Gaisce Hike!

30 of us TYs headed off to Kippure in the Wicklow Mts. to partake in our 25km hike which we needed to do to complete the President's Bronze Award. We were so excited and had bags full of food to last us a week even though we only went for one night. This was another challenge we were willing to take up! When we arrived we dumped our bags in our houses. I was in house Gryffindor! We then set off on a 13km hike for the night. After the first km i was wrecked and I reckoned we had just about covered half of the trek. I was soon disappointed to find out we had another three hours to go. We hiked through fields, forests and very wet bogland. We crawled through a 5000 year old tomb which used to be used as a meeting place. I for one would definitely not like to hike up to the top of a mountain everyday just to hear all the news.

The night in the house was one to remember. We stayed up all night, making ourselves dinner and brownies, and watching High School Musical and some other cringey movies.

Next morning we were woken at 8 o'clock and set off on another hike of 12km hike. We were a lot quieter that morning than we had been the previous night. We were all so tired and the cold was certainly a shock to the system. The second day was more uphill with a lot more wet and boggy land. At the end of it all it felt like such an achievement to have completed 25km in just two days! It was such a fun weekend and I'd love to do it again!

Nationals with Bressie

We were so nervous going to our national bank competition. We had no idea what would be in store for us that day. When we arrived we unloaded all our bags and had a lovely breakfast :) Then we went into the chill-out zone to relax before our important interviews. The chill-out zone was mad! There was a silent disco, a giant draughts set, penalty kicks, air hockey, a cinema screen and loads more! We practised our presentation on the big stage with our podiums and microphones. We were then called out to do our interview. It was in a tent looking thing called a 'hub'. It went on for twenty minutes and we each spoke about the different exciting aspects of our bank. The interviewers seemed very impressed. Next up, dinner was served in the hall. It was delicious! There was a great performance at the beginning of the presentations with loads of acrobats and dancers and stilt-walkers. It really got us in a great mood :D Then the host of the day Bressie came out! :o He also performed on the day which was great because it was like our very own private gig! The songs just kept on comin'! :) He awarded us with our plaque, renaming us 'St. Waltons' and admired our outfits :) It was such a great day and one of the highlights of TY for sure!

We are the champions!

Our school participated in the West Leinster school sporting events and we did pretty well. Students from our school took part long jump, triple jump, javelin, shotput, hammerthrow, relays, sprints, hurdles, steeple-chase, high jump and more all in the hopes of taking home the gold. The awards system was based on points so wherever you placed you got a certain amount of points for it. The girls did extremely well in all events and we managed to take home the first place prize for Junior Girls, Intermediate Girls, Senior Girls, and the most important, Overall Girls for yet another year! Most of the competitors will now be continuing on to the Leinster finals now and our school is so proud and excited to be winners again :)

Retreat

I went on a retreat to Glendalough, in the Wicklow Mts, today and it really got me thinking about my beliefs and my actions. Here is what I remember about the day. 

Swim A Mile With A Smile

Yesterday all of Transition Year took part in the Ian Daly Swim A Mile With A Smile. It was one of the highlights of the year so far :) Ian Daly was a local boy and my friend Eimear's brother. He was diagnosed with a brain tumour at a young age and after much fighting, unfortunately he died. He loved to swim so the Ian Daly Swim a Mile With a Smile was set up. It is a sponsored swim to raise money for Crumlin Children's Hospital where he was treated and Barretstown.
I swam a mile with my friend Niamh, and altogether us TYs managed to swim over 40 miles altogether, beating the previous record of 25 miles. We all did the best we could and it was a really enjoyable day for everyone. Hopefully we managed to get a lot of sponsorship too to help out :)
Thanks a lot to Brian and Laura Daly who do so much work to organise everything! We loved it :)


