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Yesterday, March 30

I woke up yesterday morning to see snow falling outside my window! I was beyond surprised because I have experienced how the Irish react to snow, they are not used to this occurrence, and that was in February. Snow in late March, really? The thick, wet snow made for an interesting commute to work, but once I arrived and dried off, things fell back into the comfortable routine which I had grown accustomed.

First activity of the day: wheelchair fitting at SeatTech, a wheelchair production facility on the grounds of Sandymount. The Physiotherapist, Occupational Therapist, and a sort of rehab engineer all worked together to make adjustments for a new wheelchair for a little boy. Postural management studies are conducted on all the children, and the wheelchair is an integral part of that program. The mother was present at the meeting and I had a nice time talking to her throughout the process.

The rest of the day mainly consisted of odd jobs, paperwork and filing up until our Easter Potluck meal which replaced our usual lunch. Everyone brought in something different, and we all sat down together to enjoy the "gorgeous" meal, as everyone referred to it. The group dynamics of this facility are truly unique, and everyone always seems to be in a positive mood as they interact with each other.

I have been experiencing more and more "slagging" the longer I have been working. When asked where a certain coworker of mine had disappeared to, I answered "to the store." "STORE? What's a store?" was the response which was thrown in my face in a joking manner. I learned my lesson and will say "shop" from now on.

March 31

Today was the last day of work for the week seeing that Thursday, Friday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday are part of a scheduled annual leave for the therapists. I'm loving this schedule. The other day at lunch I learned that they each get somewhere around five weeks "holiday" throughout each year! Can you believe that?

I was told that this last day would be an easy one, with the upcoming holiday, yet it seemed rather busy for me and passed just as quickly as the others. I was able to help with two of the CoSMo groups, learning that functional evaluation for each child is important throughout life and is certainly not a once and done procedure. I was able to meet some new faces in a couple of interesting sessions and found I'm quickly becoming more comfortable in this type of therapeutic setting.

Fortunately, the sessions are not the only positive aspect of the day. I had to laugh as women of all ages were admiring "Mr. World" in the Metro Newspaper during tea time and was very grateful to have received my first Irish Easter egg from my supervisor at the end of the day. It was a delicious truffle egg and I could only hold off until the bus ride home. As I walked out of the office to energetic "have a great break" wishes and "goodbye"s, I couldn't help thinking how well things were going thus far.

With the next seven days off, I will embark on my next adventure: Barcelona. Tomorrow evening Melissa, Meghan, Jack, Trevor and I leave to spend the long Easter weekend in Spain. Look for updates when I return!

How Alert am I?

Because of the approaching Easter holidays, the children in Sandymount school have off for two weeks! I could not believe this fact when I heard the news. They run on a trimester sort of schedule, so after Easter holiday, they will start their third segment of schooling. I was fortunate enough to be kept busy and very involved all day through a program set in place by the CoSMo group I had mentioned earlier. CoSMo stands for Coordination, Sensory and Motor impairment, and this program was designed specifically for that purpose.

The Alert program held today is designed to help the children learn more productive and efficient ways of controlling their level of alertness. The comparison of the day was that the children's body is like a car engine, and appropriate speeds are necessary for different times of the day. We did different activities to engage the senses so they could decipher which activities they preferred. It was my first time in this type of classroom situation, and I found that I have a lot to learn regarding proper ways to handle emotions and excitement. The day flew by very quickly, and we had a nice lunch where I was able to learn more about the Irish schooling system. The kids were very sweet and helped fill me in as much as they could.

The rest of the night will consist of paper writing and getting organized for another busy day!

"Everyone is so nice..." Catherine in Ireland

Thursday March 25

After a later night of chatting, the alarm rang too early to wake up Catherine and I for her first day in Dublin. I was quickly reminded of Pittsburgh as we tried to ready ourselves in the tiny room without waking up Tara, my roommate. The morning was successful and we left on time after a nice breakfast and a cup of tea. We took the bus to the city center and I dropped Cat off with a map, wished her luck and headed to the DART to go to work.

The work day was another refreshing one. I was busy throughout the day, yet was constantly wondering what Catherine was up to. When 4:00 came, a coworker asked why I was still working when I had my friend to meet. I left with a smile, a combination of a great work day and the anticipation of meeting Catherine. Because our cell phones do not connect, we had decided to meet by the spire in the city center. We went to Madigans where Catherine filled me in on her incredibly busy day over a delicious dinner of Beef and Guinness Pie. After one day in Dublin, she believed that everyone in Ireland is friendly, literally everyone. That night we headed out to Temple Bar where I was able to introduce Catherine to some traditional Irish music and fun. Our cab ride home proved to me that she was correct in her previous assumption, for the cab driver was by far the nicest I have ever met. He was very personable, and the three of us chatted the entire way back to DCU.


