This past weekend I went into Tralee with my host mom to do some Christmas shopping. Tralee is a much bigger town than Listowel is and it had a lot of nice boutique shops as well as a bigger shopping center. It was quite crowded with people trying to fit in their Christmas shopping before it's the big day. We grabbed a late lunch before heading back to Listowel and also picked up some Ben & Jerry's ice cream for the family yumm! Sunday was a relaxing day and most of the family was out and about doing various things so Abigal, my host sister, and I watched movies and ate ice cream.
On Monday the junior infants finally performed their play for the whole school. It was really a lot of work getting all of the children dressed in their costumes and getting each one to go to the correct spot in line. They were all very good though and I think the other students enjoyed it. On Tuesday, the junior infants put on the play for a second time for all of the parents and that was a bit more of a challenge. I think nerves were high at that point because we had a few temper tantrums to deal with, kids who were refusing to put on their costumes, and one child who didn't go on because he was so nervous. It was even harder to get the children to let their parents leave at the end of the play. We eventually got everyone settled but it took the work of myself, my cooperating teacher, the resource teacher, the fourth class teacher, the fifth class teacher, and 4-5 fifth class students. We were all exhausted by the end of it all. The play was a huge success, however, and the kids were absolutely brilliant.
After school on Tuesday I went home with my cooperating teacher and met her husband and 1-year old daughter (who was absolutely adorable). She took me to Banna Beach and the wind and cold was so intense that we didn't stay out of the car for more than a couple of minutes. The waves were really strong, it was so cool to watch. We collected a few rocks on the beach before heading back into town. She also took me to an old church that dates back to the 12th century where she and her husband took their wedding photos at. It was really cool because the inside is all open and does not have a roof or glass or anything. Lastly, we went to check out a boutique that had some really cute things in it and then headed back to her house for dinner. After dinner, we went to the church near school to attend the carol service where the 1st-6th classes performed various Christmas songs on their instruments.
Last week and this week we've been working Christmas crafts as a part of art class. I taught them how to make Christmas wreaths from hand prints and tomorrow we're going to make hand print Christmas trees. I'm excited to see how they turn out! Other than that, our schedule has been so mixed up lately due to the play and play practices that we haven't done Irish in a while and I have been doing a lot of writing, reading, and phonics lessons. We are ahead in maths which is nice and right on schedule with science. Still, it is has been a bit hectic lately so I'm glad today was a bit back to normal.
Lastly, my host family has one cat and her two kittens that come around from time to time for food. Lately, the two kittens having been climbing up to the window boxes and looking in on us when we eat dinner. I tried opening the window to give them a couple of pieces of meat and they ran away and came back for it later. The other day, my host dad gave me some meat to give them and one of the kittens started eating right near me while I was still handing out their food. They said that that is highly unusual that they would ever start eating when someone is still there by the food so they started calling me the "cat whisperer" haha. They are cute little things!
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