Exploring the town of Tobermore

It's been a few days since my last blog and I wish I could say there has been loads of stuff going on to fill the time, but nope, not really. It's been a normal week, except with a little more sun. We went to the mother and toddler group Wednesday and Friday. There really hasn't been any headway with any of the moms. They still keep to themselves and have now started gossiping alot more about people they know. I have started to take a more aggressive approach with them, but I'm not sure if that is scaring them away or they really just don't like me or Americans. I am just going to keep going until either they warm up to me or a new group of moms come in. A lot of the kids will be leaving in September to go to preschool at the age of 3.

We also went to the playground on Thursday. If you want to have a better look at the town you can do Google street view of Tobermore, NI.  http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&q=tobermore&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Tobermore,+Magherafelt,+United+Kingdom&ll=54.811914,-6.706038&spn=0,0.076818&z=14&layer=c&cbll=54.811791,-6.706013&panoid=T9e0CYI5n4XEfYlHpxZpGA&cbp=12,205.4,,0,1.75
It looks like they took the pictures of the town around July 12th, if you don't now why that date is so special over here I will share in the future. Since it was around that date you will notice there are British flags and red, white, and blue banner . It is because Tobermore is a Protestant area in NI. I still need to look up the history of the town to tell you why. It just means you don't where anything that has the Irish flag or certain teams, for your own safety. Now it may sound like it would be unsafe, far from it. You just have to know the social rules. It would be like walking into a huge crowd of Yankee's fans wearing Red Sox gear and a Yankee's Suck. It's just common sense. Once I learn more about the history of Tobermore, I will definitely let you know. I can promise you some history lessons coming your way.  Below are pictures of the local park. It's down the lane and in the town of Tobermore.


This is what happens when you ask O to say "cheese"



Looking alot like Daddy.

This is an example of the kind of graffiti you would see in an British supported area. U.V.F is the Protestant side of the conflicts. There is a lot more to it, but it would be a huge paper. As mentioned, Tobermore is a very Protestant area.

The small Tobermore playground. The ground is spongy rubber tiles.

Looking through the tunnel.

There were some city workers cleaning up the park and O thought that the man raking was very interesting. Kept calling him, "mama", but it's good to know that right now she calls everyone mama, except me, I get "Mommy".

The impish grin says it all

On the swings.

Hope you all have a good weekend!

oíche mhaith