First Day of Placement and Endless Amounts of Tea

The Centre

I often get nervous on my first day of anything due to anticipating what could be to come. This normally makes it impossible to sleep and leaves my mind racing. The night before my first day of my placement this anticipation, along with struggling to adapt to the time change, and making the choice to sleep during the day left me struggling even more so to try and relax into my bed. I ended up not finding any sleep until at least 4:30am (that would around 9pm Canadian time), giving me a good 3.5 hours of sleep before I needed to be up. Carmel, wonderful as always, had tea ready for me when I made my way downstairs. I grabbed some toast and ate it quickly while I tried to make sure I had everything I needed and looked half presentable. Carmel insisted I take an umbrella (which made sense because it was raining) and then would not take 'no, thank you' as answer when she stated she was going to give me a ride to my placement (which did not make as much sense as the first). Since I had arrived there had been questions on where my placement was actually taking place. I was pretty sure it was a building that the locals referred to as ‘The Den' but was met with some skepticism due to it being such a small centre. There was a bit of a guessing game going on to where it was I really did have my placement at. Carmel, looking out for me again, wanted to drive me just to make sure it was indeed the right place. Seeing as how the place was only 2min walk away, I did try to protest but lost due to the rain. Once I had indeed made contact with the centre and got confirmation that they were expecting a Canadian to arrive, Carmel seemed to feel comfortable enough leaving me to it.

I walked in being a bit nervous, Martin, one of the caretakers, was getting the centre ready for the day. I waited a bit as I had made sure to be a bit early for my first day. People began to arrive slowly, Martina, a member of the Education Project, was one of the first people to come in. She introduced herself and chatted a bit. She gave me a tour of the facilities and made me a cup of tea. She gave me an envelope with a letter and outline from Eileen, my placement supervisor (who is on holidays until next week). The letter talked about how my first week was going to look, gave me names of all the people working in the centre and their positions, she gave me information on all the projects being run, information on models of youth work being practiced in Ireland, a work plan to model mine after, and other articles related to work in Ireland with children and youth and in the juvenile justice system. As others arrived I was introduced to them and was given information on the projects they were working on. Derek, part of the Detached Youth Work Team, arrived and spoke to me in more detail about the work that project did. He also made sure to introduce me to Michael, the centre Manager, who I had been in contact with throughout the months leading up to my arrival. Derek set me up on a computer and gave me some office space. I went through some of the information I was given, drank quite a bit of tea, and got to know different staff members as they arrived. The day was kinda slow, as many of the workers are still on holidays and others just returning. Martin, part of the FAN project with Eileen, the team I was going to be working mostly with, spoke to me a bit about the project. Martin also had creative arts projects he was going to get the youth involved with tomorrow and invited me to help out as everything was so slow at the centre this week. I was only scheduled to be at the centre for a few hours during my first day to meet people and get to know the centre. I felt very content with everything that happened. I enjoyed getting to know the staff team around the building and got a very warm welcome by everyone. I am looking forward to getting to understand a bit more in-depth about the programs and working along side the team at the centre. It's been rainy off and on throughout the day; but I am still enjoying it much more than our 30 degree, then thunderstorm weather from back home. Although the humidity is huge here, it’s not like living in sweat like our summer has been.

My New Home For a Month

Once back at home the first problem I encountered was that although Carmel had showed me how to lock and unlock the door in the morning, which seemed simple enough at the time, I was not finding it that simple at the moment. I struggled for several minutes, trying to look normal when ever a car would drive past or someone would walk near, don’t think I was really managing it well. I was thinking about giving up and just waiting until Paula showed up as we had made plans to meet up in an hour, but when I realized, due to the rain I needed to use the 'lou' (look, see i'm Irish already!), I thought it best I find a way in now. Mary, Paula’s Aunt lives in #5 next door. I had not actually met Mary but thought it was my best option, and had already heard from both Paula and Carmel that Mary was excited to meet me. I went next-door ready to be embarrassed by finding out how simple it was to open the door. Mary answered the door and the house was filled with people. She said hi and introduced me to everyone, asked about my placement. She invited me in for tea, but laughed when I told her about my predicament of not being able to get into the house. Carmel came home just as Mary was coming to the house with me. It turns out I not completely useless as Carmel had told me to turn upwards when opening so I had assumed I needed to do the same thing but learned that it was in fact the opposite for when unlocking. I made my way into the house with Carmel, she made me another cup of tea and chatted with her about my first day. Soon Paula showed up and joined the conversation. We decided to head off but were going to start at Mary’s first.


People who know me, know I love tea. Not only do I love tea, I love tea Irish style, with plenty of milk. But this trip turned into me getting a look at just how much tea is really drank in Ireland in a day (remember by this time i had already had about 2 cups at placement and had been offered it more like five times). We stopped off at Mary’s and had tea with her. After we made our way to Paula’s parents home and had tea again with Paula’s mother and some wonderful homemade soup. Paula’s mom is wonderful, as sweet and as welcoming as Paula. She told me about how she travels and the places she goes, how it is a family thing often as she travels with her sisters frequently. We then spent the next few hours shopping for a rain jacket and groceries. The rain jacket was a task that did not happen, being a 'big' girl, clothing shopping not often fun for me. That being one of the reasons I really did try to bring the things I thought I needed as I know it would not be as easy for me to buy replacement things if they were forgotten. I don’t think most understand the struggles of this unless you have really been 'big'. Yes, all women (and men) can struggle with maybe finding things they think they look good in or fit them just right (since we all can have self image issues), but the embarrassment of putting on jacket after jacket that does not even come close to fitting can be a lot to take in. So thus we move on to food which, ironically enough, seemed to be a much easier task. Paula was great with both, and helped me get through the first part a great deal. Groceries here are much cheaper than in Canada. It’s a fun experience as well because things are prepared and packaged often in just a bit different way. Also some of the household staples would be very different but I find very exciting to learn about and try new things. With groceries in hand we made our way to our last stop at Paula’s sisters. I learned that three of Paula’s sisters live in a very close area, close to their parents as well. Offered tea once again but this time declined as it was getting later. Paula drove me back to Carmel’s and helped me unload. Paula left back for home and Carmel returned home a little later.

The View From My Room

I had supper and Carmel and myself settled in the living room and a last wonderful cup of tea for the evening. We chatted and watched different programs until we settled on a movie about Michael Collins directed by Neil Jordan, a 1996 film, with Liam Neeson. Good film with an interesting look at the IRA and Collins role in the fight. I then headed to bed.