Tuesday, 27 September 2011
Feeling geographical!
So I'm sitting here in IT class, and after blogging about the Solheim Cup and all the other happenings that have gone on, Mrs. L has influenced us to talk about Geography (funny enought she's a Geography teacher too! Never would have guessed!) In Geography at the moment we're doing an 'Around The World Trip', and its really so interesting. We've been working on it for the past while, but the most stressful part, believe it or not is getting the flights! We have a budget of €12,000 each. Ok that is alot seeing as there is two in the group (I'm working with Martha Brady, she wanted to be mentioned!!) and we're going to very exotic places if I do say so myself: China, Sweden, Russia, Meh-hico, Kenya, Tanzania and Chile! Its uber exciting. In Russia we're going to this gorgeous lake; Lake Baikal.. here's a link to this picture below
Sunday, 25 September 2011
"The Hills Are Alive With The Sound Of Music"
One very short, quick post dedicated to the beginning of the Musical! Woo, tomorrow it all begins, the practice, singing dancing and acting.. so excited. The cast list was put up just last week, and I want to congratulate everyone that got a part (especially the nuns and "Contestants in Festival" !) Can't wait to get started tomorrow, but first have to get a good night's sleep.
Talk soon xo
Talk soon xo
Golfers at the ready!
What a better way to spend your Friday afternoon than out in the sunshine in the beautiful grounds of Killeen castle watching the European and American women battle it out for the Solheim Cup (Golf btw!). During the week there was talk about the Solheim Cup in school, and students were given the chance to head along, free of charge! I don't know why I only decided to go on Thursday because it was such a great opportunity! There was about 15 girls, from 4th and 5th year that decided to go. We had very strict instructions from our PE teacher that there were to be no jeans worn or any tracksuits, which seemed very limiting. But we all looked as smart and as posh as you please heading of for the day. We first followed a group of the players around from the 14th to the 18th tee, it was such a gorgeous day - no clouds at all in the sky. The competition has been going on since Friday and ended today with singles. And believe it or not the Europeans walked away with the winning title :) Never understood golf so clearly until I visited this, its given my inspiration to get out and practice, the only thing I couldn't be bothered doing is the long 2hour walk!
Here's a link to the Solheim Cup website to get an idea of what its about & see all the players:
http://www.solheimcup.com/
Talk soon xo
Here's a link to the Solheim Cup website to get an idea of what its about & see all the players:
http://www.solheimcup.com/
Talk soon xo
Tuesday, 20 September 2011
End of an Era.
Little less than a week ago, on September 14th, all current Transition and 5th Year students spent the first couple of hours in school waiting on that dreded bell and the voice of the Deputy Principal to call us to the hall, knowing it was time to recieve our results for the Junior Cert. All morning teachers were making their best effort to calm our nerves, through meditation and charades!
In Third Year, no one could see past the Junior Cert. It felt as if the only thing that mattered was study, read, learn and study some more! Honestly, the 2weeks spent in doors as all other students in the school enjoyed the relaxing atmosphere of the summer, third years and sixth years were "locked" inside, with 2 exams a day, wasn't as bad as we expected.
But on Wednesday, the build up to the results and the end of the Junior Cert, was finally over. It seemed so informal , we were handed our results in a brown envelope and sent on our way. Some girls screamed with excitement, others cried, even before the results were opened. It was all over very quickly. I didnt look at my results straight away, I was too nervous and I didnt know if I wanted to know exactly how I had done. I would have been heartbroken to see results that I wasn't happy with, after the hours and tears I had put in throughout third year. But I was absolutely over the moon with the results, some I honestly did not expect and as much as I dreded the opening of them and receiving them, Im glad to say that I can now put it behind me.
Wednesday night, of course, brought with it: Celebrations! TYs and 5th years were almost unrecognisable with the dark tans, false nails, and dyed hair. We all headed to the "local" disco in a nightclub, Time. Each and every one of us had such an enjoyable night, which had to live up to great expectations.
Talk soon.
In Third Year, no one could see past the Junior Cert. It felt as if the only thing that mattered was study, read, learn and study some more! Honestly, the 2weeks spent in doors as all other students in the school enjoyed the relaxing atmosphere of the summer, third years and sixth years were "locked" inside, with 2 exams a day, wasn't as bad as we expected.
But on Wednesday, the build up to the results and the end of the Junior Cert, was finally over. It seemed so informal , we were handed our results in a brown envelope and sent on our way. Some girls screamed with excitement, others cried, even before the results were opened. It was all over very quickly. I didnt look at my results straight away, I was too nervous and I didnt know if I wanted to know exactly how I had done. I would have been heartbroken to see results that I wasn't happy with, after the hours and tears I had put in throughout third year. But I was absolutely over the moon with the results, some I honestly did not expect and as much as I dreded the opening of them and receiving them, Im glad to say that I can now put it behind me.
