Little Christmas Message.

Here is a Christmas song to get everyone in the festive mood <3 This time next week we'll all be off school and itl be Christmas' eves eve eve ! Hope everyone has a great Christmas & New Year.. cyas :) xo

Tis the season to be snowing

Well, something exciting happened today :) When I was in the car on the way to school this morning I heard on the radio that there was snow in 'Ashbourne'. I then looked up at the dull sky and decided that we probably wouldn't get snow for a while.. even though this morning was absolutely freezing. Then when I got in to school, we could hear people screaming so we looked outside and there it was - white snow-flakes (big ones) falling from the sky :D yay! It finally feels really Christmassy, its kind of sunny now though and the snow didn't stick but still, at least we know theres loads of the white stuff on the way. Exciting.
The Friday before last, all of the TYs were brought to see a ballet in O'Reilly's Theatre in Dublin - The Nutcracker. Laura from our class was in the ballet, as well as two other girls from our school, who were all great. Afterwards we were brought to McDonald's and it was absolutely delicious.. yum. On the Tuesday of the week before that (22nd of November) we were brought in to Dublin again to go and see an opera - 'Don Giovanni' which was played in the cinema. I actually did enjoy the first half of the opera - which was about an hour and a half long - but the second half really dragged, but it was still an experience! The characters were all very elaborate and great actors and actresses and singers.. but they tended to repeat the same line about 7 times before they would move on.. Still good though.
This is our last week in school before the Christmas tests, which we have about 5 of I think.. Then on the Wednesday of next week we are going bowling! :D I'm excited for that.. Then we are off on the Thursday for our Christmas holidays.. <3 Cannot wait.

Book Review - English Assignment

The book which I've chosen to do for my book review is a favourite of mine - 'The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas' written by John Boyne set during World War II.
The story is told through the eyes of nine year old Bruno, who lives in a quiet area of Berlin with his father, mother and sister Gretal. This viewpoint allows the reader to experience what living during World War II must of been like for a child such as Bruno, who is unaware of the on-goings of the war and is an innocent victim in the story. Bruno sometimes doesn't understand what goes on in his home and often mis hears things, allowing the reader to gradually piece together what is actually going on.
At the beginning of the novel, Bruno discovers his maid Maria packing away his things and learns that he will have to leave his home in Berlin as well as what he calls his 'three Best Friends for life' to move away to a new home named 'Out-With' due to his fathers work. This is the first example of Bruno's mis understanding of the circumstance and his incorrect pronunciation of the word 'Ausch-witz' which the reader will recognise as being the concentration camp in Poland. Bruno doesn't like his new home and describes it as being smaller, full with soldiers and having no one to play with.
The novel becomes interesting when Bruno looks out his bedroom window and sees people in the distance dressed in striped pyjamas, separated from him by a wired fence. When Bruno asks his father who those people are, he is told that they are 'not really people at all'. Bruno's window is soon boarded up and he spends his days inside, with only his sister to contend with, who he refers to as 'the Hopeless Case'. Bruno is told by his father that certain places are 'Out Of Bounds At All Times and No Exceptions' such as his office, making him curious and tempted to explore his new environment. One day Bruno decides that he has had enough of staying inside and decides to venture in to the unknown to go 'exploring'.
Bruno comes upon the same fence which he had seen out of his bedroom window where he meets a boy named Shmuel, a boy living on the other side of the fence who is also Bruno's age. Bruno notices how thin and pale Shmuel is and wonders why he is trapped behind the fence and is so sad looking, showing Bruno's complete obliviousness to the circumstance. He even tells Shmuel that he wishes he could also be on his side of the fence as he would love to have the company. The pair develop a loving friendship and Bruno begins visiting Shmuel at the fence of the concentration camp everyday, sometimes bringing him some food as he is always hungry.
The rest of the story revolves around the friendship between Bruno and Shmuel, which develops in to a strong bond, despite the fact that they both live on different sides of the fence and live in completely different worlds to each other. The story has a bitter end, which I found extremely powerful yet upsetting to read.
Boyne's choice of characters added to my enjoyment of the novel, as they were interesting, non-ordinary and contrasting. The fact that Bruno's mother was unaware of what happened to the people at the concentration camp showed that women in that time were kept in the dark about things, even though she was the wife of an officer who worked there. I sympathised with her character as she seemed too afraid to speak out against what was going on in her own back garden and was in a deep depression by the end of the novel, with Bruno describing her as having her 'medicinal drink' every day. The character of the Jew, Pavel, who was working in the family's home was a kind, loving man who didn't deserve what he got. The character of Bruno's father, Ralf, in my opinion was a loving father but yet a terrible one at the same time. He brought his family to live right outside a concentration camp and got them involved in the terrible on-goings of World War II. He seemed to care more about his job than he did them, which made the ending of the novel even more ironic.
The fact that the story was told through Bruno's open and non judgemental eyes made the story more moving and realistic. It showed how clueless Bruno was to the fact that he was living beside a concentration camp where people were murdered everyday because of their race, yet he secretly became friends with one of those people, Shmuel. His perception of his surroundings and the other characters showed how innocent and young his character was and how he didn't see a difference between himself and Shmuel. Boynes use of simple language and Bruno's mis pronunciation of words such as the Fury (Fuhrer) was extremely effective, it was almost like reading extracts of Bruno's diary.
I enjoyed this book so much because of its simpleness yet effectiveness. It is a story of two boys who become friends whilst living on different sides of a wired fence, which I think represents racism. The fact that the boys bonded so well and didn't care about each others backgrounds or race shows how all of the hatred and violence associated with World War II has nothing to do with the youth, but old perceptions and judgements of each other, yet affects innocent children such as Shmuel and Bruno. My favourite line in the book is - “We're not supposed to be friends, you and me. We're meant to be enemies. Did you know that?"
 The book kept me going from start to finish, left a strong impact on me afterwards and truly is a story of innocence. I would recommend it to anyone who interested in reading a heart-breaking story told through the eyes of an innocent child. Boyne's use of fantastic characters, an eery setting and a heart-warming and at times wrenching plot left me not wanting the story to end. 


