The Two Brothers in Dublin

Mark, my brother,made my year by coming to visit us last weekend, and we showed him the sights. One of our first stops was Burdick's, of course, where we treated him to an exceptional lunch topped off with their world famous hot cocoa. (By the end of the trip, he was begging for mercy because we kept taking him from one incredible dining spot to another.) For those of you that don't know already, Mark and his wife, Summer, are expecting their first child in September---a boy! Mark had never been to Boston before, so we headed in to town on Saturday to

give him a tour of Beantown. Our first stop was Harvard to visit the college and take this classic shot. We found it funny that we've both heard the reason you touch the founder's foot, but neither of us could remember it. We hung out on the campus for about 25 minutes, and then to no one's surprise who knows us well, we spent about twice that much time in Newbury Comics afterwards. Thank God we get older, but we never change... :)

"Making your way in the world today takes everything you've got. Taking a break from all your worries, sure would help a lot. Wouldn't you like to get away? Sometimes you want to go..."

Oh c'mon, you can't bring someone to Boston and not force them to take this picture!

Mark was in his glory while he was in Boston... Get it? Ha! In his glory! The movie "Glory" uses this statue in the final scene. Oh, forget it. By the way, it's a beautiful statue and quite moving. I defy you to see it in real life and not put the movie on your Netflix queue that night.


Ah, Kimball's ice cream! The taste of summer. We took Mark to our favorite farm fresh ice cream stand in Jaffrey, NH to sample some of the world's finest frozen dairy products. It's tradition in these parts for locals to take visitors there and make them order a large ice cream, pictured, and then laugh when their guest is shocked at how big it is. It's worth it because a small is $3, a medium is $3.50, and the large is only $4. You might not be able to tell, but their large is about two pints of ice cream. We always order the kid's size, which is about two full scoops of ice cream.

Memorial Day in Dublin

Today was Dublin's Memorial Day celebration, and it was a truly wonderful time to be in New England. While Tampa has a parade, too, I don't think it comes close to equaling the simple charm of the event we witnessed today.

The whole Dublin School community started the day by meeting on our Upper Field to take a look at the five maple trees planted in honor of the five Dublin students we lost in World War II. Each tree had an American flag at its base. I was really surprised at how moving a tribute this was, and we'd never noticed they were there earlier in the year.

After leaving Upper Field, the whole school headed down to the Yankee Magazine parking lot to assemble for the parade. The parade starts in the town square and ends up about a half a mile down the road in the town cemetery. Many pups, like the one above, marched along with us. (Morgan sat out as we didn't know she was welcome. Maybe next year...)This is the color guard that led the parade of veterans. I might be able to march in next year's parade as any of the town's veterans can march. It was a thrill to talk to some of them beforehand and a few of them attended Dublin School in the 30's and 40's. One of the WWII vets was even tutored by our founding head, Paul Lehmann.

The Conval High School band from Peterboro, picture, led the procession to the cemetery. You can see the Yankee Magazine headquarters on the left and the town hall on the right.

The parade ended up at the town cemetery where we heard a wonderful speech from one of the town residents. I'm sorry this picture can't convey what we witnessed. Imagine these amazing men being honored with Dublin Lake right behind them and Mt. Monadnock in the background.

Happy Memorial Day!

Springtime in Dublin... and New Hampshire!

(Sorry for the "Producers"-inspired title!)

 Spring has finally sprung in New Hampshire and this time it isn’t one of my photographic tricks. The flowers are in bloom, the grass is green, and all the signs of snow have faded away with days full of sunshine to fight off the winter fatigue.

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Some of you might know that I’m filling in as the Dublin sailing coach for the Spring Trimester. Some of you might now be asking, “What the heck does Brian know about sailing a boat?” Some of you might now be answering to yourself, “nothing.” And you’d be right! Still, I’ve decided to step in and help out the program by following them around in the Sea Nymph pictured above to help out any stranded sailors in case their boat capsizes. I honestly can’t believe I get paid to putter around in this boat for an hour and a half on Dublin Lake, which is so beautiful, and soak up the sunshine.


This is a shot of one of the two boats my team takes out for practice each day without the rigging. They are 15-footers and kind of heavy and slow, but they get the job done and the strong winds on the lake make up for their weight disadvantage.


These next two shots are of the beach we launch from and part of the lake we sail on. I’m going to bring my camera out tomorrow to take some better pics of the kids under full sail, which I’ll post as soon as I can.


The best news about coaching the sailing team is that several of the more experienced kids are going to take me out to let me “crew” on their boat and possibly learn to captain. There is also a small chance that I’ll be training as sailing instructor this summer at the Dublin Lake Club and getting paid to learn to sail. What a country!

Apologies

I'm so sorry it's been so long since our last post, however, you can tell from the one before that things have been pretty depressing and hectic here. I promise we will have more posts and more frequent posts now that the snow has melted and the flowers are in full bloom.

