Swim a Mile With a Smile!

Hey guys,
Its that time of year again! Tomorrow  myself and my year are going to be taking part in the swim a mile with a smile charity fund raiser for Crumlin children's hospital and Barrets town. The event is for a really good cause and was set up by my friend Ms.E and her family. The event is Basically what its says in the name, You swim a mile with a smile :) you don't have to swim it on your own you can swim in teams and split the 64 lengths equally, but this year I am going to challenge, myself and try swim the full mile :) Going door to door for sponsors has not been very successful for me so far but  im still trying and im making progress. I have left a link below to the swim a mile with a smile website encase anyone would like to join, it so so so much fun doing it each year and im vary excited for tomorrow!  wish me luck and ill be back soon to tell you what happens :D 


http://swimamile.webnode.com/
 Here's a picture from last years fun :D

Trust me, Trust me, Im a Geographer

Hey Guys,
In geography this year we have benn focusing on the world and its cultures. So as part of our summer exams we have been given a challenge. We must take something (anything) of interest to us and research how it is globaly displayed in  different cultures  and  set a geographical slant on it. I  have a huge intereest in animals so i am going to concentrate of a certain species and see who  this species has adapted  to their enviornments around the world :) wish me luck!

S.O.S... p ( Seeking Overlycreative Smart....poeple)

Hey Guys,
So im guessing yous have read the amazing trilogy of the hunger games ! if you havent leave now and do not return until you have. SO i have an assignment in English to take any scene from the amazing books and write it in another characters point of view. Seeing as there are so many scence anyone want to help me choose one ??

Challenge accepted!!

Hey guys,
So  one of Mrs.L's blog challenges this month is to make a blog post in a different language! So i decided to get in touch with my cultural side and I am going to blog in.....(Drum Roll).....Gujarati!
( for those who are not fluent in this language google translate come in very handy ;)
અને આ ગુજરાતી શું લાગે. તેથી પણ આ અઠવાડિયે તે મારા મહાન મિત્ર માતાનો કેટ જન્મદિવસ અને ચોક્કસ મૂર્ખ માણસ કે હું છું હું સંપૂર્ણપણે ભૂલી ગયા છો! આવે છે. તેથી હું કેટ, જન્મદિવસની હાર્દિક શુભેચ્છા કેટ અને મે આ બ્લોગ પોસ્ટ સમર્પિત તમારા જીવનના આગામી 16 વર્ષ તેજસ્વી કરવા માંગો છો.

Okay so that was my best attempt but google translate proves me wrong so in case anybody was left in stitches by that random message this is what i really meant to say;
And this is what Gujarati looks like!. So also this week It is my great Friend Kate's Birthday and being the absolute idiot that I am i completely forgot!. So I would like to dedicate this blog post to Kate,  HAPPY BIRTHDAY KATE and may the next 16 years of your life be brilliant.
Here is also a link to Kate's blog  if you want to read some of her great posts :)
http://katelikeskangaroos.blogspot.com/

TEArific Lá Glás!

Hey guys,
So myself being Irish a very very very important event has just gone buy in our calender, St.Pa tricks day!  And to celebrate Paddy's day and seachtain na Gaeilge our school had Lá Glás!  so basically every body dresses up in a themed Irish outfit and it can be anything crazy from the great Barry's tea bags to a glass of Guinness or a culchie farmer to a bag of tayto's crisps. Its all a bit of banter and its all for a good cause as each student who dresses up brings in €2 which is then donated to a local charity, its the best of both worlds :)
So then at lunch time every student in the school comes down to the hall and we all join in the fun of a good old Irish Cheile organised by the prefects. Even if you never did Irish dancing before everybody joins in to have great fun and involvement to great Irish songs and there are awards given to best dressed costumes and best dressed teacher.
All in All the day way GO IONTACH  and  it makes me proud to be Irish :')

Myself and Cat in our costumes on the way to the hall at lunch.
  Every body getting their Jig on ;)
 the schools Irish trad group belting out their best tunes
 Our TEArific prefect tea bag costumes

Hockey Hockey Hockey.. and did i mention Hockey?

Hey guys,
SoYesterday we had our Leinster Hocky semi final against Rathdown in Rathdown. It was one of the most difficult matches i have ever played and it was literally a fight to the death. Even tho sadly we lost 1-0 i could not be more proud of our team and they are the nicest and most talented bunch of girls i have ever played with. We wouldn't have gotten as far as we did without our amazing manager Mrs.C  and next year we will go the full way and win some silver wear!


