Hannah's Post :)

Hi everyone this is Hannah and i am going to brief you on my first day of school which was Friday, December 10th. We were actually going to start in January but the Principal of Cresent Comprehensive College, which is the school we are going to, had us start before we had
planned so that we could get a feel for the school and have a start at making some friends. :) So we dropped Emma off at her school at 9:30a.m. and then we went to the Cresent. We got there at around 11:00a.m. dressed in our School uniform attire feeling a lot like Hogwarts students we went into the Principals office. He gave us our classes that we were going to be in and the Group also. The Group is the same 30 kids that you are going to go around to all your classes with. So all of the grades have like 5 different Groups of 30 kids. I was in the group of kids called Suarez. Then he had us meet a few people and then he had some teachers show us to our the class that our Group was in. I followed a teacher outside and onto a field where they were having a "double period" with another Group for P.E. The teacher introduced me to a girl named Kira and she took me around the school and showed me everything. Then we went back to P.E. and got there just as it was finishing. The next period that they have is German, i really don't know how that is going to work because i have never had one German class! :) Well anyway i went to German and i didn't understand anything! Then i remembered that the Principal only wanted us there for 2 hours so i told everyone i had to go. I walked over to the front office and i waited there for Jarom and Logan. While i was waiting some more girls my age came over and asked if they could wait
with me until my parents got there. I said sure and so we talked for a while and then i saw Jarom coming. All the girls said that we looked exactly the same. :D hehe Dad came in and we found Logan in a room talking to five girls her age. Then we went to pick up Emma at her school and went back to the hotel. Over all it was a very successful day, i met a lot of new people and friends! YEAH! :)

THE END

Emma's Post :)

hi this is Emma and here's how the 1st day of my school went. well i got there a little late(on purpose) so we went to the principal office and there she told my teacher Mrs. Ryan to come down to her office we asked if I could start that day right then. Mrs. Ryan walked down and told me some comforting info. I walked into the classroom and EVERYONE was talking. I sat down and got started on some spelling pages. after that we had snack time after about 10 to 15 min. of that we had sauce witch is pretty much like resess but with no lunch before that. so me and tons of followers everyone were like magnets I could hardly breath. when sauce was over we went back to class did more work but half of the time she was speaking in Irish, gaelic and man its confusing. our uniforms are a white shirt, sweat pants, and slippers. well that was my day bye!


by: Emma Packer

Jaroms First Day of School

This is Jarom Packer now talking. So I guess I was supposed to talk about my first day of school at the Cresent College.

So we all woke up in the hotel which we have been living in for 3 weeks. :/ And started getting ready for school. But we weren't going till 11 since the principal didn't want to overwhelm us. He probably had good reasons. Anyway, we finally got out of the door and headed over to the school. I was joking that as we were pulling up to the school, this was the point of no return return. We could easily drive off and find a place to live in China. Ok probably not going to go that far but it is a plan B. But we walked in with our uniforms and all. And the first moment we walked in everyone is looking at us. Its was really weird I have to tell ya. The principal came out and brought us in his office. He talked to us about how the day was going to go. Then we rapped it up and we were out of there heading off to our destinations. The PE teacher took me to my first class which was Business. Fun stuff :/. And he assigned me with my buddy named... well everyone just calls him Sully. They talked so fast that I couldn't catch his name. So they brought me in the class and once again everyone was looking at me. We then sat down and the class just went on with its normal schedule. Me and sully talked for a bit because the class was drop dead boring. Thankfully the classes are like 45 minutes so we were out of there. Whats cool about this school is you stay with your classmates for every class. So as we were going to geology everyone was asking me questions, but I couldn't answer because they were talking so fast. I was doing my best but most of the time I would just smile and laugh. They must have fell for it because they just kept talking. We then made it to geology and I was starting to feel a bit more comfortable now with the the kids in the class.

So geology went by and the boys told me lunch was starting. I just followed them to the cafeteria. When we got there is was this circle of boys around me asking me questions. They thought is was cool I was a quarterback in America. Constantly they kept asking questions one over the other. I didn't have time to answer them. I would try to answer one question while someone else asked another question. This went on for about 15-30 min till they were done eating and we went outside. They introduced me to more of there friends, including girls. And we talked for a while once again they asked tons of questions. We then headed back in the school because I was leaving soon. I told them good bye and I met with my sisters who all had a great experience like me. My dad found us and when we went in the car they surprised us with some smoothies. So they must have must have liked me because they have added me as a friend on facebook.

Well that wraps everything up. I think my school experience at school will be great. Love ya!

