OMG, it's -1°! (Dublin part 2)

Sunday we awoke to a fresh layer of snow and ice. We spent the majority of the day trying not to loose fingers and toes. There were no words to describe how cold we were.

We waited an hour for the bus by our hotel in the middle of nowhere (thank you Nikky, our lovely travel agent). Then, we got sidetracked on the way to the train depot and ended up back at Trinity College where we found this :

 

West Coast Coffee saved our lives (and our toes :)

We finally made it on the train and headed out to a town called Howth (pronounced who-th). It was about 20 minutes north of Dublin on the coast.

It was a very picturesque fishing village.

We found a lovely spot to take pictures. Unfortunately, these ladies didn't care :(

So we had to find a new one...

After we had taken a good look around Howth, we scampered back to the train station to get to Malahide Castle before dark.

Sadly, we had to wait 30 minutes in the cold to catch the connecting train. To distract ourselves from our frozen feet, we had a photoshoot to pass the time. Here are a few of my favorites...

We ended the day at Malahide Castle. We had to basically run a mile in the snow to get there, but it was so worth it :)

The group at the castle:

Bhaile Átha Cliath (Dublin)

As I took 300 pictures this weekend, I'll just be posting a bunch with captions!

We started out the day with a full Irish breakfast (English breakfast plus mushrooms, potatoes and black pudding) in this cute little cafe...very Common Grounds-esque!

Then we took a field trip to view the Book of Kells at Trinity College which is one of the oldest, most decorated copies of the gospel, written in Latin (of course, you couldn't take pictures of the actual book).

After Trinity College, we went to visit Dublin Castle which was not in fact an entire castle but a single turret. Not really worth the dangerous trek up an icy hill.

Our journey on the Dublin Green Bus next took us to the Guiness plant. 

 

By far one of the coolest buildings I have ever been in!

The Guinness wasn't that bad either :)

In honor of Janis' birthday, we hit up the Temple Bar area of Dublin Saturday night. We found a pub with some awesome live music!

Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

Luckily the weather has been dry, but is so ridiculously cold here! 

So yesterday was Thanksgiving. Apart from the secretary at school telling me "Happy Thanksgiving" when I walked in the door, it felt pretty much like any other day. We went to a pub called The Duke Of York, which was featuring an "American Thanksgiving" meal. I had butternut squash and chestnut soup, garlic parmesan risotto and apple pie...it was definitely a unique experience!

Today, we had a half day at school and went to visit Parliament.

It was crazy hearing all of the stories about the kings and queens featured in paintings and sculptures around the building.

Normally I would write some more, but we're off to the airport at 4:30 am to get to Dublin!

Hidden Treasure

After school today, we went into London to "fly" on the London Eye. Luckily there was no line because it's in the 30's here! Some pictures from the trip (watch out, there's a lot!):

On our beloved 281...

Parliament (which we will be visiting on Friday)

The group

(Lisa, Me, Lauren M, Janis and Allison)

Roomies!

Afterwards, we decided to try Los Iguanas, a Latin Cantina. Wow. Hands down, the best Mexican food we've had here! But, when we ordered chips and salsa, this is what they brought:

It was basically two chips per person. We laughed and the waitress just stared at us like we were crazy so we explained how we do chips and salsa in Texas. After we finished eating, we circled back to a German Christmas festival we had passed through earlier and got crepes for dessert...yum :) We found an indoor place to sit and eat them, which also happened to be housing the World Press Photo '10 exhibit. Amazing. This was one of my favorite pictures in the exhibit:

This photographer did a series on this autistic boy, who is lives in Peru. Among the few things he enjoys doing every day, is sitting in front of the TV and touching the screen because the feel of the static calms him. Another photo in the series was simply the static of the screen, which makes the boy so excited he jumps up and down. This particular series really captured my attention, having previously worked with autistic chilren such as this and caused me to think about how truly blessed I am and how different things could be. 

