Alright, I finally have some time to concentrate on writing a post into my English blog. I have written into my German blog everyday so that my family back in Germany knows what I am up to and I am sorry that I did not have a chance to catch up with you guys earlier. I will not be able to write two blogs everyday so I decided to write my English blog once a week. You will most likely hear from me every Sunday or Monday so that you know what I have been up to the past week. I can already tell you now that my first week in Ireland flew by and that it has been pretty exciting already.
Sunday, August 28th, was my departure day in Germany and so it was also my first day in Ireland. My farewell party was on August 27th and since some of my guest stayed pretty late I only got a few hours of sleep. Nontheless, I was up at 6am getting ready for the flight into my next adventure: Ireland. Since Moni and Annie came to my farewell party my sister and I took them to the airport with us and I did not have to say goodbye to them until then. At the airport I met 3 other au pairs, Sina, Anna and Philine. All of them would be in my flight and Sina would even be sitting next to me. It was nice to have somebody to talk to eventhough we didn't know eachother before. After our arrival in Dublin we got our luggage and were greeted by our hostfamilies. I did not see mine until Megan was standing right next to me and I almost bumped into her. They all gave me a big hug and I feeled really welcomed. Caroline drove us back to Skerries and after a short tour through town we drove to the house and had lunch. Cian gave me a houstour and showed me my room. After exploring the house we all took a walk through Skerries which was beautiful. I was so glad I had my camera with me to take some photos of my first impressions of Skerries. After dinner I fell right into my bed because I was so tired.
Since the kids were still off school for the first few days I was in Ireland, Caroline, Cian, Megan and I went into Dublin on Monday. Caroline wanted to show me some of the main places to go to and she also wanted to make sure that I understood how the train system works in Ireland. It was really nice of her and I got to see a little bit of Dublin already. We arrived at the Pearse Street Station and made our way up to Grafton Street where Caroline took me to the Dublin Tourist Office to get some maps and information. We then walked into Graften Street were we parted. While Caroline and Cian went to St. Stephen's Green to go to the playground, Megan and I did some shopping in Grafton Street. It was really nice to go through the shops with Megan and to get to know her a little bit better that way. After we came back from Dublin, I arranged a meeting with Lindsey, an American au pair in Skerries. We went to the Chipper together and had a nice evening. It was the first of a few meetings that past week.
On Tuesday I was alone with the kids for the first time. Caroline had to go into Dublin and so the kids and I had the morning to get to know eachother more. After the kids got up and had dinner we played outside for a long time (they like to play ballgames) and later went inside to continue with some boardgames. Caroline was back at home for a late lunch. Nothring really spectacular happend the rest of the day. I played with the kids and did some cleaning up and decorating of my room.
Because it was the kids' last day of their summer break Caroline wanted to spend the day with the kids on Wednesday. I was off the whole day and arranged a meeting with Marion, a French au pair in Skerries. We met up for lunch, which we had at Olive, a cute little cafe with great paninis. We then took a little walk through Skerries, which I continued after dropping Marion off at her house. I invited her to go out with Lindsey, Annekathrin, a German au pair in Julianstown, about 20 minutes from Skerries, and me and she said she would think about it. Since I took a really long walk through Skerries I did not come back home until probably 4 or 5 pm. I then found out that there is another au pair, Simone from Austria, in Rush, about 10 kms south of Skerries, who was interested in coming to Skerries tonight as well. Just before 8 when we wanted to meet, Marion sent me a message that she was coming too. The five of us went to the Blue Bar, which is a nice restaurant and bar. It was a nice evening and I am really happy that I have met some other au pairs living close by already.
Thursday was Cian and Megan's first day of school. I did not have to drop them off at school in the morning, since Caroline and John did that. I went into downtown Skerries in the morning to look into the swift stores that Lindsey has been telling me about. I was looking for a bigger purse but couldn't really find one that I really liked. At 12 I went to the school to pick up the kids with Caroline. They only had a half day because it was their first day back. I made them some lunch and helped Caroline to put up some laundry on the line outside. Caroline and the kids went to visit Caroline's parents in the afternoon so I was off and took another walk along Skerries beaches. I just can't get enough of that sea and I am so happy that I have now discovered that I can see a small bit of the sea even from my bedroom window :) After Caroline and the kids came back I played with them while Caroline was making dinner and when we went to her dance class. John came home from work at about 7 and then went out for a run. When he came back I went to meet Lindsey. We originally wanted to get some icecream at Skerries' famos icefood place "Storm in a teacup" but unfortunately when we arrived at 9pm the sign said that they had closed at 8pm already. Instead we went to the supermarket where I bought a little snack and where I also finally found nail polish remover :)
When I went to school with Caroline on Friday morning to drop the kids off I realized once again how different the Irish school system and organization is from the German. While most kids in German walk alone to and from school here in Ireland all kids are droped off in the classroom and picked up at the school gates. The older the kids get the more responsibilities they have themselves. Megan for example is brought to the school door while Cian is brought to his classroom. In the morning the school is full with pupils, parents, younger siblings and teachers. It is just crazy. It was important that I come with Caroline so that she could introduce me to Cian's class teacher. He has to know my face so that he lets Cian go with me when he brings him out to the school gate. It is just so different. What is really cute though is the school uniform. Cian and Megan's school has a really nice one. The colors are dark and light blue which go really good togehter. Their uniform is much nicer than those of the other schools in town. John and Caroline were invited to a wedding that day so I was alone with the kids when they came home from school. They did not have homework yet, so we did play some ball and board games and had pizza as dinner. At some point Cian said "This is the best day ever - especially with you!" - which of course was a small exaggeration but it was so cute! We started watching a movie (Ratatouille) before the kids had to go to bed.