Click here for Swim A Mile Website

Easter Break

We're just back from our two week easter break. Although I didn't really do much it still went too fast! :( As soon as we got off school I went home, got ready and went out to see 21 Jump Street. It was one of the funniest movies I've seen in a long time! with Channing Tatum, a skinny Jonah Hill and Dave Franco.
Next day I had my last hockey match of the season which we won :D There was a rush home and then we all went out for dinner and then out to a club :)
Didn't do much for the rest of that week other than major reading of The Hunger Games and then saw it in cinema, it was brilliant!! Most of the rest of the week consisted of eating chocolate and catching up on my favourite TV shows like 90210, Bones and Pretty Little Liars.
There was also a huuge bank meeting during the week to get ready for the Nationals next week. It took SEVEN hours! I don't know why, but we always underestimate the amount of work we have to do. We also get seriously distracted a lot of the time...
On Saturday it was my hockey club's annual fun day with 6-a-sides, barbecues, cake stands, bouncy castles, facepainting and obstacle courses. It's always the best day of the year :D It was soo much fun and I had a great team with all my friends. Our theme was Where's Wally so we looked really funny playing the matches. That night was the awards night and it was weird to see everyone so dressed up, I'm used to the hair up, old tracksuit look. It was a great night and I'm looking forward to seeing everyone next season :)

Around the World in 365 days

In geography class we did projects based on our 'Arount The World' Trips. It was a really fun project to do because I got to learn a lot about different countries that some day I'd like to visit. We had to present our projects to the class, so here is a slideshow of one of the countries I chose to visit, Dubai.

Jitterbug

Last night was the school's annual music night. For the last couple of weeks we have been preparing to perform Wake Me Up by Wham! in music class. We did lots of practise and then even before the show when everyone had arrived we ran through it a few times to make sure we got it right. No offence to anyone, but we all know our class isn't very musically gifted, so we decided to just go out, try our best, and most importantly have a bit of a laugh. (Easier said than done when you walk out to a full house and the music doesn't start..) We managed to get through the song pretty good though and it was such a relief walking off stage that nothing went wrong! :) And well done to other TY classes Eriú and Banba too! Their months of preparation really payed off and they were brill singing Shake It Out by Florence + the Machine :)

Dia Daoibh

Here is a paragraph in the Irish language. If you need it, here is Google Translate, but I find most the time its not very accurate so just go with it..
Tá mé ag scríobh as Gaeilge anois. Gaeilge ná an teanga naisúinta anseo in Éirinn, ach fós ní labhraíonn a lán daoine é agus níl a lán daoine in ann a bheith ag caint as gaeilge freisin! Is aoibhinn liom Gaeilge! Thosaigh mé ag caint as gaeilge nuair a bhí mé an-óg, roimh thosaigh mé ag freastal ar bunscoil. Déanaim rang gaeilge sa scoil agus gach samhradh téim go dtí an gaeltacht - an áit is fearr sa domhain! Tá a lán gaeltacht difriúl, ach tá siad an-mhaith :) Sa gaeltacht, téann tú go dtí Contae na Gaillimhe agus fánann tú sa teach ann le daoine eile ar feadh trí seachtaine. Téann tú go dtí ranganna sa maidin, déanann tú spórt sa tráthnóna agus san oíche bíonn céilí (discó) ar súil. Déanann tú a lán cairde nua agus bíonn ana craic againn ann :) Chuaigh mé go dtí Coláiste Chamuis agus Coláiste Sheosaimh. Bhí siad go hiontach! :D Ba cúintóir mé freisin, sin an duine sa teach a raibh ag tabhairt aire (agus ag tabhairt amach!) le na daoine eile sa teach agus ag déanamh cinnte go raibh gach rud ceart go leor. Post an-deacair é sin ach an-taitneamhach :)

Seo é mise agus mo theach roimh an céilí gléasta suas :)

Seo é mo theach sa craobh comórtas amhrán :)

On the Brain

I've always been interested in Psychology so I decided since I have so much time in TY I would get more acquainted with the subject. I enrolled myself into evening lecture classes in Trinity College Dublin and I got the bus into town every week to attend. I started in October and the classes went on until Christmas and then again right up until last night. I learnt lots of different things such as how your brain works, how babies learn to talk, criminology, how psychotherapy works, how stress occurs and all about different mental illnesses and behavioural symptoms. It was all very interesting and I'm really glad I did :) At first it was a bit awkward being the only person under the age of 25, I still stood out even though there was about a hundred other people in the hall. I'm still interested in psychology now but I've just been shown that there is so many different aspects and specialities that you can focus on and it would be hard to choose.