Wednesday night, of course, brought with it: Celebrations! TYs and 5th years were almost unrecognisable with the dark tans, false nails, and dyed hair. We all headed to the "local" disco in a nightclub, Time. Each and every one of us had such an enjoyable night, which had to live up to great expectations.
Talk soon.
Thursday, 15 September 2011
Off to Carlingford we go.
Early morning rise by the alarm clock on Monday morning at 6 o'clock, to head off to Carlingford Adventure Centre for two days. It was still the dead of night (or so it seemed) at 6 showing that the summer is defaintly over, and winter is here. Over the past couple years I've heard so much about Carlingford from past Transition Year students, some good and some bad responses, mostly people saying it was a brilliant experience, so I went with very high hopes. And they were certainly fulfilled! I was pleased with the fact that we were heading off on the trip the two days before our results came out. I didn't give them a second thought down there, which kept me much calmer.
We left for the centre at seven, some people still half asleep while others were wide awake jumping and screaming with delight that we were heading off on our famous Carlingford trip! We arrived at around 9 and no time was lost. We were given a room for our bags for the day (not our bedrooms, they had to wait!) and headed off to our first activity - Lasers! Everyone enjoyed themselves and really got into the spirit of things, especially with the army gear, including laser guns on. It was very similar to paintballing, without the pain and bruises! It was definatly a good start to the trip to say the least. We headed back to the centre for lunch, but it wasn't long till we were back out with more activities. We then were brought to "The Challenge Course" which was another hike to get to, as well as to the lasers. There was a mixture of team building excercises on this course, and it seems everyone gave it their best shot, loved the 'Communication Breakdown' challenge which was like a small maze in a shed, pitch black dark, and our aim was to go in and find our way back out again. Sounds easy but let me assure you it was a very difficult challenge when 7 other people were concerned & you weren't just worrying about getting yourdelf out. After hours of working as 'one'(!) and collecting our gems as prizes we went back for dinner this time to the centre.
After Spagetti we were super excited ot be going on anmother activity - Nightline, woo! This is when you're blindfolded and one had is one a rope and the other on the person's sholders in front and you have to communicate to tell eachother about whats coming like a tree for example ( I guess you've gathered by now that this was team bonding trip!). Of course when we got to the forest, it couldnt be drama free, oh no! Something had to happen, so we got a forest fire. Yep. It was across the bay so it certainly wasn;t going to reach us, ut the thought alone was scary enough! Us, at the back of the line saw the fire begin and spread, and spread.. & spread. It got kinda frightning to be honest, and the fact we were being blindfolded and been brought through and dark forest certainly didnt help.
With that big scare over we came back once again to the centre, to be greated by a visiting boys school. I guess you could say that some girls made a few friends? *Cough cough*., We had an enjoyable night in until we had to head to bed at 11, which only led to continuation of a party in the bedrooms, with sweets galore! Our goal was to do an 'all nighter' but we lasted only until 3:00, guessing thats not the earlier time to head to bed for anyway! But some how or another we got up at 7:00 the next morning and began our day with a bit or abseiling and rock climbing. I've never enjoyed something more, probablly becaue I felt like a little risk taker.. climbing up the mountain (?) face blindfolded! Very pleased with myself. Abseiling was great fun too, but can be very scary putting your trust in trees to hold you up when you're going down the mountain backwards!
Returning from lunch we finished up with orienteering and archery. The route for orienteering was so long they may as well have given us a mp of the world and told us to walk up and down the alps, some of the mountains felt just as steep! It was definatly a tough test of the fitness levels, and I can obviously say I was exausted afterwards.
It all seemed to end so quickly. We arrived back and within ten minutes we were walking and lugging my suitcase (:s) back onto the bus, where a lot of us took the chance to catch up on some much needed sleeep!
I hope I can speak for everyone in the year and say that the trip definatly fulfilled our high expectations, and that we bonded more as a group. I'm alreading jealous of next year's TYs and their trip to Carlingford, and hope they'll have just as much fun.
