Yep. Guinness again. Gotta love it. Since our tour of the Guinness factory on Sunday was cut short, my roommate and I as well as one of our friends agreed to go back to tour the factory once more as well as go to the academy where you can earn a certificate of pouring the perfect Guinness.
The day started with the normal routine of getting up and eating some breakfast. Since both John and I didn't teach until the afternoon, we decided to head in a little later around their first tea break at 10.30. Afterwards, we then both started reading our books until we had our classes. Today I was teaching the first years about multiplication and division followed by the second years involving compound interest examples.
After school, John and I then rushed down to the convenient store to drop off his letter and then head for the bus stop. Luckily, the wait for the bus this time was a little bit shorter, only 25 minutes. After getting on, we noticed there was a lot of traffic and the bus stopped at every stop there was available. The Guinness Factory's last tour was at 17.00 so we were not sure if we would make it in time. After getting off the bus, we than "ran" our way up past Christ Church Cathedral and made our way to Guinness. Sure enough the door was open at 17.05 and the lady allowed us in! Whew. Talk about shin splints and some exercise.
While in the Guinness Factory, I was able to make it to the academy to learn how to pour the perfect Guinness and achieve my certificate. Afterwards, we then went down to the gift shop and was able to look around again for gifts (best part to watch is the engraving machine that engraves personal messages or names on glass.
After we finished around 18.30, we then quickly headed back home. Well...at least tried. The bus ride home was almost an hour long. Tonight was Ava's birthday (our host family daughter) so we knew we didn't want to intrude on their celebration but also wanted to give Ava her gifts before she went to bed. Right before she was getting ready for bed, we made it in the door, unpacked and then presented her with her gift - a jewellery box from the Rock Shop during our trip to the cliffs as well as "cow" birthday card that literally said "HOLY COW ITS YOUR BIRTHDAY!" Too cute. Afterwards, John and I warmed up our dinners and began to eat while also talking with Ron and Catherine about the day's adventures.
Finally, we made our way upstairs to our beds where John and I worked a little bit on lesson planning and finished the night off with a little bit of reading. Tomorrow we plan to head to the Jameson Distillery...hopefully this time with a little bit more ease since we are both done earlier than usual. By now I am fairly tired but full of enjoyment and excitement. Cannot wait for the next couple days!
