TY Breakfast!

Today class Emnet hosted a Ty breakfast for us! They had prepared a whole spread of food and drinks and we all had a great time dancing around the second year mall! Thank you to all in Emnet :)

Fashion Show!!

Last Friday we had our Ty fashion show! Over the last three months all the Tys have been working in groups to make an outfit using a white t-shirt, trousers and 15 euro! Our design was a long pink maxi dress with an elaborate hat. We got our inspiration from Rose from the Titanic because in the first scene of the movie she wears a huge fancy hat. This is what we modeled our hat design on! Here's a photo of all the designs from my Home Ec class.... :)

History Project!

For my History Project I have decided to focus on Stuttgart, Germany since this is where my mum comes from. The city's history is very interesting and I am thoroghly enjoying doing this project so far! The Romans, Celts and Swabian Dukes all have left the city full of historical monuments and it also was very heavilly bombed in WWII due to the Mercedez-Benz, Bosch and Porsche factories in the area.

Walking in a Winter Wonderland!

I was so happy when I woke up on Saturday morning to a fresh blanket of snow over the town! The atmosphere is so festive all of a sudden and I'm begining to realize that Christmas is just around the corner! Snowball fights, advent, hot chocolate and an open fire, Winter has truly arrived!! I better start organising my gifts.. Maybe some handmade ones would be good this year..

Harry Potter!!!

The first part of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was released last Friday. The fact that I was going to see it after school was the thing that was getting me through that week! We all dressed up, (like the freeks we are...), and had a great time. What a great movie!!!!

Young Scientist.... :(

It's a real shame that our group didn't get into the BT Young Scientist Compitition. According to the judges, our idea was a good one but our entrance form was a little too vague.... They encouraged us to re-enter next year though and hopefully with a little fine tuning we can give it another shot next year.

Fourth Day of Work Experience!

I went around to St. Steven's Green Shopping Centre to take some photographs that will help me make my 3D model of the the building. I'm really enjoying the work and am really contemplating being an engineer or architect in the future.

Second Day of Work Experience

So far I've been working mainly with the Fire Engineers in the company. I had never heard of Fire Engineers before but when you think about it they do actually play a key role in the design of any building. They make sure that the fire escape routes are clear and simple to follow, they examin smoke flow and predict where it will go so that vents and smoke screens can be installed. I find their job extremely facinating! At the moment I'm helping them make a 3D model on the computer of St.Steven's Green Shopping Center so that they can examin the fire saftey in the building before and after some updates are installed.

First Day of Work Experience!

I was so nervous when I got up, dressed and traveled by train into town. What if I didn't fit in? What if I coun't do anything they asked? I was Freaking Out!!! But when I arrived at ARUP Engineering, I found that everyone was very friendly and helpful. I was taught how to use Google SketchUp to make 3D designs of buildings and had to opperate this giant printer with loads of buttons.. I think I must have stood there staring at it dumbfounded for at least 5mins! It even stapled the pages together, for goodness sake!! All in all it turned out to be a lot less imposing than I thought.

Dancing!!

Last Wednesday we had our first dancing session of the year! It was so much fun! Everyone gave it their all and we all were exausted and flushed by the end of it. The instructer is lovely and boy can she dance... Wow!! The following day I woke up aching all over thinking... "I didn't even know I had these muscles!"

Hallowe'en Dress Up Day!!!

Today we have a dress up in school! I dressed up as the Mad-Hatter from Alice in Wonderland and won a prize for best outfit! Everyone else looked great as well!!!

ACCORD Talk!

Today a lovely lady from ACCORD came in to talk to us about realtionships. She was really nice and open and made us all feel very safe and comfortable. She gave us really good tips about our family life, friendships and relationships and we all really enjoyed the day!!

Colour Me Beautiful!!

On Friday two ladies came in to the school to do a Coulor Me Beautiful programme with all the TYs. They firstly divided us up into groups according to our hair, eye and skin colour. These groups were as follows; Light, Warm, Deep, Clear, Cool and Soft. Light - these people have pale skin, blonde hair and blue eyes. Warm - these people have fair skin with freckles, red, auburn or strawberry blonde hair, and green or blue eyes. Deep - these people have darker skin, darker eyes and brown or black hair. Clear - these people are fair skined, dark haired and clear eyed. Cool - these people are generally of an older generation with silver hair. Soft - these people have sallow skin, light brown or dirty blonde hair and brown or green eyes. I was told that I'm a Soft. The colours that suit me are creams, browns, olive greens, light blues, salmon, pale pinks, rustic oranges and purples!

Mini Company Talk!

On Monday a lady from the Kildare Enterprise Board came to talk to our year group about our Mini Company ideas. She made every group's CEO stand up and present their idea to the rest of the class. She was very supportive and helped everyone develop their business ideas further. My group plan to make an object that will reseal a soft drinks can so that it is airtight, leakproof and transportable! Today our technology teacher was very helpful by making a product design for us on a computer programme called solid works. Hopefully this will help us in trying to convince a manufacturer to make our product...

My Geography Project: Peru!

Our Geography teacher has set us an assignment in which we have to plan a world trip to six countries. My group has decided to "visit" Croatia, China, Laos, Peru, Brazil and America. At the moment I am in the process of researching Peru. I plan for us to a six day hike on the legendary Inca Trail up to the ancient site of Machu Picchu. To see more about this trek go to www.incatrailperu.com !

Our Trip to Carlingford!

Last week our TY group went up to Louth to spend two days at Carlingford Adventure Centre. We had a great time, but arrived home tired, wet and aching. We left by bus at 7:00am and once we'd arrived were immediately sent out to do our morning activity; The High Ropes Course!! I was terrified watching my classmates scale up the ropes about 30 feet in the air and almost died with fright when I attempted it myself! In the afternoon we went back out to do kayaking and pier jumping (best fun ever!!) I have to say that the dinner and lunches impressed me. It wasn't the usual disgusting mulch that is commonly served in hostles, but gorgeous, filling meals! What followed that evening was the only low point of the trip, the hill walk.. What a fiasco!! We treked up a mountain in the pitch dark for three hours. It was foggy, lashing rain and blowing a gale!! We all slept well that night! :) The next day we did orienteering, archery and the Challenge Course. My team had so much fun in the box maze and nearly all of us got drenched while trying to cross the river!! I absolutely loved the trip, we had so much fun!!!!

Social Development Day!

Last Monday our class, Amina, had our social development day. We all had a really great day learning more about each other and having loads of fun as a group. In order for us to get to know each other better we were catagorised into our main personality types and I found out that I was a melencholic. Yeah, I know that makes me sound like I'm always depressed or something, but apparently it means that I'm logical, precise and organised! It was so strange seeing everyone catagorised into their groups, because they really were all very similar! I loved the day, lo pasé bomba!!!!

TY: Exciting or what?!

I wasn't really sure what to expect when I started TY this year but so far I totally disagree with all those people who told me this year would be a doss! I already have to come up with ideas for numerous projects and today this blog was added to the list.. I guess it should be fun to do this over the year seeing as there'll be so much going on in my life! So, in a nutshell I'm really excited because there just seems like there'll be so much to do! Really can't wait to get into things...