Challenge 4: Finding My Way

I've added a blogroll to my blog as part of Challenge 4 of the blog challenge. I've added a few blogs to it...I already had the blog challenge blog. I added my Transition Year blog, which my Year-Head Ms L posts on. I also added my friend Hayley's blog and the Blogger Cafe blog. I'll add more as I find more blogs that interest me. I haven't added any categories yet because I don't have enough blogs but I'll do that soon. :)

French Pen-Pals

After coming back after Chrismas we were told that we'd be getting pen-pals. We found out that they come from Brittany. Last week we got our first letters from them. My pen-pal is called Kevin...he's 16. He told me a bit about himself, his family and his interests...I wrote another letter back and our teacher is going to send all our letters together soon...I can't wait to hear more about him...at the moment we're doing a short project on Ireland and the area we live in to send over to them. It's really testing my French skills! I hope Kevin can make sense of what I'm saying... :)

English Trip

Last Thursday we went on an English trip to the National Museum of Ireland, the National Library & the National Gallery (in Dublin). In the National Museum we saw artefacts from pre-historic history (?) like rocks and bog-boats. We then got to see some "bog-bodies". They were dead people who's bodies were preserved in the bog for thousands of years. They were really life-like looking (but knida disgusting.) One guy had only his torso -no head or legs. Another had no legs but had a torso and a head. The last guy has a full body. It was so interesting! At the national library we saw a W.B. Yeats exhibition - we were told all about his life and about his poetry. I honestly didn't like him after the exhibition -he's really really really wierd! Then we went for lunch...Mai, Hayley, Clara, Emma & I went to Eddie Rocket's...it was great craic! We got burgers and chips and milkshakes...which Mia spilled all over herself! After lunch we went to the Natinoal Gallery to look at paintings done by W.B. Yeats' father, John Yeats (I think that's his name...). It was a really good day! Thanks to Ms. B for organising it and to Ms. B & Ms G for bringing us! :)

Earth Hour

As part of challenge 3 we had to blog about a global issue we took part in...I decided to take part in earth hour on Saturday night from 8.30 to 9.30. Everyone in Ireland (and around the world as far as I know) was encouraged to turn off all the lights in their houses for one hour. I turned of my bedroom light and other lights around my house - I also encouraged my family to do the same (my dad let me dim the lights in the tv room!). It really made me realise how much we rely on light and therefore electricity to get by...I don't know what I'd do without my laptop, phone, ipod or the the tv...(I'm that sad!). In the houses around me, a lot of lights seemed to be off...I don't know whether that was just coincidence or if others were taking part too, but even still, it was very interesting...I wouldn't have been able to survive longer than an hour though! :L

Percussion Workshop

I had no internet last week so I have a lot to catch up on with my blog :/ On Tuesday last week we had a percussion workshop with a guy called Dave from Jabba Jabba Jembe (see his website here). We had it from 9.45am until 2.40pm, so we got to do loads of stuff. When Dave arrived we helped him to bring in his drums from his van...he had really cool colourful bags that they drums were in. Then he showed us how to play the drum properly. You use the palms of your hands with your four fingers together and your thumbs sticking out. There were loads of different types of drums, all different sizes. One was called the jembe and it was the main drum. There were bass drums too and other drums I didn't know the name of. He also had loads of hand percussion instruments. Some were made out of gourds. We played loads of rhythms and we all had the chance to try out every drum - it was really cool. At the end we watched a video called Foli on Youtube..you can see it here. It's about jembe druming in Africa. We also watched a video on Stomp...a grup of people who use every-day items (like sweeping brushes and basketballs) to make percussive sounds...it was sooo cool! It was a really good day...when all of us were playing together the sound was amazing (and really loud!). I'd love to learn how to play the jembe drums properly some day. :)

Back At School :)

