A great surprise

I woke up at 7:15 just to turn off the alarm and, as I have done this whole week, I fell asleep again. So I woke up for the 2nd time at 8:12, with only 13 minutes to get dressed, have breakfast and do what everyone does in the morning. 

I arrived to school and the awkward moment we've all been through came; yes, my classmates sang "Happy Birthday" in the middle of the canteen, while all the Irish students staring at us with a weird look on their faces. Some of them also joined the singing! 

An hour later, I had a terrible headache so Esther and the school's driver took me to my house so I could take the pill I forgot there. By the end of the day I was feeling better. 

We agreed on going to "The Keepers Arms" after school to eat, but I couldn't find my earphones, so they went ahead and Esther and Judit helped me to look for them. We didn't succeed, so we went to the bar too, thinking about asking the janitor on Monday. What I didn't know was that everything was a strategy planned by my friends, and at The Keepers there was a surprise party, because of my birthday! There was food, drinks, a pool (as in billiards), darts...

Although that celebration meant another awkward moment with the "Happy Birthday", we all had a great time. I really liked it and I am really thankful to everyone involved in that.

P.S: I found my earphones hehehe.

Ángela Jiménez :)

A Teddy Bear Factory

Today, we woke up at 8 and we had milk with cereales as breakfast. Then, Anne, 'our mum', left us at school. In the morning we had some classes but the most interesting one was Science. It was in laboratory, there we had to solve a murder. Then we had have 15 minutes of break and then we continued with the classes. At the afternoon we had lunch and then we did a very funny quiz with other Irish students. When we got home, we created our own teddy bear, because "mother" has a Teddy Bear company. First we maed it and then we dressed our Teddy Bear, and finally we chose a name for it. Marta's teddy bear is called Noah and Sara's teddy is called Lupi. At the end of the day, we had dinner, pasta with tomatoes. And that was our Thursday!

Sara Diez and Marta Cabrera ☺

Wednesday in Ireland

This Wednesday started like always. I woke up at 8 and after some cereals and played with the dog I went to school. After this, we have some funny subjects like Arts or English, in the playground  we start talking with some Irish people and we had fun talking about silly things. After this, me and some friends from Canary Islands go to a relaxing experience that consist about the budism culture, we were ther over 2 hours and it was a very nice place.

Seriously, it was the first time I saw combinated nature and a sunny climate in Ireland (more or less). That was the nice part from my trip of Wednesday. Then we went to school again and after we stay some time at the Angels Rest pub, we had some hot chocolate to drink and it was such a nice way to end my day.

Darío.

Our first two days of school

MONDAY
We woke up around 7:30 to go to school. We were very enthusiastic because it was our official first day of school. We got dressed and then we went downstairs to have breakfast with the family. We walked to school with James, who is our biggest host brother.
Once there, we were divided in three groups. Our group first class was English and we did like a short test. After that we studied USA in Geography. At 11 was the break, where we stayed all together in the canteen. The next classes were Chemistry and a class all together.
In the lunch I ate a wrap. After the 45 minutes for lunch we went to Maths and Construction (a new subject for us) to finish school.
We walked home again and ate spaghetti for dinner. Then, Alicia and I went with Ángela to drink a hot chocolate. Mmmm, it was delicious! We waited for some other mates and we went to a meeting in Ballyconnell, that was called, "mantain active". We walked around the town and we saw some sheeps. Then, we went back home and with the “good night” of our family we went to bed.

TUESDAY

Today was a really exhausting day. The morning was very similar to the previous day. Around 9 we started school. We had Music all together, we learned about all the family instruments in English. The next class was English, we were taught some new vocabulary. After that, we had the 15 minutes break. When the fifteen minutes were gone, we went to Physics and Business.

We had the lunch and finally, Music again and Maths.

We had a burguer for dinner and a really nice chat with our host family. Around 5:30, Ángela, Diana and Marta came to our house to watch a film. Then, Andrea and Judit came too and all of us together went to a Zumba lesson. It was so tiring. When we finished Zumba, we came back to Bawnboy and went to “Keeper’s bar” with the rest of the group. We ate something and played pool.

Now, we are writing this :) Good night everyone!

Alicia Jiménez & Alejandra Suárez

Sunday in Ireland

Hi! We are Jorge and Miguel and we are going to tell you about our first Sunday in Ireland. In the morning, we tried to go walking to Northern Ireland, but we couldn't because of the time and because we got distracted playing with the snow! so we came back. In the afternoon our family brought us to a soccer training and later we went to the Keepers, a local pub, to have dinner, drink some cokes and play pool all time. After that we came back home to sleep because we will have school the next day and we have to wake up around 8. But finally we decided to go out again and meet the girls at the Anglers Rest!

Jorge Hernández & Miguel Ángel Artiles

Let it snow!

On Saturday, I woke up super cold, and when I looked at the window it was snowing! I was very excited. After having breakfast, I played fetch with the dogs. They were so fluffy! At 12:30 I ate, and later Catherine Kelly ( Marta and Cristina's mother) picked me up, we were going to a shopping centre in the Northern Ireland ! Diana also joined us. We had so much fun, we bought some clothes and we ate some sandwiches and wraps. Around 5 the left me at my house where I had dinner with my family. We ate meat with vegetables, it was delicious! At 6:15 Frank, the middle brother of the family brought me back to Marta and Cristina's house. There they had dinner and later we played cards with Ryan and Jack ( their brother's). We enjoyed and laughed so much. It was a very nice day.

Sqlán abhaile! 

Vicky González Arencibia

 OUR FIRST DAY IN CAVAN

It was around 8 when we woke up. We were so tired because last night we arrived very late, but finally we decided to get up.

In the kitchen we met our “family brothers”; Dani,Cormarc, Connor and also Magg that is our “mummy”. Cormarc that is 15 years old like us and Dani are very friendly and funny. Around 9, school started and we met all together in the cantine with Carlos, the coordinator. He told us that there can be one or two depending of the subject per course.

We got a small tour around the school. Then we had a break at 11:15 to have breakfast. We end the day at 1:55 with a fire alarm(simulacrum)

Magg organized a birthday party for Ana, and an hour before we went to the supermarket to buy the food for it. We spent a very great time with all our friends, teachers and family!

Marta Guadalupe & Ana Boronat.

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.