Lá Glás sa Halla

On the Friday before St. Patrick's day our school had the annual Lá Glás (Green Day). Everyone in school gets to dress up in green and Irish themed costumes e.g. farmers, Irish dancers, a tea bag! Usually there is a huge céilí in the courtyard where the music is blasted from the speakers and everyone jumps around trying to perform traditional Irish dances. My favourite is the Dreolín :) Unfortunately this year due to the poor weather the céilí had to be in the hall. It was still great fun and the prefects did a great job putting the whole day together. Everyone really enjoyed themselves :)



2 seconds.

2 seconds was all it took for Ireland to miss out on making it to the Olympics for men's hockey.
Last Sunday I went to UCD to watch the qualifiers and it was all very exciting! I watched Ireland beat Ukraine by 12 goals to none! During the week I kept an eye on the results and Ireland had not lost a single match. I really wanted to go back so I decided to volunteer at the matches for Paddy's weekend. It was a great experience and the work I had to do honestly wasn't even hard. I even managed to meet the President of Ireland, Michael D. Higgins, and I touched the Prince of Malaysia! The Qualifying Finals were on Sunday and Ireland was battling Korea for the top spot and a place in London this summer.
14 minutes in the first goal of the match was scored from the rebound off a short corner for Ireland :D Everyone in the crowds was so excited but we knew that we'd need to keep up a good fight against Korea, who from the start have been our big competitors. Korea then managed to get a goal in after 30 minutes leaving the score as 1 all for half time.
Ireland kept great possession of the ball overall, were awarded another short corner and a goal was conceded by Cockram (the tournament's top scorer). Unfortunately while the team and supporters were still on a high from Ireland's new-found lead, Korea took advantage of this and scored on the break. :(
Korea had a golden chance to get ahead minutes later, but a phenomenal Harte in goals kept their shots out. Coming close to the end of the game we had all accepted that the match would continue on into 15 mins extra time. But with just 8 seconds left on the clock Irish hearts broke. A free in to the Irish circle was given to Korea and with one slight touch off a stick the ball found itself in the back of the net. 2 seconds left on the clock. The Irish players fell to the ground. The whole stadium was silent. Even the Korean supporters there understood how we felt. It goes to show that even after 4 years of training, once your on the pitch every single second counts.
I was really proud to be Irish a supporting the team that day because they worked so hard and they were such an inspiration to all hockey players in the country. They did everyone so proud :)

Source - Irish Hockey Association

Super $uper €uro's!

We had our Regional AIB Bank Competition last week. We got the bus early in the morning to Leopardstown Course and registered with our two student officers from the Celbridge AIB branch. We went to find our stand but it was incredibly easy as it was the first one you saw as you entered the big hall. We changed into our superhero costumes and then went upstairs for morning refreshments and received plenty of funny looks. After a rapid set up of our stand. everything was looking good and we were ready. 
The judges were introduced and then they walked around to look at the stands and question all of us bankers about the running of our bank. We were all extremely nervous but at the same time, who knows more about our bank than we do? The first judge came and went and it was all such a relief then that we had survived our first interrogation. Another woman came over then and she seemed very interested with our bank and the simple concept of 'fun'. We showed her our videos of us on Kildare TV, us running around the school in costume, and our slideshow presentation. We explained all our promotions and she walked away very impressed :)
At the prizegiving presentation, it was announced that the Super Euro's Bank from Celbridge had gotten into the top ten! We had to go up on stage and Caitriona our bank manager gave a 2 minute speech with the rest of us watching the countdown clock on the big screen! Caitriona was shaking so much I had to turn away to stop myself from laughing! But she did really well!

As the head judges deliberated on which four would go through to Nationals, we devised a plan of our own outside. We staged a flashmob and as the judges came back into the room they hadn't a clue what was going on! The first bank that was through to Nationals was none other than the Super Euro's Bank from Celbridge! Woop woop :D We couldn't believe it as we all sat there in silence thinking there must be another school from Celbridge! But it was us!!

