Life on a typical Irish Farm

We spent the entire day...leaving at 8:30 a.m. and arriving back to be picked up by our host families at 6:30 p.m... at an Irish farm. It was awesome...and dirty!

When we arrived, Eddie, a 17 year old Irish lad, took our group and taught them another Irish dance. When he first told them what he was going to do, there were many moans from our group - because they were still half asleep. Within about 2 minutes, they were laughing and dancing around...end of the tiredness.

I can't remember the exact order, but activities we did were:

* everyone paired up and each pair made a loaf of Irish Soda Bread. At the end of the day, we ate it...with European butter and delicious raspberry jam....

* hurling... this is a purely Irish sport and we learned the basics. No one got hit...well, I should more accurately say...no one got HURT with the hurling stick! fun was had by all!

* milking a cow. Now this was interesting. Everyone who wanted to got an opportunity to milk the cow. Once they had done that, then Eddie, would grab the teat and squirt fresh milk into their mouth. His aim was pretty good, not too much got on their faces! There were also baby kittens which earned their fair share of photos!

* planting a tree. Alex C was lucky enough to be the one to select the tree we planted. He chose a beautiful apple tree. We took turns digging the hole so we all had a hand in planting.

* At the very end of the day, we all gathered together for some entertainment. We had some young girls, in beautiful dresses, dancing some typical Irish dancing. Some dances were soft shoe and some were hard shoe (kind of like tap). They were so good! Then they opened up for anyone to entertain. From our delegation, Alex G played the guitar...as did Quinn. Jennifer sang a song, and then our entire delegation sang the song we have been singing on the bus everyday.

* played bodhrans. These are drums covered in goat skin. You hit it with a small little wooden instrument which you hold like a pencil - sort of!BubbleShare: Share photos - Create and Share Crafts


* Bogs. Last but not least, we visited the bog. Apparently 1/6 of Ireland is covered in bogs. The majority of the delegation got IN the blog. It looks like mud, but it's not. They say it's very good for your skin..so I'm expecting lots of great looking skin tomorrow! You won't believe the photos I got...they're great! Some that I didn't expect to get in the bog, did...and they had such a fun time! Getting washed off afterwards wasn't as fun. They certainly could not get back on the bus covered in dead and decayed plant material. Everyone had been told to bring a spare change of clothes to change into for the ride home.

KUDOS to Adam, (who I have recently learned as earned the nickname -TOM CRUISE) - for carrying probably 70 buckets of water to the girls as they were trying to clean up from the bog.

Definitely a fun day!