Randomly stumbling upon this exhibit was the icing on a perfect night :)

Teaching is Teaching, No Matter Where You Are

Well, after the crazy events of this weekend, this week has been comparatively mundane. Since the temperature is rapidly dropping (around 30 during the day; possible snow tomorrow), I decided to invest in another coat yesterday. I am absolutely in love with it :)

This morning, I walked into the classroom and several of the girls were crowded around a table whispering. Later they came over and gave me this:

The poem that was on the other side of the card:

Lovely teacher, lovely helper teacher. Eyes of periwinkle blue. You are such a pretty creature and I am so liking you. Oh I'm filled with pain and sorrow for my helper teacher is so cute but she won't be here tomorrow because she's just a substitute.

Haha, love these kids :)

Being that Baylor is a Baptist university, they make it part of the program to visit the Baptist Church of Surbiton. That was tonight's activity. About 20 elderly people gathered as we had tea and discussed the traditions of Baylor. Janis and I talked with Duffy, the coordinator of the program on the British end of things. If you picture a traditional English gentleman in your head, that would be Duffy...he's so hilarious!

Not All Those Who Wander Are Lost

     Today was quite possibly the best day I have had this entire year :) Because we were up until the wee hours of the  morning sorting out the credit card stuff, we all woke up late and despite our best efforts, did not make it into London in time for our 11 am Fat Tire Bike Tour. So, we decided to see where our feet would take us. After passing about ten Cafe Nero's, we decided to stop for a cup of coffee, which we were all in desperate need of. We continued our wanderings and ended up finding lunch in a delightful little Mediterranean restaurant which happened to be right across the street from Covet Garden. After we finished eating, we meandered through the market; I was in heaven! At the stall below, I got the most amazing journal :)

We kept walking and heard a string quartet; I have never seen someone dance while playing the cello! We completed our loop and ended up back in Leicester Square where we stumbled upon a tattoo shop. In the spirit of experiencing new things today, I decided to get my nose pierced!

Ya, it hurt. From there, we decided to give the British Museum another go. On the way, we passed Russell Square and had some fun in the leaves:

After seeing the Rosetta Stone (so cool) and a smattering of nose-less Greek statues, we stopped at a hot dog stand before we headed back to Surbiton. Although it was a bit disappointing missing the bike trip, it was so nice not having an agenda or any obligations and just exploring London for the day. After last night, we definitely needed to do some relaxing and today definitely hit the spot :)

What A Day!

The sunrise on the way to school :)

This day was so crazy! But apparently, I can't talk about it on this blog :( During lunch, I decided to go exploring in the area around the school because I got a craving for Diet Coke. I ended up in downtown Kingston and found the most delightful Christmas crafts fair/ festival :)

After school, Andrea, Janis, Kensie and I went into London and ate dinner at Texas Embassy (a mexican cantina). This is what came out:

Yes, that's a microwaveable Delimex taquito on top.

Other than that, it was soooo good to have salsa again!

After dinner, we had decided to go to the British Museum because the website said it was open late on Fridays. On our way, we met some French guys on the tube. They invited us to a pub. We decided to try to the museum first. After walking in circles for a good 20 minutes (because streets here don't have any signs) we finally found it. We walked inside (one of the most massive buildings I have ever seen), only to discover that all exhibits except for one closed at normal hours. Although we didn't find the Rosetta Stone tonight, we did get to see a large statue from Easter Island which was still pretty cool. 

After failing at the museum, we then decided to meet back up with the French guys. Sometime in between drinks and conversation, Janis' purse was stolen. By the time we filed a police report, it was 11:56 and the tube shuts down at 12. We rushed underground, caught the tube, barely got a connection and made it to Waterloo station just in time to jump onto the last train to Surbiton. On the train, a random lady started handing out cupcakes (by this time it's almost 1 am), heard Janis' story and prayed over her. This was definitely one of the most random nights ever!

23:43

This is our bus stop. We take the 281 pretty much everywhere (even though it's almost never on time). And yes, it's dark by the time we get home every day!

After school today, we all got spiffed up and headed into London for another round of shows.

I saw Mousetrap, which was a classic mystery by Agatha Christie. It is also has the title of longest running show (58 years). The theatre was absolutely gorgeous (and sadly, I couldn't take a pic). It reminded me of the movie Clue, in that a murder was comitted in an old mansion and everyone was locked inside until they discovered who the murderer was. All in all, it was a delightful evening :)