Friday March 26

Another early morning and we quickly packed up our things and headed down to the city center to the Guinness Storehouse. We were fortunate to be able to check our bags for the weekend before entering the exhibit, then took our time as we walked around the seven floors to the gravity bar at the top. I had already been there once before, but the exhibit itself is very interesting and I was glad to be able to see it again with Catherine.

An old advertisement for Guinness. I couldn't help but laugh when I read it.

While enjoying the Guinness, I was able to point out some of the landmarks around Dublin which could be seen from the top. I realized that as many weeks had passed since my previous visit, the city had quickly transformed into a much more familiar place. After the tour, we took a quick cab down to the city center to hop on the GO bus, a direct bus from Dublin to Galway. The two and a half hour ride passed quickly and we checked into our hostel and set off to see what we could before sunset. Our first stop was the Thomas Dillon Claddagh store and museum.

I bought a Claddagh ring, my souvenir for my time in Ireland, and Catherine and I could not help but smile as we immediately adored the cute older woman who worked there. We found out her name was Catherine as well, and she appeared to have all the time in the world for us, even though we arived only 15 minutes before the store was to close. When we told her we were off to the Aran Islands in the morning, she told us a little secret story of the time when she had trouble riding her bike up some of the larger hills on the island. She warned us with a slight giggle not to exert ourselves too quickly and it was then I realized we had met another Irish charm.

We were both smiling as we said goodbye to Catherine and headed to the Galway Bay. Although the weather forecast had predicted rain for the weekend, we were blessed with sunshine and took a very leisurely walk along the bay.

We ate a dinner of Fish and Chips at Monroes and headed back to the hostel to warm up a bit. We were in a room of four, and when we returned we met our two roommates for the night. They were very friendly and we chatted about respective plans for the time in Galway. That night, Catherine and I were fortunate enough to find some fun music, a little more traditional than in Dublin. I actually saw my first Bodhran in a session!




Saturday, March 27

We boarded a bus at 9:30 which took us to the ferry in Ros a' Mhíl. After a 40 minute ferry ride we arrived in Inis Mór, the largest of the three Aran Islands off the western coast of Ireland.


Home to only 800 people, this 9 mile long island is only 2 miles wide and was quite the experience. We "hired" bikes for the afternoon and set off to see the beautiful island. It is hard to accurately describe how different and picturesque the location was from anything I have experienced.

My bike for the day!

We stopped for a break and I called over some of the horses on the side of the road. This one was so fond of Catherine's bike that he actually tried to eat the handle!

These stone walls covered the entire island.

My favorite part of the afternoon by far was Dún Aonghasa, the largest of all the prehistoric forts located on the Aran Islands. It was quite the hike to the top, and we were told to abandon our bikes and take the journey by foot.



The view from this site was spectacular, and we took a nice long break and enjoyed the beauty that was before us.






As Dún Aonghasa was the farthest location from our starting point, we turned back toward the ferry and took another path home, this time on the other side of the island.

A wrinkled cow!

Houses like this were few and far between.

We stopped again to hike up to the Dun Arann Lighthouse. Another pretty steep path, we actually attempted to walk backwards at times to give our legs a break.

Roads like this lead us back to the ferry station, and we boarded the 5:00 pm ferry back to Galway. Very hungry after the long day, we stopped in Galwayfor dinner at a place which advertised "Traditional Irish Food." I had a bowl of clam chowder with my favorite brown bread and Catherine had the Irish stew. Both meals were delicious and we were quickly revived. Because of the time of year, the hostels were incredibly busy and we were lucky enough to be able to stay in the Kinlay House for a second night, yet had to change to an eight bed room. We walked in after a long day and there were four Irish boys in the room, making quite the commotion with our entrance. We soon found out they were from Dublin and were quite nice and had a fun time getting to know some new people.

Sunday March 28

We woke up this morning in time for the free breakfast and went to the 10:00 mass at St. Nicholas, the Galway Cathedral. The church was beautiful and we walked around afterwards for a bit before splitting a delicious crepe on our way out of town.

We gathered our luggage, jumped on the 11:45 bus and said goodbye to Galway. I took the bus back to the city center and Catherine stayed on to ride to the airport to catch her flight back to Rome. Overall it was an incredibly successful weekend. It was refreshing to catch up with Catherine and I believe she left with a new appreciation of Ireland, including the incredibly friendly people.

