Day 5 (July 3rd):
We started off with the fourth day of lessons! Today was more of a laid back day to complement our extremely hectic and fast paced week so far. The sunny weather just will not relent, and students aren’t sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing. Allison asked if it was supposed to be this sunny in Ireland and the answer is a resounding “no”. Parents, we have both 50 SPF and 30 SPF sunscreen plus cases of water n the office for kids to use and all of them have taken us up on the offer. You might not be able to recognize them through their deep tans when they come home in a month.
Angie covered W.B. Yeats in class and the students discussed and analyzed some of his works. Miles distributed more pearls of wisdom in Irish American History. Mike ran the students through more bits of Gaelic — and the students have a very fun upcoming game of Gaelic twister that I still remember fondly to this day.
For Taryn’s class, we mixed (ha ha) things up a bit and the students made scones for everyone to eat. They had to option to add raisins or chocolate chips, and after dinner the lovely kitchen staff pulled them from the ovens for us! Taryn was a bit worried because some of the batches of dough was a bit runny but they came out a light, perfect golden brown. They were really good and had a great, traditional scone texture.
Then before we knew it it was time to break for lunch and then the students had free time in the city of Waterford. For those interested, Casey also offered her Celtic cards workshop. Nancy, Anya, Bella and Mairead all took advantage of this lovely opportunity to unleash their creativity into special creations for friends and family! Casey had loads of stickers, stencils and different papers for the girls to use and their cards came out absolutely lovely.
We the staff used today as our opportunity to start planning and shopping for a fun activity we are planning for Dublin involving thriftshopping… While out and about, the staff ran into several students out shopping at Penney’s, which is the discount clothing store that is always a hit with the kids!
After dinner, we had drama and dance. Casey began teaching students the complex Haymaker’s Jig which utilizes all of the separate elements of dance that the students have learned so far.
In drama, we are creating student-made-and-directed music videos for some traditional Irish songs including I’ll Tell Me Ma, Molly Malone and Wild Rover.
To wrap up the night, Casey held our traditional scavenger hunt in Waterford. The students divided up into four groups and set off for an hour of scavenging. Some of the challenges included finding a business with the same name as a team member, a postcard with a sheep on it, and asking a local to tell them a joke which they had to recite for everyone later.
A straight-faced Nancy provided a very fine example of local wit, “What’s hard and pink? A pig with a jackknife.”
But in the end, only one team could win the scavenger hunt and that team was Anna, Issie and Kennedy. Congrats, girls! They got bragging rights to match their Waterford flags.
Keep checking our blog, more is coming!
