Tea at the Shellbourne Hotel

Just had a thoroughly enjoyable afternoon with some fantastic ladies at the Shellbourne Hotel, a lovely and historic Dublin hotel right on St. Stephen's Green.  The American Women's Club of Dublin arranged an afternoon tea to benefit the Solas project.  There were fabulous raffle prizes, lovely little tea sandwiches and deserts and, as an added touch, the organizers managed to get a fantastic selection of fascinators, headpieces and hats on loan for us to try out... feeling very posh!  So, with our pinkies up, legs crossed, smiling, and adorned in these fabulous headpieces, we soaked in every last minute and ate up every last bite.  The best part is, the day managed to raise well needed funds for the Solas Project in Ireland.  Well done AWCD!

Tea time in the beautiful Shellbourne Hotel

Unbelievably yummy tea treats! 

Michelle Harvin and me sporting fabulous fascinators

On the way home from the market, we ran into a castle!

Last weekend we decided to get into some of the local flavor here (literally) and visit the Dun Laoghaire (pronounced Dun Leary) Farmer's Market in People's Park.  It was a small market but amazingly varied in offerings.  They had, of course, tons of fresh local produce.  They also had an amazing selection of baked goods... so yummy.  There were art dealers, jewelry makers, book dealers, specialty teas, chocolates, and much more.  People's Park is a nice little park right on the water with a small playground for kids.  It was a cold day so we all had our warm drinks and more than enough pastries keeping our hands and insides warm.  (The cold really is a different kind of cold here.  It truly goes inside to your bones.  Brrrrrrrr!!!)

 

Then ... a funny thing happened on the way home...  

We decided to take a different route home to explore a bit more and we ended up driving straight up to ... A CASTLE!  That's the thing here... a castle just pops up in just about every town.  There's no fanfare or even attention paid to them.  It's like no one here even recognizes they're there.  But to us, they are magical!  They're a reminder of how deep the roots of this country actually are.  Generally, there is little information on the castles in many cases (none at all in this case).  

This one is in the town of Monkstown and called (duh) the Monkstown Castle.  By the way, we had to ask one of the people from the neighborhood what the name of the castle was and she, living on the same street, wasn't even quite sure.  We found it both amazing and funny that we can go to farmer's market, a rather mundane daily experience, and then, on the way, just happen upon a castle.  

I did a bit of research and found out the Monkstown Castle was built in the 13th century by Cistercian monks.  It was built to protect their rich pasture lands in the surrounding area. There was originally a wall around the castle where tenants would take shelter with their cattle and belongings in time of attack.  There's more information about this small but charming castle on the National Monuments Service website below.  It will be a good resource for us as we go to explore the many, many more castles along the way... 

National Monuments Service

Posted by Liz

The ups and downs of settling in

The kids are now off to school, Matt is doing great in his new job and loves the people, and I've unpacked what we have brought with us to Dublin (turns out not much.)

So now what??

That is the question that has been weighing on me the last few days.  I mean, I've done this.  I've lived abroad, I've traveled extensively, I have even worked overseas.  I should be ready and up for anything and planning all these "dream trips" we've been talking about taking.  Somehow, though, this is different.  I'm here now as a "spouse." One without a working permit.  And, for now anyway, one without her own bank account, social life or car. I'm feeling a little bit of a loss of independence and not really knowing how to go about my life here.  This whole time, planning for the move has been about everything else.  I've been focused on getting the kids settled and into a good place, trying to ensure their transition goes as smooth as possible.  I've been taking care of all the details related to our home front: setting up the house, trying to "nest" a bit so we all can feel at home, and closing things up in Mill Valley for a while.  I didn't really do much thinking about what this experience would be about for me personally.

I know ... "There's a world out there to explore!"  I will do that... but feel I have had the rug taken out from under my size 9 1/2 feet.  So I have to set some new goals ... a revised New Year's Resolutions list.  That will be my next post ...

Some quick observations I have so far ...
1)  The eggs here are amazingly good ... not sure why.
2)  The dryers suck and the washers take forever (however, I'm lucky we have both at least!!)
3)  People here are extremely warm and friendly
4)  The weather is not always bad... in fact, we see a lot of sun, its just that five minutes later it may be raining.  Can't count on anything.
5)  There is a castle in almost every town.  Amazing!
6)  Still don't like the taste of Guinness

Little known fact, Irish get their red hair from their Viking roots.  So, does that mean that my kids do too?? I guess somewhere, there was Viking in our roots... and its come out in our kids.  I'll just look at the positive and say they are born to explore!

That's it for now.  Busy busy ... I have to work on my "revised" resolutions and set up a plan to get them done.

