Free and Alive

I feel so alive.

I don’t really know how to describe this weekend because it’s been a whirlwind of one breathtaking sight after another. You’d think by this point, I’d be numb because I’d already seen so much and wouldn’t find the sights as beautiful as they were when I first arrived in Ireland, but I almost feel like as my time here draws to a close, my appreciation and awe have grown deeper. I’m genuinely trying to make the most of these last several days.

I wanted to bottle up this Northern Ireland weekend trip, especially Saturday night after dinner, so I could relive it over and over and over again: the taste and smell of salt in the air, the sound of waves crashing against the rocks and the wind howling, the feeling of the wind blowing through my hair and of raindrops hitting my face and of my lungs expanding as I released a scream over the edge of the cliff, the sight of all this beautifully rugged, wild terrain taking my breath away… I don’t know how to describe that experience because nothing I say will ever do it justice. Talking under the dark night sky about everything: religion, the effects of technology, our emotions, our hopes and dreams and fears and desires… Laying on the grass, remembering that I am a mere, microscopic speck in this huge, huge world… Standing on the edge of the cliff at night, overlooking the Giant’s Causeway and screaming out as loud as I could, releasing emotions that I had pent up for months… I felt connected to nature and its Creator. I felt so free and alive. It was one of those moments that I seriously wished could last forever.

One week left. Seven days to finish our report, to go back to the places we want to go back to, to create new memories, to complete the last several items left on our bucket lists, to say goodbye. Seven days is a long time, and now that I’ve gone on this weekend trip, I feel completely reinvigorated and ready to take on this week with everything I have.   

CELEBRATION!!!

Yesterday, Wednesday, July 25, 2012 marked a milestone in both Educate Together’s and the Irish education’s history.  

Last year, the Minister for Education Ruairi Quinn announced that Educate Together was finally recognised as an official second-level patron. In the past, Educate Together only served primary schools, so Minister Quinn’s announcement last year was definitely a reason to celebrate.

This year, Minister Quinn announced the patronages of fourteen new second-level schools. After 24 years of dedication and hard work, Educate Together will be involved, officially, in the patron bodies of two second-level schools. In Clonburris, South Lucan, the County Dublin VEC is the patron and working “in formal partnership with Educate Together” (aka ET is not officially considered part of the patron body). In Drogheda, Educate Together and the County Louth VEC hold joint patronage over the new second-level school. But perhaps most excitedly, in Blanchardstown West, Educate Together has a second-level school to call its own. All three schools are set to open in 2014. For more information, check out the Educate Together official press release here: http://www.educatetogether.ie/media/national-news/educate-together-makes-history-first-new-second-level-patron-1930s

Derek and I went to the second-level announcement celebration yesterday, and I couldn’t believe that I was actually standing amongst this crowd of dedicated people who’d finally achieved their dream after so, so, so many years of hard work and perseverance. I was honoured to be standing amongst some of Ireland’s most progressive educational pioneers, including Áine Hyland, the founder of Educate Together. Words could not adequately express how lucky and blessed I was to be celebrating such a historic moment with such inspiring people, and it certainly served as a reminder than hard work really does pay off, and, as corny as it sounds, dreams really can come true.

Congratulations, Educate Together. I feel so honoured to be a part of such a great team, to play even a small role in such an inspiring organization. Thank you for playing such an integral role in my growth and development as a person and for constantly encouraging me to work hard to achieve my future goals. Here’s to hoping that Educate Together will continue to grow and establish more post-primary and primary schools in Ireland. Here's to hoping that all of Ireland can “Learn Together to Live Together.” And here's to hoping that Educate Together's mission and vision of “No Child an Outsider” will one day truly be fulfilled. It sounds idealistic, but hey, yesterday proved that, sometimes, dreams do come true.

Smiles,

Anna  

Six weeks down, two to go...

Hi everyone!

Where has the time gone? It seriously shocks me that I’ll be home in two weeks and back at Duke (my other home!) in three weeks. Our group has definitely been trying to make the best of the little time we have left.

Derek and I have been making progress on our report! We managed to line up and conduct three interviews this past week with a former principal of Blessington (one of the four divested ET schools), a person from NICIE (the Northern Ireland Council for Integrated Education, which has quite a bit of experience with transforming schools), and a former principal and a parent of the start-up group of North Bay (another divested ET school). We gained invaluable insight from each person and are starting to notice common themes. The report is really beginning to take form, which is exciting.