Thank you Mrs. L for organising the trip, and to Ms. O'C and Ms. B for all your help (and added fun!) on the trip!
talk soon xo
We left for the centre at seven, some people still half asleep while others were wide awake jumping and screaming with delight that we were heading off on our famous Carlingford trip! We arrived at around 9 and no time was lost. We were given a room for our bags for the day (not our bedrooms, they had to wait!) and headed off to our first activity - Lasers! Everyone enjoyed themselves and really got into the spirit of things, especially with the army gear, including laser guns on. It was very similar to paintballing, without the pain and bruises! It was definatly a good start to the trip to say the least. We headed back to the centre for lunch, but it wasn't long till we were back out with more activities. We then were brought to "The Challenge Course" which was another hike to get to, as well as to the lasers. There was a mixture of team building excercises on this course, and it seems everyone gave it their best shot, loved the 'Communication Breakdown' challenge which was like a small maze in a shed, pitch black dark, and our aim was to go in and find our way back out again. Sounds easy but let me assure you it was a very difficult challenge when 7 other people were concerned & you weren't just worrying about getting yourdelf out. After hours of working as 'one'(!) and collecting our gems as prizes we went back for dinner this time to the centre.
After Spagetti we were super excited ot be going on anmother activity - Nightline, woo! This is when you're blindfolded and one had is one a rope and the other on the person's sholders in front and you have to communicate to tell eachother about whats coming like a tree for example ( I guess you've gathered by now that this was team bonding trip!). Of course when we got to the forest, it couldnt be drama free, oh no! Something had to happen, so we got a forest fire. Yep. It was across the bay so it certainly wasn;t going to reach us, ut the thought alone was scary enough! Us, at the back of the line saw the fire begin and spread, and spread.. & spread. It got kinda frightning to be honest, and the fact we were being blindfolded and been brought through and dark forest certainly didnt help.
With that big scare over we came back once again to the centre, to be greated by a visiting boys school. I guess you could say that some girls made a few friends? *Cough cough*., We had an enjoyable night in until we had to head to bed at 11, which only led to continuation of a party in the bedrooms, with sweets galore! Our goal was to do an 'all nighter' but we lasted only until 3:00, guessing thats not the earlier time to head to bed for anyway! But some how or another we got up at 7:00 the next morning and began our day with a bit or abseiling and rock climbing. I've never enjoyed something more, probablly becaue I felt like a little risk taker.. climbing up the mountain (?) face blindfolded! Very pleased with myself. Abseiling was great fun too, but can be very scary putting your trust in trees to hold you up when you're going down the mountain backwards!
Returning from lunch we finished up with orienteering and archery. The route for orienteering was so long they may as well have given us a mp of the world and told us to walk up and down the alps, some of the mountains felt just as steep! It was definatly a tough test of the fitness levels, and I can obviously say I was exausted afterwards.
It all seemed to end so quickly. We arrived back and within ten minutes we were walking and lugging my suitcase (:s) back onto the bus, where a lot of us took the chance to catch up on some much needed sleeep!
I hope I can speak for everyone in the year and say that the trip definatly fulfilled our high expectations, and that we bonded more as a group. I'm alreading jealous of next year's TYs and their trip to Carlingford, and hope they'll have just as much fun.
Thank you Mrs. L for organising the trip, and to Ms. O'C and Ms. B for all your help (and added fun!) on the trip!
talk soon xo
Long time no talk.
For the past week I know I haven't made much of an effort really to keep my blog updated, it certainly has been a hectic week so far, to say the least, but once everything calms down and the hype of the Junior Cert is completely over I vow to blog as much as the others. Some people seem to have time to blog every 2minutes! So much has happened over the past couple of days I feel I need to dedicate a blog to: "Social Developing", Carlingford and of course the Junior Cert results day. I'll also blog this evening or tomorrow about our wonderful Thursday evening activities - pilates, photography and a little bit of Charleston dancing to keep us going!
talk soon.
talk soon.
Tuesday, 6 September 2011
First TY Blog!
This is the first blog I've ever written, I've never done anything like 'blogging' before. To be honest, up until now I didn't really know what blogging was! I've reached my second week of TY and I absolutely love it so far. I loved TY on the first day back but it seems not everyone felt the same way. We really didn't do much, but I've been looking forward to TY for years and Im so excited to be finally here , after a tough year last year, of continuous studying & work, work, WORK! We seem to have a great year lined up for us & I'm excited to get involved in as much as I can. This is a year which is more focused on Personal Development, rather than academics. We've been given plenty of stuff to keep us busy, though! Alot of projects, in almost every subject. I was so happy when I heard that this year we'll be doing a musical - 'The Sound of Music'! I can't wait, because I'm going to have so much spare time.. I really hope that I get some part, even backstage! I have an audition later today - in 25mins! Agh! Im excited but obviously nervous too. I'll keep you updated on the Musical throughout the year :)
TY!
TY!
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