Saoirse McCloskey.

My First Work Experience :)

The morning of work experience was really nerve-racking but I was still excited, though I was worried that I wouldn't find my way in such a big place - Trinity College. I'd only been there once before, in 3rd year for a Maths lecture, and it had seemed massive then. I got the bus in to town about an hour before I my first lecture was even supposed to start - 11am. I walked nervously around Grafton St.(<3) for a while before deciding to head in. When I eventually found the music secretary - Grainne, she showed to the lecture room and introduced me to the lecturer Orla who was lovely. There was only 8 music students in the class and they were all really friendly and they talked me through the work we had to do, which I actually didn't find that hard. After that I made my way to the music shop - Opus II - and introduced myself. The manager Darren and assistant manager Joanna were both very welcoming and seemed keen for me to enjoy working there. On the first day they had me sorting out different music scores between Sonatas and Preludes and choosing different Christmas products from a catalogue which they were going to order in.  I was so tired after my first day but looked forward to the week ahead.
The rest of the week in Trinity went great, I learnt loads about what a music degree actually entails and I've realised that it's something I definitely want to do. I fitted in with the other students well, one lecturer even gave out to me for not having my music score even though it was '8 weeks in' only to find I was only a TY student sitting in. The other students were friendly and all were amazing at music, all of them could play piano which is considered mandatory which I didn't realise and there was some really good singers who I got the chance to listen to. I'm grateful that they were all so welcoming and willing for me to see what they do everyday.
The rest of my week in Opus II was equally good. I got the chance to work on the till for two of the days which was pretty scary at first, especially typing in laser and credit cards and all that, but I got used to it after a few goes :) On my lunch break they let me play the different pianos and try them out as well as the electric keyboards which people from the street could come in and sit and play on during the day which was really nice to listen to when I was working. Another one of the days I was sorting through invoices and receipts which wasn't so fun, but it helped me to learn that alot goes on behind the scenes in a shop and that the manager has a difficult job keeping up with all the orders and whatnot, so confusing! There were so many and they all have to be kept in alphabetical order and by date incase a customer needs one, such a pain.. I'd hate to have that job. At the end Damien gave me my report back and also three music books and a guitar capo, yay :)!
I learned loads over the week. Firstly commuting in and out of town every day is a pain. One morning iI got the 20 to 8 bus (so early) for a lecture which started at 9, and I barely made it on time, so much stress haha. And on the Thursday the students protest was on, resulting in an hour and a half delay for my bus. I also learned that college is really different to school, you get to study and learn what you're interested in and the lecturers are  so knowlegable in the subject and you can ask them anything, I can't wait to go :) Working in a shop is stressful, you have to learn to deal with rude customers and difficult situations, but it's also really enjoyable. I cannot wait to get a part-time job and get paid, <3 Over-all it was a brilliant week, can't wait for the next, bring on Madrid :)

1 week to go..