 

Till sudden death do us part

Hey guys,
So yesterday  was the leinsters hockey quarter final. A few other girls and I from the senior team tagged along to help mentor the team and help out on the sidelines. The match was so so intense and we were so proud of the girls performance! they battled for every ball  and had the crowd on the edge of their seats.
At the end of full time tho the score of the match was 2-2 but our girls were not about to give up just yet!
with the match quickly heading into extra time the score once again ended as a draw at 1-1.... The teams were evenly matched and nether team was about to give up. When extra time ended it went straight away into penalties ( it was like our last years final which didn't end well all over again :( )  BUT once again at the end of penalties  the score was a draw  AGAIN  I'm telling you now those teams were  just amazingly matched. so then... DUN DUN DUUUUUUUUHHHNN the match went into SUDDEN DEATH penalties and who ever scored first would win. Our girls battled so hard and  their team work was outstanding even tho in the end the girls lost with one goal. But they kept their heads high and we could not have been more proud of their performance's.  But i know the next year the girls will go up and beyound and will be the winners :D and tomorrow  they will becoming to our senior hockey Leinster Semi-finals... Wish us luck !!

Celebration all over the nation

Hey  guys!
So some of you may not know, and sorry that I'm a week late  to blog about it but, Last week on  the 1st of February it was  St.Bridgid's day! WOOOH YAY This is a very special holiday in Ireland especially in Kildare because here in Kildare was she lived and set up her convent.


We went on a trip to Kildare town to visit the historical sites related to St.Brigid. We went inside her cathedral which was very interesting as we saw lots Brigid crosses hanging up on the walls and on a Concrete statue of bishop Wesley there was a fertility mark! it is believed that if you touch it you Will become very fertile!.( also our creative Ty's found out the fact that the bigger your backside  the more fertile you where haha) Next on our trip we went to St.Brigid's kitchen  with was a small passage underground which apparently  years ago  had hundreds of tunnels leading around kildare so if there was an attack on the cathedral  people could escape. (unfortunately it wasn't a real kitchen like i taught it was). After that we went to The round tower at the back of the church. It was very interesting to know that it was the  tallest round tower in ireland until its cone roof fell of which lead to it being the second largest in ireland today.


After We finished are yummy lunch we went walking (a very long walk) and  we visited st.bridgids well. We prayed around the well and took jars of her holy water. I found this experience very  relaxing and  it took a load off my shoulders as Beside the well there was a tree where people could tie something small like a ribbon to the branches. I tied a woolen tread from my hat  around one of the highest branches i could  find to remember  my nana's and grandads that are in heaven looking down on us, and my baby cousin trease. I now feel happier that st.bridgid is with them.


So that was the end of the trip and we went home happy and snoring from our tired treck. I loved learning more about st.Bridgid and it made me more proud to be from kildare. I also found out that she is popular not only in ireland but that she is infact the patrant saint of australia! its so cool because we are working on projects to put up on our blog so that the school in australia can learn our experiences too :D

Model of the original Town

St. Brigid's cathedral 

Me getting to ring the bells in the cathedral 

The Famous round tower... Its HUGE

St.Brigid's Flame

St.Brigid's Kitchen

St.Brigid's Statue and holy stream

The first of St.Brigid's wells 

The woman herself St.Brigid 

St.Brigid's well

Tree beside St.Brigid's well, where we could tie strings praying for our loved ones alive and passed

Money money money its so funny, in a rich mans world

Hey everyone!,
So i have some news for you. In our school we have managed to get our school bank up and running for the 2012  AIB build a bank challenge. 6 pupils were chosen to run the bank and  i was one of those lucky students to be chosen to help run the school bank with my fellow amazing bank members. Now i know no body wants to hear about banks these days because they are all doom and gloom but our school bank is a lot different!. We chose a theme of super hero's for the heart of our bank and thus we created the Super Euro's !   and our slogan is Euro-k to save today!


Our goal is to help our school community to save for their future and to put a fun twist on it. We are officially opening the launch of our bank on the 23rd of February  and we have pulled out all the stops to  make it a fun and special event for the bank and all our wonderful members. We have personally lined up special guests  to help us promote our bank as local hero's,  We have pounded the pavements in all types of weather and with the massive help of our local village  shops and restaurants we have got some AMAZING prize's to be won  by all our little bankers :D. We have also plastered our school with posters promoting the school bank and with the help of our lovely principle and vice principle we were allowed to around the school dressed up as super hero's to help promote our bank even more. 


Our regional competition is on the 8th of march and and we are working very very hard to make our school bank  blossom and thrive because our goal is to help all our customers save and learn to save while having fun and making friends. We really do hope to go far in the competition, but even if we don't we will never forget the great experiences we have gotten from this opportunity.   


