Carlingford

                                 

On the 16th of September the transition year students went to Carlingford in Louth for a bonding trip. It was really great because there was so much to do.On the first day we went canoeing and we got to jump on a trampoline in the water. It was a lot of fun but the mean leader named Frasier (Who kept calling me Delilah) kept pushing everyone into the water which was FREEZING ! Next we went to challenge island where we were made to a load of team bonding exercises including climbing through very small dark tunnels. When you completed a challenge you earned your team gems and at the end of the day when we counted them my team had won, yay !

The activities were great but our room was not. There were 2 bunk beds at the side of the room and there were dead spiders in the corners. It kinda looked like a murder scene when you saw it at first...
Luckily I survived long enough to have dinner. We had chips and they were amazing. I think they were my favorite part about Carlingford. That night we went to the Chinese and I had a spice bag. Unfortunately it was more disappointing than Mayo's GAA results.


The next day we went on an adventure course in the sky. At the beginning it was really fun and I was flying along it. However after a while I realized I was terrified of heights and eventually had to be lowered down from a tree. It was very traumatic.

I got to know everyone in my year really well in Carlingford so I guess it was a successful bonding trip and other than my near death experience I really enjoyed it !

Retreat

                                                  

Retreat




On the 16th of September we went on our annual retreat to The Celbridge Manner Hotel. When we were all sitting in a circle a man came in to begin the retreat. He introduced himself as Brother Andreas and he had a very high voice. His high voice combined with the fact he wanted us to fast for the day put everyone in a fit of giggles. However because laughing at people is really rude all of us were going red trying to stop our laughing. A few minutes later he introduced himself as Connor with a normal voice and told us he had been tricking us. It was really funny. We then played bonding games and people had to embarrass themselves by dancing and telling awful jokes. Towards the end of the day we were all told to pick an upside down card and the adjective on it was supposed to describe us....My word was "special"...Everyone laughed. Finally we did a guided meditation which was really interesting as we did it for half an hour but it felt more like 5 minutes. The retreat was a lot more fun than I'd expected because generally retreats are boring. I really enjoyed that day !

Workshops

On every Wednesday in school, the transitions years don't have classes. Instead we either have workshops or work experience. On our first Wednesday back in school we had two workshops; one about first aid and one about presenting ourselves.


Etiquette Workshop:
Our first work shop was an etiquette workshop that focused on presenting ourselves well at an interview or during a job/work experience. We learned what clothes to wear, how to walk with confidence and how to sit appropriately. Some of the girls practiced walking in heels and for those of us who didn't; it was quite funny to watch as they stumbled up and down a cat walk. We also got told about different samples of skin care  and even got to try some at the end. Finally the women running it showed us how to properly apply foundation and concealer to avoid looking too dark/light. It was a very worthwhile workshop and I would highly recommend it.


First Aid Workshop:
Our second workshop was run by a man from John's Ambulance. He told us about resuscitation, what it is, when to use it and how to do it (30 compressions to 2 breaths). He also taught us the different ways it is delivered depending on the individuals age. We learned how to deal with someone choking or someone who had received a bad burn (You wrap it in clingfilm ! ). We also learned about other things such as seizures or heart attacks. He also taught us why it is important to  know CPR and how it had saved people in the past. He told us one of the most important things was knowing that if a person isn't okay after you try to save them, it is not your fault as you did what you could.

New Year New Class

Upon arriving for my first day of transition year at St.Wolstans Community School, I was put into a new class called Lagarde with new girls. We were named after the well accomplished women Christine Lagarde. Christine Lagarde was born on the first of January and is a successful French Lawyer and union for a popular Movement polition who has been the Managing director (MD) of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) since 5 July 2011. She previously held various ministerial posts in the French Government including; Minister of Economic Affairs, Finance and Employment, Minister of Agriculture and Fishing and Minister of Trade in the government of Dominique de Villepin. Lagarde was also the first Women to become finance minister of an economy and is the first women to head the IMF.






The other class was named Merkel after Angela Merkel. Angela Merkel was born on the seventeenth of July in 1954 and is a German Politician and former research scientist who has been the Chancellor of Germany since 2005 and the Leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) since 2000. She is also the first women to hold either office.

Our English Trip

   0ur    English   Trip

Today we went into Dublin for an English trip. We visited the Yeats Museum and the World War 1 exhibition in the National Library.

                                                                                                I found it really interesting because history is one of my favorite subjects and I learned a lot about the events that occurred in the first world war. For example: World war 1 began on July 28 1914 and lasted until November 11th 1918. The differences in foreign policies were a huge issue however the assassination of Austria's                                                                     Archduke Ferdinand was the immediate cause.

                            I also really enjoy English so I enjoyed getting to                                          visit the Yeats Museum and I                                                     learned a lot of interesting issues about Yeats                                                            too.