Road Safety Talk

This morning, we had a talk about Cycling. A man came in and explained a bit about cycling and why we should cycle. We should cycle as its better for the environment, better for our health and doesnt cause traffic conjestion, which has been a big problem. He told is that in the Netherlands, people always cycle everywhere, in ordinary clothes. He showed us a video and it showed women cycling in heels, and people cycling in the cold, rain and without helmets. He explained that this is the norm in the Netherlands and they have much better cycling facilities, where-as here in Ireland, its much more dangerous, as alot of main roads, don't have a cycle path present, which means cyclists have to risk cycling on the road, which is extremely dangerous.
He told us that people in Ireland has alot of excuses not to cycle such as: Its too cold, its too wet and its too dangerous. I suppose these points are very true, but we should still find the time to cycle, in our local area, where its safe to cycle.
The speaker showed us a barchart of people who cycle in Ireland. And the result: 2% :L He then told us how many people cycle in the Netherlands, and it said 49% cycle.
Next week in school is cycling week, and people are encouraged to cycle to/ from school. I would if I lived closer and owned a bike :L

English Trip :)

Today, all TY's headed into town for an English/Art/History trip? We went to the WB Yeats Museum, Bog Bodies and saw some of JB Yeats.'s paintings. They were all really interesting, and I learned alot about WB Yeats. His life was very weird :O
His father was an artist and wanted his children to be artists as well but WB Yeats always found that his passion was poetry. It was also said that Yeats was maybe dyslexic? Alot of Yeats' poetry revolves around a woman called Maud Gonne, whom he had a serious obsession with and proposed to her roughly 10 times. Each time, she rejected him :( Maud Gonne had a daughter, which Yeats never knew about because she had always told him she was her niece. When he finally found out that she was, infact Mauds daughter, he proposed to her! o.O
Eventually, Yeats married a woman named Georgie Hyde-Lees. They had two kids together, even though Yeats had many affairs with other women, and spent the first few days of their honeymoon writing love letters to Maud Gonne :O But they stayed married :)

Work Experience: Day One :)

Today I started work experience in Hughes Pharamacy :) I was pretty nervous going in but soon forgot about it when I was greeted with friendly and familiar faces. My first task was doing an order, which is putting prices on each product that comes in and then stacking them on the shelves. It was pretty easy to do but took me aaages :O and i had to use on of those pricing sticker machine gun things :L which took me a while to get used to i kept getting confused :L
Then I got to go home for lunch cos i live just down the road so that was dead handy :) When i got back from lunch I helped make up a box of medical equipment, like sterile stuff, bandages and tape to send out to hospitals and other medical places. I got to work a tiny bit on the tills which I was nervous about because Im not so good with numbers :/ Before I knew it, the day was done and it was time to come home. Cant wait to see what I get to do tomorrow :)

Mini Company Competition

Yesterday, we headed off to Clane GAA Club for our Mini Compnay Competition.
When we arrived we went to an empty desk and started to set up our stand. We built the board and decorated our desks and waited for the judging. It was very intense and we were all really nervous to get judged. We walked around the hall and looked at some of the other groups from other schools projects. Some were extremely impressive :O

Evetually, we got judged and our judge was really nice and was very easy to talk to. He was very interested in our project and like the idea of our "Can-Do Plug Pop." After being judged we were free to roam around the hall and look at the rest of the projects. A group from Clane school were selling Balloon Bouquets and they had people dressed up as Mickey and Minnie Mouse and they had the proper costumes. It looked relly impressive :O
Some ideas were extremely imaginative and very advanced! Like a team from Clane created a solar panel charger from your phone/ iPod. I was actually amazed that a group of TY students were able to come up with the idea and actually get the product made :O It was amazing D:

I really enjoyed the Mini Company competition as we got to see the projects and it was a good day out, but I also really enjoyed seeing people from my primary school who I havent seen in a long time :)

Sometimes In April

Today, the two TY classes got together to watch "Sometimes In April", a movie about the genocide between the Hutu and the Tutsi tribes. We havent finished the whole movie yet, we will watch the ending after the midterm. We have watched most of the movie though, and its quite emotional and definately a powerful movie.
It involves alot of killing and emotional distress and Mrs L and Ms KB have been really great at letting us know that if we are uncomfortable, we can simpley leave the room if we wish.
The movie is about the Hutu's killing the Tutsi tribe. These were once people who got along, but the Belgains have turned them against each other, and caused the horrific genocide to take place.
I noticed some girls were uneasy watching the movie, but they showed great bravery in continuing to watch it.
I cant wait till after the midterm to finish watching it, as I am dying to find about what happens in the end.

Croke Park

On Monday 14th of Feb, we went to visit Croke Park and The GAA Museum for History.
We got the bus to Croke Park which was filled with the usual, singing beautifully on the journey there. When we got there we all piled out of the bus and went inside as quickly as possible to get away from the freezing outdoors.
When we went in, there was a man waiting for us, to bring us to a special room to show us a DVD about the GAA history and its sports. The DVD was very interesting, and showed the Irish playing hurling and gaelic football.
After the short movie was finished he took us outside the perimeter of Croke Park. It was enjoyable, but verrrryyyy cold :O
He showed us the players dressing rooms, and told us about what goes on in the dressing rooms before the team goes out to play their match. He explained that all the players have a different way of dealing with the stress, some are loud and excited, others sit and dont speak word to anybody.
The tour guide then took us to the "Players Lounge" where people usually dont get to go in. This really excited me. While we were in there the tour guide explained the history of forming the GAA and about its founder, Michael Cusack.
When we left the players lounge, we headed out to the Croke Park Stadium. I had never been before so I was excited to see what the fuss was about.
Its huuuuge :O We first got to sit in the special rows, where Mary McAleese sits, and then we got to go up to the very top of the statium and sit at the seats at the top. It was quite a drop down and alot of the girls were really scared :L
We went down again and we got to wonder around the museum ourselves and got to go to the cafe and get what ever food we wanted.
Our journey home was pretty much the same as going, filled with beautiful singing :P
It was a good day out.

Oisin McGann :)

Yesterday, 16th of Feb, we had a special visit from Irish writer and Illustrator, Oisin McGann.
When he came into the room, there was definately a good atmosphere as everyone was keen to meet him and listen to what he had to say. He was so interesting to listen to and he was really funny. He first explained his background information, where he lived, and how he became a writer.
Then he started to explain how he comes up with ideas for this books. He explained to us that he takes something simple, and turns it into something crazy, scary etc. He made up a story about a shoe while we were there and it was extremely imaginative and it was quite amazing how he could make up a story about a shoe.
He then explained that language plays an important role as a writer as he listens to how people speak in everyday life and then he uses that in dialogue for his characters.
He told us that he always keeps a notebook with him, where he can write down any ideas that he may have. He writes them in his notebooks so he remembers them because otherwise, he would forget.
We watched Oisin as he drew an illustration of a character named Hugo from his book. It only took him about 5 minutes to draw, and go over with marker, and it came out perfectly. It was amazing :O On it he wrote " To everyone at St Wolstans" and he signed it at the bottom :)
Oisin McGann was so much fun to listen to and I loved his crazy, loud and bubbly personality.