London Day 3

Ah, London, how I love London

If none object, I will be type/talking in ye olde grimm fairy tale speak. For those that do not understand, I will put a second sentence forst thou to read, and shalt put forth hence in italic. I am going to translate here in italic for those who do not know how to speak like this. Ach, but a joyful tale is to be told today forst thou, a tale of the travelers yonder know as the Cakebreads. I am going to tell you what it was like in London. But alas, time is quick, and thy days are short, so thoust wilt not hear of all days gone. If I told everything now, my mom would edit it out and I would have to write it over again, because she, Abby and Dad are doing the other days. Hence listen close, and listen well, for this goes back twenty and six days, back to thine October… We left on October 17, to go to a place we had only dreamed about… London! So, overcome with the land of dreams, thine truly stepped onto the plane, ready to leave and go where other man has gone hither! We were still sleepy because it was 4:00 in the morning. So, yonder lied the Cakebreads, in a new world of Majesty, and the days passed. So, there we were, and we did some stuff, and then we come to my personal favorite day. It started at the hotel, whence the Cakebreads lied, nice and snug, in their beds.

Note from the Author

Okay, enough of that!

Back to the Story

So, we were nice and comfy in our hotel blankets, when suddenly, we were shaken awake to find ourselves in a cold, bright room with someone telling us “Get up, girls. We are going to breakfast in ten [minutes]. We started the day with breakfast and showers. We headed down the road towards the Big Bus stop to find some food, because there was at least 3 blocks worth of places to eat up there, and we were HUNGRY! We decided on a place we had already tried, named Cafe Mayan. Our service was great and the food was too! I recommend it to everyone.

We then headed down to the Big Bus stop, because we had purchased WAY overly priced tickets for it earlier at the lobby. We boarded on, and it became clear that it would not be what we hoped. It seemed that the very LATE bus that we chose had a not-so-little problem with the speakers, and that we wouldn’t be able to hear the ‘live commentary’. Then, just to make things worse, it stopped, for no particular reason except that this was the ‘first stop’ and the tour would resume in 20 or so minutes. No way were we going to wait THAT long. So we got out before mom ripped the drivers head off, and toured around the park that we were at.

After this, we walked over to Shakespeare's Globe Theater, where we looked around at the gift shop and dad got his ‘MacBeth’ mug. We visited Piccadilly Circus for the second time, and for anyone who doesn’t know, a circus in London is just your regular busy, New York style place with a ton of stores and restaurants. We ate lunch in Pret a Manger, and I was not that impressed. All they had was sandwiches, and the only edible (to me) was a hard boiled egg and ham sandwich, with no mustard (I took the egg off). They did have this AMAZING soda, though, like an apple cider except it was soda. We visited the British Museum, and there was a ton of stuff on mummies and Mesopotamians! We have been learning about those, so I took a ton of photos and sent them to my teacher, asking her to show them to the class in a LiveLesson (LiveLessons are like skype calls to everyone in the class, except without cameras).

After the Museum, we visited M&M’s world, which was not actually my favorite part of the day. It was so crowded that you couldn’t even see the M&M’s.

When supper came around, we decided to do what we had delayed for the 2 days: eat at the Sherlock Holmes Museum and Pub. It was great! I ordered Moriarty's lemongrass chicken, which turned out to be an entire half a chicken! The crazy thing is that I was actually able to finish the chicken, and still want more! Abby ordered Mycroft’s fish and chips, mom ordered soup and snacked off of ours, and dad got a steak and ale pie, with a muffin top on it. After supper, we ate dessert at a FRENCH pasterie, where I dubbed the server ‘nice’. He was nice to me. He personally let me up into the counter to choose a dessert when there wasn’t any mousse left. BTW, I chose the most chocolate-y thing up there, for you, Tina. It was great!

Thank thee again for reading, hope to see thy soon!

