bush having a pint at your local bar? Crazy!

New Pics Posted

We've posted pictures taken throughout the month of September. It was a pretty busy month: we had visits from Melissa's friend Emi and her sister Marie, a quick visit from my friend Erin who was out in Ireland for a wedding, our friend Justin where we made a weekend trip to Galway and toured the Burren and Cliffs of Moher, and our friend Jen from California that we met in Prague. Thanks for the visits!

http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/skynyrd13/SeptemberVisitorsAndDublinCultureNight

I Got a Job!

I am now gainfully employed at KBC Asset Management right here in Dublin city centre on Dawson Street. I got the job offer on Thursday and had my first day today. My position is a Portfolio Assistant so I handle cash and trade processing for the portfolios they manage, as well as other things you probably have no interest in hearing about :-) . My head is spinning a little from all the information thrown at me today, but I should get the hang of it soon, and everybody there seems real nice.

It's also such a pleasure to be able to walk to work and avoid the road rage of New Jersey. My commute includes (if I choose) a leisurely stroll through St. Stephen's Green with lots of trees, grass, and water, and I can still get to work in about 20 minutes. Much better than hopping on a bus and a train. Sorry Melissa!!!