Sci fest or sky fest???

A couple of days ago we went to sci fest it was an experience. We arrived early enough because we had to leave at 8 and when we got there we saw a lot of projects. My group was in the physical sciences category and we were put into a lab with a few other groups...we felt very important. Then the judges came around and analysed our projects which was fun but after our third judge we were getting tired and Hungry! After lunch we went to a few lectures i went to one on alcahol. Then there was the awards, we listened to the speeeches and then he began announcing the winners he called out the juniors first and then the intermediate which was us. There was a first and second place for each catagory and he announced that we had come second which was amazing because we felt we blabbered on in our second interview so we were very pleased and even more pleased when we got a 15 euro voucher for one for all. Then they called out the winner of the catagory which was roisin p and lauren m. This was great as another project from wolstans had won a prize . Then they had a space award i think which wasnt in a catagory but it was a seperate thing and ciara m, saidhbh h and oriana f. won this. Then they announced the winner of the biology catagory and that was aoife b, kate e and steph hanan who in the end won the overall award so out of 180 projects st wolstans won five awards...not a bad day all in all! well done everyone :)

Sylvia Plath

In english we are learning about Sylvia Plath. It was very interesting watching the movie about her life as you really got an insight into the experiences in life she had to deal with such as the infidelity of her husband Ted Hughes and in the end the fact that she felt she was alone in the world with two small children led her to commit suicide. Reading Sylvia Plath's poems made me realise what a gifted poet she really was and part of me believes that her life and her difficulties fuelled her to write better poems because of the emotions she felt during her difficult times. So whether or not she realised this,ironically the one thing in life she was really passionate about which was to be the best poet she could be and when she was depressed and did not feel like she wanted to be alive she suffered but her poems did not, they improved as people could feel her emotion through her words on the page so as cruel as it might sound, the saying "there is a silver lining in every cloud" comes to mind as even though she was suffering she managed to succeed in her lifetime dream which was to become a poet who people could read and relate to and because of this she is a world famous poet and in my opinion her poems have been some of the most powerful and emotional ones i have read to date.

Gaisce hike (mini Carlingford)

Over the weekend a group of 16 students went to Knockrea in Wicklow to undertake a 25km hike as part of Gaisce. At first i was a bit apprehensive as 25km did seem like a lot to walk over two days but i was looking forward to it anyway. We left the school at 2 pm on Friday accompanied by Ms H and Mr K. We all had our bags packed to the brim with food and we were ready for the hike. We arrived in Knockrea youth hostel at around 3 pm and we met our instructor Bill. We were then given our room keys and we headed off to the rooms to get settled and ready for the hike. We couldn't believe our eyes when we walked into a state of the art bedroom with two bathrooms but not only that we walked in to find there were two floors!! After we got over the excitement of our 5 star rooms we went downstairs to start our hike. Everyone had their hiking boots on and we set off on our hike. The hike was surprisingly good fun it wasn't as gruesome as some of the ty's last year had said it was :L and the scenery was just beautiful we ate our lunch overlooking powerscourt waterfall it really was spectacular. After 3 hours walking we had completed 20 km which was a lot more than was predicted we would walk and Bill said we were one of the fastest groups he ever had. This also meant we wouldn't have much to walk the next day which was great. We arrived back at the hostel at 7 pm and we then made our dinner which was fun and then chatted for awhile. After that we watched 50 first dates which was funny and then we headed off to bed. The next day we woke bright and early to a spectacular view of the valleys and mountains outside our bedrooms. we had breakfast at 8 40 and then we were told that we were going orienteering and then going to do archery and then team games we were all delighted and the rest of the day was filled with people falling off logs and hitting bullseyes in the archery area. The trip was finished off in the best way with everyone buying a 99 and eating it on a sunny afternoon in Enniskerry! :D

music night-memories....

last week we had music night! we had been practising for awhile in music class for the music night and it was good to finally sing our song "Mamma Said". It was really enjoyable as we all blasted out the song and really had fun doing the moves. I was also in the choir where we sang "to a wild rose" which was fun aswell as we opened the night with this song. Later on in the night a group of us did a dance to the song "Memory" from the musical "Cats" we accompanied a third year singer who was absolutely amazing at singing and it went really well on the night. Everyone had a great night and that's a credit to everyone who took part doing solo's or group acts and especially to the teachers Ms o'Reilly, Ms Gilsenan who organised it all and a special thank you to Ms Ward who let us take part in doing the dance and helping us choreograph it. It really was a great night! :D

i can ride my bike with no handlebars!

