candy lesson

Ok, I have been working as a speech therapist for, what, over 6 years now and if there's one thing I've learned it's that kids LOVE M&M's. When I was in TX, I could get a kid to just about anything for one darn piece! And they were brilliant for assessments. So when I moved here, one of the first things I put in my assessment box was a bag of plain M&M's. And I start testing kids. And the M&M's come out. And they look at me like I'm insane. Many of them won't even touch them! What is WRONG with these Irish kids? Turns out, candy is not a universal thing. I've now sadly had to qualify my statement to MOST kids love chocolate. But here, it's not M&M's, it's Buttons. Cadbury Buttons. Picture a flattened Hershey Kiss and then shrink the size and you've got chocolate buttons. I've now had to stock my tool box with those instead.
But they do have something LIKE M&M's here. In my first month of assessments, I came upon this preteen who told me she LOVED Smarties (tell me you picture those rolls of pure colored sugar tablets that you eat last from your Halloween bag). Great! I thought. I've got a few of those from a mixed assortment I picked up for kids who (shudder) don't .... like.... chocolate (did I shudder yet?). So I run to bring some back and the girl looks at me like I'm an alien. But she DID see my tupperware dish of M&M's and have some of those. I'm SO confused! Ok. Turns out that Smarties are the Cadbury (very popular here) version of M&M's, just with harder, more varied and lighter colored sugar shells. AHHHH! I'm finally getting it. Live and learn I suppose. I've even conquered the potato chips are called crisps here conundrum.

How American are you?

You Are 53% American

Most times you are proud to be an American. Though sometimes the good ole US of A makes you cringe Still, you know there's no place better suited to be your home. You love your freedom and no one's going to take it away from you!

How American Are You?

You Are 53% American

Most times you are proud to be an American. Though sometimes the good ole US of A makes you cringe Still, you know there's no place better suited to be your home. You love your freedom and no one's going to take it away from you!

How American Are You?

You Are 53% American

Most times you are proud to be an American. Though sometimes the good ole US of A makes you cringe Still, you know there's no place better suited to be your home. You love your freedom and no one's going to take it away from you!

How American Are You?

Kissing Test

You're an Expert Kisser

You're a kissing pro, but it's all about quality and not quantity You've perfected your kissing technique and can knock anyone's socks off And you're adaptable, giving each partner what they crave When it comes down to it, your kisses are truly unforgettable

You're an Passionate Kisser

For you, kissing is about all about following your urges If someone's hot, you'll go in for the kiss - end of story You can keep any relationship hot with your steamy kisses A total spark plug - your kisses are bound to get you in trouble

What Kind of Kisser Are You?

I thought I'd come out as Romantic!

You scored as A Slave To BDSM. Admit it, you like being tied up and being told you've been very naughty. You like teasing your partner and making them squirm, and not letting them be able to do anything about it. Some people think what you do is sick and disgusting, but you know it's all in good fun. A Slave To BDSM 85% Sex God 83% A Romantic 73% Virgin 35% How are you in bed created with QuizFarm.com

Yea yea

Ok, so it's been a while since I've gotten around to writing in my blog. I've been in Dublin now for 8 months and it's been pretty good. I had a lot of Swedish friends, but they've all since graduated and moved back to Sweden. So, I got proactive and have joined a gospel choir. I'm also considering joining this group for Dublin professionals. I went to a get together and had a good time. I've also been introduced to Book Crossing! I LOVE this site! Here's my bookshelf: www.bookcrossing.com/mybookshelf/jwetter. There's an Ireland Book Crossing group that meets monthly and I attended the August meeting. It was a lot of fun... bunch of reading geeks talking about books, what could be better! I'll probably be spending my 30th birthday talking about books with them. Ah well, I'll take the night before for some serious bar time.
This past weekend, my family was in town. It was SO great to have them here! WE took the Viking Splash Tour and I took photos of all of us. I'll be posting them, with out nicknames.
Work is starting to get crazy again, and I've begun doing more assessments and I have to say I'm getting pretty sick of writing reports. Ah well, it's for the kids, right?

Sharing one (of many) toast 

Pillage 

Wreak 

Rage 

Havoc 

Bubbles 

My Yahoo Group

If you want to join my yahoogroup to hear more about what I'm doing in Ireland, click below. I don't put everything on here that I put on my yahoogroup.



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Me and some of my new Swedish friends here in Dublin 

Gmail

Does anyone want a GMail account? I've got craploads of them. If you do, send me an e-mail: jenniferwetter at gmail dot com.

I don't want to talk about it...

