SAB

In religion class this year, we are participating in programme called Schools Across Borders which basically allows us to communicate with people our age from different countries. There are 6 schools in Ireland participating in SAB mostly in the Dublin area, all in TY/5th year. Teenagers from countries such as Palestine, Burma, France, Romania, are involved in SAB. Yesterday all of us went to Citywest to attend a talk about SAB, hosted by Darrren Irvine, the director. All of the Irish schools involved were there and it allowed us to interact with each other. First off we registered at the entrance and then after everyone arrived, Darren gave us an into talk explaining about the programme. Then all the schools presented their powerpoints that they prepared in class. We were the only school that had more than 1 class involved in SAB. Our powerpoint was on gender inequality while the other classes in our year talked about other issues. Darren was very impressed by the amount of effort the students put into the projects.

Then it was time for Ice Breakers, where we were put into groups in ratio to the number of students in our school. All of the schools were mixed together so we all got to get to know each other. After 15 minutes we got the chance to watch a play by Quadrangle Productions about Burma. It was very interesting and very humorous. Afterwards, we had dinner which was chicken goujons and chips and it was soo tasty. Then we got the chance to listen to some NGO's talk about what they do. We participated in some group activities, such a s drawing on a graffiti wall, learning how to blog, and lots more. At 3pm it was time to go back to school, but we all had a really great time. 

Science Week

Last monday, we visited Tallaght IT for science week. We went with the science teachers and all TY's The talk was held by a professor James Soper, also known as the juggling scientist.  He showed us all some really interesting experiments using helium, coke, water etc. The talk was really interactive as he would pick a student to participate in each experiment. I also liked the fact that the experiments were very simple and easy to understand. The talk lasted an hour and we all had a great day.

Its raining yellow, Hallelujah!

On the 11th of October, the prefects of St. Wolstans hosted the annual fun walk. The fun walk is all about promoting friendship, so each class from every year, prepared a song and dance about friendship. Each year group were different colours. The colours were as follows:
1st Years: Pink
2nd Years: Purple
3rd Years: Green
TY's: Yellow
5th Years: Blue
6th Years: Black and white
My class decided our theme would be minions, so we all dressed up in minion costumes and put yellow facepaint all over our faces and arms. My vision is still suffering from all the yellow that day! Our dance was to wannabe by the Spice Girls, and we changed the lyrics to "If you wanna be my FRIEND, you gotta get with my friends." Kinda makes sense.We had a really fun time hence the name of the event, the FUN walk. Anyway, we didn't win. From our year, Cornaro won. They had a variety of songs and their theme was ducks. I tried bribing a few of the judges, but obviously it didn't work.Ah well, there's always next year! After all the years had performed, Some of the TYs walked on to be the guides for the walk, so basically we told everyone where to go. It was a good laugh. Afterwards we went back to the school for a refreshment and a quick dance, and then it was time to go! It was a great day, one of the highlights of each year! :)

Remembering Pádraig Pearse

Selfie with a stuffed squirrel

Today, all TY's visited the Padraig Pearse museum in Rathfarnham because we were learning about Pearse in Irish. It was a lot of fun. First of all we got a tour of the museum itself. It was very interesting but there was a lot of information to take in. Each room was beautifully decorated.  I took a lot of pictures which I will upload soon. Next we had a little lunch break in the courtyard. The weather wasn't great but we didn't really mind. We then went on a nature walk, and were given a talk on the different species of trees in the garden. There was about 10 different trees in the garden that we were told about. There was also a fountain and a walkway with lavender either side of it. My favourite tree was definitely the strawberry tree. I loved it's vibrant red colour. We also got to see stuffed animals in the nature room which was really cool, I got a selfie with the squirrel. After our walk we had lunch, out in the courtyard again, and most of us got hot chocolate which was scrummy! Then we all went into the field to make a video, just for a laugh, so here they are! It was so such fun :) After that, it was time to go home! 

Wacky Workshop Wednesdays

So, our workshops have finished, well, for now anyway. We have done 3 Wednesdays of workshops so far. Here was our timetable for the workshops :

4th September: Confidence building with Austin- learning to face your fears and believe in yourself.

Positive Parties with Denise- looking at the positive side of things

Massage Workshop with Gilíosa- shoulder/back massage

18th September: Positive Parties - laughter yoga

Massage workshop- head massage

Etiquette and Deportment with BK Inniú

25th Sept: Work Experience Workshop with Mrs H and Mr C

Positive Parties- How to act during work experience and being positive

Etiquette and Deportment- BK Inniú

I reaaaalllly liked all of the workshops, there wasn't one that I didn't enjoy. They were all so much fun.