Aside from work, we’ve been around “Dub City,” as our group so affectionately calls it, quite a bit. On Wednesday, we visited the EMEA (Europe, Middle East, Africa) Google headquarters with the separated minors. Because our group was so large, they couldn’t give us a tour of the building, so we sat in a room and listened to their presentation. It’s amazing to think that Google has grown and developed so much in just my lifetime. With such an innovative staff, I can’t even imagine what crazy cool thing they’ll come up with next.

On Thursday night, we watch The Dark Knight in the cinema. They were replaying it in preparation for The Dark Knight Rises. After 2.5 hours of sleep, we woke up at 4 AM to walk to the cinema and watch the very first 5 AM showing of The Dark Knight Rises. The premiere was at 5 AM because we’re five hours ahead of New York and couldn’t show it before the NY midnight premiere. As exhausted as everyone was, we agreed that it was completely worth it. Speaking of Batman, my prayers go out to the victims and their families who were affected in the recent Aurora, Colorado shooting tragedy. All of the ET staff, Derek, and I had the live blog up during work and were following it very closely. It breaks my heart that so many innocent people were hurt.

Yesterday, we wandered around Dub City and attended the Street Performance World Championship in Merrion Square Park. I initially assumed that it would just be a stage with performers, but it actually was a fair that spanned the entire park with five different performance areas and a variety of other activities. Aside from watching some really talented street performers, we jammed out at the silent disco, hula-hooped, and essentially relived our childhood.

Lots of exciting things are coming up this week as well! We’re performing a bhangra dance today (more on that in the next blog post). We’re also watching Riverdance (SO EXCITED), having dinner with Christine’s brother’s kindergarten teacher, visiting the zoo, possibly watching Phantom of the Opera… but perhaps, for me, the most exciting thing is that the Minister for Education will be making an announcement early this upcoming week on secondary schools. Long story short, ET has never been a patron of a secondary school because of many complicated circumstances. However, it’s very likely this year that ET will be able to open secondary schools, which would be such a groundbreaking moment in Ireland’s educational history. We’ve asked to open three secondary schools, so fingers crossed that the Minister’s announcement will be in our favor.

Smiles,

Anna 

The past five weeks...

Hi everyone!

I have definitely noticed that the quality of my writing deteriorates more and more the more exhausted I am. Unfortunately, work is draining, and I feel like I haven’t posted an acceptably insightful post in… well, forever. Hopefully this one will be a little better than the previous ones.

This past weekend, we went to Kilkenny, which is a little town located about an hour and a half away from Dublin. We went on a walking tour of the city (with a giant group of students from Spain. One girl was translating, and Sra. Rodriguez, you’d be proud because I understood everything she said. And she forgot the word “pisos,” but I filled it in under my breath before she remembered. Score!), and we later went to the Smithwick’s Factory. It was sad because they talked about how much history the factory had, but explained that by next year, the factory will close and be given to the city, while production will move to Dublin.

The adorable town of Kilkenny

Black Abbey Church

Kilkenny Castle

On Sunday, the day was completely free. Christine, Anthony, and I went to church at St. Patrick’s in the morning, and the rest of the day was spent relaxing, walking around Trinity College, and cooking a family meal. After an exhausting week filled with work and planned activities, it’s definitely nice to be able to have a day to relax and just bond with the group.

Trinity College

So five of the most rewarding weeks of my life have flown by. In just five short weeks, I’ve…

• Learn how to execute qualitative research, through interviewing, transcribing, and coding
• Improved my ability to understand the Irish accent (well, sometimes. I haven’t tried listening to a Cork accent just yet)
• Had an article published in Metro Eireann, Ireland’s first multicultural paper (this is an assignment that Bill and Suzanne gave that both Derek and I worked on together)
• Been treated for the first time EVER as a coworker, an equal, and have gathered the confidence to honestly and openly express my opinions to my superiors
• Conquered Irish weather (it was pouring rain today. Derek and I were literally drenched from head to toe, but I honestly could’ve cared less. Guess I’m becoming more like the Irish!)
• Discovered how exhausting it is to work an eight-hour job and come home and cook dinner. I’ve always respected and loved my parents for everything they do, but I honestly feel like I definitely appreciate all of their hard work so much more now that I’m doing it myself. Thank you, mom and dad, and for all of y’all reading, make sure you show lots of love and appreciation to your moms and dads as well (:
• Learned how to use a Mac. Yes, this is extremely impressive, especially for my technologically-challenged self. But switching back and forth between my Mac desktop at work and my beloved Toshiba non-Mac laptop has been a struggle...
• Experienced true culture shock... and overcame it. I feel much more like a local now, and while I still don’t know everything, I’m happy that I learn something new every day.