Posted by Liz

The first week in Ireland

Okay so this is my first blog i'm going to do. Its probably going to be very annoying having to do a blog every week but dad said I should. Okay here we go. I'm starting. Okay for real now. So it started off this way:

We were in the plane and we were waiting for a long time because the gas tank kept freezing. After a while we finally started to move. "YES!" I thought "WERE FINALLY MOVING" and we were off. After a pretty long while I was asleep and when I woke up we were almost in Dublin! I was really excited. When we were there I was probably the most excited I have ever been in my life. Then it was time to get off the plane. As soon as were off the plane we were getting a drink. Afterward we went in a cab and went home I was excited-the girls were screaming when we got out of the cab. After that we went inside. That time I was screaming with the girls. And then we saw presents under the tree! What luck! We opened our presents and the presents I got were Minecraft for the Xbox,  a spy alarm that you have to build yourself, and a remote control car. Then we played with our  toys for a little and it was bed-time. In the morning dad had to wake me up because of jet-lag. We quickly had breakfast and went to school. Then we went into the school building (Carysfort school) and the principal introduced herself. Then we went into my classroom first... everyone was whispering. The classroom was very different then my old one. It was just well, different. After we did all our school stuff we went out to recess. Well they call it yard. So we went out to recess a.k.a. Yard and played soccer which they call football. I scored two goals!  So we did some more school stuff had another recess (I didn't score any goals that recess) and I went home. The next few days were normal school and all that stuff I went over to a kid named Ross's house and then it was time for the weekend. The weekend well it was like a normal weekend I went over to a kid I didn't knows house we played with fake Nerf guns and the week was over. Well that's my first blog and I am finished for the week.

- Carson Harrell

First week of school daze

The kids started school this week at Carysfort National School.  It's a very well known school in Dublin and we were very lucky to get places for all three kids there.  It is a very traditional Irish Catholic school.  The kids wear uniforms and say prayers throughout the day.  In fact, it seems the school and the set up of the classroom are quite a bit different from the laid back nature of Edna Maguire elementary.  For the kids, the idea of wearing a uniform was not popular.  However, as you can see below, they fell into the routine without a second thought.  They arrived for their first day smiling and ready.  I was especially proud of their attitude given their arrival to school on Wednesday morning was following a four day travel fiasco, including a 30 hour stay trapped in the "POLAR VORTEX" of Chicago O'hare.  It was so cold there, your eyeballs would freeze*!

 First Day of school in uniform!  I will say, uniforms are actually making the morning routine a bit easier.  There are no more multiple changes of outfits happening or choices such as wearing shorts and t-shirts in 40 degree weather!!

Carysfort National School   

The kids all received a phenomenal welcome from their classmates and their teachers.  Tessa's classmates all made cards to welcome her.  Each day last week, her backpack was filled with new cards.  Watching her interact with the kids, it was amazing to see her feel so comfortable and at ease. Then again, this is Tessa I'm talking about, who is not lacking in the bravery and confidence department.  Carson was invited on a playdate on his first day and claims to have already made loads of new friends.  Anna also has made some nice friends and is going to a birthday party this weekend.   They each came home fairly happy this past week and we are so grateful for that.  It was definitely my number one concern.  

We asked them what observations they had on their new school.  Carson's primary remarks were centered around the size of the play area.  The blacktop and grassy areas are smaller at his new school. I reminded him  how lucky we are are at Edna to have the largest grassy area to play on in all of Mill Valley.  I tried to get more out of him, like what it is like in his classroom.  (By the way, there is no parent involvement inside the classroom.  This is a big change for me, having been very involved in the kids classes...  so I am very curious to hear how things are run.)  He said it was pretty much the same but they don't have as long at recess.  Again, the focus on recess.  Hmmmm.  I next asked Anna her thoughts.  She also mentioned the size of the play yard.  (These kids from Edna are spoiled.  The play yard is the size of a soccer field... so ok, yeah, its not the size of four soccer fields!!)  She mentioned also that at this school the girls play in a big group.  She said she liked that because at Edna, girls pair off or play in small groups of 2-3.  If you're not in one of those groups, you sometimes are out of luck.  I was happy to hear that the girls play in a big group here.  As for Tessa, she was mostly concerned with the prayers that she says in the morning and before lunch.  She has learned to make the sign of the cross.  She has been asking a lot about Jesus and God and I think the religious education will be very interesting to her.  

All in all, we are starting to settle in here.  I won't say we have a routine yet, but we are working towards it.  And, as for routines, we are hoping to keep it simple so that we have the maximum time to enjoy being here in Ireland and seeing Europe.  

That's all for today... time for bed!  

*Steph N. that was for you! :)

Slight detour on the way to Dublin ...

So on the way to Dublin, we took a slight detour and headed further West, to Kauai.  After a great week in Tahoe with Matt's parents, we spent a week in Hawaii with my mom (thank's mom!!), my brothers and their families.  We had a great time.  We stayed in condos in Poipu.  It was a perfect set up for all the families to get together.  We did everything and were all over the island.  We spent a lot of time at the beach boogie boarding and snorkeling, went to a luau, went to the North Shore to snorkel, took a helicopter tour around the island, went hiking and took surfing lessons!

Sunset at the Luau in Poipu

Kids' table at the Luau

View of the Napali coast from the Helicopter

Hiking the Sleeping Giant

Surfin' lessons!

Carson hangs 10!

Anna Hangs 10!

And check out five year old Tessa ...

Click Here to view more pictures.  Thanks for reading!