A last visit with Noreen, Julia, James and Hannah

 A final photo in front of the back door at the Lucy's homestead.

Hannah and Sarah in front of the hibiscus and fussier in the back yard.

We took a walk down the road to look at the trees. There are one hundred acres of pine trees planted down the road. The trees take 30 to 40 years to mature but the crop begins to produce after 15 years when thinning begins. During the last hurricane a large number of trees were blown down and had to be harvested early. This open field will be replanted soon.

Sunday Hike up Torc Mountain

 The hike begins with an 800 meter walk up to Torc waterfall. Because we were here early (10:00 is early in Ireland, either that or they were all at church) we had the waterfall to ourselves. When we returned at 2:00 on the trip down it was a crowd of people. Yes, Cristopher needed both the hat and gloves at this point in the hike. It was chilly.

 But.... the sun came out for a stupendous day! The wooden planks in Ireland are covered with galvanized mesh wire so that when it rains you don't slip on the wet wood.

 The views were stunning at the top.

 And gorgeous all the way down too. Notice Dave off in the distance and Cristopher is showing the world c.

Dave and I at the top of the mountain!!

Saturday Tea

 Two cutie cousins. She followed Cristopher's lead as they drank tea, colored, and played peek a boo under the table. Kids have fun no matter what the age.

 Our second tea of the weekend at Churchview with Margaret and John.

And what would a visit be like without a picture by the door of the old family homestead. Still occupied by Margaret a distant cousin:-)

 
 And our third cup of tea for the weekend was with Jerry and Mary McCarthy, direct descendants of the McCarthy clan who came to the U.S. and made our lives possible. We spent many hours talking about family history and photographing records for my Mother.

 This is the local school. There are currently 30 students with one principal/teacher and one teacher. One teacher does the age 4 - 8 classroom and the other teacher does 9 - 12. They switch off every 2 years so that the students can see a new face every once in a while.

It was such a beautiful day that we decided to walk from our bungalow to Jerry McCarthy's dairy farm. This road can accommodate one car at a time so it's best to keep your eyes on the look out for pull outs!!!

Friday's Trip to Visit the Family

 We took a long trip down south to Killarney (actually a village 15 min. West). We stopped for lunch along, called Noreen and James came and met us to lead us to their home in the country. Above are Hannah Mary, Cristopher, James, Noreen, Julia and Sarah, framed by the lovely day lilies. We had a wonderful visit and our first cup of tea for the weekend (start counting).

 After tea they took us down the road to their wonderful bungalow, piano included. We each had our own bedroom and bath, how luxurious!! It was spotless, at least when we arrived:-)

 The view of the mountains outside of the front window of the house. Yes, that was the loner soccer ball that James ended up giving to Cristopher so he could use it for the rest of the trip. Somehow we will figure out how to get it back to America. It has become a vital part of our trip.

 There were even a large selection of DVD's. Cristopher stayed up late (11:00 PM) to watch a movie.

Well if there are cows around you know that they will be featured in a photo. These young beef cows belong to James and are housed in the back field.

Noreen helped us to set up our Saturday visits. Thank you Noreen!!

Dia dhuit (Welcome in Irish)

 Our nightly trip to Tescoe. Last night I bought 2 track phones for 15 Euros each. I am tired of not being able to communicate with anyone when I'm not in the room with them. It's amazing how easy it is to buy and use these phones. Of course I had the 25 year old group assistant set the whole thing up for me and tell me what my number is but alas the writing was too small for me to read the instructions:-)

A beautiful arch on the way out of our complex. And... notice that it is bright (a rare occurrence that I wanted to capture).

James Joyce
An English professor brought James Joyce's short story "The Dead" to life as he told us the tale of how this author left Ireland and wrote about the stifling life style of those that lived here during the early 1900s.

Yesterday afternoon and this morning we heard about pre-historic Ireland, Maths education, programs for gifted children and received an Irish language lesson. I can now greet someone, ask how they are and tell them it was nice to meet them in Irish....

Tonight Dave and I will join the group for a theater performance that is part of the Art Festival in Galway. One recent article in the local paper wanted to celebrate a lesstival (a time when there might not be a festival in Galway). We have only been here for two weeks, last week there was a film festival and this week is the arts festival. Tonights performance is a depressing story about a girl who lost her family (Yay?). We managed to get a babysitter, a challenge at home and a bigger challenge here:-)

I have a number of assignments that are due next Tuesday so there may be some inconsistent blog contributions over the next few days as I scramble to get it all done.

Mundane Monday

 Selfie in the apartment. I grew ears

A diversion from what? Life?? And don't forget to go to Room 240 if you have Chemistry Queries. I find myself saying strange things. Today I told one of our instructors that I was going to have a swim at lunch. She thought nothing of it but when did I stop going for swims and start having them instead?

The highlight of the day was Cristopher's lego camp! He loved it. They built towers and then the teachers put them on a cart and shook them to see if they would withstand a volcano (perhaps he meant an earthquake but I report it like he tells it). His tower withstood the test. Cristopher did notice that the teachers did not shake some of the structures very hard (there's no tricking this kid).

Third Level Education
We learned all about the Irish university system today. There are 7 universities in Ireland. In 1993 the government made it free (yup, no fees, no cost). Since the recent recession there are some fees that are creeping back into the system but 3,000 Euros per year does not compare to the $40,000 or more that it costs at many universities in the United States. We also heard talks about the adult education system and community education in Ireland and how they are trying to pull non-traditional and disadvantaged students back into the system. There is a highly dedicated group of individuals who are working hard to provide education to the masses regardless of their ability to pay. The Irish system provides funding in the form of grants and subsidies to individuals who wish to return to the system. This group does not seem to mind that there are not very many jobs for these individuals when they finish and a lot of the younger students end up immigrating to other countries.

Sunday is Family Day

 No classes today so we set off on an adventure. First the obligatory walk through town. This man brings a bucket of sand down town several times a week and creates. See pig below:-)

 This long tube makes exotic sounding music.

Our destination Salt Hill where among other entertainment is a carnival that runs all summer. This is the only kind of horse I can get Cristopher to ride and I wish this is the one I joined him on, but no.
We walked into the park and he pointed to this spinny ride (it wasn't moving when we arrived) and said "Mom this is the one that Beck and I went on, it's really fun, it goes backwards too." I erroneously thought if two 7 years olds could do the ride I could too. My first clue that this wasn't going to be good was the lap locked bar and the operator instructing me to put Cristopher on the inside. It all started fine, slow motion, but as it got faster I started saying things like "I don't like this." Christopher's response, "Don't worry Mom it will be alright, trust God." A week in Ireland and my child has found religion.

 Oh sure, Dave gets to do the haunted house with him. Who's the smarter one in this relationship?

 No carnival is complete without some time in the super huge bounce house.

Even the landscape behind the carnival is stunning. Galway bay is featured in this back drop.