The youngest, Colleen

London Day 2

London Blog Entry—Better Late Then Never

November 12, 2014

Abigail Cakebread

So, sorry to all who wanted the London blog entry to be on time. I'm a procrastinator. Try not to judge. At least it's here. Mom explained Friday, so I will deal with Saturday! We woke up and took a shower (it was lovely to have water pressure again) and got ready to go to Tower Hill, or the Tower of London. Doctor Who filmed part of it's 50^th anniversary in there. If you'll notice, I didn't mention anything about breakfast above. That's because we didn't actually have breakfast. And Londoners aren't very big into the whole “breakfast places”. Sure, there are coffee shops that may or may not serve eggs and toast, but no pancakes or waffles or BREAKFAST places. So after taking 20 minutes to fail to find a nonexistent breakfast place, we settled for an AM/PM type deal. We found muffins and doughnuts (I got a doughnut—it was as big as my head!!!) and ate. Then, we turned our sights to the Tower of London! 

Passing by the Tower, there was a “delicious” smell of caramelized peanuts. Of course Colleen and Dad had to have some. I couldn't eat them and really didn't want to, both reasons because they were caramel. The Tower moat was filled by ceramic red poppies, one to represent one death in WWI. They call it a sea of blood. After waiting a while, the friendly, funny tour guide started talking about the Tower. Honestly, it was a few weeks ago, so I don't remember all of the details, but he was a pretty cool tour guide. He was really funny, and explained everything really well. After that, he set us loose on the tower and it's surroundings. We let ourselves tour the artillery filled with medieval tools and weapons. There was armor and horse armor and an archery simulation. It was pretty cool. After that we toured more of the ancient buildings, then found the line to the Crown Jewels. It was at least an hour long just on the first glance. Second glances showed it was an hour and a half as more people got into the line. Who would wait that long?? Not us, that's for sure. So we went off looking for lunch. The first place we saw was too crowded. Then we meandered around and found another place to eat. Colleen had fish, I had pizza shared with Dad. Honestly, the pizza here is all pretty good. Mom will complain that I ask for pizza too much, but it's worth it. It's delicious!! To die for! Anyway, after lunch we didn't know what to do next, so we went to Oxford Circus to find.... a blue police box!! And we found it! For those who have no idea what the significance of this is, it's a huge reference to Doctor Who. Now you must watch it. It's a good show. Been going on since 1963. But the best ones started back up in 2005. Anyway, you're letting me get off track. So after the TARDIS encounter, we went to the Ale and Pie House for dinner. After that, we were again at a loss of what to do afterwords. Guess where we headed? The London Eye. We went on the Eye (another place where they filmed Doctor Who) and it was gorgeous. Big Ben and every London tourist attraction place in one glance. After the ride ended, we headed back to the zebra-carpeted hotel for a bit of shut-eye. 

This is Abby Cakebread, signing off. 

A little more than fashionably late. 

London Day 1

Written by:  Amy

I love, love, love, love, love London!  It’s my current favorite city in the world.  Just this year, I’ve been to New York , Washington DC and Dublin.  But, London still remains my abso favo place.  Ker, Mom and Dad and I went to London as part of our trip in 2004 and that’s when I fell in love with it. I’m stoked that it’s our first out of Ireland destination.

Our feet in the Dublin Airport

We flew Ryanair this time. The tickets were super cheap (€35!) and we were able to choose our departure time from Dublin and our arrival time back in Dublin on the return.  We needed to get to London to maximize our Friday morning.  We wanted to see as much as we could before Ker had to go to work.  Further, as we were going over an extended weekend, we needed to be back in Bettystown so Ker could go to work, Colleen could go to TaeKwonDo, and Abby could go to her final crocheting class.  It’s hard to make everyone happy, but we came as close as we could by using Ryanair.

So, we got up Friday morning at 3:15 am.  Even for us early risers, that’s freaking EARLY.  Early enough that not even Colleen wanted to eat.  Got on the road and headed the 20 minutes down the M1 to the Dublin airport.  When we arrived at the airport, the car was scanned and we were let into the long-term parking—all accomplished electronically.  It was pretty sweet!  We boarded the bus to take us to the terminal. 

Once at the terminal, we proceeded to the long line of security.  Thankfully, about half way through the line, a kind lady looked at Ker and the girl’s boarding passes and discovered that they needed to get a visa stamp before exiting the country.  If she hadn’t caught that little detail, we would have missed our flight.  So, we went back through the airport to the check in desks and Ker and the girls got their visa stamp.  Pesky Americans!  If only they had their EU passports! 

