Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Friday and Saturday in London

Last blog entry--we had two jam-packed days in London which included our stay at the Imperial College of London , a visit to Buckingham Palace, a ride on the
the London Eye, a session with a former member of the British Parliament, a tour of the Tower of London, lunch with King Henry V111, a stop at St. Paul's cathedral, lots of walking around, a few exciting rides on the tube,
a dinner at a Chinese restaurant (huh?) and an interesting walk through the London Gay Pride parade to the Phoenix theater to see the Broadway play "Blood Brothers." Up on Sunday morning at 6am for our 10:15 am flight home to Chicago and Texas. We all had a terrific time and we hope to have lasting friendships with our new student ambassador friends. Enjoy the rest of the summer!





































Thursday, July 1, 2010

Thursday in England


Thursday---tour of Chester from Roman guards and Warwick castle---archery, sword fighting and pole fighting. No time to write on blog--off to London for 2 exciting days! All is well and everyone is a little tired but having a great time!











Wednesday, June 30, 2010






















Our morning activity on Tuesday was a visit to the GAA Museum and football stadium in Dublin. We learned all about the history of gaelic football and hurley. We watched a video, toured around the museum and got a chance to try out our skills. Sundays in September are the time for excitment at this impressive stadium that seats 82,000 fans.
Our 3 hour ferry ride was a little bumpy and a few of us found ourselves quesy, but we made it to Wales and we were happy to be back in the bus as we rode along the shore. Our only stop was at a working train station that has the longest name--
off to breakfast i will finish this later--the full on day was amazing!!!

Monday, June 28, 2010

Sunday and Monday in Ireland












Sorry I cannot make the captions go with the pictures--but here is a sample of our wonderful day at the farm. We started with learning more Irish dancing, baking soda bread, milking a cow and seeing a pig with her piglets, learned how to play hurling, play an Irish drum, enjoyed watching some talented Irish dancing and the best part of the day was jumping in the bog and getting all "mucky!" Everyone loved it and the rain only made it wetter and better. Today was the first day of rain in 6 weeks at the farm-just our luck!
















On Sunday, we left southwestern Ireland and rode to Dublin. We had a bus tour and learned about St. Patrick's church , Trinity college, Phoenix park where Pope John Paul ll visited in 1979 and everyone was very interested in the Guinness factory which started in 1759.





















After our bus tour we were able to get off the bus and shop for about an hour in downtown Dublin.
We heard laughs coming out of the pubs when Germany scored over England in the "football match." No supporters of England football in Ireland.
Our Home stay has been absolutely wonderful and we are sorry to leave our home stay families.
Tomorrow we will be off on the ferry to Wales.







Saturday, June 26, 2010

Saturday in Ireland














Happy Birthday to Jonathan and Shannon!
Very busy and windy day! Some sun and rain--

We started the day at the community center in
Carahsiveen and we listened to Sarah, Jemma and Emma play and sing Irish songs. then they taught us ceili dancing.then we took a walk around town and learned all the history of the area. We saw a stone fort built in the year 500 or 600. Then we learned gaelic football with some local football players and finished the day learning all about bogs and we had a chance to cut some bog for the senior citizens of Carahseiveen.
Off to Dublin and our home stay tomorrow.

Friday, June 25, 2010

Thursday and Friday

On Thursday we spent a long day on the bus and then we visited the Bunratty castle. Sorry I did not have any pictures--my camera was dead!

Ask your children to make sure you see the pictures of the 15th century castle located at the bottom of the river Shannon with a folk park
with historical houses and shops.






Moving on to Friday--FABULOUS, FABULOUS DAY at the Gap of Dunlow in Killarney.
We boarded row boats in groups of 10 and we headed out into one of the most beautiful parts of Ireland. We saw an old monastery that was actually built 500 years before Christopher Columbus discovered America. We had to get out of the boat at one of the areas where we passed from one section of the lakes to another because of low water--no rain for the last 5 weeks! The boat ride felt like we were entering the Lord of the Rings--a very magical area. `












After the boat ride we walked up the road for a picnic lunch and then we enjoyed an hour and a half jaunty ride for 7 miles into the
mountains. We learned that only 30 families live in the area and 14 students attend the one school in the area. The area around the water is protected by the National trust-but the rest of the acreage is privately owned


Back to our hotel for dinner and then trivia games. We don't have to change hotels tonight-so we are thankful to stay for 2 nights in Killarney.




Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Wednesday, 6/23/10



































We started Wednesday at Victoria College in Belfast. This is actually a school which is pre -K through year 14--a college prep all girls school.




We met the head mistress and several girls who took us around for a tour and told us all about schooling in Ireland. Some of the girls were taking their A exams (college entrance) so we had to be extra quiet in some areas. The high school years are very different-so please ask your son/daughter to explain this to you! Erica A and John L spoke about how our education system works in the USA and Francoise sang the National Anthem for the Irish students.


This afternoon we rode up to the coast of nor then Ireland and saw two amazing places--

(on the way our bus was slowed down to wait for the sheep to get out of the way)

Giants Causeway--which has been named the 4th most amazing wonder in the UK.

Carrick-a-rede bridge was really fun--it is a small bridge with a drop of 23 meters. It started raining just when we got there, so it was an authentic Irish summer day. On the other side of the bridge was a view of a beautiful cave and gorgeous shoreline. We got back on the bus soaking wet and headed back to our hotel. We will be up early for a 6 hour ride to Killarney.






















































Tuesday, 6/22/2010

On our tour we saw Queens university in downtown Belfast. Pictures below represent our first day in Belfast. There was a big difference in the different areas of the city. Most of the troubles were in East Belfast and there have been many people involved in moving the peace process forward.
Off to the northern coast tomorrow!



The murals represent 3o years of troubles and violence in Belfast. The peace treaty was finally signed in 1998 and it has taken over 10 years to encourage tourists back to Belfast. Corporations have pledged 7 billion dollars to restoration in Belfast and tourism is rising.





Sorry this picture is facing the wrong way-I cannot figure out how turn it around.



Anyway, here we are in front of the Irish Parliment in Belfast. We had a guided bus tour around the city of Belfast.








Happy 15th birthday to Nick as we start our day in Northern Ireland.