Gaisce Hike!

   On Friday the girls that are doing the Gaisce award went on a hike. We went home at lunch time and got dressed, ready and had lunch. We met back at the school at 2.45. We were all excited to get going and we headed out to the bus. 
  When we arrived at Kippure at about 4.30 and put our bags into the hostel's mini bus and walked up to the houses. We left all our bags in a room and headed out straight away for the hike. We all started out eager and enthusiastic but soon enough our energy ran out when we started to climb uphill. We took a few breaks to say the least!
  We arrived back to the houses at 9 and we were put into houses. We all showered, got into pyjamas and then had our dinner. It was really nice to sit down with everyone and relax. Because we were up early in the morning we didn't stay up too late. 
   To put it mildly it was a struggle getting up in the morning. My room got up at 7.45 to help Ciara make the breakfast. We  called the others awake and had a good fry with rashers sausages and everything. We had to get ready quickly then clean up after the breakfast and leave the house tidy. 
   We met outside the houses at 9.45 and drove to the start of the farthest mountain we were hiking that day. The instructors then told us that we were hiking four mountains that day. That came as a shock. We were better though on Saturday than the day before and took fewer breaks. The instructors couldn't believe how much food we ate at the breaks but as Michelle said we couldn't believe how much they hiked! 
   We finished the hike at around 3.00 and headed back home. It  was a great two days and we all had lots of fun! :)

Swim A Mile!

   Last Friday our TY year and the LCVP class went to the National Aquatic Centre to swim a mile. We were organized into groups and I was with Hazel and Michelle. A mile was 64 lengths of the pool so I had planned to try and swim 20. I was surprised when I was able to swim 46 lengths as I'm not a great swimmer! The money we raise by getting sponsors goes Barretstown and Crumlin Hospital which are both worthy causes. After the swim we went to Blanchardstown where we got something to eat and did a bit of shopping. Overall it was a great day :)

Music Night

   The Thursday before the Easter holidays we had the music night. Our class did a performance of the song "Hello". After practising hard  for the performance we pulled it off and it sounded good. I also accompanied the choir and we performed "Caresse Sur l'Ocean" and the orchestra. I had lots of fun because the whole year was there, it was a good night!

Mini Pilgrimage and Bowling!

   On Wednesday we had a busy day. In the morning we got the bus to Kildare Town. When we arrived at the heritage center we were split into two groups. My group stayed outside and Mr. Kerrigan talked about the  the torch outside the heritage center  We then went in to the center and  watched a documentary on the history of Kildare Town. After the documentary we walked to St. Brigid's cathedral. It was there she had founded her original cathedral. Since then it has been rebuilt and is now made of stone. We went outside then to look at where the fire used to burn to show that it was a monastic settlement. Mr. Kerrigan told us then that if we walked around the round tower backwards 7 times we would see the man we will marry in our dreams that night, unlucky for me I don't remember my dreams! We got back on the bus then and we got off at the Japanese Gardens, we walked to a well where we said a prayer. 
  After our mini pilgrimage we went to Whitewater Shopping Center where we had our lunch and then we went bowling. Surprisingly, I won the bowling on my lane and I even got two strikes! :)                         

Retreat

    Last week our TY year went for a retreat in Tallaght. When we arrived at the retreat centre we arranged ourselvers into groups of people that we were comfortable talking with. It was a good opportunity to stop and refelect on our lives and to get to know each other. I really enjoyed the day :) 

Last day of work experience

   Last week was our last day of work experience. I really enjoyed my time in the cafe so I was sad to leave.  I'll miss everyone I worked with, they were all so nice and helpful! I gave the manager a card and a box of chocolate which she really liked. I hope I can get a job there in the future :)

Scifest

  On Friday morning we had our Scifest competition. We have been working on our projects since September so it was good that we could display our work. Our project title was "Do Sporting Activities affect your Academic Performance?"We found out that sports reduced your stress levels and in the long term it would improve your academic performance. When the judges came around we had to explain our idea and results. In TY we had to present many things (e.g. Mini Company) so I was less nervous talking infront of the judges because of all the practice I have gotten this year. Here is a picture of Cliodhna and I at our poster.

Choir Competition

    Last Friday the choir went to Wesley College for a competition. We performed the song "Caresse Sur l'Ocean" from the movie "Les Choristes" and I accompanied on the piano. When we arrived at the school we were shown to our room so we could practice. We were all really nervous as we were going on first. Luckily there were no mistakes made and we were really happy with our performance! After we had performed we sat down to watch the other choirs. We were amazed at how good they all were. Some of the choirs had toured Germany and other countries, performed on the radio and had to audition to get a place in the choir. The standard was very high. When the winner was announced we weren't surprised that it wasn't us but we were still happy that we performed so well. Later on when we were in the cafe we found out that we got 82 points out of 100. We were really pleased because the winner got 86 points and we would have come third place if it was announced.  Overall it was a good day :) This is the singers from the movie performing "Caresse Sur l'Ocean" 

Darfur Genocide

  In religion we were assigned a project to on areas of conflict. My group chose to do our project on the Darfur Genocide. Darfur is located in the west of Sudan.The killings began in 2003 and continue today. The genocide is bring carried out by a group of government armed and funded Arab militias known as the Janjaweed. Their aim is to ethnically cleanse the Islamic region in the Darfur region. This genocide is similar to the one of the Jew and so far 400,00 people have been killed. The Janjaweed destroy Darfurians  by burning villages, polluting water sources, murdering, raping and torturing civilians. 

