English Novel!

In English class we have been assigned the task of reading at least one novel on the list for the 2013 Leaving Cert. This is something that I will really enjoy, because reading is something that I love.When I looked at the list I found that I had already read five of the titiles; "The Road", "My Sister's Keeper", "Mister Pip", "Emma" and "The Book Thief". I spent a lot of time deliberating over which new books to read and managed to narrow it down to three; "The Grass is Singing", "1984" and "The Great Gatsby". I have ordered them and think that I will begin by reading "1984". I can't wait to get started!

Hotel Rwanda

We have just finished watching our second movie about the Rwandan Genocide. "Hotel Rwanda" was very different from "Sometimes in April" in that it was a lot less graphic and showed a lot less of the actual genocide. This made the story a lot more focused on the feelings, relationships and politics behind the genocide. "Hotel Rwanda" also ended on a much better note than "Sometimes In April". In the latter, the movie ends with every single member of Augustine's family dead, but in "Hotel Rwanda" it ends with all of them escaping out of the conflict to Tanzinia. The films were also slightly similar in that they both centred around Hutu men who were married to Tutsi women. I enjoyed both of the movies equally and found it interesting how both showed different aspects of the genocide.

The Gáisce Hike!!

This weekend a group of fourteen Transition and Fifth Year students took a bus down to Wicklow in order to complete our Gáisce Hike. I had expected the hostel to be minimal and was very surprised at how nice the building and staff turned out to be. Our room was lovely and even had an upstairs! We set off at around four in the afternoon and began our hike of a section of the Wicklow Way. I didn't find it as difficult as people from previous years had made it out to be and thouroghly enjoyed every minute of it. We ended up finishing the hike earlier than expected and our guide complemented us on this, saying that we were one of the fastest groups he had every taken. When we arrived back at the hostel we went down to the self cateering kitchen and cooked our own dinners. I really liked this because it gave us more freedom and we got to eat whatever we prefered. We spent the rest of the evening watching a movie in the TV room and then went to bed thoroughly exausted! The next day we didn't have a lot of hiking left to do since we had completed the majority of the hike the day before. Because of this, we had some spare time in which we went orinteering, did archery and played some team games! When I arrived back home I was extemeley tired and slept really well that night. 

Percussion Workshop!!

Last week we has the most amazing Jembe workshop with Dave from the Jabba Jabba Jembe group. We all went out to his van and brought in all of his drums and other percussion instruments. We then arranged ourselves in a circle with a drum each. We either had a jembe drum (which you play with your hands) or a base drum (which are played with sticks). He then taught us a few rythms on each of the drums and then we began to play together as a group. He showed us where jembe drumming originated in west Africa and we also watched a video about music and rythmn within the west African tribes. I thoroughly enjoyed the workshop since it taught us a new skill and would love to do something similar again!

Sometimes in April Workshop!

In religion class we have been watching the film "Sometimes in April" as part of our module on development education. It is a movie that deals with the Rwandan genocide and its effect on the Rwandan people and the rest of the world. The movie is filmed from the perspective of Augustin, a Hutu who married a Tutsi woman, and looks at his experiences of the war and how he deals with its reprecussions for the rest of his life. I really enjoyed the movie and found it very moving since it showed how the west really overlooks suffering in the developing world.

Mac'n'Cheese! What a Classic...

Stephanie and I cooked our final American dish on Tuesday. The convienence food horror..Mac'nCheese! I know that generaly Maccaroni and Cheese is considered to be the typical school lunch. Rubbery. Sticky. Tasteless. So if it has such an awful reputation, why did we pick it? Well the simple answer is, yet again, Jamie. We were looking through his cookery book and were really drawn to his version of mac'n'cheese. The only thing that really put us off was the amount of garlic that he adds. 10 cloves!!! But garlic aside, the dish turned out to be wonderful and we both really enjoyed our cheesy masterpiece.

Trip to the GAA Museum and Croke Park!

On monday, we all went on a history trip to Croke Park and the GAA museum. We went at 12:00 and I, who had only ever seen the stadium from a distance, was struck by how huge it was! We entered the foyer through a door surrounded by the names of all the GAA clubs in Ireland and were taken through into a small lecture theater where we all sat down to watch a short film on the running of Croke Park. Once the film was over we were then taken on a tour of the stadium. We saw the changing rooms, the players' lounge, the transport tunnel and the commercial boxes. We then climbed up to the very top seats and looked out over the stadium while the guide pointed out the features and history of the place. Overall it was a very interesting experience, even for me a non-GAA follower! I would gladly go again!