thanksgiving and deadlines

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
Despite the fact that I got up at 7:05 like usual and experienced a full day of classes, it really did feel like Thanksgiving today. At lunch my cooperating teachers threw a little goodbye party for me and the other Bluffton student interning there. It was lovely and I had to smile at the thought of how brief the tough times of student teaching were, and how wonderfully everything turned out. Yes it was rough at times, but the student teaching experience i'm leaving is one full of warm friendships, valuable lessons, and shared lives: a bright and beautiful version of the trembling and unfamiliar thing it started out as.
As I talked and laughed with the students, letting them relax and enjoy our painting exercise, I was made aware of how thankful I am for these students: for my time with them and the teacher's who have helped me to ease into my role as a teacher.
After school, the Hands for a Bridge group that I help out with threw a little Thanksgiving party for me and the other Bluffton intern. We had turkey and cranberry sandwiches, fruitcake, and other little adapted thanksgiving dishes. It might as well have been a kitchen table instead of a conference room table. We ate and talked to one another about the tradition of Thanksgiving, and the Americanisms as they appear to Irish students. Thanksgiving is a somewhat confusing holiday when you think about the history of it versus what it is now.

All of these wonderful activities have made me feel like have so much more to soak in, and so little time to do so. This last month has been wonderful, and it seems strange to try to wrap it up in just a few days. I leave in exactly a week, but I really only have one free day next week before I fly out. Monday and Tuesday I'll be in the school collecting materials, saying goodbyes and etc, and Thursday I fly out...so wednesday will be my day to soak in Derry...to say goodbye to it and the people i've fallen in love with here.

Its a strange thing to leave. There is nothing like home and I'm still thrilled about coming home soon, but adopting a new home for three months is a hard thing to wrap up in a day.
I will enjoy my last week indeed. :)

there and back again

It is very strange and wonderful to be back at Corrymeela. Corrymeela has several lounges that are used for retreat guests, and as fate would have it, our designated lounge is not the same as we had earlier this fall...it is instead the exact same lounge I had more than 3 years ago on my very first Corrymeela visit. Corrymeela has always been a place of rest and remembrance for me, and now especially so. I expected to have a weekend that would bring a sense of closure and completion to this semester, but when I sat in the cozy little room and thought back to the last time i'd been there, I was overwhelmed by a feeling of accomplishment that stretched all the way back through my college years, bringing me a sort of double closure: for this trip and for my college experience as a whole. In my very early days of college I sat here in Corrymeela and wondered what N.Ireland would be like...what it would be like to be gone for a semester...what it would be like to return to bluffton after having a semester experience here.
Now, three years later I can think back and remember how all of my hopes and fears evolved and resolved. The questions about college are behind me, and in their place is a feeling of remembrance for the long and adventurous college experience I've had. What a wonderful and unique journey its been.
I suppose you could say that my college experience began and ended with Corrymeela: with Northern Ireland. And how changed my college days have been because of the things I've seen and enjoyed here...
Indeed, its a strange and full sense of completion and accomplishment that I have today.
The borders of Bluffton University stretch far if you let them.

corner store irony

Last evening when I came home I immediately traded my skirt and heels for a nice comfy pair of blue sweat pants that Anna gave me. The sweats are much too big for me, but the long pant legs are the perfect length to fall down over my feet and serve a double purpose as trousers AND socks, so I don't mind the extra length.
I wear them mostly around the house and for bed time.

Up the hill, there is a corner store that Anna and I like to run to during commercial breaks. Its just close enough that we can dash up the hill for a juice box and still be back in time to see how our host mom's favorite soaps are going. Last night was one of those nights. When the commercial break came I looked at Anna and said, "wanna run up to the shop and get some lowfat Ambrosia custard?" (This is essentially low fat vanilla pudding, but the name custard makes it taste more exotic.)
We didn't have time to change into decent clothes, so I stuffed my sweat pants inside the tall, pink striped galoshes Rachel gave me for my birthday. By the time I went out the door, I looked ridiculous with bright blue baggy pants stuffed inside my bright striped rubber boots. I muttered to Anna as we dashed up the hill that 'I'd better not see any of my students in the shop.'

But of course, God likes to exercise my humility quite a bit it seems. While I stood at the register paying for the glorified vanilla pudding, looking like a kids birthday party clown, a girl in a school uniform stepped in line behind me. I glanced back to see who it was and it just so happened to be exactly the girl I wouldn't want it to be. A few weeks ago I saw two girls picking on a little boy on the bus. They did this day after day and I could tell that the boy was miserable. He would purposely get off the bus miles before his bus stop just to avoid being bothered by the girls. So finally I told the 'higher-ups' and the girls got in trouble. Now, one thing I try very hard to show my students is that adults don't hold grudges. Any time I have to get stern with a student, I try to communicate with them kindly and normally after the event, so that they know my problem is with their actions and not with who they are. I talked normally with the girl in class: asked her how her work was coming along, etc. I often see the girls when I walk to the bus since they live on my street, so I made sure to wave to them as I walked by.
They never wave back.

So I laughed at the irony when I turned around and saw the girl who doesn't wave. Its always been my opinion that ridiculousness is less embarrassing when confronted full force, so I turned to her and said, "I KNEW I'd see a student if I walked out the door dressed like this."
She laughed and smiled back.

