Fun in Waterford!

On Wednesday, students finished up their last class day in Waterford. The morning started out with the students learning the Irish National Anthem in Dan’s Gaelic class. Dan said it was a perfect time to practice the Soldier’s Song in preparation for Croke Park on Sunday. In Irish history, Dan spoke about Cromwell up to the 1798 Rebellion. In Taryn’s Irish studies class, the students learned Irish slang. Now they can keep up with Angie, Dan, and Edel. It’s fun to listen to Irish people use slang in conversation and actually understand what they are talking about now, said Evan/Evo. A few students have even been throwing the slang into their vocabulary and are looking forward to surprising a few friends back home with some new words. Irish American history was spent learning about the Kennedy’s. Dan talked about JFK visiting Ireland and his famous speech in New Ross. After students spent the morning and early afternoon learning about more Irish culture and history, they had a little free time in Waterford or they could do the Celtic Key Chain’s Workshop with Taryn. Then it was time for the GAA (Gaelic Athletic Association) Hurling Workshop. We were lucky enough to have talented Mark Cooney from the Waterford GAA Hurling Team come and teach the students the basics of the sport. They learned the rules, practiced fundamental skills, and even were able to have a scrimmage with each other. They loved it. Tom said that Mark made it very interesting and he enjoyed the hands on experience. Evo said it was fun. Sallie said she can’t wait to go home and teach her friends how to play. It was wonderful to watch the students progress and get excited about hurling, Levi said. Mark commented on how fast the students picked up the sport. He said it was the best group he’s seen in all his years of working with the ILE. Mark was very impressed with Catherine, Kelsey, Sallie, and Tom’s performance. They are naturally athletic with superb coordination. With a few more years of practice, they might even be ready for Croker. Later that evening, we did an Irish Life Experience Minute-To-Win-It. Students were split into teams of three where they each had a minute to complete random tasks. 1) Penne Pick Up-Pick up six pieces of penne with a piece of spaghetti in your mouth. 2) Fore-Stack three golf balls on top of each other for three seconds. A big shout out to Evo for being the only one to accomplish this challenging feat. 3) Oreotastic-Get an Oreo from your forehead to your mouth without using your hands. 4) Separation Anxiety-Separate sixty M&M’s by color into cups with only one hand. 5) Chapstack-Stack three tubes of chapstick with chopsticks. 6) Don’t Blow the Joker-Blow a deck of cards off of a bottle without blowing off the bottom card of a Joker. Catherine said it was a fun activity, while Raizel/Prunes said that it was great for team bonding. The team of Alyssa/ABomb, Catherine/CMoney, and Sallie/Salli-nator were successful pulling off the win. Just barely though. It came down to a Penne Pick Up face-off between CMoney and Sasha Fierce. It was a close match, but Catherine ended up pulling ahead on the sixth piece of penne. Congrats girls! The night ended with everyone packing up-getting ready to head to Dublin. I can’t wait to head to the Big Smoke said Kelsey/Dunners!

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