OUR LAST DAY (2016-2017)

Our last day...

By Cristina Padrón

   Hello! This unique experience is sadly coming to an end. Today was our last day in Ballyconnell, this evening, we've done something we don't normally do. The school is ten minutes away from where most of us live (Ballyconnell). This morning, I woke up at the same hour as always, 7:30. I had breakfast and then my host-father, which is really nice, took my host sister Rachael and me to the postoffice. There is were most of us get our bus to school. We started the day with english classes were we did some crosswords about Ireland's typical food. After that we went to the computers room and finished a Powerpoint we had started few days ago. Following that, we had 15 min of break and a while later, we had English again and then maths. We really enjoyed ourselves in maths class in consequence of we played a really interesting bingo. Succeeding that the school invited us to a restaurant were we ate a delicious pizza with some chips. The restaurant was really close to the school so we went walking. When we finished eating we returned back to the school and had Spanish classes. It seems a little bit weird that some Spanish people have Spanish classes, but it was actually a funny class. Eventually, the school headmistress gave as a certificate for participating in their classes. After that the bus was waiting for us to take us back home, so we hopped on and left the school. As I said before, this evening was kind of special, we all went to Rousin's house and had a little party. We ate Chinese, we danced and  enjoyed our last moments together. Finally we all went back home and started packing up our things.

BOWS AND ARCS! (2016-2017)

Bows and Arcs!

 By Marta Pérez y Laura Berdún

   Hi! We are Marta and Laura and today we are going to talk about one of our lasts days in Ireland.

Today we woke up at half past seven and when we ate our breakfast and got dressed we walked to school.  Once there, we waited for the bus played cards with our classmates. Afterwards, we got onto the bus that later will take us to a place similar to a sport centre. When we arrived at our destination, we were taught how to correctly hold and to use the bow and the arrows. Once we understood it, we were put into two teams of sixteen each one and we started to play the fist game of the day. My team was divided again into two mini teams and we made a battle between us with the bows and the arrows. But don't worry!! The arrows instead of points they had a plastic ball. When we were finished, we began to play the second game.

  This consisted of aiming bow with the arrow at the target. Into the target, there were four circles with different scores for each one. "It was great craic" (which is an Irish expression that means "it was good fun").

  When we finished all the activities, we got into the bus to go to the Mc'donalds. There were two buses, one smaller than the other one. When the small bus was driving, the bus driver realized that the PE teacher was not with us, so he had to turn around.

  We later arrived to Mc'donald, we each decided on which meal we would choose. There were some balloons which the people took and brought them home. After we ate, we took the bus again and we went to the school. Some of us went to their homes, and some stayed in the school, playing cards, waiting for the time we could go home, 4 o'clock 

   Later we arrived to our house, we spent the time playing with the children who are in our "family" and talking with our Irish mother "Sinėad" .At seven we went into Ballyconnell park where we usually meet, and we spent there two hours. It was so funny!

  Finally, when we arrived home, we had dinner, a shower and spent some time with the children and practicing English with our Irish father "Thomas".

  We are so happy with this experience. We think it is a special opportunity to practice and improve this language. The trip was so nice! We met new people and new things we haven't got in Spain. About the place, is beautiful and wonderful. We are very grateful to have had this fantastic experience. Without the help of our parents and teachers, this couldn't be possible.

Thank you!

SILENCE....RECORDING!! (2016-2017)

 Silence....Recording!!

By Julia Álvarez y María Morales

Hello, we are Julia and María and we are going to tell you our day.

   First we had to wake up like all the days at 7:30, It is Monday so we were so tired. We arrived to school at 9:00. In the first class we had geography, there we did groups mixing irish and spanish and the teacher tought us about earthquakes. Later we had history and we were talking about the discrimination of black people in America in the century XX. The next class was the drama lesson and it was so educational. At the break we had cold so we decided to stay inside the school.

   After that, we went to Cavan to visited a music studio and there we recorded some sounds, we played some musical games and it was really good and special. Later we and Luis accompanied Bea and Irene to their house because we wanted walk, after that we went to our house and on the way we saw some ships.
When we arrived home the father of our family said that he bought some horror movies, pizzas, sushi, and chocolate, so it was a good evening. While we was eating we saw a film with our family called "The conjuring 2" it was so scary. At night two friends of us came to our house to watch another horror movie,we had a good time all together. 

   The next day we will climb and do archery so we should go to sleep early for could have enough energy. So we wish good night to our family and we went to sleep because tomorrow it's going to be a good day. 

ANOTHER CUP OF TEA (2016-2017)

 Another cup of tea.

By Daniela Fernández

   As you may or may not know Irish people are very catholic people, therefore today we started the day going to mass. When we came home we had a traditional Irish breakfast, which of course had meat, sausages, potato bread and, how can we forget..., tea.

   After having a quite consistent breakfast like that, you don't really get hungry till the next day. So we didn't waste time and in less than half an hour we were at our first stop, a funeral (just one of the many they'd gone just in this week...). And yes, while we were there we also had another cup of tea. 

    The next place we went was the top of a hill where there were windmills, as we had a very sunny day we thought we could get a good look of the valley. For our disappointment it was actually pretty foggy down in the valley. Still, we got to take nice pictures of the landscape.

    Afterwards, we went down the hill for about twenty minutes into roads that were very small however we could still appreciate the pleasant views of Ireland with a gorgeous sunset. At the end of the road we were at the house of my "mom's" sister, where my friends are staying. We stayed there watching a movie until it was time to go to the party.

