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.

Poland ? :DDD

Today we were told about a trip to Poland at the Halloween break :D yaaaaaaay :)
We got our permission slips today and our schedual for when we go there and my god I reeeally wanna go it sounds AMAZING! It'll be such an experience if I get to go Ive never been anywhere apart from France and Spain and Poland would be an amazing change (:
Im actually so excited even though I dont even know if Im going yet but ah well :)

On the trip we'll be going to a guided tour of Krakow including the Old Town Square, University District, Wawel Hill, Kazimiers & the Kewish Quarter, Shindlers Factory. We will also be going to an excursion to Auschuwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camp which omg would be SO interesting :o We get to visit Wadowice which is the birthplace of Pope John Paul. We'll get to visit the Wieliczka Salt Mines, Visit the Galicja Museum (with a chance of meeting a Holocaust survivor :O) and a 3 hour session at park Wodny Waterpark :DD


How amazingly awesome does all of that sound DD:

Home Ec cooking; Yumminess number two :)

On tuesday 8th we cooked in home ec. Myself and Ciara made Hips Pudding which contained pears,blueberries and orange. It basically looked like a giant blueberry muffin it was AMAZING<3 I must admit, myself and Ciara have excellent culinary skills :L
They are really easy to make and soo yummy :P

Careers

Yesterday in careers we took an interest test which was... interesting? We have to answer various questions and at the end it gives you a list of careers best suited to you. It told me that my career best suited for me was a phyciatrist, which I must say I wouldnt mind :) my second one was a pidetrition. EW! I hate feet, I hate my own let alone anybody elses! That would definately NOT be a career choice I would even glance at. Uuugh the thoughts sends shivers down my spine :L Despite that one icky career, the choices it gave me were careers I wouldnt even have thought about but some of them sounded quite interesting and I must admit Im looking at all the other options. I always had my heart set on being a vet and i always said no id never have any other career than that one but I realise maybe there is more than one career suited for me. Well, we shall see what happens :)

Subject Choice

Oh no :/ Subject choice in less than a week. I have an idea of the subjects I wanna pick but then Im worried if in the end, its not what I wanna do at all. Its all very stressful to be honest. Its pretty scary to think that in 2 years we'll be doing our Leaving Cert.. my god :O
We are all getting to speak to our guidance councellors individually to discuss subject choice and I'm hoping that will help me make my choice D:

Spanish Project

A while ago, we were assigned a Spanish project and we each had to come up with an idea to do our presentation on. First I picked art, but that was already taken so i couldnt do that, then i chose food which was already taken, then i chose the Canary Islands which wasnt so I'm doing my project about :) In my presentation I have a different slide for each canary island and in it i have things to do in each Canary Island. I feel like Im advertising the islands in my presentation :L
Some people have presented in class and they are really good :O we are given sheets by our teacher and we have to mark the person presenting on " Content, Presentation Skills, Spanish Laguage Use, and Delivery." 1 is the highest mark being Excellent and 5 is the worst being Improvement Needed. Our teacher said that the person with the highest mark will get a prize :)

Sci Fest ? :)

We are all to enter the Sci Fest competition in March. Everyone in the class is working hard but Kate, Aoife and I have a nice break after the young scientist as we are able to use all our information; posters, project diary and report book, from the young scientist for the Sci Fest competition which was a nice surprise for us as we are still wrecked after all our efforts on the Young Scientist :) We will, of course have to make a few changes but its all good :)

Movement Workshop

Today we had a Movement Workshop which is to help us with the drama competition. A guy called Ian came in and gathered us in the hall in a huuuuge circle. We did various warmups and stretches which was really fun :)
Then we had to partner up with some and I was with Orlaigh :) We were labelled A and B and then A had to do a certain pose and person B had to fill in the spaces by doing another pose and then person A stepped away and had to fill in person B's spaces etc etc. Ok its reeeeally hard to explain but it was really funny and was really enjoyable :)

Home Ec Project :)

We have been assigned a home ec project. We have to pick a country and we must cook 2 savoury dishes and one dessert from this country. Me and Ciara chose America as they have yummmmmmmy food :P Mise agus Ciara already cooked our first dish which was Beef Burgers. They were goooooooooood <3 We also made a spicy mayo to go with our burgers :o they were really nice. Our second dish next week, we are making blueberry pudding which, according to the recipe and the picture in the cookbook, looks AMAZING!! For our third dish we have chosen to make Mac 'n' Cheese ;D I cant wait because I've never had it before and Im dying to try it D:
For this project we also have to do up a presentation which should include, the country we chose, the geography of the country, the culture and the traditional and contemperary foods from our country. Me and Ciara need to get started on this as we havent started yet D: whoopsies :O