The other day we had talk on cycling and why its important. The man who came in to talk to us talked mainly about the reasons why people dont cycle in ireland and so on. He talked about weather and windy narrow roads being very popular reasons not to cycle. It was a good talk and made me really want to cycle around just to help the environment. The problem of cycling to school is i live four miles from the school and the roads are quite dangerous :(

jabba jabba jembe and david :D

A couple of days ago we had a percussion workshop involving drums called jembe's which was really fun and interesting at first we were told to bring in the jembe's and there were about thirty or forty of them. Then we each took one and he started to show us how to play them. It was really good and it gave us a taste of some of the african culture which was an enjoyable experience! i definetly recommend it! and Charlie his dog is very cute :L

bog bodies??..

yesterday we went to dublin to go see the national museum of Ireland and the gallery of Ireland. The first thing Emnet did was go and visit the national museum and we looked at the prehistoric times. It was very interesting and im glad i picked history as a choice subject because it was really intriguing! After that we visited the bog bodies and that was amazing as the bodies were so preserved you wouldnt think they were thousands of years old! Then we went to the Yeats museum and that was fascinating as we learned all about his life and it was funny to compare it to my life as his was very different. After that we went to the national art gallery which i enjoyed but im not very interested in art so i probably enjoyed the museum a bit more. It was a very informative trip and very substantial for the leaving cert.

im off to college :D

for my work experience i went to university limerick. The reason i went was because i dont really know what i want to do when i finish school and i thought a good way to find out would be to go and try out the different courses and lectures. I found the work experience daunting at first as all the students were around and i felt awkward being there, but that soon changed when i got used to the place and got to know the students who were really nice and funny. What we did on a day to day basis was going to practical sessions or lectures in the different courses we did such as engineering,architecture,law,sciences(mostly biology and chemistry) physiotherapy and languages. From all the courses i went to i soon learned that my interest lay in science and i realised i really want to do something as a career in science maybe biomedical engineering. One of the days i even disected a rat which was pretty fun so i think all in all it was a great learning experience and im really glad i did it!

a trip to croke park...

before midterm we all went on a trip to Croke park. It was really enjoyable. Ive been there a couple of times but this time there was some new showings. at first we went into the meeting room and watched a film about the preperation of the all-Ireland football final, this was interesting as it wasn't so much focussed on the actual match but the preperation of it. Afterwards we went and saw the players changing rooms and the VIP area. This was pretty fun to see as it really is one of the few luxuries of the sport. After that we went to see the players dressing rooms, both dressing rooms are the exact same which shows the equality in the Gaa as in soccor stadiums the home teams dressing room is a lot more extravagant. one of the rooms that links to the dressing rooms is the training room which players can use to warm up and let out a bit of nerves. I liked that room. then we visited the highest seats which true to its name were very high and i didn't really like it as it was too high to actually see the match. Then we went to the corporate boxes which were nice but i dont like them as you dont get the atmosphere of actually being in the stadium with other people its all very excluded. to finish it of we went to the gaa museum which was fun as we played all the games! all in all it was a great day :D

the mystery of the blood sucking shoe...

before midterm we had a workshop with an illustrator named oisin mcgann. he was really passionate about his job and you could tell he really took it seriously he talked about how if you were an athlete you would live a certain lifestyle, eat a certain way and for writers its the same, he talked about how he carries around a notepad so if he gets an amazing idea he can write it down so it wont be forgotten. he talked about how he comes up with his ideas and how anything from everyday life can be interesting and can be the foundations of a very good story. he was very interesting and he would really inspire you to become a writer!

mexican chile cookies..desert no. 1

for our home ec. project we have to make 3 meals and then do a powerpoint on the country we chose to make the food from. for our project we chose mexico because its different and the food has lots of flavour and lots of spice which gives it a good kick! we chose to do mexican chile cookies for our first desert as they would be different spicy. they turned out quite well and i would definitely cook them again...

drama workshop...1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8!

last week we had a drama movement workshop,it was to show us how movement and motions can be used and how it affects a drama. At first we started off by loosening ourselves out so we did different exercises as a warm up. Then we got into the tricky stuff we had to form shapes with our bodies and our partners had to fill the spaces in between them. It was funny to see people form such diverse shapes. i didnt think i could move in such complicated ways :L Then we had to pick two shapes and move from one to the other in a set time. When everyone was in sync it looked impressive and we might even be using this technique in our drama. It was also a good way of exercising so i would definetly recommend it.

waris dirie...desert flower!

in religion as part of our millenium goal study involving the gender equality goal we read an extract from the autobiography of waris dirie(desert flower). when i began to read the extract it was clear that her life was very different to mine! she had so much more hardship to endure than a lot of other girls in the world. this is my review of the book so i hope you gain some knowledge of the book from it.....

