Wintertime in Cahersiveen

Here's just a few pictures I wanted to share with you that were taken around Christmas time ...

I was so happy to receive a personalized advent calendar from my colleagues at home!
It had so many sweet pictures and quotes in it. Thank you again!

Arts and Crafts with 2nd Years - making snow flakes <3

Nikolaus even came to my house in Siegen ;)

Staff Christmas party! Fiona, Siobhán, Cora and Caro ;)

My room all dressed up for Christmas ;)

Some very amazing paintings on the shop windows by our local artist!

Christmas jumper day! 

There was a day when all students were supposed to wear a Christmas jumper instead of their uniform. All teachers were asked to do the same and bring some food in for the staffroom... I didn't have a jumper so I took that chance to be creative again and one evening I turned a cheap Penney's (yes, that's the Irish word for Primark....) T-Shirt into a Christmas shirt. Here are the pictures:

The working place all set up ;)

 

Tadaaaa xD

And that was not the only time it looked like that!!! O.O

Last but not least, our local supermarket had a food fair on the 6th of December. 

It is literally free food and drinks for everyone.... Fish, Bacon, Chicken, Ham, Roast Beef, cakes of all kind, fruit and vegetables, a chocolate fountain, warm food, finger food, ..... really anything your heart desires. 

Aaaaaand then we had the most amazing sunset! 

It was incredibly colourful and of course my camera was out of battery :D So I had to take the picture with my phone (it looked a hundred times better in real life!) 

Christmas Dinner

This entry is all about FOOD :D

It started in November with American Thanksgiving.  Julia, an American intern at the school from Ohio, invited us to an amazing dinner. We had turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, Brussel sprouts and so much more. It was a really nice evening and on the way back we had a great view on the stars!!!

Left to right: Friend of Megan, Megan (Au pair of Julia's host family), Mary (host mother and teacher at our school), her husband, Mary's friend, Steven (teacher and fun to hang out with!), Siobhán, me, Anthony (good craic too!), Julia and one other friend of Megan.

Even before that, Siobhán and I started planning our own little Christmas dinner. She said I couldn't go home for Christmas without eating a "proper" Irish Christmas meal, consisting of turkey, ham, Brussel sprouts and, of course, good Irish spuds ;) Going through the weekends until Christmas, there was only one still free so we decided to have our dinner on December 3rd. We invited around ten people, but most of them couldn't come. Irish people, especially the ones with family, are super busy before Christmas... 

When the last two people had to cancel because something spontaneously came up on Thursday we were a bit disappointed because everything was planned already. Luckily, Paul offered earlier on to come over on Friday with a few guys after training to help us prepare all the food (or rather help us "trying out" the Apfelpunsch), so we spontaneously moved the dinner to Friday evening because we would have more than zero guests :D 

Friday morning I took a trip to ALDI in Killorglin and came back with huge bags of food and a few bugs poorer :P

So after school, Siobhán and myself started preparing all the food and since (unfortunately) a few guys from Rugby were working late and a few were ill, we had a cozy Christmas dinner with Paul, Johnny and Shane. It was a great and late night with a lot of Apfelpunsch (Irish style with Whiskey of course :P), laughter, guitar playing and singing. We were still eating the food the next three days :D

Just a "bit of shopping"

Delicious Corkery bacon

Gratin

The essential Irish spud

Mamis beste Rosmarinkartoffeln!

Chicken that kind of lost its filling ... still super tasty!

Well.... We don't have a ladle in the house so another pot had to do the job... Shows nicely how much punch we had :P

And here's the whole huge gang: Paul, Jonny and Shane

And so everything worked itself out :) 

That way now, Siobhán and I could go to the very important South Kerry GAA Football finale in town and not worry about food cooking at home. Instead we strolled around town and treated ourselves with some little titbits from "Petit Delice", a French café with all sorts of sweet deliciousness.

Parade for the game

This was one of many instances where I learned that planning ahead in Ireland is not (really) required. After three months, I am starting to get used to it and, magically, things work out after all. We were saying we should have a nice house party with singing, card games and, of course, drinks. Since January is a month where nothing really happens in town, we said we should have it then. That's about all the planning that was done up to this point so I think/hope it will happen in the near future ;)

Germany, Cologne and Christmas Markets!!!

Good morning every one!

My parents left Monday, 21st November but there was not much time to be sad about it because the next huge thing was already awaiting!

Nineteen 2nd and 3rd Years were going on a class trip to GERMANY accompanied by Kathleen and Paul (who went last year already) and ... me :) At first it wasn't sure whether I could come along or not. In the end I had to pay for the flight myself but I didn't mind because it was definitely worth it! The itinerary was full of good fun!

Unfortunately, the flights in and out of Kerry leave in the afternoon, so we arrived at our hotel Friday evening at eight and had to leave Monday before noon. After the arrival on Friday we had a very good dinner at the hotel and headed downtown to the christmas market in Koblenz. It is nice and fairly spread out.

Saturday was a busy but very nice day! We took a boat tour on the Rhine and headed to the cathedral in Cologne. There, we walked up the stairs to the bell tower and got a great view on the city as well as good exercise for the legs ;) After that, we got a guided tour through the chocolate factory close by which was very interesting. I was there before but that was sooo long ago :D Finally over, I couldn't wait to meet four of my friends at the christmas market. Unfortunately, I only had an hour with the boys but it was great to see them and make plans for next year!!! By the way, I think the christmas market behind the cathedral in Cologne is really nice and has a lovely, festive atmosphere. Back at the hotel we got a good dinner and Steffen came over for the evening. All together, we made our way down to the christmas market in Koblenz again and were chatting away. It was nice to catch up with everyone in person!

On Sunday we drove to Phantasialand, which is close to Cologne. I have honestly never been there in wintertime and I have to say it is great! If you're lucky with the weather you can have a nice day there with all the usual attractions and the Christmas atmosphere on top. In the Berlin area is an ice rink, a Christmas tree and and many cute little German food and drink stalls. The whole park is decorated and there are little fire places. I can definitely recommend a day there in wintertime! And the best thing was that we didn't have to stick to the students all the time and actually got to go on many rides ourselves! And I got in for free!!! :)

Monday morning we took off and headed to "Das deutsche Eck". It's a lovely spot where the Rhein and the Mosel meet. There was a lot of fog all over the place which gave it a very mystical atmosphere. Afterwards, we headed back to the airport and flew back to Kerry. We even saw the band from Tralee again that we met on the way over. If possible I have to go and see them one day in Ireland! On the way home, we stopped at the Old Glenbeigh Hotel (where we were with my parents before) and had a delicious dinner!

All in all, I felt like a tourist, an (almost) local and a mediator between Irish and German at the same time. You could call it "Vacation at home" and it was just a great trip! I will put everything in motion to meet the group that goes there next year!

That's the collage we hung up next to the room to remember the great trip!!!

Cheers for now!