On Monday I started my Internship at the Centre for Social and Educational Research (CSER). It’s located within the School of Social Sciences and Law at Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT). This is where I’ve spent the last few months studying, the CSER is just one floor above our classroom…

It’s been lots of fun and the days go by much faster than I had anticipated. My classmate Monique is there as well and we get to have lunch together. So far we have learned lots about research and how to use SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) to analyze the mountains of data.

Tomorrow I’ll be going with my supervisor to one of the preschools to collect some data 🙂 That should be fun. We are using the ECERS, the Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale. I don’t quite believe in using the ECERS, but that’s a topic for another day. In any case, I’ m curious to see how we will go about rating the program tomorrow.

On Friday will be my last night in my room at Hazelwood. Olivera and I are moving into Anna’s room when we return on Monday from our weekend in Belfast.

And in about a month I’ll be sleeping in my own bed again.

Jörg and Lars visited me over the weekend and we crawled from pub to pub. We laughed so much and I don’t remember sleeping at all.

The sun even came out for 2 minutes, just enough to tease us, so the boys got a typical picture of Dublin weather.

When I went home on Sunday night I left the two of them at a comedy event. They were having such a good time and I must say it was nice to part with smiles on our faces.

Follow the link to read about some of our adventures…

http://www.hioa.no/Om-HiOA/LUI/Institutt-for-foerskolelaererutdanning/IMEC/Student-stories

Submitted the paper in the morning.

Felt really good and jumped up and down.

Went for a swim with Oli, used the lane for professional swimmers, because we felt so good about submitting the paper.

Went to a church to see a lunch time organ concert.

Ate Anna’s delicious marzipan cookies 🙂

Had a nap.

Made lunch with roomies.

Chatted with Evan

Edited Natalia’s paper with one minute to spare! (Deadline was at 23:30.)

Fell asleep while writing my bitterblog.

Olivera and I spent the whole day editing each other’s papers. I love love love doing that kind of work together and am glad that I have found someone who enjoys it as much as I do.

And tomorrow we’ll work on Natalia’s paper. I imagine she’ll be up all night trying to sort out her Spanglish. What makes the whole situation even more confusing is that she speaks German as well. It’s so hard for me to detect some of the grammar mistakes, because I am used to making the same ones…

We’ll sleep well tomorrow when it’s all done.

Oh, how I love my academic sisters.

This photo was taken on our last day of classes last week.

I can’t help but think that our teacher for the perspectives module is probably out for coffee with her friends right now while we’re working away on this essay for her…

I have realized that I love sending cards when it’s on my own terms and I get so much enjoyment out of imaging the surprise on your face when you find the card in your mailbox. But I am not very good at writing cards when I am supposed to… No cards on mother’s day, but love all year round. How is that?

Mama, drück Dich.
MOM, I love that our visits will overlap.
and love to all the other moms.

Time flies!

Today was our last day of classes in Dublin. We still have one essay to write, but other than that we’re done. YES!

Since we’re obliged to stay in Dublin until the end of June to receive our scholarships, the university has arranged practicum placements for us to make this time more interesting. I’ll be going to the Centre for Social and Educational Research located within the School of Social Sciences and Law at DIT (Dublin Institute of Technology). I’m looking forward to trying something new. I haven’t been a practicum student in years!