I don't trust the Google translate gadget so I'm going to translate my last post myself so everyone can understand (just in case the gadget says the wrong thing!).
Here it is in English:
Well, as I said yesterday, I'm going to write this post in Irish.
We came back to school today...I have to say it was sorta strange...we weren't in proper classes for a few weeks because of the amount of competitions that were on this month.
This morning, first of all, we had careers class...everyone told stories about work experience. People were at hospitals, universities, the Guards and a lot of other places.
Then we had maths class. We're doing "probability" now...it's not too hard. After break, we had English...from the start of the year we were doing our dramas, so today it was very strange when we did poetry! We read a poem form the poet W.B. Yeats; "The Wild Swans At Coole". I love that poem! On Thursday, all of TY will be going to the Yeat's museum in Dublin for the day. I'm really looking forward to it!
Now I'm in I.T. class...everyone is writing on their blogs.
Tomorrow we're having a percussion workshop...it'll be interesting!
There are only three weeks left until the Easter break...there's seven weeks left in TY! :(
This year went so fast...we had a taste of fifth year today :/
I don't have a lot to write aout today yet...maybe something will happen later...I'll write more tonight... :)

Ar Ais Ar Scoil :)

Challenge 3: Bhuel, mar a dúirt mé inné, tá mé chun an "post" seo a scríobh as Gaeilge. Thangamar ar ais ar scoil inniú...caithfidh mé é a rá bhí sé saghas ait...ní raibhemar i ranagnna ceart ar feadh cúpla seachtaine maidir leis an méid comórtais a bhí ar siúl an mí seo. Sa maidin, ar dtús, bhí rang "Careers" againn...d'inis gach duinne scéaltaí faoi taithí oibre. Bhí daoine ag oispidéal, ollscoil, an Garda Síocháina agus a lán áiteanna eile. Ansin, bhí rang matamaitic againn. Táimid ag déanamh "probability" anois...níl sé ró-dheacair. Tar éis am sos, bhí Béarla againn...ón tús an bliain bhíomar ag déanamh ár drámaí, so inniú bhí sé an-ait ar fad nuair a rinnemar filíocht! Léamhamar dán ón file W.B. Yeats; "The Wild Swans At Coole". Is aoibheann liom an dán sin! Ar an Déardaoin beidh an idir-bhliain ar fad ag dul go dtí an musaem Yeats i mBaile Atha Cliath don lá. Tá mé ag tnúth go mór leis! Anois tá mé i rang ríomhairí...tá gach duine ag scríobh ar a "mBlogs". Amárach beidh céardlann "percussion" againn...beidh sé suimiúl. Níl ach trí seachtaine fágtha go dtí brise na Cáisce...tá seacht seachtain fágtha san idir bhlian! :( D'imigh an bliain seo chomh tapa...bhí saghas blás agam inniú don cúigiú bhliain :/ Níl a lán agam chun scríobh faoi inniú go fóill...b'fhéidir tarlóidh rud éigin níos déanaí...scríobhfaidh mé níos mó anocht... :)

Challenge 3: Going Global

This week's challenge involves making my blog more international-friendly, as well as by discovering who is looking at my blog and where they're from. I also have to write about a part I played in a global issue such as world water day (March 22nd) or earth hour (March 26th). This is my first post on Challenge 3...I'll write more as I check each part of the challenge off the list. Firstly, I added the blog challenge badge to my page...you can see it along the left-hand side with my other gadgets...if you click on it, it will bring you to the Blog Challenge page. Next I had to add gadgets to find out where my page visitors are coming from. I already had a views counter and a clustr map so I added a feedjit and a revolver map...you can see them also along the left-hand side. Then I added a Google translate gadget so anyone can read my blog. It's not 100% accurate but it was the best I could come up with. Next step I've to write a post in a different language. English is my first language and I learn French in school (although I'm not very good at it!) but I'm also pretty fluent in Irish so tomorrow I'll write a post in Irish...it's our National language and I'm very proud to be able to speak it. I often speak Irish at home and sometimes with my friend Hayley too...I think it's really important to keep the Irish language alive because there are less and less people able to speak it these days...it's a dying language, but that saddens me because itt's part of our identity as Irish people. So yeah, that's my rant on Irish...I'll post tomorrow as Gaeilge (that's the Irish for "in Irish"!). :)

New Design (again!)

Since St. Patrick's Day is over, I decided to change my blog design again. I picked this one becasue it really reminds me of Spring, and Spring is probably my favourite season! I love when the weather starts to heat up a bit, the sky turns blue again and the leaves come back on the trees...Winter is such a bare season and I love when it's over and Spring gets here. This year and last year we had particularly long and cold winters so I love Spring all the more.
In my background design there are loads of birds and leaves which kinda symbolise Spring. I also picked the three primary colours (and green) because they look nice together...I really like my new design. It's nice and bright and makes me smile :)

TY Pictures!