Carlingford: Falling into Freezing Waters

Kayaking...Sounds like great craic! Well it's not as fun in the freezing cold. When I say freezing, I'm not even being dramatic, it was so so cold. We walked to beside the sea where all the kayaks were, about a 10 minute walk from the centre. We had to bring a towel, spare socks and runners, and to wear our swimsuit under our clothes. When we arrived we were put into our wetsuits which we were SOAKING from the previous group. We went into the changing rooms and squealed and sqwalled (that sounds like a saying but I'm not sure so don't quote me in it) as we put on our wetsuits. We came out and then put on our life jackets and helmets. The instructors made us do a few warm-ups because we were really cold. One game was passing the oars to each other ( sounds boring but it was great fun) and another was running on the spot basically. Although it was called a warm-up it did not warm me up exactly.
But anyway, we set off. all of us each got into our kayaks along with our oars. The fun part was we were going to a trampoline that floated in the middle of the water. It was about 200m from the shore I would say. After we reached the dock where the trampoline was, we tied up our boats and got on the dock. Of course, I was last to reach the dock because I'm slow. I had to stand in the kayaks to get to the dock and I could feel myself wobbling as the kayaks were bobbing up and down in the water. Just as I was nearly there, I fell straight into the sea. Straight. In. Embarrassing to say the least. Was I surprised? No. Were people surprised? No. Was anyone surprised? No. Of course it would've been me. Clumsy is an understatement. Anyway we all jumped in and swam to the trampoline, it was really fun, but it was difficult to get on, I had to be pulled up by my life-jacket by one of the instructors. But once I was on, it was really good fun. We were running around it and jumping up high, trying not to fall off. Of course the instructors tried to push us off, but I grabbed onto a rope right before he was going to push me off. I was stuck on the side but Melissa helped me up! Cheers Melissa :)
After we all had a go on the trampoline, we got back into our kayaks and went down to a mini waterfall in a cave/tunnel thing. (by the way you can see what the trampoline was like by watching a video here.) One instructor was in a speedboat helping the slow people by holding their boat and speeding off. But I didn't get help even though I was close to last. Anyway, the waterfall was really refreshing because you got to put your head underneath it. Then it was time to go back to the centre so we kayaked back. We were about halfway there and The guy on the speedboat came over to me because would you believe I was last again :) I said that it was ok, I would kayak back myself, but he just grabbed my boat and sped off. It was actually rather fun, but just as I was waving at Aideen, my boat flipped, and I went straight in to the water again. AGAIN. The man came back for me and told me to hold on to the rope at the back of his boat while he held me kayak. I thought I was holding the rope to get into his boat but no. I was holding on, and he sped off again. WHILE I WAS HOLDING A ROPE. Just picture how stupid I looked as I held onto a rope at the back of a speedboat. I also had to hold my oar, so I was holding the rope with one hand. It was an interesting experience...but we all arrived back safe and sound. We went back to the adventure centre for the last time, and got our bags which we had already packed earlier on, and walked to our bus and went home. We didn't have much time to do anything, we just went straight home. I was really sad leaving Carlingford because it was the best trip I've ever been on. I loved it so so so much, it was absolutely amazing. The only thing I didn't like was the fact we had to go home!
We arrived back in Celbridge an hour and a half later to Esso where are parents were waiting. I had such a fabulous time and it's just sad that we'll never be able to go back as a school :'( It was definitely the highlight of TY so far!

Carlingford: Stuck in an inflatable ball, rolling down hills

Day 2

After having a really good sleep, at 7am my room was awoken by Katie and Jessie ( I think...I was still half asleep when they came in) who told us we had to get up for breakfast at 8. All of us got ready and headed down to the centre for some brekkie. It was still raining but it was grand! You could have cereal or toast and tea/coffee/juice etc. It was nice but everyone was exhausted from the busy day we had the day before. 

We set out after breakfast for our next activity which was in the field we were in on Monday. The first thing we did was a thing called "Communication Breakdown" and basically it was a 3D maze in a cabin and it was completely dark. You had to crawl around, and try to get through to the other side. It's kind of hard to explain so here is the explanation if what it is from the website: "The Communication Breakdown is a 3D human sized maze completely in the dark.