Only back to school a day but it feels like I never even left. We've only this week though and then we have work experience :D The weeks have flown since September.. I remember thinking 'Work Experience is ages away' but now it is definitely not. Im kind of excited but nervous at the same time, incase I get lost or something! I'm sitting in on music lectures every morning but the times vary each day as do the lectures so I won't have one day the same as the other :) Whenever I'm finished there I get to go eat my lunch somewhere and then walk 5 minutes up the road to Opus II music shop where I'll be working for two hours or something. Going to have to get up really early on my first day to get the bus in to town and make sure I find everything okay.. not looking forward to that so much.
I've finished up most of my projects now - Spanish , History and Geography - so don't have them to worry about. I've a piano exam soon though and need to spend loads of time on that, so its good I got them out of the way over the midterm I suppose. Not much else to say, blog soon.

Livin' for the Midterm (L)

Aah only 1 more day in school and then we're free for a week, can't wait :) This term has gone by so fast though, it hard to believe that we're going to be getting ready for Christmas when we come back. I won't really be free for a week though, 'cause I've two English essays due and I've to finish/start on two countries for my geography project.. oh well i'll just fit them in on a rainy day :) I'm eeexcited for Halloween aswell, though hopefully I don't get any fireworks thrown at me?
Yesterday we had a talk from my former principal of Scoil Mochua, Tony Doohan.. I love that man :) In primary school he used to teach 5th and 6th class history and would always let us read from his book, which he is now selling. He even brought us all (3 6th classes) on bikes down the Maynooth road to visit The Obelisk which was on our school crest. Yesterday he told us some old facts about Celbridge like how the bridge was blown up my someone living in St.Patrick's park.. and that everyone on the main street used to live in little mud cabins! He was eager to answer anyones questions & I'm really glad he came in because he made a really interesting presentation and I love history <3
When we come back after the midterm we only have a week of school and then we're going off on work experience! :D Ah im really excited! I'm going in to Trinity College to sit in on music lectures in the mornings and then in the afternoons I'll be working for a few hours in Opus II music shop.. I've a feeling I'm going to be wrecked after it all.. haha :) I probally won't be blogging until after the midterm.. bye til then :) x

Sound of Music (L)

I felt kind of bad that I wasn't getting at all involved in the musical which everyone is talking about in our school, 'The Sound Of Music' which I actually really like,  so me and Courtney decided that we'd ask Ms.Ward if we could take part, so now we're getting involved with Ms.Leonard and doing peoples makeup! Haha gonna be great <3

Day Out in Dublin :)

Yesterday all the TYs headed off on our bus and mini bus in to town for our 'daaay out'. Firstly we went in to the W.B Yeats exhibition, and our class was shown around the place by Ms.Brogan who knew alot on information about it as she'd been there a few times before.We were all given worksheets and paired up to help focus us and so that we'd gather facts about Yeats and his history by looking around the place. This exhibition was actually my favourite because it was really pretty to look around and was generally super interesting, like who'd have known Yeats scored 69% in English in Year 5? There was loads of his original writing in glass cases which you could look at aswell as pictures of his family and the 'love of his life' - Maud Gonne, who inspired my favourite poem 'He Wishes For The Cloths of Heaven'.. soo nice:) There was this little circle at the beginning of the exhibition where you could sit and listen to some of his poems being read out and watch a slide show, it was a pretty relaxing start to the morning :)
Next we went to the nli (national library of Ireland) which had a few different artifacts placed in glass cases which were covered with blankets which you could lift up, to protect them from the light. We saw what ads looked like back then aswell, there was a poster of a missing cat and an ad showing that Germany were playing Ireland in football, really cool to see. The last of the exhibitions was a trip to see what were described as 'Bog Bodies' in the National Museum. The bodies were hidden by a circular wall which you had to walk around to see them, I got a fright at first as I didn't actually expect to see it straight away.. haha. The bodies were really interesting but kind of scary to look at. One of the skulls still had red hair attatched to it, making it seem so much more real.  It was weird to think that those people were alive and walking some time, especially as all that was left were the yellow rotting bones :/
We were then free for 45 minutes and me and my friends got the long -awaited McDonalds.. yum! So nice, then Me and Niamh went up to the Disney shop and had a look around, best shop ever!<3 After lunch then we all met up at River Island(love that shop too) and walked down to the Abbey Theatre to see the play 'Juno and the Paycock' which we had all just read in class. The play was much better than I expected and had some really funny parts aswell, I actually understood what was happening because I got pretty confused when reading it in class.. Overall it was a really fun, interesting day out and another highlight of TY, bring on the rest :)

Week 9.. what?!

