The Joys of Work

I've had an angry post. I've had a sad post. Time to talk about all of the wonderful things over here that bring so much joy to my life ♥.

I love my job! I love the kids I get to work with - both the teens at the youth initiative, and the adorable lil' babies I get to work with at my primary school!!! As you know, there is a lot of stress dealing with Boss in any capacity, but the actual work I have been able to do here has been so incredibly fun and rewarding. I'm really grateful for every single second I've spent "on the job."

Yesterday was my last day at Corpus Christi Primary, and it was so hard to say goodbye to all of the wonderful kids and staff there. Of course I took about a million pictures of all of my kiddos, and was happily hugged about 20 times every second ♥. Tiernan, the amazing principle, even gave me a bottle of wine, a box of chocolates, and a sweet card as a going away present! It was so thoughtful and generous, especially considering I've only been there a month. If I could find a way back to Ireland - specifically back to Moyross - without having to sell my soul to Boss in order to do it, I would come back in a heart beat ♥.

Corpus Christi Primary School: home of the most delightful children ever. Primary schools here include children from Junior and Senior Infants (our pre-pre-school and pre-school equivalent) all the way to Sixth Class (our equivalent of 5th grade). That means the children's ages range from four years old (lil' babies!) to around 11 years old. They do have what they call pre-school here, but Irish pre-schools are not usually found in the primary schools. They are usually separate entities (as are ours) although my primary school happens to host a pre-school as well. Additionally, pre-school here is really the equivalent of a school-based day care in the U.S., as those children are only three years old!

At Corpus Christi, I've mainly been working with the Junior Infants (aged 4), the Senior Infants (aged 5), and the Sixth Class (ages 10-11). I have also spent some time working with an awesome kid named Scott from the Fifth Class who has autism. Because Scott is so sweet and well behaved, he doesn't necessarily get all of the extra attention that he needs (classic The Squeaky Wheel Gets The Grease syndrome). We spent most of the day coloring and reading stories - and we both absolutely loved every minute of it ♥. One day I also was able to work with one of the special services teachers, helping a bunch of awesome kids with special needs bake a dessert ♥. And on Thursday, I had the opportunity to work with the school choir! The choir sang Christmas Carols at the Moyross Community Center while all of the little kids in the community waited for the arrival of Santa Claus :) The monks in the community were also on hand to bless all of the new babies in the community, in preparation for their first Christmas ever. It was all very sweet! Another big event of the afternoon was when they turned on the lights on the community's "Crib," which is what they call what we call the Nativity Scene. The first time I heard people talking about "Cribs" I was so confused. But I love it - I think I'm going to start calling Nativity Scenes "Cribs" from now on, just to make myself smile :)

Over the past four weeks, the school has been wonderful about letting me experience a lot of different classes and programs, and I am incredibly grateful for it. I've been able to both design and run my own programs (with the Junior and Senior Infants) and act as a teacher's aid/observer for other classes. It's been such a blast, and I wish I could stay with these kids for the entire school year. All of the Sixth Class kids kept asking me if I could come back for their Confirmation in May :) I wish I could - I really wish I could. Maybe I'll have figured out a way back to Moyross by then ♥.

Side-note: the kids were super fascinated to hear that in America, we are not allowed to talk about religion in our schools, unless you go to a private school. Here in Ireland, everyone really is Catholic, if not Christian in general, and so the concept of living in a country that has many religions in it was super mind-blowing for them. They understood that we can't teach religion in our public schools because not everyone is the same religion, but it still rocked their world to imagine a school experience where you didn't pray every day, or say grace, or learn about Jesus. I told them that I kind of understood how they felt, as I had gone to Catholic school from Kindergarten through third grade, and that it was really weird in fourth grade (my first year in public school) to suddenly not go to mass every Friday, and to not say grace every day before lunch.

I have a ton of super-fun stories to share about my experiences with these amazing kids, but I have to hurry and shower because I need to be at work in about an hour. It's my last day working with the Youth Initiative! But I'll be back to tell more stories. I really should have started this blog the day I got here, instead of during my last week in the country ♥. Oh well, I've come to accept the fact that that is just how I roll... To be honest, I'm proud of myself for even getting around to starting a blog at all, hahaha :)

Until next time!

♥