My first weekend in Ireland was pretty exciting already eventhough it was my first. Lindsey had planned to make a weekend trip to the westcoast of Ireland to Galway and asked me if I wanted to come along. After talking to my hostfamily I decided to come and did not regret my decision at all. Lindesy and I met up at the trainstation at about half seven on Saturday morning. It was really early and once we were in Dublin we only wanted to get something to eat for breakfast. It took us a long time until we finally found a supermarket where we could buy something to eat. It took us such a long time because Dublin was empty that early on a Saturday morning. Nobody was out and all of the shops and restaurants were still closed. Once we had our breakfast Lindsey and I got in line for the bus hoping that we would still get a seat in the bus. There were many people waiting but as we found out soon after most of these did not have a ticket yet, just like Lindsey and me. The bus was pretty full but there was enough space for Lindsey and me to have an extra seat so that we could put our backpacks on there and have some more space. It was great and I was actually able to sleep a bit on the bus. We arrived in Galway a little before noon and our tour to the Cliffs of Moher wasn't supposed to leave until 1pm. We had enough time to go to the hostel, check in and leave our bags there before we went back to the bus station were we had to wait until at least 1:20pm for our bus driver to pick us up. Not only was he late, he was also not very talkative. He did not tell us his name, nor did he tell us anything about possible sights and points of interests we passed. We did stop for a quick photo stop to take photos of the Galway Bay. At the next stop we were mixed together with another earlier group so that we also got a new tourguide and a better bus. The new tourguide, Paul, was much more talkative and he told us a lot of things about Ireland and the region. Before arriving at the Cliffs of Moher we had another photo stop on top of Corkscrew Hill. I now know where that name comes from because the streets up there are just crazy. I haven't seen that many steep bends since I have been back from Long Valley. Once we were at the Cliffs we had about 1 1/2 hours to explore everything and take photos. I could have used more because I could have watched the beauty of the Cliffs the whole day but we did only book a half day tour so it was enough time to get a good view. Luckily it was not too crowded so that we could get good views from everywhere. When I first saw the Cliffs of Moher I had the same feeling that I have when I first saw the Grand Canyon or the Niagara Falls - WOW! It is indescribeable and even photos cannot capture the beauty of that magical place. Luckily the weather turned really nice just before we arrived at the Cliffs so that we could see the sund reflecting in the water and there were more and more sections of blue sky looking through the white clouds. It was amazing! If you ever get a chacne to visit Ireland you should definitely go to the Cliffs of Moher as well! From all the things I want to do here in Ireland the Cliffs were in my top 3 and I am so thankful that I got to see them on such a lovely day. Back in the bus we had a few more photo stops at the Black Head Lighthouse and a castle before we went back to Galway. After moving into our room at the hostel, which was very big, nice and clean, Lindsey and I went out on the search for dinner. We did eventually find a place with a waitress nice enough to serve us and we both had Pizza Magherita. After dinner we met up with a group of Galway au pairs. It was a fun night but since Lindsey and I had been up for such a long time we only stayed a few hours before falling into our beds in the hostelroom.
On Sunday, Lindsey and I went into town to get a better picture of Galway. An Ironman competition was going on the in harbor part of the city and Lindsey and I decided to watch it for a little while. It was starting to rain harder though and our umbrellas could not stand the wind which is why we decided to go into a bar. We had a really good Marshmallow Hot Chocolate there and waited until the rain cleared away. With bright sky and sun we now went down the road to the Galway bay where we sat down on some rocks. While Lindsey did some rock hopping I enjoyed the sun, which was good because the rest of the day it disappeared behind clouds. After the Bay Lindsey and I went to the Claddagh Ring Museum. The Claddagh Ring is a traditional ring in the Galway area. It consists of three parts, hands (for friendship), holding a heart (for love) that is topped by a crown (for loyality). I got a Claddagh Ring in the shop the museum belonged to - the only remaining original maker of the Claddagh Ring. For the rest of the day it was really hard to judge what to do. You could never really tell if it had stopped raining or now, which is why the rest of the day was a mixture between shopping and sightseeing. at 6:45 pm our bus to Dubln was supposed to depart. Because it left 10 minutes early Lindsey and I were still able to get the 9:22 pm train back to Skerries. An exciting and definitely amazing weekend ended
All in all, my first week in Ireland flew by and I feel like I have been here longer already. I am happy to see what the next weeks bring for me!
