Easter Camp

Last Friday night, the two student teachers from Westport, Ireland, Nate and Brittney, came to Galway to help run the Easter Camp. It is a bummer that they are not permanently in Galway with us but they were unable to get secondary education placements in Galway.

The Easter Camp was March 25-29 from 10:00-2:00pm. The camp was held at our elementary school, Claddagh National School. There were about 25 students who signed up for the camp. It was was a lot of fun helping run the camp! The six of us were camp leaders along with Louise, who is the art teacher at Claddagh. Throughout the week, the kids participated in a variety of activities. The first day for "Sports", we taught the kids how to play kickball. This was a HUGE hit. The kids loved it and asked to play everyday. The second day was "American" themed. For cooking, we made our favorite childhood snack with the kids, Puppy Chow, of course. Most of the kids liked it. There were a lot of peanut butter haters, which I thought was surprising. For the afternoon of America day, we taught the kids three popular dances: Cotton Eyed Joe, Electric Slide, and Cupid Shuffle. The kids favorite was Cotton Eyed Joe. The kids really like dancing and caught on really fast. To finish the afternoon, we taught the kids how to play "Capture the Flag". On Wednesday, we brought the kids to Leisure Land, which is similar to a YMCA. Swimming is really popular in Galway. A lot of people who live here go on a swim everyday, whether it is in the Atlantic Ocean (bbburrrrrr) or pool. Many of the kids take swimming lessons. We got to swim with the kids too. It was a little chaotic trying to keep track of 25 kids swimming, but nobody drowned so it was a good day! On Thursday, we did drama and art with the kids, and in the afternoon played a pick-game of soccer. Today was the last day of camp! Whoohoo! By Friday, everyone was exhausted! The kids did "Sports" and "Computer/Games" for the morning and in the afternoon, we did an Easter scavenger hunt and had a dance party. It was a lot of fun helping run the Easter Camp though! I had a blast! I definitely am tired tonight! Hopefully I get a good night of sleep because tomorrow we leave for ROME! For our Spring break we are going to Rome, Venice, and Berlin. We have 6 days to visit two countries and three cities, take three flights, and one train ride. This upcoming week is going to be amazing, it is going to fly by, and by next weekend I am going to be dead tired. It is so worth it though! I still do not believe I am in Ireland though and now I have to fathom that I am going to Italy and Germany. I am so unbelievably blessed to have all of these amazing opportunities though. I couldn't do it without the never ending support of my parents, grandparents, friends, and family. I also got GREAT news this week! MY MOM AND DAD ARE COMING TO IRELAND! I can't wait to see them! They fly in on May 4 and are staying until May 16. I am so happy they are coming to see me! While they are here, we are going to Paris, France and London, England too! It will also be nice because they will be able to fly home with me, instead of flying home by myself. 34 DAYS UNTIL THEY COME! YAY! Yesterday also marked my mom's 6th year cancer free anniversary! Another huge milestone! Love you momma!

Well this past week was a big week and tomorrow starts another big week! You are probably wondering when any student teaching is taking place ... ? Don't worry! Starting April 8, I will be teaching for 4 weeks so my travels will be slowing down (a little bit).

I will blog again after our Spring break trip! Bye!