Now we are super crunched for time and we fast walked back to security. The nice lady let us cut in line because she knew we were in a rush. 

For those who are wondering—Security at Dublin Airport is a little different than the Security in the States.  First, there’s no silly scanning machine.  Also, while the line was longer, once people moved, it moved.  So, how fast you went through security depends on how fast the people around you get their stuff together.  Also, there’s no request for shoe removal (I’ve always considered this “safety measure” a little like shutting the barn door after the horses got out). 

Anyway, we rushed to our gate and boarded the plane to London.  I caught a little nap, but the girls read   We watched the sun rise in the air.  It was cool. 

Who-vians

and watched Dr Who during the hour plane ride over to London.

We landed at Standstead airport then caught a train (which had Wifi, comfy chairs, and was mostly empty) to Kings Cross/St. Pancras Station which was the closest station to our hotel.  You may remember that the Hogwarts Express left London from platform 9 and 3/4's at this exact station!

King's Cross Station

Once we found our hotel, they let us check in early   A couple blocks away from our hotel, we struck gold—a small café that caters to the local crowd—Café Mayan.  It was awesome!

Ker checking us in.

and we were off to find some breakfast—we were all hungry!

So, there’s something called a Full Irish Breakfast—sausage, eggs, bacon, tomato, white and black pudding, and toast.  But, did you know there is also a Full English Breakfast?  It consists of sausage, bacon, eggs, toast, and baked beans.  Which was weird at first, but really worked.  Especially with the delicious coffee!

After brunch, we dropped Ker off at the hotel so he could work.  The girls and I took the Tube (London subway system) to Trafalgar Square to see the National Gallery and the National Portrait Gallery.  Abby became the official Tube map reader and general Tube navigator for the entire trip.

We went to the National Portrait Gallery first.  Amazing!!  It was filled--I mean filled--with portraits that go back to 1100 c.e. and stretch all the way to today.  Which will just blow your mind completely away. 

Nothing to see here, just me and Isaac

Me and Professor McGonnagall

We rented the audio tour and let it talk to us about the Tudor exhibit which took us through the royalty of England beginning in 1100 c.e.  I wanted the girls to have names and faces to put with all the history they were about to see.  Some other notable portraits were of Sir Isaac Newton and Professor McGonagall from Harry Potter fame.  So, we weren’t supposed to take pictures at the portrait gallery.  Please don’t tell them.  K?

Yes, that is Queen Elizabeth!

We made it!

Once we were filled up on portraiture, we decided a little refreshment break was in order, so we hopped on down to the National Gallery and began our adventure there by having cake for lunch. 

Cake for Lunch!

Well, the girls had cake, I had celery and carrot sticks with lettuce.  

National Gallery

Once we had eaten our fill and saved some to take back to Dad, we were ready for our National Gallery experience. We saw works from every major artist from every conceivable time period since art began. 

Look, I caught some crabs!

Colleen and The Sunflowers

The Execution of Lady Jane

There comes a point where it all washes over you and you just can’t take it in anymore; the will is there but the mental palette is just full.  We reached that point somewhere between Degas and Van Gogh.  It’s just hard to be surrounded by that much brilliance—it’s too much for one afternoon.  So, we scoured the Gallery for the “must see” paintings and viewed them with as much patience as we could.  I was particularly struck by the painting of the execution of Lady Jane Gray.  The detail on that painting was amazingly life like.  Also, it was gianormous!  They let us take as many pictures as we wanted at this Gallery.  So, we did.

After getting lost on the way to the exit, the girls and I stepped outside and walked through the craziness that is Trafalgar Square.  The girls were particularly interested in the street artists who appeared to be levitating.  I told them how it was accomplished.  I guess I spoiled it for them.

Street artists can levitate...not.

We are art-ed out!

We headed back to the hotel and grabbed Ker to go to dinner.  We have been craving food we can not get in Ireland.  So, we headed to the nearest Indian food restaurant.  Don’t get me wrong, Ireland has Indian food, it’s just a lot like Thai food.  So we were really happy to find authentic Indian food.  And, it was delicious!