Lollipop Day!

 Last Friday all the TYs helped fundraise for Lollipop Day to raise awareness for oesophageal cancer. The day was a great success! When we arrived to school we were given our t shirts and caps and we left at 9.15 to head into Dublin. We walked to Powerscourt where we got our collecting bucket, lollipops, stickers and balloons. We were put into groups the previous day and were told where we would be collecting so we walked to these areas. The lollipops were 2 euro to buy and were really nice! I bought a few myself :) We collected there up until half one when we started to walk back to Powerscourt to give back our collection buckets and t shirts. It was a very cold day and we were all freezing but was definitely worth it for all the money we raised!




                     

Pieta House Bagpacking

   During the midterm volunteers from our TY group went bagpacking for lollipop day. I went on Friday from 1-3. It was for a really worth cause and I'm glad I did it because we raised lots of money! 

                                   

JabbaJabbaJembe!

  Yesterday the TYs had a percussion workshop. Dave from "JabbaJabbaJembe" came to our school and we learned all about African style of drumming. The first thing he told us was that the drums that most people think are bongos are actually called djembes. 
   Starting off he did a beat on the djembe and we repeated after him. We then went around the class introducing ourselves and we did a beat on the drum. 
  My favorite part of the workshop was when he showed us a rhythm that we all repeated . We added other instruments to the beat and it sounded really good! Dave taught us a song that we sang with the drums. I really enjoyed the day! This is a picture of Dave and some of the drums he had :)

                               

Mini Company no more..

Today we found out we didn't get through to the mini competition :( We were all really disappointed by the news because we all put a lot of work into it. We felt that we deserved a place in the competition but we're happy with the work we put in and the outcome of our product. We watched a movie in religion though, that cheered me up

Mini Company Competition

  Yesterday we had our mini company competition. Our group "Stuzic" was short listed and we won the award for innovation! 
  We came in early in the morning to the hall to set up our stall. We had a poster that had our logo and slogan on it that we pinned up to the board. Ciara brought in a white tablecloth that I drew music notes on. We had a laptop with all our songs so that people could listen to them and Ciara's phone with the preview of our app as we are waiting for it to be published. We had our CDs, musical instruments and customized balloons saying "Stuzic" also at our stall. All the girls in our group wore t shirts with our logo and name on it, jeans and our dubes. 
  When the judges arrived they went around to each stall to look at the products. When they came to ours they were really enthusiastic about our idea and thought it was a great concept combining music and study together. They listened to one of our songs and said that it sounded very good.
  When the judges were finished looking at all the products each group went up to make a 3 minute presentation. We were really nervous about the presentation but it all went well. After the presentation the judges asked questions, luckily we knew all the answers of the questions they asked and we were really happy about it.
  The judges announced the winners of each class for innovation, stall presentation and the business report. We were really happy when we found out that we were on the short list for the competition and that we won the innovation award.
  The third and second years then came in to see all the mini companies. Myself and Kate went around to them explained our idea and encouraged them to go to our stall to listen to the songs.
  Overall it was a very good day :)

Mini Comapany Stress!

 The mini company competition is next Monday and the pressure is on! My group is selling a cd and hopefully soon an app. The cd has nine popular songs with the lyrics changed to study notes. The purpose is to make studying easier and more enjoyable for Junior Certificate students.
  I have spent the last week almost living in my friend's house recording the songs! It is really time consuming as if a small mistake is made you need to start again.
  Luckily we have all the recording finished now. We are now working on publishing the app and the written report. The app is made but we have to enroll and pay 80 euro to publish the app on the app store. We contacted computer science students in Maynooth who previously helped us with the app for their advice and they told us to go for it. We hope to sell enough cds to pay for enrolling to publish the app. 
   This is a preview of our app to come!

BT Young Scientist

 Last Thursday we went to the BT Young Scientist. It was a really good day. When we went in we first looked around at all the projects and found the group from our school. Corrie, Lauren and Aisling's project was on the effects of heavy school bags on the neck, shoulders and spine. The project was really good and they won an award for best presentation.
 We then went to what we thought was a simulator but turned out to be a robot war. I actually enjoyed it but my friends weren't as impressed so we made a sneaky escape because it was very long!
  For lunch we went to the shops outside and I got chips and we went back to the canteen to eat. After lunch we went to a percussion workshop which we had signed up for earlier on in the day. It was ran be Irish Aid and we learned how to play the bongo, congos etc. It was great fun and we sang an African song while playing the drums. 
  In the arena they had a show with a huge robot. It sang songs and entertained the crowd with some jokes. Unfortunately we had to leave early because we had to be back for 2.45 for the bus.
  All in all it was a great day and I had loads of fun :) 

Back from the holidays!

  We are now back from our Christmas holidays and to be honest it is a shock to the system getting up early again. The last day before our Christmas holidays we had a fun packed day. It started off with a Christmas party for all the TYs in the library hosted by my class (Cairdeas). We brought in food and Aisling dressed up as Santa and gave out all the kris kindle presents. We then went bowling in Newbridge, unfortunately I didn't get a strike :( It was so much fun though. After we went to Newbridge Shopping Centre to get lunch. Overall it was a great day and we were all ready for the Christmas holidays.

  We're only back two days and we have a good week ahead. I start my second work experience placement tomorrow. I am doing it in a cafe in Maynooth, it should be good fun. On Thursday we're going to the BT Young Scientist. This will be my third time there and I'm looking forward to it because it's always a good day.