But I will! Ok, it wasn't as bad as all that, but I suppose, now that I've got a moment and am listening to Man of La Mancha (Jen yippie music), I'll give you details of my trip so far. I left Syracuse pretty much on time, with no hitches. It was really hard saying goodbye to everyone. I was put on this TINY aircraft that I hadn't seen the likes of since traveling with Dad too and from Idaho when I was a child. It was 9 "rows" long with only 2 seats per row. Once I saw there was only about 5 of us on the flight, I grabbed the only row with three seats together, the very last one. I ran into a woman from Poland who asked me to help her find her gate in Boston. Since I had a 4 hour layover, and she had an hour, I agreed to help her out. So, we get to Boston, I lug my baggage (only the carryons, thank God) to Terminal E with my Polish companion. Luckily, we were both leaving from the same terminal. Once we get to the terminal, I check to see where she is to go, as well as me. And what do I see next to my Flight... Cancelled! Ha ha, good joke there. So, since I don't have my next boarding pass, I have to help my charge as far as the next security point, where the nice security man with what sounded like a Polish accent had to help her with directions to her gate. I took off to the Aer Lingus counter to see what's up.I ended up speaking to Ryan (? who cares, he was cute) who told me that yes, in fact, my flight WAS cancelled. Apparently, two planes parked in Dublin were blown into each other by an uncharacteristic whirlwind! Apparently, 2 planes must be their entire fleet because life stopped for Aer Lingus (my internt who was suppose to arrive today has been left in the lurch because of this too!). So,I was sent over to the Hilton which is attached to Terminal E. They gave me a VERY nice, king sized bed room all to myself and food voucehrs. Not such a bad deal, right? Well, then we find out at 10 PM, that at 10 AM the next day, we are going to be BUSSED to JFK Airport in NYC! ACK! Ok, so we do it, take th 4 hour bus ride over. Then we sit in a LOOOOONG line for 3 hours waiting to get our new ticket. We take off almost 24 hours after the original flight was supposed to leave. This was the SMALLEST large plane I have ever been in (Aer Lingus had to charter a flight with World Airlines to get us there)! If you ever come visit me, please use a different airline if you can. I could not move an inch in my seat! We arrive in Shannon, Ireland around 6 am, and then fly to Dublinto arrive about 8 am. My first day in Dublin consisted of sleeping, unpacking, reading, more sleeping, freshening up (my hot water heater wasn't on yet and I couldn't see anything in the closet to make it work because apparently apartments don't believe in lights), having dinner with Tara and Mark (boss and hubby), checking in with Dan and Mom, passing out. I was able to wake up late the next day (yesterday)though, and have beaten jetlag surprisingly well. Tara and I spent most of yesterday doing shopping for the classroom, and she took me over to see the place. No bad, a little echo, but nothing I can't work with. My office has an old yellow shag rug in it that Tara was thinking of making them tear up for me, but after I told her that it reminded me of the run from my parents home, she decided it was a good sign and said we needed to keep it, at least for now. We'll see how long it lasts. :) My classroom has a statue of Mary in it which I figured Grandma would love. It also has huge windows which are a nice contrast to my old offices and the claustroboic feelings they brought.The school, St Mary's Secondary School, also has a little stage in the gym. I'm toying with the idea of having my speech kids perform some shows. I bought some flannel sheets for my bed and they were WONDERFUL to sleep in when Tara and I went out shopping. I've come to the conclusion also that I'll need to buy a hairdryer and such. Those converter/transformer things really aren't all they're cracked up to be. Today I spent the day calling parents to schedule assessments. It went pretty well and hopefully we'll finish up tomorrow so I can get over to the office/classroom and start setting up.I really haven't done much in the exploration department. I might go with Tara to a Toastmasters meeting tomorrow. Since I very well might be doing a bunch of public speaking, it might not hurt for me to get involved with this group. Tara also told me about a really great church choir to look into joining as well as a gospel choir. That would be a lot of fun! I sent out a few e-mails today for possible roomates. I hope to get that settled soon. But I believe that's it for about now. It's 7:50 here, and I should grab some dinner. One good thing is I have gotten a lot of exercise since coming here. My dorm's (oh,I HAVE to take a picture of the "bathroom" for you to see!) on the 3rd floor and has the only elevator that usually doesn't like to work. It's like having a free stairmaster! :) I hope the new year is finding everyone well. Oooh ooh! I have put some pictures up on the irishjenny website: http://photos.groups.yahoo.com/group/IrishJenny/lst . I'll make sure to add more as I take more.