Since my last post Sunday- I've been living it up in Dublin (nothing new). Monday after work I decided to take a day off, stay in and clean my room. It was necessary; my roommates can vouch for how quickly my space transforms into a perfect scavenger hunt for missing items. Tuesday I decided to go to the Brazen Head, the oldest pub in Ireland, dating back to 1198! I didn't have my camera with me but I'll definitely go back and post pictures because I loved the environment of the pub; I kind of felt like I was in a fairytale again. After the Brazen Head I met with Maire at the EUSA Capel building. Sometimes I forget that I have a 14 page paper due at the end of this trip. Clearly I haven't started it... in fact nobody in my program has. But there's always tomorrow? No... I'd much rather go to The Ivy House. Maire told me that the point of the meeting was to nag me about starting my paper since it's due in two weeks. Great, she totally uplifted my mood. I'll write it eventually, but for now I'd rather procrastinate as long as possible and pretend like the assignment doesn't exist.
After the meeting we went to The Woolshed for Trivia Night. The theme of the trivia was Harry Potter. I've only read the first three books so I wasn't much of a help to my team, but I still enjoyed the night because they were serving butter beer! It's a mix of beer, butterscotch, and lemonade. It sounds gross but it was amazing. I didn't order my own but I mooched off of anyone who ordered it and pretended like it was my first time trying it with each person so I could have as many sips as possible. Our group didn't end up winning but we were really close; I think we only got one or two questions wrong. Too bad we just missed that 190 Euro prize; maybe next week we will have better luck.
That was the play section. Now I'll talk about work. Then I'll go back to play. It'll be a play-work-play sandwich. Perfect ratio. Today at work I was going about my usual tasks: updating Cathy's reference lists, making sure I hadn't forgotten any documents to cite, alphabetizing the hard copies and filing them. Eamur mentioned to me the day before that there would be a chance that I would get to join her in facilitating a parent focus group in Tallaght West on Thursday (the location of the intervention), but I hadn't heard back from her or Siobhan. I didn't think anything of it and had pretty much forgotten about our conversation until there was a knock on my door from Siobhan asking me if I'd be willing to meet with her and Eamur to discuss the logistics of the focus group.
It was news to me that I'd be attending, but I was so excited (and a bit nervous). I thought it was awesome that Siobhan trusted me enough to let me take on the responsibility. We split up the questions in half and went over how to phrase certain sections. Then Eamur and I headed to Tallaght in her car, about an hour away. It was really interesting to see the location where the intervention was taking place because I was able to get a better idea of how disadvantaged the area was and how the services rendered there were truly beneficial. We waited for the parents to arrive and even though we were expecting seven only three showed up. However, the focus group went really well and the parents all had wonderful information to share about the intervention and the Speech and Language therapy that their children received. The interviews I had conducted up until this point were all over the phone, and seeing the parents in person in a group expressing their gratitude and satisfaction with the program brought a more vivid sense of how the parents were feeling to me than I had experienced before. Tomorrow I'm going back to Tallaght with Eamur to facilitate another focus group, and we're expecting six parents to come. Hopefully they'll all show up! I really enjoyed the day and can't wait to meet with more parents and hear about their experiences with the intervention and the Speech and Language therapy, which have all been overwhelmingly positive thus far.
I got home a little later than usual from work today and was planning on spending another night in when I get a text from one of my friends telling me to come to a pub called The Pav in Trinity College. I couldn't resist the offer; she told me that the environment is really relaxed and that all the students drink outside on blankets and socialize. It reminded me of the AU quad, or "beach" as we call it. It was such a beautiful day out too, so the venue was perfect. We set up our blanket and enjoyed the weather, took some funny pictures (we pulled off a six person pyramid), met some friendly lads, and overall really enjoyed the scene. I'd love to go back sometime before I leave. Tomorrow we're planning on going to The Ivy House which is becoming a Thursday tradition and then Friday Aunt Randy comes to Dublin! We don't know what our weekend plans entail yet but I know that whatever we decide to do will be great. With all of these upcoming plans when am I ever going to write this paper?! I foresee an all-nighter coming my way soon. Coffee will have to be my savior.
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