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!