Castle Park Day 1

The kids were so excited for their first day of school but also quite nervous and anxious. Bret had purchased them track suits that we knew were worn on PE days. Most days the children wear a uniform, but Bret didn't know the sizes and didn't want to risk it, so he opted to get the track suit and polo shirt, and let me bring the kids in for a proper fitting.

They've reached the age where they are very aware if they don't fit in, and Shaynie was particularly stressed about being the only one in a track suit. My response that her brother would be wearing one as well (in a different class) didn't hold much sway.

 First Day at Castle Park School

The school is called Castle Park School because it is in one of the seven castles of Dalkey village. This apparently was a very important stretch of land that protected Dublin and it's harbor. The school was purchased and started in 1907 and though the students use several rooms inside the old castle, classrooms have been built on behind to accomodate more modern conveniences, such as, say heat and electricity. :)

Weston surprised me when we checked in by telling the administrator that he wanted to go by Douglas (his first given name) instead of Weston (his middle name.) They also learned that they would be in Toone house (one of four "houses" very similar to the Griffindor, Smitheryn, etc of Harry Potter fame) where they workwith children of all grades to win an interhouse competition. Here the grades are 1-6, called here Form I through Form IV) and their house color was a royal blue. I walked them to their classes where their teachers came out to meet them. Both teachers are young, beautiful, soft spoken, dark-haired Irish women. They put Wes and Shaynie at ease immediately and I walked off heart pounding and yet confident that they would have a great first day.

I interviewed them that night as we went to dinner and to the mall to buy school supplies. Shaynie reported the following:

1- I like the school because it has houses like the ones in Harry Potter.
2- I like my teacher because she is nice. She is nice to all the kids and if they are being rude or loud she asks them to stop and reminds them with words like, "Should you be talking?" I didn't get that, but my friend did. I like her; her name is Cecilia. They call her CC or cecilee.
3- We didn't have any homework and we got to go into a place you normally have to have running shoes. We don't have home work for the whole week because it's the first week.

When asked if there was anthing not great about her day, she said:

1."They had a prayer and it was really long and they all have it memorized do I was just mumbling."
(I realized later she had a Religious Education class that day in her schedule. I thought the school wasn't sponsored by a particular sect, so I'll have to check to see how they work the religious classes.
2. I don't really know about the French teacher, because people say that she is mean.

Weston
1- the best things that happened today are, um, I don't have any good things....

I have bad things.
He discussed how disappointed he was that he was switched out of the class he had visited when we came to look at the school in June. Several boys in that class (which Shaynie ended up going into because they had about 5 girls move from the school in the previous year) were quite friendly with Weston and he was very disappointed that he wasn't with them in class. He said, "Mom we need to do something about the class switch. I'm in the wrong one! We need to go to the school and tell them to move me back."

All in all when asked to rate their day on a scale of 1 - 10 (10 being the best day ever) Shaynie gave it an 8 and Weston/Douglas gave it a 6!! Not too bad!

Home on Day one...

The following is a photo of the kids at the park across from our house. Our house is the little light yellow bungalow in the top right of the photo. It's light, bright and has amazing views.

We explored all the flowers and trees in our garden. We have flowers of all sizes and colors up a rear terrace. Then we walked around the house to the park where the kids climbed all over the granite rocks, looked for 4 leaf clovers and then insisted we go down to watch the fisherman. The weather was crisp, sunny and absolutely perfect. What a welcome to IRELAND!

 Perfect Day on the Irish Sea

Shaynie sat with the fishermen for at least 45 minutes watching them cast out into the sea. She saw a few fish caught, and I know she was dying to have one of them ask her if she could help them as a sweet Irish fisherman had done when we were here last June.

 Fisherman with view of Dalkey Island

We've arrived!

So the kids and I checked in 6 suitcases all weighing just under 50 lbs and rolled our additional carry on bag (not weighed--thank goodness) through security in Salt Lake City. I'd packed each of the kids' carry ons with their own clothes and necessities, but I'd packed my carry on with external hard drives, my computer, our apple back up disk, routers, cameras, iPads, laptop and all the things that had a higher value and I wanted right away in our new home.

We landed in Frankfurt after a fairly sleepless night in coach class--though the United flight attendants were gracious enough to turn a blind eye to Weston sleeping on the floor at our feet. Shayne laid across the seats and I tired to get 2-3 hours of sleep in--hard task though it was after packing my sleeping pills in the luggage!

There was a strike of the airline workers for Luftansa in Frankfurt and the airport was in complete chaos when we arrived at 8 am. Our flight was cancelled and we were rereouted to 3 later flights to see if we could go standby. No dice. Spent a night in the airport--sleep was heaven--and booked a flight out the next evening at 8 PM. It was uncomfortable and unfortunate, but we arrived in Dublin ready to blow up air mattresses, change into pajamas, and get some sleep.

Wouldn't you know the one time I don't pack me emergency clothes--we are seperated from our luggage for 5 days! I can tell you, I won't do that again! Spare underwear and toothbrush at LEAST will come with me!

I was so thankful that Bret had come the week before and turned on the power, gas, water, and purchased the kids' school clothes. It really too the stress off and allowed me to relax about arriving just 36 hours before school started for the kids!