Birthday Weekend

Hey all...thanks again for everyone on facebook and by other means that sent me nice birthday messages and such...my birthday was wonderful and it started very late on Thursday night with a few pints at some of the local pubs...which started it off right.

Thursday like I said I went out with some of the teachers at Kenmare, Lisa and Vince. Friday I went out with Lisa and some of her daughters and Kathryn (from UGA) and some others met us out. Saturday night was more of the same with a good band playing in Kenmare followed by time with friends afterwards. Is it sad that my favorite thing about the pubs I learned is that after last call, you can buy beer to go? Anyway, I had a good weekend and remember most of it which is a good thing.

Mixed with a little movie watching and another Lisa-made dinner on Sunday was the extent of my weekend. It was pretty lazy at times but exactly the weekend I needed. The first couple days of this week I have taught a few classes. On Tuesday afternoons I have Humanities with Transition Year Students. This is equivalent to 10th graders in a class that is mixed with history and geography. Over the next month I am going to be doing a study on Haiti with them which out of all my classes, will allow me to be the most creativity and freedom in my teaching. The kids are great and the class should be very interesting. The rest of the week for teaching is not too busy which will give me a lot of time to prepare for next week.

Wednesday and Friday I will be leaving school early both days for some traveling. Tomorrow I am getting a ride with Lisa to Cork which is a little over an hour away to hang out there and hopefully give my Mac to some people to get it fixed up. Friday I am leaving with Kathryn to travel by train to Dublin. A couple friends from Auburn will be in Dublin that weekend and Kathryn has friends there as well so we have a place to stay. There is a lot to see Saturday but Sunday we are going to 'We Will Rock You.' This is the musical based on Queen's music and I got word that Brian May (original member of Queen) might be playing on Sunday...who knows, but it will be nice to get around other parts of Ireland.

Everything else is going well. I found a new place with a guy named Dennis who is a carpenter and probably not too much older than me. He lives right past the school I work at and about a kilometer from town. This situation is considerably cheaper and a better deal for me. My new address is on my previous post. Here I will NOT have internet but will have a washer/dryer, more than four channels of cable and control over my own heat. I randomly got Dennis' number when calling another add and was referred to him...I went over last night and had made the decision within almost a minute. Dennis even gave me a ride home....just a good deal. The only disadvantage I can forsee besides internet is the gym is now further away and to get there, I basically have to walk by the pubs. Ohhhhh well.

All is well, how are you? Meeting some cool people here in Kenmare, and things are coming together.

Cheers,
MG