During the first week of the trip I would wake up about two hours or so prior to my placement time, just so I could catch up on laundry and make a nice breakfast. Lately, however, I've been waking up as late as possible because we've been so busy! I wake up and take a shower before I even leave my room. It is so convenient having my own bathroom connected to my own room here. Who knew I'd have more space on holiday than I have in my own home! I've been attempting to do laundry and the dishes every morning. Mom - I completely understand why you always try to clean the house before we go somewhere; Coming home to a messy house/apartment is the WORST. So I try to make sure it's somewhat clean before we all leave for placement. And since I am the last to leave every morning, I try to do my best to have the house in tip top shape before my departure.... Most of the time.
Since LaMar and I's placements are within about five minutes of each other, we leave together every morning. He shows up at my door around 9:45 and we walk through Yeat's Village and then through the I.T. Sligo college campus. It is still so difficult to get used to walking along and across the street with the cars driving on the opposite side; Everything is backwards. After LaMar gets to his placement, mine is only an extra five minute walk. Then, I finally arrive at Holy Family for a busy day with busy kids!
First, I place my belongings into my staff locker in the back of the building and then I report to the "yellow room," which is the base classroom I have been doing the most work with. I assist the teachers, Marie, Kathleen and Caroline, with anything they may need. The students have story time and do jigsaw puzzles for the first hour or two, but often they get off track and end up running around and playing with the toys provided for them in the classroom before the end of their work time. The classroom had nine boys and one girl, so it could get pretty hectic at times. Throughout the day students were coming and going from their base classroom in order to work individually with other teachers, but all of the students arrived back in their base classroom in time for lunch, or as the Irish call it, dinner. The students were usually outside while the teachers set up their lunch time area, so I would stand outside with them. Whenever they heard that dinner was waiting for them in the classroom, they would rush to be assisted with putting on their aprons and find their seats. Many of the students ate their dinners with no issues at all, but a few students refused to eat or would put up a fight over their provided meal. I found lunch to be one of the most difficult parts of the day. After cleaning up after dinner, most of the students went home on the bus. There was only one student left from the class and he caught his bus about an hour later, so I would spend some individual time with him until the second bus arrived. We would travel to the ball pool, which was a multi-sensory room designed for the students to develop posture and physical skills; We would also play in the sandbox or read stories outside. I cherished the time in which I spend with this four year old child with Downs Syndrome. After he left on the bus, however, my favorite part of the day had come. I spent the last hour of my day with another boy with Downs Syndrome, whom loved spending his time with me and couldn't wipe the smile off of his face for any reason. He had recently started walking, so he would just bounce around from room to room and activity to activity in order to show off to me. Every moment I spent with this boy was spent with a smile on my face. But at three o'clock, my long day was over.
I also forgot to mention that twice a day I was given a tea break. These half hour breaks were dedicated to drinking a steaming hot cup of tea and socializing with any of the other faculty members who were also enjoying their break at the same time. Tea breaks are honestly the most difficult thing to get used to here in Ireland.
Not only was I the last to leave my apartment every morning, but I was the first to arrive home every afternoon. Mostly, I would tidy up a little bit or take a short nap on the couch for the hour and a half I was alone every day. This was certainly my least favorite part of the day. I couldn't wait for my friends and roommates to return home after four and tell me the stories from their days at placement. We would compare our experiences and talk about the things we were excited for and dreading the next day.
Most days, we would have a scheduled sight seeing activity immediately following placement. We would travel to some tombs (I have been to more cemeteries in Ireland than I have been my entire life), or the beach, etc. My favorite days, however, were the days where we could come home, make dinner and relax until later when we would walk downtown to Sligo. Most of the stores would close around six, so if we wanted to go shopping, we would walk right to town after placement. If we were interested in going out, which we usually were, we would head down around eight or nine (which was so early for the Irish). We were almost always the first and only people in the bars every night. We would order a cheap drink and attempt to connect to wifi in order to speak to our families. Some nights that was good enough, other nights we would get a few drinks and go dancing. There was never a dull evening in Sligo, Ireland!
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