Subway

Indian food!

But, by then we were pooped by all that we had seen and our early morning.  So, we trouped back the hotel, took a shower (with WATER PRESSURE!!!!), watched some TV and went to bed.

Pumpkins and Bog Walk

Written By:  Amy sitting in Ker’s chair in Bettystown

We need to do Halloween up this year because County Meath is where Halloween was born.  So, being as how we are living in the county where all this awesomeness began we’re going all out.  Bring on pumpkin pastries, pies, soups and other pumpkin goodness.  We are too far away from our decorations, but we are definitely going to hit some scary movies, haunted houses and ghost stories.  Colleen is especially excited because Bram Stoker was from Dublin so there’s a lot of Dracula stuff here. 

We needed to get some jack-o-lanterns to kick off the festivities.  I was able to use THIS website to find 2 pumpkin patches that sounded similar to ours.  It doesn’t appear that the concept of a pumpkin patch has really taken off here and I couldn’t find anything equivalent to our annual pumpkin patch tradition.  So, I chose to do the next-best thing and go to Alright Pumpkin (yes that is how they spell it...).  After breakfast and some laundry on Sunday we went on a road trip through much of the impossibly beautiful county of Meath and into Fordstown to hunt down the perfect pumpkins. 

It was awesome.  The weather was beautiful and we were the only ones at the patch.  There were no lines, no snot, no screaming kids, no screaming parents, and no mud.  There were spiders. But, that was balanced out by a terrific pumpkin selection, free tea, free brownies, free merengue cookies, and a still no screaming children. 

I can pointedly ignore the existence of spiders with enough motivation.  Plus, the spiders were way far away from me.  It was expensive--€42 (I’ll let you do the conversion) for 4 medium to large pumpkins.  But, it was fun anyway.

After pumpkins it was time to do some hiking.  Ker found a bog that has a 5.6 km hiking trail.  They don’t call it hiking here.  Instead, they call it walking.  We had packed our lunch and snacks, so when we got to the trailhead, we ate our lunch under the watchful eye of a herd of cows.  They were some big cows, too.

The bog was of a type that come from what used to be a small lake after the last ice age.  The water was displaced by dirt and other natural debris over 10,000 years and the bog is literally growing up out of that old lake.  The peat that comes from bogs like this one have heated Irish homes for centuries.  Once the peat logs are properly dried, they burn for much longer than wood.  However, bogs take thousands of years to develop.  Like so many other resources of their type, bogs are beginning to be over “farmed” and are in danger of being lost.  This bog was preserved by the state and is no longer harvested.  The views were just incredible.

The hike was awesome.  It was an easy loop around the raised bog.  Perfect weather too.  However, after a time, all that tea and water caught up with me.  Now, I have to admit something here.  I have never had an occasion where I had to use anything more primitive than an outhouse.  I have never done my business outside.  Ever.  But, it was becoming clear that there just weren’t that many options in this scenario.  Well, I now have experienced that, ahem, joy and I’m hoping never to have to repeat it.  While I was in the forested part looking for a private spot, Ker and the girls were hanging out on the edge of the forest at another trailhead.  Of course, a car pulls up.  And, out comes 2 dogs. This meant that Ker and the girls had to pretend that I hadn't just ventured into the woods to relieve myself.  They said it was awkward.  Well.

So, on my slog around the peat bog, I had jog to find a log—away from all dogs—to unclog so I could write about it on my blog.  No, I really had too. 

Tina….snicker….snicker.

MathsFest and Dinner

Written By:  Amy sitting in Kerry’s chair in the living room in Bettystown

I went to MathsFest at University College Dublin held on Saturday 10/11.  I couldn’t convince Ker to come with me.  I think he may have thought it was boring. Now, I don’t know why anyone would think a gathering of secondary mathematics teachers talking about math would be boring—we’re the life of any party.