Another Day in the Workforce

Another work day gone in the blink of an eye. Today, my focus was with occupational therapy where I was introduced to a program called Cosmo. Within three group sessions and one individual session, I was introduced to many ways to help tackle different sensory and motor difficulties that children may have. The day was filled with different activities including scooter boards, trapeze swings, and handwriting games. The whole idea of strengthening proprioception skills is fairly new to me, and I was very grateful to have the opportunity to discuss the program with my supervisor when the day was over.

I'm quickly realizing that working with children means there will never be a dull moment. Today I had a little boy correct me on my spelling of "color," insisting that there was a "u" in the word. Just a small example proving you never know what will come next.

Subtle aspects of culture differences still make me smile. Phrases such as "lad" or "good man" (used mainly instead of good job), are starting to grow familiar, just as I am no longer surprised to hear seven or eight year olds say "pardon?" It is a familiar sight to see children in all fashions of Catholic school uniforms, displaying the names of all the saints and insisting on removing their "jumpers" (sweaters, sweatshirts) before their therapy.

I will try to write something small each day after work in an attempt to capture the small details which are making this experience so unique. I'm done for now however because I have a special visitor! Catherine has arrived in Dublin and will be here until Sunday. I will update after she leaves to describe our adventures.

Work and Tea

The 40 hour workweek (or should I say 28 hour work week plus class) has started up in full force, making life here in Dublin much busier than it sounds. Halfway through week two of my internship with Enable Ireland, I am bracing myself for the rest of the time to fly by at the blink of the eye. I am doing my best to really enjoy each day I am there, and after only a short time I am finding that it is very easy to do.

My work day is 9:00 am to 4:00 pm. Add in about an hour to an hour and a half commute each way and the day is quickly filled. I cannot complain and actually have begun to enjoy my travel time. I take a bus into the city center and then walk about 10 minutes to the nearest DART (Dublin Area Rapid Transit) station to take the train to Sandymount. After that it's only about a 10 minute walk and I have arrived. I feel an air of professionalism as I grab my free newspaper and jump on the train with the rest of the workforce. I am enjoying the experience, knowing it is only for seven weeks, but I am nowhere ready to do this for a living yet.

During my seven hours at Enable Ireland each day, I have been kept very busy. I have the opportunity to participate in many different therapy sessions and am enjoying getting to know the children. Some have asked me where I am from, realizing that I have a "weird" accent, while others are starting to smile as they recognize that I am a familiar face. I am learning something new each session and am finding I enjoy this type of setting more that I had anticipated.

The day is filled with wonderful breaks. From 11:00 to 11:30 everyone takes a tea break. It is magnicifent and is often filled with some kind of chocolate and fun conversation. Our lunch break is 1:30 to 2:00 and once again, everyone has been very friendly in including me in the mix. I feel very blessed by the entire situation.

After work today, I joined four of my colleagues on their weekly tennis outing. One of the therapists brought an extra racket, and we had a great time! I already feel very comfortable with everyone. I'm not sure whether this is a result of the laid back style of work, or the fact that the class system within the work place is less defined, yet regardless I am adjusting quite quickly and am very thankful.

It is off to bed for me. The 6:30am alarm clock is on its way!

Dún Laoghaire

We experienced another beautiful day here in Dublin. This afternoon, Kate and I ventured out to Dún Laoghaire, one of Dublin's southern coastlines. The commute was relatively short, only a short 20 minute bus ride and then another 20 minute DART or train ride and we had arrived. We spent a couple hours walking around, taking in the scenery, and just enjoying the free day. It was beautiful.

We couldn't pass up the opportunity for ice cream!

The afternoon was a relatively quick one, but we did have a chance to walk around the town before we headed back to campus.

It's Sunday, meaning week two of my internship is soon approaching. More updates will follow, but for now I can say I'm looking forward to another exciting week!

The Sun Shines in Dublin

Quick break from spring break updates...

It was a beautiful day in Dublin, the sun shining to reflect our happiness at having a weekend with no agenda. Today Tara, Marion, Mary, Cathy and I headed down to the city center for the weekly farmers market in Temple Bar. It was quite the scene. They had one section filled with fresh produce and another with other goodies including pastries, fresh meats and desserts.




I bought a sandwich and we headed over to St. Stephens Green, a large public park, for a picnic lunch.






There was a Scotland vs. Ireland rugby match today in Dublin, and the kilts were everywhere!

With the beautiful turn in the weather, people flocked to the streets to enjoy the sunshine and the city was packed. Different musical acts filled the pedestrian walkways.




After some browsing through shops and wandering around, Cathy and I set out to see some of the cathedrals in Dublin which I have not seen yet. First stop was Christ Church Cathedral...



followed by St. Patrick's Cathedral.



After a quick stop at a local farmers market for fresh fruit, we caught the bus and headed back to DCU to regroup.