Placements: Days Two and Three

Wednesday

Yesterday was my last placement day at Stormont. This time I spent most of the day with the education staff. They had me follow a primary school field trip of 10- and 11-year-olds, so I got to tour the building again, but from a slightly different perspective this time. I'm not particularly interested in education (I've said before that I would never want to be a teacher), but I like politics and was impressed with how the Stormont-employed teacher was able to get the kids excited about government. I was also amazed by how much the kids already knew about politics and government. I can't remember knowing who my legislative representatives at that age.

In the afternoon they had me sit in on a meeting of one of the Assembly's committees. Consistent with the theme of the day, it was the education committee. There's apparently been some controversy here recently regarding standardized testing for 11-year-olds that determines what kind of secondary school they're able to go to. I was told there could be some debate about that, but they stuck to discussing budget issues. To be honest, it was boring. I almost dozed off, but managed to keep my eyes open until it was over. 

Last night we had a Lambeg drum demonstration by a man from the Ulster-Scots. If you haven't seen one of these drums before, they are very large and very, very loud. One of the cool things about the drums is that they're always painted in a very specific style and each drum's painting is unique. The instrument is only used Northern Ireland and I hadn't heard of it until last night. 

Thursday

Today was my first day at The Down Recorder, a weekly newspaper based in Downpatrick. I wasn't there for more than a half hour before they had me getting into the truck with Philip the photographer to go get photos for stories. 

The one major difference between this newspaper and the papers in the U.S. is that every single photo is posed. The only action shots they have are for sports. Philip said for the types of stories they do it's typically easier to just get a posed photo, but people also prefer if they can easily see everyone who's in the paper. 

We stopped for photos of an insurance company and a volunteer organization before we had to head back to the recorder for information on the story I would be writing. 

We drove to Newcastle, which is about 30 minutes away from Downpatrick, where we met up with two Coast Guard officers who rescued a fisherman who fell into the sea on Tuesday. After I interviewed them we walked down by the coast and set up the (posed) photo. We went back to the paper just in time for lunch break, after which I came back to write my story. 

This evening was Irish dance night for the Young Ambassadors. Let's just say we're rhythmically challenged as a group.