The Local Town - Day 2

Greetings!

Yesterday morning Jessie (the other student teacher living with Claire) arrived back from "holiday" with her parents. We talked a bit over Facebook but had never met before yesterday. She is really awesome! We're going to get along just fine. After we talked a bit, we went into town, to the town square. I had to get a cell phone and a few other items. Right next to the outside square there is Tallaght Square which is a mall. With only a 10 minute walking distance or so, you can be sure I was happy!

Around the square in general, there are a lot of beautiful modern buildings but most are completely empty! They had a huge economy boom like 10 years ago so many people got loans and built buildings but then ran out of money to furnish or run them. 

Yesterday, I also met up with my teacher I will be working with at St. Aidan's Community School. She was very nice and even paid for my coffee! I can tell already that my work here will be completely different from back in the states. Although classes are 40 minutes (similar to my 42 minute classes with student teaching in the states), the maths teachers teach every type of math! For instance, they don't just have a class on Algebra 2, but instead Level 3, which would be like an all freshman general math class. My school also doesn't start until 8:50 am! My last placement in Pittsburgh started at 7:15am. I can't complain there! I am really excited to start at my school on Monday!

Last night me and Jessie went out to to local pubs. They were both in hotels. Since it was a Wednesday night they were pretty dead but we still had a good time. I tried my first Guinness. It was pretty good! Then Jessie and I found the best thing...a McDonald's. But, there menu was different than the U.S. They had some similarities but unique items as well. For instance, they had curley fries and mozzarella sticks! All the stores and restaurants close early here, so we were happy to learn that the McDonald's is open until midnight.

Today we're going into Dublin (city centre they call it). It's about a 35-40 minute ride on the luas. Excited to explore!

Words in Irish:

Maths class - math class

Food hall - grocery store

Sweater - jumper

Craic - have a good time

Pictures:

Claire's house.