Time in TY is actually going ridiculously fast.. I don't know what I'l do when all of this is over and we're meshed in with the third years and are put in to 5th year! nooo. The highlights of TY for me so far have been making friends with some of the girls in my class who I never really knew before but I get along great with now:D. Also going on the mini-co trips, junior cert results night, pilates on thursdays & the funwalk :) I heard people are saying that the gov. might cut TY really soon, so I'm really glad I got to do it! The stress of finding work experience is really annoying me, some people are so rude and don't write back to the nicest e-mails, haha :/ I have my second one though, so hopefully I'll find my first one pretty soon.. considering its in like four weeks. We got another project from Mr.O'Callaghan the other day, which is to research and present a piece on a woman in history who we admire. I think I'm doing Rosa Parks, who was a coloured women who refused to be told to get off a bus which was for 'white people'.. I think shes great :) probaly my fave project so far, i love history <3

naaas

Yesterday we went to Naas to meet again with Orla to talk more about marketing our product and getting it ready before the Christmas time.. yay that makes Christmas feel so soon!:) There was another school there.. St.Marys i think, with basically exactly the same uniform as us.. abit confusing at times. They had some really good ideas like cosies for your tea mug, i love that one:)  We didnt get to talk to her personally but she told us the last day that she really liked our idea, so hopefully it works out how we want it to. we had to have our surveys and stuff done, which we did on tuesday.. was abit busy but we got them done in the end. We didnt get to go to mcdonalds:(, but its grand cause I got sausage rolls in centra and they were deeelish (L) yummy. Anyways gotta go.. lunch time yay <3

Newbridge :)

So the funwalk is all over, our class was a great buzz:D We did our banana dance with hardly any mistakes and must of shouted 'GO BANANAS' i dont know how many times last week, haha<3 catriona and martha looked greeeat. The other class were good too, especially Banba, so we didnt really mind that they won:)  me, aoife, hel and claire were assigned to the traffic lights beside the boys school where we basically just stood there and watched all the classes go by, wasnt too hard I must say. Tomorrow we're going to Newbridge for another mini-co talk, mcdonalds yay!:D Our group is gettin abit stressed out cause we dont have much marketing done, but we'll just do some surveys today at lunch probs. Next week we're going in to town (more McDonalds) to see juno and the paycock which is the play we've done as well as going to the Yeats museum.. sounds good, I like how we get to get out of school and do things a good bit in TY. I've decided today that I don't dislike Tuesdays as much as I used to.. double art in the mornings just make my day <3 love it.

GO BANANAS.. GOGO BANANAS

We have our funwalk tomorrow and our class has decided to do a banana theme..yay:) we're not really competitive and not dying to win.. so I'm just taking part for the fun.. haha. We're trying to do these gymnastic stunts atm.. and everyone is getting pretty stressed out.. but I know that we'll all pull it off in the end:D My favourite colour is yellow, so thats a bonus:) 
''GO BANANAS, GO GO BANANAS!'' <3

Rihanna, i love you.

I know that this is nothing to do with school or anything, but I was at Rihanna's concert in the 02 last night with my three friends Niamh, Aoife & Laura which had been a birthday present from like last Christmas.. 10 months ago! We got in to the already long que at half 4 waiting for the doors to open at half six.. my feet were pretty sore already. When we got in the doors we ran to the front of the stage and waited until half 7 when her supporting act Calvin Harris appeared, who was such a buzz, hes great :) Rihanna came out at about a quarter past nine and she was just amazing :) I couldn't believe that I was standing so close to someone so famous. She looked fab in all her colourful outfits and her hair was like a brown afro, twas great hehe :D At one stage she leant down to our part of the crowd and I grabbed on to her hand, I can now say my left hand touched Rihanna, haha :) I'm so jealous of anyone going to see her in November, she's the best artist live I've seen, apart from Beyonce. I kept a piece of purple confetti which shot out during the last song 'Umbrella'.. think ima stick it on my board <3

soo many projects!

