Maggie's Bravery

This whole trip was really, intially, all about Maggie.

Why?

Well, initially, there was only Maggie. And that's when the dream began.

As I referred to in one of the early posts, once Sheila found out that her firm had a sabbatical policy, and I knew that I could teach abroad, we always thought it would be such a great experience for her. Neither Sheila nor I spent a semester abroad (my first trip to anywhere out of the country occurred when I was 28 when I went with Jackie my cousin to London and around Europe, and on to Bulgaria to meet with my thesis adviser). We planned the timing around when Sheila could feasibly take a break and when it was good for Maggie (the middle of 7th grade seemed the least disruptive).

Then we had Johnny and it was all about getting him to learn to read first so that he could do something on the plane (ha! See today's earlier post). As an aside, Johnny stayed at his school for a little over an hour today (I stayed there because he was so scared the last few days, and we decided to let him "ease" into it). His teacher said he did "grand" and one little boy in his class (Hayden) must have walked past my little couch out in the foyer three times doing some duty or another, asking me at each pass how long I was going to stay. At one point I stopped him and asked him how Johnny was doing and he responded "he knows all his words!" Which I took to mean that he could read. Johnny loved that they said "tree" instead of "three" but that's about all we got out of him.

Anyway, Maggie.

So it turns out that Johnny is in "first class" and Maggie is in "first year" over here. They essentially have primary schools (k through 6) and secondary schools (7 through 12), so, like I said earlier, Johnny's experience is much like his cute little Catholic school at home, whereas Maggie is like getting dumped into a large all-girl high school.

I think we were (and are) nervous about what that will be.

Maggie is like her mom, and me to some extent, in that she finds comfort in work. Honest to God, the other morning I saw that she had obviously gotten up earlier, and worked on her Spanish homework from Annunciation in a fit of morning-jet-lag!

She prefers routines and rules and explicit instructions to off-the-cuff, boundry-less, do-nothing days. Even when we've gone to Florida to visit Sheila's folks for long weekends over MLK in Januarys past, she creates schedules ahead of time: this is when I'll swim, this is the day we will get pizza at the pool, this is the day we will play mini golf. . . . etc. etc. (It drives me nuts as I am a very typical INTP -- with a capital P).

By Monday morning she was itching.

She needed to get away from all of us.

She happily visited Johnny's school on Monday and had taken quite a bit of time in preparation for this outing, knowing that after visiting his school we'd move on to hers and then mine.

Of course the best laid plans and all that are particularly precarious in Ireland. We woke to some lovely sun, but were drenched on the way home from his school. Her hair ruined and her Christmas Toms muddy.

It went downhill from there.

Finally, as I said yesterday, we ended up splitting up and, ultimately rejuvenating at Starbucks (I need a better name for that place because I HATE that we have now gone twice to that Starbucks but the view is just so breathtaking!!!).

So last night she decided that she wanted to go to school the entire day today (Tuesday!).

We are still battling a bit of jet lag (wanting to stay up late* 11 or 12 for the kids and 1 or 2 for us) and still in the throws of homesickness, so I was really surprised to hear this from her. Particularly since a) it was 10 p.m. and we'd have to get up around 6:30 to get ready b) we didn't have a uniform for her or c) we don't even have a lunchbox!

But she was adamant.

We compromised and asked if we could pick her up after lunch so that we could go find a uniform for her and not get back too late (the weather is pretty mild here but it gets really cold once the sun goes down and we didn't bring all of our winter gear).

Despite I'm sure being exhausted, she was up and out early and headed out to what I'm sure was a terrifying morning. New people, new buildings, new schedules, new subjects (she's taking geography, home ec, and French!) and just all-round being the "new kid" in an unfamiliar environment (not just because it's a different country).

I was a nervous wreck all day (as evidenced by my not even leaving Johnny's building) waiting for them (her) to be done.

We went to pick her up and she was beaming. It was a blast. She is meeting the challenge and loving the girls and trying to understand their different words for things ("copies" are "notebooks" apparently). 

Our initial impressions of the differences between the two schools (i.e. Annunciation middle school and this secondary school)? They're a bit ahead in "maths" (she learned how to bisect a line today-geometry!), and they actually have an entire course on geography. But this school is a bit more "low budget" because its a state school and it sounds like their budget has been gutted over the past decade. More comparisons to come (they're inevitable).

Anyway, we're proud of her bravery today. Tomorrow is a full day for her (8:45 to 3:00) with a 15 minute walk home by herself!

Wish her luck finding her way (for those of you who know Maggie)!




*We have had a bit of a battle with her as to internet use. It is limited here. We have 15 gig for the month and skype and facetime suck it down. Texting and emailing are relatively ok, and the skype phone isn't too bad, but the first day or so she was so committed to talking to all of her friends for extended periods of time, we realized that she would suck our bank dry by Friday. Furthermore, it encourages her to stay up really late as you all are just getting out of school when we are wrapping it up. She is free to text for a while but both kids are saving skype and face-time rations for the weekends!