3/26/10—Blog 3—10:59 PM Ireland Time (5:59 PM your time)

Hello Everyone Interested in the DHS travels to Ireland:

Tonight I will start backwards because the best part of the day was the evening choral performances. The students sang at St. Mary’s Church of Ireland. The neighborhood folk and parishioners attended and were in awe of the talent in this group. My favorite two moments were when one older Irishman mouthed the words to the Irish song that the group performed. I could see his eyes getting a little misty as he listened. The acoustics in this quaint, traditional, beautiful Catholic church were fantastic. Students did not need microphones;  they sounded amazing. The second special moment was when the kids sang their final number—“Bridge Over Troubled Water”. I know you’ve heard them sing it before. Personally, I get the goose bumps every time. But this gentleman sitting next to his wife nodded his head at the introduction, indicating that he knew the song. As the kids began, his wife reached over and took his hand. Together, they enjoyed our students’ rendition. The kids sang a Happy Birthday encore, surprising Mr. Cho, one of our tour guides. A big birthday cake was walked up the aisle along with two large lit church candles.

So what did we do during the day? We spent a fair amount of time on the bus driving from one coast of Ireland to another. The scenery, as you can imagine, was amazing. Picture Kermit the Frog because the fields we saw were most often green. We went to the Rock of Kashel, which is actually not a big rock. Well, it sort of is a big rock. Really, it is a huge, rock castle built on a rock which is on a hill. The group took some photos, walked around a bit and then got back on the bus to go to the Blarney Castle and Stone.

The Blarney Stone, once kissed gives you the gift of gab…not that our students need any help with that! Nevertheless who would turn down a chance for a kiss? Not many. Most members of the group took the windy 100 stair trek up the spiraling staircase---up, up, up, up, up….stopping now and then to look out a turret window only to realize that this castle was pretty high…those feint of heights do not typically go. A rope handle was the only assistance up the steep climb. Once up there, those who were willing to kiss the stone had to lay down and essentially do a back bend to kiss the stone while inverted. It was open to the ground below while inverted, so a worker held onto the patron’s legs. Sounds crazy right?? Actually, it was not quite that dangerous as there were steel rods that also were below one’s head to ensure that no one would be kissing the ground rather than the stone. The grounds had some caves that some members explored and of course, some stores. The town was famous for its wool products so some bought sweaters to bring back. We know sweaters come in handy in Chicago even in March and April. Here it was a bit nippy, but the lighter jackets we had were fine and the sun shone again on our travels.

We drove to Killarney—another 75 minutes or so to get to our hotel. Dressed for dinner literally in 7 minutes—so if your kids pretend in a real pinch that they need more time to get ready, tell them you know they can do it. After dinner, straight to the church—only 5 minutes away—a fast warm-up and PERFORM for a wonderful audience.

I originally thought kissing the Blarney Stone gave you good luck. But learned twice that was wrong. I learned it from the sign that said we’d get the gift of gab and from the unfortunate news that tonight is THEIR DAYLIGHT’s SAVING TIME…so we lose an hour of sleep AGAIN! Oh well…better get to bed….