Sight Seeing

Logan- Ok so these next few posts are going to be from all the family about different aspects of our time here so far. I'm going to give an overview of our sight seeing we did yesterday, Saturday the 11th. We woke up "early," for us anyway, and took off to explore our part of Ireland.
We first went to the Bunratty Castle. I hope I spelled that right. Here's a couple pictures, and we'll put up more on Facebook later.
After we toured the multiple stories, winding up and down, around and around, all the extremely steep staircases, drove just across the street to Durty Nelly's, an adorable little pub that's older than the United States. Oh yes, I spelled Durty like that on purpose :)
We hurried from there to find the Cliffs of Moher, but ended up getting a bit lost, and decided with the limited daylight we had left to go to a Christmas market going on nearby instead. Oh and while we were on the road we stopped by the ocean. If you've ever seen Anne of Green Gables, it looks exactly like their beaches. The long grass, wet sand, and gray sky is a gorgeous combination. Hopefully we'll be able to visit it again soon and show you all some pictures.
To continue my story, we arrived at dusk (around 3 or 4 pm) at the market. Lots of booths were set up, with turf fires lighting up the night and providing the much appreciated heat for the market-goers. We bought some cute little angels from a booth called Sticks and Stones. The bodies are made from driftwood, round stones for the heads, and steel wings on the back. We all chose one to represent us. The booth worker was laughing awfully hard at our fussing over who would be who :)
Anywho... that was our Saturday. Cheers!

This top one is the real London Bridge, kinda a let down. Don't get too discouraged if you can't see it in the picture. I can't either.

Our first trip on a Double Decker Bus!

The Tower Bridge right down the river from the London Bridge. Personally I think this should be the London Bridge :) So beautiful and HUGE.

And this last one of the carnival. Supposed to be on the last post but I messed up.

These are all pictures of London.

The castle looking one is actually the castle where the Queen of England lives.

The bus and the telephone booth are just from walking around.

And the other two are from the carnival that we went to that my mom described earlier.

More from Momma

This is Lareen, I wanted to write a few more thoughts…so here we go.

We were really tired when we got here. It is tough to fly all night. We checked to see if there were any other flights into Shannon Ireland to avoid the all-nighter…there is not right now because it is the off season for tourists. Come spring they offer another flight, meaning if you fly from SLC into JFK airport (we had a 4 hour layover) they would have an earlier flight so you do not have to wait 4 hours. Another idea is to fly into Chicago and then over to Shannon or Dublin and not through the night. Another thought is to spend the night in New York or Chicago on the way over and do something that night and then fly over the next day. Just a thought. When Brian and I came over a month ago we flew 1^st class and the seats recline, you get a real pillow and blanket. The chair has an extra thing that folds out for your feet so you can stretch out a bit. They keep the lights off too. OK, so if you come to see us and you choose the all night flight just know that your buns are going to be sore. This particular airplane that they use on this flight is too small for the flight…3seats on one side and 3 on the other. I know all you men out there are saying to yourself the actual name of the airplane size…silly meJ I am not complaining although it sounds like it I think.

When we got to customs everything went really smooth. It is a bit different when you are moving to another country verses visiting. Brian had all the documentation needed and the officials were really kind. Only a few days later we would be coming back from London and when we were again at customs the same woman was there. She called us by name and stamped our passports with a smile. The Shannon airport is an international airport but it is pretty small…nice for us.

LONDON…was super. We went to the famous Hyde Park. There was a Christmas fair there with vendors from many countries. We ate real Belgium waffles and sausages from Germany. Emma made a deal all by herself with a young man from Italy. He made jewelry and she wanted to spend part of her money on a ring he made. It was too much and she offered less…he sold it to her, sized it to her finger and gave here a little bag for it. Brian and I were watching her a few feet away…she did not know we were there.

We watched the guards in front of Buckingham Palace march back and forth protecting the place. There were music stands close to the fence. I wondered if there was some group there that day performing some Christmas carols.

When we went to the play Wicked…I could not believe we were there…it was unreal to be sure. The theater was 2 levels. We were on the main floor about 2/3 back. When it was intermission the kids thought it was over. They were thrilled to find out we were only half over. When it was over Logan said that the play wore her out J The whole premise of the play is how easy it is to judge something or someone before you really know the whole situation. Gooooood lesson for our little family, especially me I think. We were all stunned by the performance. It was a chance of a lifetime for sure.

One of days there we went to the London Temple. We rode the underground train, overland train and a taxi to get there. It took us about 2 hours to get there. Once we got off the overland train we were now out in the country. The train station was just like the movies. It reminded me of my mission in France. There was a small little place to wait indoors where we talked to a man about how to get a taxi. He asked us if we were going to the temple…we were surprised and said yes.

Brian had called the temple ahead to make sure they were open. When we arrived they welcomed us as if we were old friends. Some of the missionaries that are serving in the temple right now are from Idaho Falls and Sugar City, Idaho. Since Brian is from that area we had fun discussing all the places and people that we knew in common. It was WONDERFUL to feel right at home.