Ireland!

Hello Brown!

I hope you have all had a great start to 2010. Where does the time go? I can't believe that the month of March is fast approaching and that I am at the half way point of my exchange year! I have been keeping up with all of the exciting things you are doing through the Brown Bulletin, especially the Dance-a-thon where your thoughtfulness and generosity is going to help so many people affected by the tragic events in Haiti. Even though I cannot be there to boogie with you I have forwarded a donation on my behalf.

The highlight for my students over here in England this term was having the incredible opportunity to perform a play about the Life and Death of Thomas Becket in the Canterbury Cathedral itself! Thomas Becket lived in the 1100's and was a famous Archbishop of Canterbury. He was killed by knights of King Henry II for defending the church. Pilgrimages have been made to the site of his tomb for hundreds of years as miracles are reported to have happened here. My class also really enjoyed meeting their penpals via webcams and a flashpoint meeting and look forward to speaking with the grade 4 students at Brown again soon! We've been following the Olympics over here as well (Go Canada!) and my students were fascinated by the Olympic torch relay videos and all the different ways we carried the torch across the country.

I ran my first race here in January, the Canterbury 10 mile, which was cold but sunny! I look forward to running the Canterbury half marathon in May when my brother and sister-in-law will be here to cheer me on!

Last week was my February half term break. I spent the week with friends from Canada starting in London where we saw the final performance of Cirque du Soleil, Varekai. It was breath-taking, colourful and full of amazing acrobatics! Then it was off to Ireland for 5 days! We spent our time between Dublin and Cork seeing lots of beautiful countryside and picturesque seaside towns. We visited the touristy sites, I got to kiss the Blarney Stone and I even got my picture taken with a lucky leprechaun! Enjoy the pics. I'll catch up with you soon!

Miss. Hirsch