The book desert flower deals with a very prominent issue in society today maybe not in Ireland but it is very much common in countries in Africa which is the issue of female genital mutilation. One of the techniques the film used that i enjoyed was it showed the story through the eyes of the character Waris Dirie who had been a victim of female mutiliation, this made it a lot more interesting and genuine.This book really shows how some women in the world are still being treated and it makes me angry that practices like that are still being performed in this day and age. It really makes me feel passionately about stopping such practices. When i compare my life to the life of Waris Dirie it baffles me at the distinct differences between us, I have a chance of being educated, getting a job and choosing a man i want to marry. The hardships these women in parts of Africa have to endure makes me sad as they shouldn't have to go through this suffering but in retrospect i have an enormous amount of respect for these women for putting up with it day in and day out. I would definitely recommend this book, to people of all ages as it is a very touching, inspirational book that makes you value the life you have which we sometimes forget.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKgaXGMPJDs&feature=related

briery gap drama :)

last tuesday all ty's went to mullingar to compete in a drama competition! when we arrived we were the first school there and we all set to work practising and getting into our costumes. my play was based on theme of drink-driving and how it affects different people in different ways. we chose to write about it because we feel there is a strong culture of teenage drinking in ireland. rosette played aoife who was the victim on the play and ailbhe played the drunk teenager. we were the last play to perform and we were really nervous because every other drama was brilliant and had gone really well! it was then our turn and it was really terrifying but gave you a big adrenaline rush and in no time we were finished. all the drama's were great and hopefully we'll all do well and get through to the next round which will be in Cork! =]

our day in tallaght :)

on thursday we had our rugby blitz....it was really good! there were many schools there and id be lying if i didnt say i was nervous at first as a lot of them looked very experienced. We started the first match and all the players played really well! we won the match and by now you could see everyone was really enjoying the day and excited to play the rest of the matches. both the blue and red teams played really well and at one stage we had to play eachother which was really quite funny! we won all our matches and to finish what was a great day we all received bags and t-shirts! i hope we continue to play tag rugby and hope there will be other blitz's soon! =)

Our day at the young scientist.....

on friday we went to the bt young scientist in the rds....it was really good. there were many schools there and lots and lots of projects aswell. i saw a wide range of different projects ranging from why grass is longer underneath trampolines to the stress involved with a large family. One of the best parts of going to the rds is getting to see all the projects and all the demonstrations. we met loads of people including three very nice policemen who kindly let us take a picture with them. There was also science experiments going on in the arena and this was enjoyable as the main theme was to do with fire so of course it meant setting objects a light which is always a crowd pleaser! we had a great day laughing and trying out all the different activities and came back very tired but very satisfied with the day also not to mention getting a frisbee, t-shirt from a very nice biomedical engineer named David, bouncy ball,highlighters and badges!! all in all a very good day :D

rugby tournament :D

on thursday we have our rugby tournament.... i never really played tag rugby before this year so im not that good at it but its fun to try it. people from the leinter rugby association come in to train us and sometimes i feel sorry for them because we really are quite funny trying to get the hang of it. i cant wait until thursday as even if we dont win we are guaranteed a fun day:D

WEEE- our way of helping the environment

On thursday a man from WEEE came in to talk to us about different ways of helping the environment. he spoke mainly about the work thats being done to recycle reuse and reduce and how recycling materials such as fridges, microwaves etc. has really come on. He talked about how we could help recycle things such as batteries as they are easy to just throw in the bin in comparison to fridges for example. We all are guilty of throwing in the old batteries in the bin or in the drawer, never to be used again. he then gave us 10 battery bins to put around the school so that people can be aware of these and help recycle by putting their old batteries into it. he also showed us a bag representing the special olympics and for just two euro it would be helping your school and helping the special olympics. it was a great talk as i am on the green schools and it really showed me how small things actually do make a difference!! =]

christmas time :)

christmas is a great time of the year....there are so many good things about christmas-firstly its the end of a school term which means finally a break from the hustle and bustle of school life and a chance to relax and be fully reenergised for the upcoming term! its a time when all your family are all in the one spot at the one time, its a time where you can watch endless movies while eating a box of roses! where you go shopping for christmas presents in dublin where all the lights are turned on, a time where you go ice skating and usually fall, also not to forget good saint nicholas who delivers all the pressies to the good boys and girls! and on christmas morning going to mass as it wouldnt really be christmas without going to mass and finally stuffing yourself with the favorite roast dinner and even in the days after your still eating left over turkey sandwiches. really whats not to love about christmas!!! :D