Our First Red Sox Game

On April 24, Erin and I were able to go to our first Red Sox game at Fenway Park! Sorry, but Tropicana Field doesn’t count. Thanks to a kind colleague of ours, we had great front row seats in right field where we could lean over and touch the dirt on the field. It was amazing to see a game played in a park with such a rich history.



And it wouldn’t be an outing without an excuse to shop, so Erin and I took the opportunity to pick up two shirts and two ball caps. (Mine has Matsuzaka’s name written on it in Japanese letters---pretty cool!)

This shot isn’t from where we were seating, but we were over to the left a bit. I just wanted to get a nice pic of the field.

I figured this would be a fun shot for those who know how good these dogs are.

This is a shot of the two new Sox fans. I can’t say that I’m a big baseball fan, but it’s really fun to people watch in Fenway, and you get to meet the real Bostonians up close. Nothing is better than hearing the older fans sit and complain about every single person in the batting order and critiquing every play in the outfield. Hilarious!

This is a picture of our good friend Sheila, on the left, and her friend Leona. They both came to the game and tailgated with us beforehand.

A Great Loss

The Dublin School flag is at half-mast because we have lost a great man and our headmaster, Christopher Horgan. Chris was out shoveling snow on the Dublin tennis courts when he suffered a fatal stroke. According to his wife, he left us suddenly and with little pain.

Along with Dan Finnegan, Chris was the reason that both Erin and I took a chance on traveling 1,400 miles north to a school and a region we knew very little about. It's a measure of how charismatic and engaging a man Chris was that he made us want to take such a gamble.

It was just a year ago that I sat in Chris' office during my job interview where he asked me no real questions about my teaching, my experience or why we wanted to move to a boarding school. We just sat there and talked about our mutual love for Mark Twain and how Twain summered in Dublin for several years with his daughters and that they were the best years of his life. Chris also told me some great stories about how Corner House, a dorm building, was actually half of a former home that was given to the school and then brought on to campus by a team of horses and put on the hill. I enjoyed the hour we spent, however, it definitely left me wondering how he was able to gauge my employability.

After getting to know Chris a little better over the past year, I finally figured out that my interview had little to do with my teaching skills and was Chris' shrewd way of determining if I would fit into the Dublin community. I think he believed that anyone could teach a class, but he wanted to make sure that I would be able to "get" Dublin and would want to be part of this wonderful extended family.

One of my proudest moments at Dublin was when Chris came in to observe me teach earlier in the year. He had heard of my method and had come to observe firsthand what I had to offer. Chris left a few minutes before my class ended and headed back to his office. With butterflies in my stomach, I headed over to hear what he thought, but first I ran into Anne, his assistant, who had a beaming smile on her face and said Chris was ecstatic when he returned and loved what he had observed. My heart melted because I really wanted Chris' approval.

He ushered me into his office and told me how much he enjoyed my class, and I don't think I even heard what else he actually said because it felt so good to be appreciated.

I felt like I was working for a man who really understood me. Chris not only made me feel that I was a valuable teacher, but that I was important to the school as a whole. On the few occasions that I came into his office with ideas, he would patiently listen and nod his head and then actually put some of them into practice. Chris was no pushover and would quickly tell you if you were off base, so when you did convince him of something it felt like a personal triumph.

In recent days, I've heard many people echo similar sentiments and that Chris had a wonderful way of connecting with people. I think the greatest compliment I can pay to Chris is that he always made me feel my existence mattered.

Chris was a great storyteller and both Erin and I enjoyed the occasions where we could kick back and hear him spin a good yarn about his time in Ireland, his commerical fishing boat adventures and a host of other topics. The last time I spoke with Chris was at lunch on the day he passed away and we spoke about the beauty of bats. And it didn't matter what the topic was, Chris could always pull a story out of his hat that was related. Often his stories would involve his close family and you could see how much he loved them through the warm smile on his face.

Another thing I loved about Chris was that he was a tireless cheerleader for Dublin School. I can't imagine another person who spent as much time studying where this school came from, where it was currently and where it was headed. Chris truly kept Paul Lehmann's spirit alive on this campus.

It still hurts so much to walk by his quiet office and empty desk chair and imagine he'll never sit there again.

Althought we didn't know Chris Horgan for a long time, he had a huge impact on our lives and we'll never forget him.

It's a sad time...

Springtime in Dublin...

The flowers are in bloom, the birds are singing, and it is time to head down to the lake for a cool swim on hot afternoons. We've finally made it through the winter and now it's time to enjoy ourselves in the good old sunshine...

Just look at that happy pup swimming in the lake above. Just minutes after taking this picture, I dove in and swam out to the slide to give it a go.
Aaah...

Ok, I can't lie. The lake is still frozen, who knows where the birds are, and there isn't a flower in sight. It's actually SNOWING again. Whee! There are about 4-5 inches on the ground and we're expecting even more tonight. I might actually be able to break out the sled again tomorrow afternoon. That's Erin below shoveling snow off the porch.

I honestly don't care if it snows or not. I enjoyed it so much this winter that I'm up for another month of it. I'm sure we'll have more than enough days by the lake this summer. :)