The home stays have begun!

Don't be surprised if some of your precious ones come home speaking french. Last night at the hotel, a French tour group came in. Most were elderly, but one family had 3 children - 2 boys and a girl. The girl spoke fairly good English...and she was bored on the tour with the "old people." Some of our students put their ambassadorial skills to work and sat around visiting and playing cards with these poor 3 bored French kids until about 11 p.m. That was great to see. As we were telling them they had to stop and get to bed, email addresses were being exchanged. It was great to see!

This morning we took off and headed to Bunratty Castle, which is located on the River Shannon, where we had a short guided tour and then time to explore more on our own. On the same grounds as the castle, there was a folk park with thatched roof cottages and houses. These are decorated as they would have been during the castle days...the 15th century.

We entered the castle through a drawbridge...and sat at 500+ year old tables. The lady leading the tour was in period dress...although she was a bit difficult to understand. The Irish speak very fast...and when you add in some thick accents, well, it can be a little difficult - but wonderful to hear at the same time.
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We had our lunch there...some did a little more shopping, and then we took off in the coach heading east.

Our host families came to the community center to pick us all up. As a family would drive up, Chris, the lady who organized the home stays, would tell us the name of the family, then we would call the students for that house, introduce them, and then off they went. Everyone was leaving with big smiles on their faces. I think each home had a minimum of 3 students, many had four. Sue, Kristin, Steve, and I are all in the same home. The junior high group for our same city in California left here today. The family we (leaders) are with is the same family that the junior high leaders stayed with. Just a little tidbit of information, the man of this home is the brewmaster for the Guiness Brewery here in town!

We ate dinner with our families...and we'll also eat breakfast with them. Then they will take us back to the community center at 8:30 a.m. Tomorrow we will all be together for the day at a working Irish farm. Oh boy... our host tells us it is run to perfection.

I'll be able to update tomorrow... our family has three computers with free internet!

Cheers!