Now that I think about it, if my ridiculous outfit made the girl who doesn't wave smile at me, then perhaps God was doing more than simply trying to humble me.
Perhaps he was humbling her.

kitchen in the sea

This weekend a few of us visited our fellow American student friends Jo and Jen at their internship at the Kilkrenny House in Coleraine. It's a beautiful little farm way out in the country where a few animals are raised and a little fireplace warms the inside.
After feeding the goats, collecting the eggs, and dealing with a dead hen, we went to visit Dunluce Castle, known for a rather unfortunate event that occured while it was still inhabited: the kitchen fell into the sea. While we walked up and down the path at the foot of the castle, we tried to sort out where the kitchen had been. The castle had such a precarious placement on the cliff that it was a wonder the whole thing hadn't fallen in. I picked out at least three different cliff-side walls that looked like they could be missing a kitchen, or would be soon. As fragile as it looked, it was also beautiful, propped there on the cliff-side rocks with beautiful long sea-side grasses overgrowing it's edges. It looked like it was more a part of the cliff than a structure built on top of it, as though it was trying to melt into the landscape, or escape into the sea.
Visits like this remind me where it is i am.

the day the bus broke

This morning the bus broke down not 15 feet after i had boarded it.
The students were excited about this, asking me and the art technician who rides the bus with me whether they'd miss their first class or not, what was wrong with the bus, and whether they were going to die or not. The bus driver turned around and answered that of course the students would die, but that it probably would have nothing to do with the bus breaking down and would probably be a good bit in the future.
When I was a junior higher, I wander if I saw my teachers the way the students see the art technician and I: all-knowing and instantly on top of every situation. I must admit, I know very little about cars, or 20 year old buses for that matter. However, that seemingly obvious fact is a little less obvious to students.
The bus broke down and a cluster of 15 students looked to a 22 year old art teacher in training and a 21 year old art technician as the solution to their questions.
Luckily the bus driver was on top of things, though he had an admittedly strange approach as you can gather from the above quote. He phoned a back-up bus and sat with us as we waited.

As it turns out, we strolled in right on time for school to start.

Its nice knowing that if the bus broke down every day, i'd still make it to school on time.

Sparky

I am going to paint you a picture of the cozy moment I am enjoying right this very second...

I am practically buried in pillows on a comfy leather couch. My socks are still dry and my toes are warm. I just finished a cup of hot apple cider that traveled all the way from America to reach my little mug.
I'm not sitting in my usual seat on the couch because sparky has claimed it for his nap. He's not really allowed on the couch but I will let the dog have his day. :)

School is continuing to go well. The parts that felt so hard and worrisome in the beginning, have all just softened into the routine. I'm beginning to learn who I am as a teacher, and just as importantly, who I am not as a teacher.

In a little more than three weeks, I'll be back in America.
Anyone looking for an art teacher?

pictures!

These are photos from Belfast and Dublin. The wall photo is of the Derry wall, just down the hill from where I live.
(I'd also like to say a special hello to Gary and Sandy Miller! Thanks for reminding me to post photos! :)

mixes

This evening I had my 'Hands for a Bridge' meeting. Hands for a bridge always lifts my spirits and eases whatever stress or exhaustion i might have felt before. Today was a great day, but my last lesson got a bit out of hand. I had to pull a few students aside and give them the sad news that 'Yes, they DID have to do their homework in order for me to give them the good marks they wanted.' I felt pretty good about how I handled, feeling like i'm finally getting the hang of finding my style of discipline, but it's still exhausting to keep hyper students interested in a subject they may not care much for. I remember Dr. Metz talking about how powerful humor can be in keeping students engaged and keeping tense situations from escalating. I definitely think he's right, but even so, it makes for a tiresome day. Thus, it was nice to have a Hands for a Bridge meeting today.

Hands for a Bridge is a group of students who create safe spaces for communication. Sometimes the communication is about the Troubles here in N.Ireland, and other times its about the many other issues important to teens here in Ireland. The students are doing a wonderful job of encouraging each other to get out of their comfort zones, and its a magnificent thing to participate in. It is the type of group I really want to continue to seek out in whatever teaching job I may have.

There are many things from this experience that make me thrilled for what else I may find out there in the future. What other 'Hands for a Bridge' groups are out there?

notes about Halloween in Derry

10 notes about Halloween in Derry

(by Anna and Carrie.)

1.) Some costumes are wonderful, and others are just excuses to buy short skirts in neon colors.

2.) There doesn't seem to be any trick or treating

3.) The parade includes everything from acrobatics to accordions.

4.) The fireworks are amazing, but I can't help but pay more attention to the costumes around me than the fireworks above me.

5.) You become surrounded by vampires with little baby pumpkins, pirates with their arms around their sweet-heart bees, and more walking bananas than you'll ever see again in your life.

6.) Before the festivities even begin, the Christmas lights are put up.

7.) The streets empty at midnight...but only because everyone moves into the bars.

8.) The night is what you make it...which is to say, making carmel apples with a small group of friends is a good alternative to the typical Derry night.  

9.) If you can't find carmel to melt, you can melt toffee and butter together.

10.) If you don't have pumpkins to carve, carve an apple. :)

Notes on Edinburgh

10 things to note about Edinburgh

(by Anna and Carrie)

1.) The accent is very hard to understand, and reminds me of the duck-tales uncle.

2.) Much cheaper than Dublin

3.) Just like Dublin, there is a new city and an old city.  

4.) The town is really just a series of hills and it feels like a giant version of shoots and ladders.

5.) It is very cold

6.) There seem to be just as many Australians around as there are Scots

7.) There are lots of kilts for sale...but no one ever wears them in public

8.) There really is plaid EVERYWHERE!

9.) It gets dark before dinner

10.) The free tour is worth the money :)