by Deirdre Kozicki
The exciting thing I did last month was go to Ireland! I had the best time. I loved it there! We rode on Aer Lingus. The plane ride was long, but I had my own tv with shows and movies to entertain me. I wasn’t crazy about the airline food. I couldn’t sleep on the plane, so I pulled my first all-nighter. The first place we went was Tourmakeady in County Mayo. We stayed with friends. They had farms surrounding their whole house. There were sheep and donkeys but I like the donkeys the best.
We went to an elementary school and a high school. They call the high school a college. (And if you were wondering, a college is called a university.) In the elementary school, we met some of the kids and watched their music class. One of the kids moved there from Chicago. It was an Irish speaking school. Most of the families are bilingual.
The next day we were on our way to Galway. We stayed in Salthill. Galway Bay is so pretty. We went for a walk on the beach. I found a lot of shells. We went into Galway. It was very crowded because it was a bank holiday. Then it was off to Ennis. We went to the same exact street my great grandmother lived when she was little. It was pretty cool. We went to morning mass which happened to be a funeral. It was a little weird, but interesting.
Then we went to Dublin. That was the only day it rained. We went on a double decker bus tour. I sat on the top. We went to Kilmainham Gaol (jail). It was pretty eerie to think kids my age were sent there. We went to the Writers’ Museum. I loved that. It was pretty cool to think how all the artifacts in there were so old. I saw the Book of Kells at Trinity College. I went shopping on Grafton Street. I saw the Molly Malone statue. I saw an Irish dance show in Temple Bar. The dancers had danced with Riverdance and Lord of the Dance. They were incredible. I took a tour of Aviva Stadium (the new soccer/rugby stadium), which hasn’t officially opened, yet. I had a wonderful time in Ireland. No, wonderful doesn’t describe it. It was even better.
I also went to Gaelic Park for a feis on Memorial Day. I only completed one dance before they cancelled the rest of the dances. I can only say it felt like a monsoon hit us. It was scary when I thought the tent might fall over. They couldn’t even post the results because it was raining too hard. When we headed back to our car, it had flooded so bad the water was half way up my leg. At least I didn’t ruin my dress or wig, and my shoes recovered nicely.
Have a great 4th of July! That reminds me, next month I’ll have my team results from North America Nationals.