Well, we have all arrived home safely....and no missing luggage! As the saying goes, all good things must come to an end, and our travels and this blog are now over. I need to say a huge thanks to Dr. Suzan Hebson for being my ghost writer. She even used the pronoun "I" to make it seem as if I really did write the entries. I wish I could take credit for the brilliant descriptions of our adventure, but that would be dishonest. I appreciate the detail she included each day and I plan to print the entire blog and keep it as my travel journal! I also would like to thank Kenny Kim for the amazing photographs he provided for the blog. It was a treat having a world class photographer chronicling our journey. I will send the travelers a link with ALL of the photos that Kenny took during the week. In the meantime, you can see his other work at www.kennykim.com. Another huge thank you goes to our 5 amazing chaperones, Mrs. Johnson, Dr. Hebson and Mrs. Kim for keeping our students safe and supported throughout the entire trip. Our travel agency, Chicago Modern Tours, did a tremendous job providing a fun, educational and rewarding experience for ALL the travelers. We ate well, stayed at wonderful hotels, got a thorough introduction to the country and met the most wonderful people along the way, especially our drivers Mike and Kevin. Thanks to Mr. Christopher Cho and Ms Meena Cho for a first class tour! Finally, my deepest thanks goes to my colleague, Mr. Velleuer. He did everything from stand guard while we shopped, to conduct at the concerts, to late night hall patrols to dance partner. I am blessed to work with such a fine person and am eternally grateful that he agreed to be with us during his spring break.
I hope your students get some rest and take the time to fill you in on their favorite moments from the trip!
Sincerely yours, Alicia Akers (for real this time!)
Friday, April 1, 2011
Thursday, March 31, 2011
3/31/10—Blog — 12:05 PM Ireland Time (6:05 AM your time)
Hello Everyone Interested in the DHS travels to Ireland:
Do you believe no rain again? As with the last few days, it looked like it would rain this morning, but the storm blew through overnight. Some students woke up at 5:00 AM Ireland time and heard howling winds and driving rain. This morning when we boarded the bus, no rain, just the best part of passing storms as my son Patrick exclaimed, “Look everyone, a rainbow.” Moments later, a DHS student said, “Look everyone, refracted light!” We chuckled at our students turning this moment into a scientific phenomenon.
We drove to Rathbaun Farm in Galway. It was a little place but the “mom” and “pop” who ran it were so nice. They were obviously local experts who took pride in their farm and work. We saw horses, cattle, many different kinds of sheep, several young lambs, some just 5 days old. The students bottle fed a couple of the lambs and they watched a border collie herd up the sheep. The “pop” explained the business side of the farm, noting that they sold the animals for meat. Sheep sheering and raising them for wool was not cost effective, he said, with most people ultimately losing money. After viewing the farm and learning about their work, we had the most delicious scones and tea. Francis, the “mom” of the clan noted that Samantha Brown from the Travel Network had toured their farm a year ago. And another famous tourist and writer, Peter Greenberg, (also does features on the Today Show) did a story about their farm. She shared that the website: www.RathbaunFarm.com would provide information to you and RECIPES for the scones we had. It is definitely worth checking out. Feel free to make scones for our class anytime. J Many on the trip said they would never buy a Starbucks’ scone again having had these. She also allowed us to tour an old home that would be typical for an Irish family—it had a thatched roof and a traditional fireplace utilizing peat as the energy to burn.
Much of the day was spent driving from Galway to Dublin where we would perform in St. Patrick’s Cathedral. Before the performance, we all ate at a famous restaurant on Grafton St. called Bewley’s. You might know them for their tea which is sold in stores worldwide. With a few minutes to spare before bus deadline, some jammed in a little more shopping while others made it to the Book of Kells at Trinity College because they missed it the first time. It was weird feeling like we were in a familiar place since we had only spent a day there a short time ago. St. Patrick’s Cathedral was huge and hugely famous. It has a tremendous history, not only for the design, architecture and building process, but also from a religious perspective. Students performed admirably to an audience that kept growing in size and appreciation for their talent. For some, it was an emotional experience both being in the Cathedral and wrapping up their overseas performances. After the performance, a woman provided brief background information about the Cathedral and kids walked around a bit reading the walls, messages in the stained glass windows, etc. Afterward we drove a short way through Dublin, again seeing familiar sights this time, and arrived at our hotel which is unique. It is a castle hotel called Clontarf. It was refurbished with 10 million euro in 2006 and it shows as they are an award winning hotel in terms of creative design.