Siobhán from class Amina made a lovely video of photos from this year...she added different friendship songs too. It was really nice and it brought back so many memories about this year...good times! :D
Check out the video here...well done Siobhán! :)

Blogger Challenge 2: Heads

So as part of Challenge 2, I had to create an avatar. I used Build Your Wild Self. I really liked this website because it was easy to use and kinda unusual. My avatar has brown hair and blue eyes like me. I left my hair down in it because I have really long hair...and it looks more like me that way! I used purple clothes because it's my favourite colour (well after pink, but I preferred the purple there!). I could choose between shorts and a skirt and I never wear skirts so that's why I chose shorts... :) My avatar is kinda unusual (like me!) because she has a tiger's tail and butterfly wings...I chose the butterfly wings because (this sounds wierd!), I'd LOVE to be able to fly...it looks so cool! I hope to get flying lessons in the future. I chose the tiger tail because I think tigers are so cute...and the whole point of "Build Your Wild Self" is to add animal parts to your normal body...loads of them were scary though...I don't like snakes, spiders or sea-animals! Making the avatar was cool...it took me a while to figure out how to upload it (in the end it was actually very easy :/) but I enjoyed it :) I'll make more soon... :D

My Avatar...the Fly-Tiger (a.k.a the fliger!)...I sound like a baby! :)

Blogger Challenge 2: Feet

This week, challenge 2 is called "heads and feet". We have to create an avatar (heads) and then look into our digital footprint (feet). I'm going to post separately on both so this is my post about my digital footprint. In the instructions for this challenge, there was a video about how each everyone in the world has a digital footprint, which begins before we are born. It showed all the different things which contribute to this, such as sonograms (before we were bron), social networking, bank cards and more! It was kinda scary to see how much information about me people around the world have access to... In the challenge we were told to google ourselves to see what came up, so I put in my name and home town first. The first item that came up was from the local secondary school (I don't go to that school) and it had mentioned my name in an article about a debating competition I was in. Further down there was an article from Intel about energy and there was a picture of me when I was in primary school along with my name and school name. Then I googled my name and my school name...more stuff came up on debating; there were things from my school website and also from my mini-company website. I google my name with Twitter & Facebook but there were too many results...I'm sure if I looked long enough I'd find myself though! At the moment I'm trying to think of all the websites I've ever joined; Hotmail & Yahoo for email, Facebook, Twitter & Bebo for social networking, Youtube for...entertainment? and loads more! I can't even remember them all now, but I know there must be hundreds. Even websites like O2 & Meteor aswell..wow! As a rule, I generally only fill in the spaces necessary to join the website...things like name, DOB & email. I never fill out the spaces that I don't have to fill out...they don't need that information! Also, I'm very particular about the email addresses I give out. I have two and I use them for different things...I hate getting email from places I join or things like Facebook so I give them one email address, while the other is for emailing people and such(I rairly get spam/junk mail there as a result!). I never really thought too much about my digital footprint before now, but now that I'm aware of it I'm defninitely going to be very careful about the information I put out there about myself! You never know who's looking...

Parade Pics

This is a slide show I made of photos from the parade in Dublin yesterday...I was experimenting with a new programme so it's not that good...anyway...here it is;

By the way...there's no music because I couldn't import it from my files...sorry! :/
Parade pics - slideshow maker

Lá Glas Photos

Okay, Blogger is acting up for me..I wrote the on Lá Glas earlier and now I can't copy the text here above the video for some reason so that's why they're in two separate posts...anyway...enjoy! By the way, I spelled Phadraig wrong...I added in an extra "h"..oops! :)

St. Patrick's Day Part 2: The Parade

Well today is St. Patrick's Day and originally I didn't have any plans, but in the end I went into Dublin with my mam and my sister for the St. Patrick's day parade. We got a great spot on O'Connell Bridge, near enough to where it starts. We were waiting for a while but, luckily, the weather stayed nice (it was mainly sunny and not too cold!) and at around 12.30 the first of the acts passed by. There was a huge variety in the number of participants, and they came from all over Ireland and all over the world. There were marching bands from American high schools (as well as from Ireland), floats with really unusual characters, dancers, horses, dogs (from the Garda unit) and loads more! Even around me in the audience there were people from England, Texas, New Zealand and Italy! It's so cool to see so many people celebrating St. Patrick's Day with us...everyone there was wearing leprachaun hats, green scarves, boppers (those hair-bands with springy things on top) and tops with Ireland written on them...even if they weren't Irish!