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETxmCCsMoD0&ob=av3n   <just a little tune to get you in the banking mood ;)

Hold my popcorn and pass the tissues.

Hey guys,
So today All Ty's went to Mullingar  to attend a drama competition today. In class Fódla we got to watch all the drama preformed by our fellow students and this is me review of the day :)
 The competition opened up with a group doing a dramatised version of the well known poem, midterm break by Seamus Heaney ( click here to see the famous poem ). This poem is about the death of a little 4 year old boy and the emotions that took place during the funeral. The girls pro trade great emotional depth during the play as they gathered around weeping and mourning over the death of the infant boy. The lighting on the stage was very dim often the only source coming from a candle placed in front of the coffin. After family and friends  gave their condolences  the grieving sibling was left to weep by his brothers small and fragile coffin. Not seeing seeing the her brother in over 6 weeks their was an almost (very dim) but bright moment as the boy only looked to be in a slumber. Sadly the dark bruise on his forehead brought back the harsh reality of the scene. I will not forget the moment when we were shown directly into the the soul of the grieving sibling as she tortuously  choked out the line " A four foot box, a foot for every year."


Next up was called What are you looking at ? a play that focused on bullying, rumors and the fact that even the worst of people need help sometimes. It all started with a girl being bullied by the school bully Jenny. If dealing with jenny isn't hard enough the girl is now also pregnant with jenny's boyfriend who deny's even knowing her. Left alone with the whole schools spreading rumors about her  Amelia, one of jenny's "friends"  lends a hand to her  to help her trough her pregnancy. Soon enough the whole school admired her for being so brave about having a baby and even jenny's "friends" began to turn on her. Jenny's so perfect life on the outside turns out to be quite the opposite as the audience are let into her home to find that her parents have abandoned her for 2 weeks.  The head strong, domineering Jenny is suddenly pro trade in a new light as drugs manipulate her mind into thinking ever one is against her and that she is nothing but a piece of dirt on the earth. She only bullied others to make her broken life feel better but in the end no one was there to give her a helping hand like Amelia helped her victim.... And Jenny dies of a drug over dose..... 
                                                                                                                               The music the group chose to use in the play became very important as the lyrics told the audience how to feel and also  what the characters where going trough. Every person involved showed brilliant acting skills and even tho it was a sad tale I would like to see it again. ( at this drama dissolved into a final black out, the backs of my eyes stung as I battled hugely to fight away the tears)


The third drama to be preformed  was  set around a song called concrete angel. ( click here for a link to the song concrete angel ). Now this is the drama that made my heart contract and left a steady stream of water fall down my cheeks. This drama tells a story of a 7 year old girl called Holly and her struggle to hold onto to life as her drunken other Victoria abuses her. Not even Holly's dad notices the blue and grey bruises that creep out from  under her white cardigan.  Slowly in school the once chirpy and bright Holly is falling behind as the fear of having to face another beating from her mother blocks her concentration. Holly's teacher begins to notice the bruises on her arms and informs her father. Unfortunately Holly's dad takes this the wrong way and storms out of her office in anger.  Not expecting the sudden return of her husband Victoria is caught beating Holly in an alcohol driven rage. But .... time had run out. As Holly had tried for so long to hold onto life and to be brave against her mother, she looses this fight as she is brutally hit over the head with a glass bottle.... As the the bottle smashed into a hundred pieces  so is holly's life.  As Holly's dad is left left crumpled over his daughters body trying desperately to awaken her, the nearing ambulance sirens are only useless. In the closing scene  family and friends of Holly gather around her grave mourning and admiring the brave fight this little girl put up with a smile always on her face. The story closes with  her father talking of how brutally his daughters life was robed from her, and as the scene ends so does the torture that brave holly was put trough.


The Actresses in this drama had quality acting skills and caught the audiences breath with ever spoken word. The affects of Victoria beating holly were fantastic and so realistic even under the horrid circumstances. The lighting trough the play was always dim and the sound effects striking. Each ingredient in the play played a vital role into making it its perfectly polished performance..... and also made me tankful I brought tissues in my bag!  