    The party was at a friends' house, they were celebrating their birthday. Most of the people who was there were Spanish, there also were Italians and Irish. It was great even though we kind of had to fight over pizza (because there was more people than expected). We had fun and we really enjoyed it.

Finally, we came home. And my lovely "family" had made for me a cup of tea, how could they not.

 

BOWLING! (2016-2017)

 BOWLING!  

 By Alejandro Ruiz

   Hello, I'm Alejandro Ruiz Hernández and I'm going to tell you my 9th day here. I woke up at 10:00 am to watch a football match. I went with Alejandro Engel and Fernando, both students of Claret school. Fernando is staying here throughout one year. At 12:00 the match finished, after the match we went to Fernando's house. There we played Ps4 and pool until 16:00, then Ambar's host mother picked me up. During the journey in the car I could enjoy the beautiful Irish green landscape. Once at the bowling alley we met the other Spanish people, we went bowling and we also played some arcade games machines. After going bowling we went all together to the park of Ballyconnell the place where we usually hang out and I bought a hot chocolate that was delicious!
   Finally we finished the day all togethers in a friend's house playing cards and dancing. It was a great and very funny saturday and the bad thing is that it has to finish :-(

FRIDAY 20TH JANUARY (2016-2017)

FRIDAY 20TH JANUARY

By Alejandro Engel

    Dia dúit (which means 'good morning' in Gaelic) from Ireland!! I can not believe we have already been here for 8 days, time goes by really fast when you are having a good time.Today has been one of the most enjoyable days of school.

   Well, friday here is the shortest day of school so much so that we get out of school at 1:15 pm. In the first class we had today we learnt a few of a new language for some of us: French. Which is pretty similar to the Spanish language therefore we can learnt French faster than other people. After French we had some free time, so we went to the playground and some of us played football while others played volleyball. Afterwards, we went to the computers room where we play Kahoot. Which is one of the best apps to learn new things in a funny way. In the last four hours of school we had Irish Culture. In order to have a different class we went to a kind of pavilion where we learn how to dance some tradicional Irish dances and we also dance some of our Spanish traditional dances. After dancing we had the break time in the pavilion all together. When the break time ended we continued playing games there and having lots of fun with the Irish students.

When school finished we hop on the bus and we returned with our host families. When I arrived home with my host brother Fernando, we played pool we ate some tosties because otherwise we would not be able to wait until six to have dinner. Afterward we play some PS4 and we watch a film. We had dinner at six, and because is Friday we ate take away because all fridays night my host family (which by the way is lovely) has the habit to eat take away food. After dinner we continue playing PS4 until seven when we got dressed and we went walking to the park which is close to our house. Once there, we met all the Spanish students and we talked and we laughed together until ten o’clock. When we returned home we take a shower and now we will go to bed because my host brother Fernando has a football match tomorrow early in the morning.

Slán(which means goodbye in Gaelic)

 

1st WEEK!! (2016-2017)

1st WEEK!!

By Javier Lorenzo

   We arrived to Ireland a week ago to live an experience that will change our lives.

   As every day, I had breakfast with all my Irish family. We ate some cereals and after this, I went to the school. The day started in the best way: doing some exercises like push-ups. Once this lesson finished, we learnt about the slaves in the United States of America in the History lesson. When the History class finished, we played some games to learn some English in the English class. When the bell rang, we started making food in the Home Economics class. When we finished, we tasted the food that we had made. Someone said that it was good, but others said that it was awful. It's interesting having this type of subject that prepares students for the future so it is useful. Once we ate everything, we had the lunch time so we were given a wrap. We ate it and we played volleyball for a few minutes, because there was not enough time.

We got into a bus that brought us to a Hall, it is a basketball court, where we played. It was fun! Then, we returned to the school where I took another bus that left me near the house where I'm staying. When I arrived at 4:30, Ann 'my Irish mum' was finishing the dinner. Once she finished, we ate it. Then we went to her sister's house to see the new baby that she had had. There, I met all her family. What I could realize that the Irish people are very kind and nice. About seven, I went to the park where I met a big part of Spanish students. We had fun! At 8:30 I was taken to my house. I had supper (I ate some toast with butter and jam) and then I watched the TV. It was a long day so I went to my room to prepare for the next day and finally I went to bed.

WEDNESDAY 18th OF JANUARY (2016-2017)

Wednesday 18th of January

By  Patricia Santana and Ámbar Suárez

   Hello from Ireland! It's our sixth day here and our third one visiting the new school. Today we woke up at half past seven, we had breakfast with our nice family and we got ready for classes. We walked to the bus stop and we met our spanish mates. Everybody was so excited about the new day! When we arrived to the college: the Irish, Italian and other Spanish students were waiting to start the morning lessons, they were really original! During that three lessons we learnt how to programme computers games, how to play the Irish flute and we said our first sentences in Gaelic. It was really funny! After the short break, while one group was cooking the lunch, the other one was working in the workshop. When we finish the class, we got together to eat the curry chicken that our partners cooked. It was delicious! And also a bit spicy! The lunch time was great, we played voleyball with the Italian students, so we enjoyed the 45 minutes. After the last three classes we went back home. When we arrived, our "mum" told us to go for a walk around a beautiful lake (here you have some pictures). After that, all the family had dinner together, we had a good time! It was really early, so we decided to spent our time in the park with some spanish friends. It was too cold and we were really tired about this hard day, so we returned back home to write this blog for you: we hope you like it and know more about our experience here. Kisses Ámbar & Patri