When the previous TYs warned me about the amount of work needed to put in to the different projects I didn't really believe them, but i do now! Me and my friend claire had to write up our proposal for the young scientist yesterday.. lets just say it was a little stressful haha. We had to fill in so many details and try make sure the proposal was perfect and convincing lol. Me and aoife are doing our geography project now and its due in like 4 weeks.. its fun though, id rather be doing the projects than the thought of 5th year work.. ew. I feel so sorry for our friend Caitlin who has to do her work in the morning.. hate that! Theres only two of us in the group so we're doing 3 countries each. I'm doing Madagascar atm, its actually really cool:) For the  home-ec project im in a group with jenny, lori and aoife green and we have to create an outfit using a plain pair of jeans and tshirt, harder than it sounds. We're gonna do a green woodland fairy using tutus and leaves and stuff.. should be fun :) Ive another project too in Irish with orla and courtney and we're doing the history in celbridge, like castletown and the workhouse and stuff, actually kind of interesting. Me, aoife and isabelle did a mini religion project about one of the millenium goals on maternal health. We'll probaly get more projects throughout the year too, but for now I think we have enough.. for now anyway.

blog day

Its blog day again in I.T, and I can't really think of much to say :/ Ms. L says that we'll be starting up like a link between schools in Australia, England and France soon, which sounds really cool :) Its lunch time soon and im very hungry.. haha:) We're going to like the launch of Mini-Co on the 28th to meet the head co-ordinator Orla and other schools taking part so that should be fun. Our group keeps jumping from ideas, so hopefully she'll be able to help us out. Todays thursday which are my faaaves, after lunch ive pilates, photography and dancing, such a great start to the weekend:D yaay the bells about to go.. blog again soon.

14th of September..:)

I'd been waiting for the 14th for ages and was really excited when the day came, it was my birthday aswell as results day :) It was really hard to sit through all the classes knowing that our results were probaly waiting for us in the school somewhere. We were in Ms.O'Reillys class when all former 3rd years were called to the hall to get our results. The atmosphere was really tense and I was nervous but excited at the same time. Ms. Smyth handed me the brown envelope and I waited to open it until I got outside. I could hear everyone running around screaming with excitment so I ripped open my envelope.. I rang my mam, delighted with my results:D, especially a B in maths and irish as I was expecting that at all. I was ready to celebrate both the results and my birthday:) Me and my friends got ready in my house before going out to Time for the night, which was loads of fun. I loved all my pressies, especially the best ever umbrella from aoife <3 haha :) I was so tired the day after, and pilates was a real effort:(  I slept well on thursday night ..:)

Carlingford buzz

We got to sit on a doubledecker bus and left at 7 o'clock on monday morning, we were all really tired but excited too :) the journey didnt take too long and when we got there the first thing that we did was Laser in the forest :D it was so fun and we got to wear these army suits!! :) Later that day we did activities in this field place and it was so windy. We did games which helped our  team-work and challenges which were reaally fun. That night we got chinese and it was so delicious,we ate loads of sweets and talked to some of the boys from Drogheda who were staying in Carlingford too. Then we went back to the forest at about 7 o clock for 'Nightline' which had everyone blindfolded in the forest, walking along a rope, it was really hard but fun :)The next day we were up bright and early and we went rockclimbing in the morning, had lunch and then went orienteering which was like a treasure hunt around the mountain. We werent able to do any watersports because of the weather being so bad, but it didnt really affect us :) Afterwards I went to 'Candyford' which was a really cool sweet shop and we headed home at 5 o clock, really tired but happy it went really good :D

my first blog

This is my first ever blog, never done anything like this before! I'm loving TY so far, last week we had pilates, photography and dancing with Ms.O Reilly on thursday, which was really fun but I was tired after pilates, haha. We've gotten some projects so far aswell, like the trip around the world for geography, mini-company, young scientist and one for irish. I don't really mind, they're way better than homework. The classes go by really fast and it's great not to have loads of work to do when you get home. I like my class because I know a few people but theres loads who I've never talked to, which is a good thing :) Im excited for Carlingford and results night next week, which is on the same day as my birthday! Me and Aoife have signed up to do bagpacking in M&S on Sunday which should be fun too. Music in TY is really fun aswell because you get to do loads of fun things!
Saoirse, Class Eriu :)