In the evening for dinner, we went to the Abbey Tavern for a traditional Irish Night of entertainment. Kids looked forward to hearing the song with this refrain: NO, NAY, NEVER, NO NAY NEVER NO MORE…they’ve been hearing it on the bus this week. The entertainers did not disappoint. Our group heard that song and many more. There was lots of toe tappin’, lots of hand clappin’ and of course, sing along. PLUS, now that we are such the Irish dancers, students enjoyed that too—a few even danced on stage! The show talent asked our students to sing a few songs; so we sang Fiddler of Dooney, Dancing Queen and U2. A surprise note requested that Ron and I sing a song. Our fans were relentless chanting for us to sing, so we finally did a duet and sang Amazing Grace. A bit later, Ron became our Fiddler of Dublin and played a tune on the violin. Another highlight was the birthday celebration. We had four birthdays during our trip: Xinyu, Maia, Grant, and our travel guide Mr. Cho. We acknowledged them with a song and a “line jig” around the room. Oh what a night...
I want to thank the parent chaperones who came on the tour and were terrific: Barby, Kerry, Lisa, Margie, and Suzie…your efforts are so appreciated by our students and staff. THANK YOU THANK YOU.
Thanks to our students too. You continue to represent yourselves, DHS, and your country well. I am proud to be with you. It is nice to hear from so many Irish natives how impressed they are with your talent. They also always mention how impressed they are with your respectfulness and they applaud your joy for music.
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
3/30/10—Blog — 11:40 PM Ireland Time (5:40 AM your time)
Hello Everyone Interested in the DHS travels to Ireland:
Today, once again, the skies pretended that it might rain, but we lucked out in the morning and throughout the day. The weather was nice. This evening it started to drizzle just before we got on the bus to go to the church, but essentially stopped even before we had to get off the bus. The buses could not drive up very close to the building because the streets were too narrow; so the kids walked (about 10 minutes) to the church. The Protestant church was called the Collegiate Church of St. Nicholas. It is, according to their pamphlet, the largest medieval parish church in Ireland still in constant use. Built in 1320, they chose the name of St. Nicholas because he is the patron saint of sailors and Galway is a seaport town. It actually is not a college as we know the term, but rather a seminary where priests are trained. The students sang for a relatively small audience, but those who attended gave them a standing ovation. The acoustics in the church were simply incredible. The woman who booked our choir for the parish spoke to the students afterward and explained that the acoustics are equal to that of Westminster Abbey. She also shared a great deal of history about the church. Because our students are much more trained in terms of listening to historic lectures, ask them about the following: 1) how these “people” are connected: angry Normans, Ferdinand, Isabella and Shrek, 2) the history of the word lynching, and 3) why the holy water is covered in their church.
Another church the students sang in today was beautiful as well, not as old or as large, but impressive still. In fact, it had marble in it that we had seen manufactured earlier in the day. At the Kylemore Abbey Church, students sang for a larger audience than the evening group. They too enjoyed the performance which sounded terrific. Right outside that church was a graveyard for nuns who had lived in the Abbey. One tombstone showed that a nun lived to be 102. This gothic church was on the grounds of a huge residential mansion built from 1867-1871. The estate is surrounded by mountains, has its own private lake, and the grounds are well manicured. Fit for a queen, I’d say. Since, I have been officially crowned on this trip, I am moving in. This home was actually built for Mitchell Henry’s bride because they had honeymooned in this area. Her husband purchased this 15,000 acre estate as a romantic gift for his wife, who unfortunately died 3 years after the mansion was complete. Much later in 1920, the land and mansion were sold to a community of Nuns of the Order of St. Benedict. We had time to take a quick peak at the interior of this mansion which was ornate and of the highest quality. They displayed an architectural drawing of the entire mansion. Viewing that, I still can’t figure out why the nuns needed a billiard room. Anyway, I’ll remember the freshly baked scones, homemade jam, the relaxing lake, and our students’ voices.
We started the day by learning about Irish marble dug from local quarries, which first opened in about 1800. Ambrose Jr. invited the group into the workshop where we also met his father. We entered in two shifts and stood in the small back room of the shop; the front half was a store where people could purchase their products. They discussed the process of moving from excavation to large marble blocks to final polished products. The marble was multiple colors depending upon the area from which it came—there was black, red/rose, two different shades of green and white. The green Connemara marble is estimated by geologists to be over 500 million years old. Much shopping took place in this location. Today, we boosted the Irish economy singlehandedly.
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
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