It is spread over 3 levels.It is designed to test communication skills while being deprived of one of your senses – namely sight.As the name suggest, your group need to have excellent communication skills to find your way out of this maze." 
Sounds hard doesn't it? That's because it is! We were in the maze for at least half an hour. And we didn't complete it....:( but it was really fun anyway, and Shauna was a great leader! Our next activity was archery. It was really good but it wasn't my favourite part of the day. On the first few go's, I wasn't hitting the shots too well let's say, but we played a game where we were in a group of 6 of people and we each had to hit a different colour. So to put it bluntly, the worst person shot the outer colour, the next worst shot the colour inside of that etc etc so the best person went for the bullseye. I was pretty bad so we all agreed I would go first, to hit the outer colour (the easiest) but I ended up shooting really well which was not the aim of the game! We lost anyway but sure what can you do! Our last activity and the best activity of the day was BODY ZORBING!!!! AHHhhhhhhhh! It was sooo exciting. After we went through the rules and the likes, we each got into a ball, with our legs sticking out so we could run around! I think we all had a tiny bit of trouble getting into the zorbing ball!  Especially you Ciara M.We had so much fun, we played games where we just bashed into each other, like sumo wrestling! I kept forgetting how much space the ball took up so I kept hitting off people by an accident! We were allowed to just roll down the hill and just do flips in the ball, I loved it! It was hilarious whenever someone got stuck upside down, eg Rebecca W. I laughed. A lot. Zorbing was our last activity before we had to go back to the centre so I was pretty sad....:(  It was still raining so The centre got a minibus for us, but it only seated 12, and there was 30 of us....so 12 people went and then the bus came back and then 12 more were brought back to the centre and I don't know how but 4 of us were left, me Kyra, Shauna and Caoimhe and of course Mr. K. While we waited, we played a game in the rain, it was fun. Finally our bus came, and we went back to the centre. We had our lunch, which was chips and chicken wings. After, we were going out to kayak!! Yay! That was quite eventful so I'll do a separate blogpost on that....See you soon! 

Carlingford: Don't be afraid of the dark!

DAY 1
Wow, what can I say? Carlingford is definitely one of the best trips I've had in a long time. It was just amazing! We were up bright and early on Monday morning and arrived at Esso absolutely buzzing with the excitement. The funny thing is everyone came with these hugeee suitcases, you'd swear we we're going for a month! The bus journey went fairly quickly due to the fact that we were all singing songs and chatting about the day ahead. We arrived in Carlingford and the first thing that caught my eye was the gorgeous scenery. We were looking out at the sea, and I could see ruins of a castle in the distance. We went through this quaint little village that had an old sweet shop and the likes, not forgetting the Chinese and the chipper. We went into the centre which is right in the middle of the little village. We all went into the main room upstairs and we were divided into 2 big groups.
My group's first activity was laser shooting. the weather wasn't great but that didn't stop us form having a good time! It was a great start to the day, I really enjoyed it! (Although the walk up to it was hell but that's just because I'm extremely unfit)  but anyway, our team obviously won :)
We went back to the centre after about 45 minutes or an hour to the centre for our lunch which was rather tashty, chips and sausage rolls After that we went back out and walked a good 15 minutes to a field down the road where there were group activities and challenges. We were split into groups with 10 people in each. There were loads of challenging games that required teamwork so it was a bit of bonding time for us all! Again the weather was bad, well just a little drizzly but we didn't mind.
When we got back to the centre we were given our rooms. We got to choose who was in each room. We took the room of 8 in the apartments that were separate from the centre, you had to walk a tiny bit through the village to get to our rooms. Melissa, Aideen, Lauren O'R, Karen, Holly and I were in one room while our other friends were in the other 2 rooms. Our teacher Ms O'C was in another room, so shoutout to her for putting up with us!
We had dinner ( meatballs and pasta, yum yum!) after we got settled in, and afterwards we we went out for our third and last activity of the day which was a forest walk in the dark...it wasn't really dark, it was at about 7:30 in the evening. It was a long but refreshing walk to the forest, ( we had to take a detour because of  cows on the road, but we didn't mind because we avoided a steep hill....which is always a plus! ;) ) We arrived in the forest and we were given blindfolds. First we decided Melissa would be the leader and then we put on our blindfolds. We were guided by a rope along the side of the forest which we kept a tight hold of. Our guides were making sounds and spraying water in our faces, which made us all scream. It was so much fun. By now it was pretty dark so we played a few hiding games so it was great. We heard the other group who were doing their blindfolded walk and we absolutely roared in their ears. They were PETRIFIED. Especially Hannah C who fell down like a bowling pin from such fear...sorry Hannah :) After this we played another game and then our guides decided to bring us for a walk down the road to a underground tunnel. I didn't know what was going on, but when we arrived it was small tunnel that you had to crouch down in but it was PITCH DARK and when I say pitch dark I mean pitch pitch dark. Hope ye aren't afraid of the dark boys and girls. All I could hear was "Umm, I can't tell if my eyes are open or not..." It was really scary because it was really small and I was afraid a rat or something would maul my face off but we all made it out alive. Afterwards we walked back to the centre, while me and Niamh O'H exchanged a few ghost stories :) To my excitement we were allowed to go to the Chinese or the chipper, I went to the chipper for a few chicken nuggets and they were fabulous with a capital F. We ate them back in the centre and then went back to our rooms to settle down for the night at about 10.30. We were chatting away and then went to sleep later. And that's it folks, that's the end of the first day. I'll continue on in my next blogpost!