It was far from boring.  I was a little late so I rushed into the huge campus looking for the building MathsFest was using.  After some stumbling around, I found the building just as the registration table was being broken down.  I got my bag of swag and proceeded to sign up for the much-anticipated Millennium Maths Project that the lady at the registrations table said was filling up quickly.  This turned out to be a collection of very rich math problems for students with manipulatives to play with.  I had a blast, but I felt that my time would be better spent looking at the line up of presenters and deciding which sessions I would try and catch.  As always happens at any math conference I've been, there were so many interesting talks and workshops going on at the same time.  And, just like the ones at home, I had a difficult time choosing my favorite. 

But, first before I could really settle into the talk, I had to look (and get!) some free textbooks and other math teaching stuff.  Shopping for nerds is so amazing!

Let me first say that the mathematics taught to students who are of similar age to our 9 – 12 graders is MUCH more rigorous both in content, notation and theory than the mathematics we teach these same aged students in the states.  No matter what your mathematical background is, it would blow your mind to see the types of mathematics students are being testing on here.  I attended one session where students in what would be our sophomore year were expected to be able to prove whether or not a function was bijective (injective and surjective, one-to-one and onto) either with a counterexample or an actual proof of the kind I had to produce in Calculus. 

My first presenter went through a typical lecture from his junior level maths class on the topic of complex numbers.  He went so far into the subject of complex numbers, I even learned something.  It was humbling to know that these students are being exposed to mathematics I have yet to really delve into. 

I’ve got a paper in the works that goes into depth about the reasons I think Irish schools are able to achieve such startling mathematics topics so I won’t go too far into that right now.  However, I have to say that the level of mathematics and mathematical thinking a teacher here has to have is so much higher than their American counterparts.  Stepping into the sessions and listening to the Irish teachers present topics related to teaching and learning math here was like going back to college for me.  I realized just how much I dumbed the math content down in my classes so I could reach all students.  Not only did that affect my students, but also I’m finding that the dumbing down of our curriculum affected my familiarity and level of comfort with my own subject. 

I think it is safe to say that I thoroughly enjoyed my time at the conference.  I paid my €30 entry fee and that even included a terrific lunch.  I chose the vegetarian option.  I’m always surprised at how sophisticated Irish kitchens are.  In most places we’ve eaten there are gluten free, vegan, vegetarian, and diabetic options available.  It’s really great.  However, when you chose the vegetarian option, you do get a look.  You know, the look like: “What the hell is wrong with you?”  That look.  But, this was the only lower fat option.

If I would have coughed up an additional  €50 I could have had dinner with the other attendees.  The guest speaker was the President of Ireland.  THE FREAKING PRESIDENT OF IRELAND cares enough about the state of math education that he comes to MathsFest, eats diner and gives a speech.  I’m thinking I’ll never see the American President at a math conference.  Probably not even a Governor. 

Sorry Michael D. Higgins, I’m sure we could have had a good time, but I got to go because a very sexy man is picking me up from the conference to take me out on the town in Dublin.  Ker swept me off to a brewery just a couple of blocks from St. Stephens Green. 

Ker ordered a flight of beers from Galway Bay Brewery.  Only one was I able to swallow—the porter. The other two beers tasted like Kerry likes em.  Think kitchen cleaner, sweat, and motor oil.  I don’t know why he enjoys watching me retch after trying them but he never seems to tire of my bitter beer face. To balance out the amount of deliciousness that was dinner, I ordered an ice water from the bartender and received my second of the day what-the-hell-is-wrong-with-you look.  I’m getting used to that look by now.

After our dinner we decided we needed to walk off our early dinner.  We headed right into the Saturday early evening crowd on Grafton Street.  People watching is one of my favorite ways to get to know a city.  So, we walked for about an hour going into the stores still open and watching all the people enjoying their Saturday night.  After we felt we’d walked off as much of the guilt from eating such a great dinner, we spied a gelato shop. Naturally, Ker had to buy me some gelato.  He gallantly got the scoopers attention when it appeared the pushy (and tiny!) woman who came in after us was trying to take cuts and gave our order.  He stayed to pay when the shop so crowded, it was standing on each other feet only.  I was out of there the second person who stepped on my shoes. 

We headed back to the house after the delicious gelato was all gone.  I had such a nice time.  MathsFest and then Dublin are sure to be highlights of my time here.