This is us receiving our prize!

We were so so excited on our return to school and couldn't wait to tell everyone the great news! :D

Jabba Jabba Jembe

Last Tuesday, a guy who referred to himself as Dave came in to teach us how to play the drums. We were soon corrected that the drums were NOT called Bongos, they were Jembe's from Africa! These drums were huuuge! and so loud! They were really fun trying to capture the rhythm and then we tried out all the little instruments like shakers and bells. We split into different groups and played different rhythms to make a song. We actually sounded pretty good.? After a series of just playing the same song over and over again it got a bit tiresome and the headaches were beginning... and then the next day too..

I present.. Illuminate

On Monday stress levels were high for all involved in Illuminate Mini Co as the Kildare Enterprise Board Regional Finals would take place later that day. To prepare ourselves we presented our product and speech to a fifth year class. They gave us lots of feedback and support :)
After we set up our display and suited up like professional businesswomen, we sat through 16 other presentations, and a very yummy lunch. Last but not least it was our turn. We stepped up onto the stage and took a look around. I don't know about everyone else, but I was shaking as I stepped up to the mic. I introduced my team and it took off from there..
The questions they asked us at the end of our presentation were terrifying! But luckily the other Illuminators had it under control and calmly showed the judges that nobody knows our product, the Illumakey, and our company better than we do! :)
As the judges deliberated we made some sales and caught up with our loyal supporters; Ms P, Ms B our school principal and Sive's Mam :)
There were 17 competing mini companies altogether and only 6 awards; Best Display, Best Business Report, Best Presentation, Best Innovation, Runner-Up and of course the Winner. The judges came back in and there was nervous whispers all over the room.
Although obviously hoping for the best, I didn't really expect much, especially because we were nervous about not having our own Managing Director there alongside us. Best Display was awarded to a watch company and Best Report Book was awarded to a web company. Best Presentation was then awarded to none other than Illuminate!! It was really exciting and we ran up to the stage to accept our prize! 
This really proved to me that if you put in enough hard work and energy you can succeed, despite any hiccups you might have on the day! It was a really great day and I'm really proud of everyone in Illuminate! :D
I'm sure those fifth years never expected that award entering our school anyway :L

Ef Em Won Oh For

This week we were out exploring the world of work once again.
I was lucky enough to receive a work experience placement in FM104 'Dublin's Hit Music Station'. It is the best radio station in Dublin and I was really excited because I've listened to the station for as long as I can remember! I was also glad to have the company of Sive and Shannon :)


So week started out pretty slow and we were just sitting round on computers all day :Z It wasn't what I expected at all and I thought perhaps I made a mistake in applying for a placement here.
Luckily by the third day things were starting to pick up. We got too call people who won cinema tickets for a text-in competition which was nice because you could hear how excited everyone was when they found out they won :)
We got a tour of the studios and learnt how to work all the different computer screens, buttons and faders. It was really cool.We also scripted a radio ad and we got to produce it ourselves! This was so much fun and we spent a good while on it :)

The next day we uploaded pictures of the Olly Murs concert to the FM104 website and the pictures went up immediately which seemed really weird :L We also labelled prizes so they could be collected by winners in the big prize store room which had thousands of CDs and loads of really cool prizes! We made a list of suggestions for goodies :) and we sorted a few competition entries. In the afternoon we got a talk from a lady from marketing which was really interesting because there is always so much going on and she really has to be two steps ahead of what's happening. I was also introduced to none other than Adrian and Jeremy! I was a bit star-struck because I've been listening to their show for years!  And their voices don't really match their bodies at all!

Finally I got a chance to cruise around with the 'Alfa MiTos' around Dublin handing out goodies, getting people to request songs and promoting FM104. It was really fun that day because it was nice to get out of the office :) They also showed us the FM104 Roadhog which is a massive truck and a radio show can be aired live from it. It was being set up outside the O2 for a concert, Florence + the Machine for that night so people can take a look at it.


I was glad it actually turned out to be a good week and I wish I had at least one more day there :( I can still listen in though and now I'll know all the little tricks and methods of how the radio station is run.