Last but not least The final drama also fitted around the awareness of bullying and how serious the consequences were. It all starts with two girls named Tubby and Tich. Tubby and Tich are not your everyday student. Just because they dress different  and love school they are bullied by everyone around them. Always there for one another the two managed to battle trough it and have fun together with their knowledge. This is until all becomes to much to bare and Tubby moves schools. As she confronts her bullies, Tubby makes a new start in her new school and can now look forward to not being verbally attacked. Meanwhile the story isn't the same for Tubby. Left alone with no one to help, the verbal attacks evolve into Physical ones which slide under the attention of teachers in the school. Tich is finally pushed over the edge and begins to think the no matter what she did no one would even notice if she disappeared forever. 
                                                                                                                     In the closing scene we see Tubby laying down flowers. Her dear friend Tich is dead. At only 12 years old  her life was ripped away from her  by the seriousness of bullying. As her only loyal friend Tubby is also the only one who notices her absence. Hopefully Tho Tich is now in a better place were she will be appreciated. 


This final drama may have been last but defiantly not the least. Each actress really got into their role and even when they were not focused on the still acted as if the spotlight was on them. Alot of effort was put into this drama and it defiantly payed off as  it was a brilliant performance. 


All in all i really enjoyed our day out and i really do hope that our school does well in the competition because they really put in tremendous effort.


        

To do? or not to do ? that is the question......

Hey guys,
So i have on my hands a HUGE decision to make and i just don't know what to do!!
Next week we have to pick our subjects that we will be doing for our leaving cert (ahhhh). Not only will these choices affect how i do in my leaving cert and if i get into college or not its going to  affect my Career and life! I want to do veterinary nursing when i leave school  so i really really really really want to go UCD college. When making our subject chooses we are given a piece of paper and we write i 1-4  list of option subjects we want to do. out of these 4, we can only do 3 for our leaving.(its kind of like voting). i have decided my 1 and 2 as biology as chemistry, but as my number 3 i am so tied up on whether i want to do art or technology !!. 
I have to do maths English Irish and Spanish so these 3 options are my own in decision making. And i have done everything and i mean everything to try and help me choose.

1. I have gone to talks about the subjects at leaving cert and i have borrowed books to see what the work is like.
2. i love both subjects with a passion and i love the teachers that teach them too.
3. I have flipped a coin and lost the coin so ill take that as a sign that gambling faith wont help me....
4. I got the same grade in  each subject in my junior cert state exams so i have the same ability in both.

I have done EVERYTHING and i DONT KNOW WHAT TO DO !!!
SOMEONE PLEASE HELP ME !!

(clicking red sparkley pumps) i want to go... no not home to AFRICA

Hey guys,
So as part of  Mrs.L's blog challenge we have to write a blog post about somewhere we would like to visit when we leave school. I would love love love to go to Africa to visit an animal safari and see the wonder and beauty of  Africa's wildlife. Ever since i was little i never really watched cartoons on Disney channel or cartoon network, i was constantly glued to watching David attenborough Documentaries about the cruel and wonderful life in the Masai Mara. I really have a passion for animals and want to work as a vet when I'm older but when it comes to  watching wildlife i would never put an animal under sedation just to stroke it. Lions and leopards and many other animals in the wild are beautiful  but i would stick to watching them from afar where we are both happy.
Hope fully (fingers crossed) if i do well in my leaving cert and  go to a good college and  have a good job, Some day i might just be able to save up enough money to go visit the vast planes of the Masai Mara for myself and experience the its so famously tolled stories.

 
 

Say Cheese! :D

Hey guys!
So we are just after comming back into class from taking our class and student photos. For the first year ever i actually taught mine turned out well! we normally take them in 1st year, ty, and 5th year  and the difference in how much we have changed is shocking! all the girls looked so lovely standing out in the morning sun (which is a rare for ireland) and im so happy i dont have my breaces anymore from my 1st year photo. When each girl was going to get their picture taken i really remembered how much i love my class and im going to be sad  in September when we are mixed up into our 5th year classes.

you know qhat they say, Better late then never :)

Hey everyone
 So i have been a bit of a bad student lately... i have gotten so caught up in my Ty adventures that i forgot to blog about a very very important topic we did in religion class back in December. We watch  a film  about an African girl who grew up in Africa and  grew up with its cultures. Her name is Warris Dirie. In The Film young warris like all the other girls in Africa is "cut" as part of her marriage culture. Warris makes a difficult decision to run away from her life and family when she is forced to marry a man who she does not love. When warris comes to England she learns about all the new cultures and is discovered by a famous photographer. This is the point in the film when warris discovers that normal woman in the developed world are not "cut". From this point on warris's story is told to the world and she makes it her mission to get this cultural "cut" so that girls around Africa can live a comfortable life and never be looked down on  if they are not "cut|.
This film really spoke to me because i never realised the Lenghts cultures in different country's went to in developing country's and how painful the sacrifice's women made just to make them selves worthy for men. an yet we are still the most unluckiest race in the world ?