That was only a tiny, tiny slice of my crazy life for the past incredible five weeks. Here’s to hoping that the next three weeks are equally, if not more, satisfying and eye-opening.

Smiles,

Anna

P.S. I will try my best to update more often! Much love!

Playing Catch-Up!

Hey everyone!

Yes, I’m still alive and well. It’s just been a REALLY busy week and a half. I can’t believe that this program is already halfway done. It still shocks me how much we’ve learned and how much we still have to learn.

So just to briefly fill you in on the past 1.5 weeks…:

·         Educate Together gave Derek and me the day off on July 4^th, which was extremely nice of them. They apparently do that for their American interns every year, but no one else in our group had the day off. Derek and I definitely took advantage of the free day and went to three different museums (all equally fascinating), walked along the Liffey (for about 1.5 hours total, I’d say), and had sushi in Merrion Square Park and ge-la-la in St. Stephen’s Green. So much fun. :) Later that night, all of us had a really nice dinner in Howth with Bill and Suzanne.

·         Sahil’s 21^st birthday this weekend! We surprised him with a cake and all sorts of festivities. We also had five extra people over (three of Sahil’s friends, and two of Derek and Mischa’s friends), so it was oodles of fun and excitement all weekend.

·         Spent the weekend in Dublin! Went to the Guinness Storehouse and sat around in Phoenix Park before all the crazy concert stuff went down.

·         Went to two hurling matches on Sunday with the separated minors. SO INTERESTING. Look up a youtube video of hurling. It’s literally like lacrosse-without-the-scoop-part + football + American football + field hockey + baseball. The Galway vs. Kilkenny championship match was SO good. They’re the two best teams in Ireland, and normally Kilkenny wins everything, but Galway completely owned them this time. The first half was 18-4.

·         Went to the National Gallery today with the separated minors and also went to a UNHCR photo exhibit about refugees. So powerful and heartbreaking. It was hard to focus and take in everything because there were so many people, so I definitely plan on going back to I can really absorb everything.

Anyway, work has been super super busy. Two research projects plus other things have definitely turned out to be much more than both Derek and I expected. I’m exhausted now, but here’s to hoping that a more insightful post will following in a couple of days.

Much love!

Smiles,

Anna

Glendalough

Hey everyone!

So apparently grocery stores don’t open until 11 AM on Sundays, and some don’t even open at all. Wish I had known that before I got up early to go grocery shopping. But I ran twice (once along the canal, and once along the Liffey) and sipped on some hot chocolate from Butlers Chocolate Café (http://www.butlerschocolates.com So ridiculously good. They always give you a piece of free chocolate too!) while watching the baby swans in St. Stephens Green to cure my boredom.

Anyway, today, we went to Glendalough, which is about 1.5 hours away by bus. It’s a beautiful hilly area with lots of hiking trails. The forest reminded me of west coasts forests, something you’d find in Oregon or Seattle. It literally looked like a scene out of the Twilight movie, gray gloomy rain and all. But it was breathtakingly beautiful -- tall green trees everywhere and a really fresh, woody smell that was like a scent that came straight out of an air freshener. I was so upset that I left my memory card in my computer, so I couldn’t take any pictures, but here's a beautiful picture of Glendalough that Caroline took:

As we hiked, we sang song after song after song after song. Bill and Suzanne explained that each group every year has its own characteristic that makes it unique. For example, several years ago, they had a “foodie group,” this group was constantly talking about food and where they wanted to eat. Caroline and I determined that our group was probably the “singing/dancing group.” Everywhere we go, we sing songs together and break it down in the middle of the street. Always. I feel like I’m living in a musical. It’s wonderful.

On the trail, we passed by a lovely waterfall and perhaps the most beautiful lake I’ve ever seen. We sat and admired the view for probably ten minutes, singing and reflecting simultaneously. Everything seems so small and accessible, but it seems so big at the same time. It’s really difficult to explain, but it’s something that still blows my mind. Even just the fact that we’re in Glendalough, actually hiking these trails and seeing these stunning sights with our own eyes is something that I still can’t wrap my mind around. We always turn to each other and ask, “Is this real life?” because it seems so surreal.

Tomorrow starts another busy week of work. Our individual project is taking form, and Derek and I are super excited to see where this goes.

Much love!

Smiles,

Anna