Catch Up!

So mid-term was good, I lazed around, visited family, hung out with friends, went to Time (a disco) etc, etc.. I came back to school on Monday morning feeling relaxed and was looking forward to getting back into routine. However this past week has been anything but routine! Emotions/feelings of the week include: Happiness, Anxiety, Excitement, Stress, Ecstatic, Exhaustion, and like a dream!


Only in TY!...
Monday: Did teddy rolls in PE, handed in a 4 page essay in English, had bank bant for the rest of the day :D
Tuesday: Designed b-e-a-utiful jewellery in Art based on a deep inspiring concept (of which I'm still waiting to find out), ran around the school for a while dressed as a Super Hero, and watched a french movie/slept with my eyes open :Z/ate lollipops :)
Wednesday: The day of the long-awaited Mini Company Competition! Illuminate was short-listed! :O
Thursday: It's hard to believe that anything really happened that day or if I imagined it all! Read all about our bank launch day here with The Original Rudeboys and Johnny Doyle!! Us Illuminators also found out we got through to the Kildare County Final for the mini-company competition! :D
Friday: "Please support Lollipop Day for the Oesophageal Cancer Fund!" - Never said a single phrase more in my life! We sold lollipops and badges in Dublin City to raise money for the Oesophageal Cancer Fund. It was also a great day :) Lollipop Day Website

 

I'm absolutely buzzing for next week now too! I'm going to FM104, a huge radio station in Dublin, for work experience! I hope I will get to meet lots of famous people and do fun things there :D 

Bridgid's Day Out

So last week on the 1st February it was St. Bridget's Day. (also Harry Styles' Birthday! Yay :D ) We have been learning a lot about St. Bridget recently and working hard on our projects. St. Bridgid is the patron saint of Kildare, where we live, so on Tuesday we took a bus trip to Kildare town. First stop was a look in the Kildare heritage centre where we watched a video all about Kildare. We then walked over to St. Bridgid's Cathedral, a church of Ireland cathedral. It was a huge stone building with stain glass windows that had pictures of loads of saints. At the cathedral, there was also a round tower that used to be the tallest tower in Ireland until the top got knocked off. We walked to the original St. Bridgid's Well, which is just beside the National Stud and the Japanese Gardens. We said a prayer and then blessed ourselves with the water. Some people collected the water in bottles to bring home. We then went to the other St. Bridgid's well which was in a lovely garden. We walked around it while saying one decade of the rosary. There were five big stones in the garden, each representing something different. We walked back to the bus very tired and cold, but it was still a great day and we all felt good for going on the pilgrimage :)

Source

Click here to see what my class have been working on and to learn more about St. Bridgid!

Desert Flower.

In religion class we have been learning all about gender equality. A great example to show how to get equality is in the movie Desert Flower. This is the life story of the famous model Waris Dirie. Here she is: 





Waris had a hard life. She grew up in Somalia looking after sheep and goats. When she was 3 years old she was genitally mutilated. When she was 12 or 13, she was going to be sold off to an old man to marry him, for a camel. In Somalia at this time young girls were an equal trading price of one camel. Shocking. Waris decided to run away to the city where she was then sent to the UK to work in the Somalian embassy over there. 
She found a new friend and got a job in a fast food restaurant where she was discovered by one of the top fashion photographers at that time. He was drawn to her beauty and approached her. She accepted his offer and joined a model agency. As Waris was working her way up in the modelling business, she still had struggles. She faced deportation and quickly married a friend of hers so she could remain in the UK. She also became quite ill and learnt that the way she had been treated (getting genitally mutilated) was not right and that it doesn't happen to everyone. She was angry and upset. When she became a very successful model, she used her fame to speak out against gender inequality and let her incredible story out to the world so that everyone would know what was really going on. Since,  she has been campaigning very hard and Female Genital Mutilation has been banned in Somalia. 
When you think about all the work one woman has done, it would be amazing to see what could be done if gender equality is accepted and practised universally. This story is inspirational and educational. I learnt a lot from watching the movie and I would definitely recommend that everyone watches it at some stage, or reads the book!