The Brown Envelope

Cad é an scéal? (Howiya Anna!) Not much has happened since I last posted, apart from the JC results! Everyone did fabulous so congrats everybody! Ye all deserve those good results :) I was soo scared and I was so impatient. I had felt really excited all morning but those feelings soon changed in nervousness (is that a word? who knows?) but when I got into school and saw all my friends I calmed down a bit. We were put into our 3rd year classes so it was a Pegasus reunion!! Woo! Our names were called out and we were handed our envelopes...the dreaded brown envelope. I was having heart failure by this time. But I was delighted. Everyone seems happy so that's good! But apart from that nothing much has happened.

Yesterday, all TY's visited Castletown House for a tour. Our tour guide was Grace, and she told us all about the history of the house. I've been on the tour a couple times before but I still learned a lot of new facts. It was a great day out and I really enjoyed myself. My favourite room of the house was the Print Room because it was so unique. All of the walls were covered in pictures and newspaper cuttings, which were stuck to the wall with flour and water by Lady Louisa Lennox. So that's all for now guys, On Monday and Tuesday we will be in Carlingford!! Yeaahh buddyyyyy!!! So I'm really excited about that. Hopefully I will have loads of pics for ye which I will upload onto my blog so keep an eye out lads! Bye for now!

2 Important Events

So..it's the evening of Tuesday, 10th of September. Which means 2 things. Firstly it's G's birthday but, it is also exactly 15 hours until RESULTS! I'm going to keep this blogpost short because if I dwell on the fact that RESULTS ARE IN 15 HOURS, I will probably start to quiver with fear :) The fact that our results are in an envelope at the moment makes kinda scared.....but excited too. I have mixed emotions about how I think I did, in some subjects, I feel like I did rather bad but in others I feel like I did well enough! I just hope I'm happy with my results.. To be honest, at the moment I'm not nervous but all those emotions will kick in later :) Well, best of luck tomorrow everyone and hope you all get what you wanted! Sweet dreams everybody! By the way I'm going to count how many times the sentence "what did you get" is used tomorrow! :P

Teresh-kova or Ter-esh-kova?

One of the most exciting things about going into any year, is finding out your class names. Our classes form 1st to 3rd year were constellations: I was class Pegasus which was the best class ever! (Shoutout to Niamh O'H and Eimz and all the rest of the pegs.) This year, our classes are named after women who were the first to achieve something for example, my class is called Tereshkova, which we've all had trouble pronouncing. Isn't that right girls? Some people pronounce it with the accent on the second "e" while others put the accent on the "o." But anywho, I love the name because it's really different. Valentina Tereshkova was the first woman in space. The other classes are Tabei, (named after the first woman to climb mount Everest) and Cornaro (named after the first woman to receive a Doctor of Philosophy degree.) but of course class Tereshkova is the best. :)

The Junior Seniors

So...The first week of TY is over! Well it hasn't technically been a week, but you know what I mean. It's hard to believe that the year has finally started...it seems like the junior cert finished a couple of days ago to be honest! None the less I am delighted that TY has started, having a routine, and getting to see all my friends, shoutout to Gráinne who is watching me write this :) I've really enjoyed having new teachers and making friends in my new class. One thing I like about TY is the fact that everybody has to do all the option subjects. I've never done tech in my life so I'm pretty excited about trying it today for the first time! It's very different to all the other years, you're entering the senior cycle, yet you are the juniors of the senior cycle, if that makes any sense at all. There is completely different vibe in TY, no stress, and everything is a bit more laid back. So far, I don't think this year is a doss year by any means. We've already gotten two projects to do and homework on top of that! But I'm not complaining. We do a lot of group work (sci-fest, junk kouture etc.) and I really enjoy it as it gives me a chance to bond with my new classmates and get to know everybody better. My class (Tereshkova) are mixed up with the other classes in some of our subjects eg. maths, science. I quite like our class name this year but I'll talk about the exciting names in my next blogpost maybe?? Anyway I feel like this is getting quite long so I'll wrap up now, but can I just say how great it is to finally be in kilt... Right, here's my stop, I see y'all back here in my next blogpost, byeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!