We were standing right opposite the RTE booth (much to my dismay) and my sister was on tv...hehe :L (I don't think I was thankfully - náireacht!). The parade was great...by the end I was wrecked though from standing for so long...my legs were so stiff...but I'm glad I went! Check out my post called "Parade Pics" for the photos I took...

St. Patrick's Day Part 1: Lá Glas

Yesterday was Lá Glas in our school...everyone dressed up in green ( well most people anyway) to celebrate St. Patrick's Day (which is today). I'm only blogging about it now because I spent ages making a video thing of photos and a few clips of the day.


My year started late (10.40am) because we had gotten back so late the night before after the drama show in Glasnevin. When I arrived in school just after break, everywhere I looked there was green! Each year had a theme to go by and loads of people dressed up according to their theme. First years were Irish dancers, second years were mythical creatures, third years were soldiers, us TY's were Aer Lingus, fifth years were the Irish rugby team and sixth years were St. Patrick.


At lunch time, everone crowded out to the courtyard for a parade and a céilí. A few representatives from each year (the best in each class) walked around the courtyard and the best from each year won an easter egg. Our year, however, did it differently (!). Leah came up with a plan and helped us to put it together...we were all dressed up as tourists, air hostesses, air traffic control and (of course) pilots. Leah had put together a CD with sound affects and music to go with a skit. Firstly, a voice called out for people on a certain flight to go to their gate, and we all got up and started walking around the courtyard. Then a siren came on and we all screamed and jumped to the ground...Leah (who was the villain) came into the courtyard and "kidnapped" our three pilots - Ruth, Chloe and Ms L! Then we all turned around as the Batman theme came on and "Batman" & "Robin" (Niamh P & Davina) ran into the courtyard to save us. It was really funny and everyone seemed to enjoy it...well done Leah!


Our year won eight easter eggs to share bewtween us for our skit and in maths (after lunch) both classes got four each...we certainly enjoyed them in Ms. L's maths class!


I took loads of pictures throughout the day and a few clips of some girls doing Irish dancing on their own at lunch at the céilí so it's in the post entitled "Lá Glas Photos"... :)

Holy Faith Drama..

Our school was once upon a time a Holy Faith school...the Holy Faith sisters set it up in the 1950's and up until 1999/2000 it was a Holy Faith convent. Margaret Aylward was the woman who founded the Holy Faith sisters nearly 200 years ago and this year is the bi-centenary of her birth, so we were asked (along with 3 other schools to perform a drama based on what she would do for tady's society were she still alive). Our plays were the ones we used for the Briery Gap drama competition earlier in the year (mine's about drink-driving). We arrived in Glasnevin at around 11am and didn't leave till late but we had a great day...we practised twice and then we were given pizza from the Holy Faith sisters (Dominoes..yum!). The show started at 8pm and the audience was pretty big! I didn't really get nervous...I'm so used to doing the play by now. Anyway, I really enjoyed it! The other schools were all very good too...their themes were similar to ours. It was very late by the time we back to the petrol station on the bus...half ten! I was so tired by then...I fell into bed when I got home! Thanks to Ms. G., Ms B., Ms C & Sr. S., as well as Ian and Glen from Celbridge Youth Drama for all their help!!

Mini Company....this is it!

I haven't written all week so I'm gonna catch up now...
On Monday we went for the Kildare finals of the Mini Company competition. Myself, Hayley, Michelle, Ailbhe, Leah, Mia, Clara & Emma met up in my house on Sunday to fix up some last minute things...our posters had completely stuck together with double-sided sticky tape from the last competition so Clara & I spent aaaages trying to pry it apart (using a hair-dryer, oven gloves, a towel, a barbeque tongs, and butchers knife and nail-polish remover). Eventually we separated them but they were so crumpled that we had to make a border to go aroun the egde to make them look better.. :/ Anyway, we got our work finished and by the next morning we were ready to head off to the Osprey Hotel in Naas to our competition.
We arrived there at around 11am and spent over an hour setting u our stand and getting ourselves ready for the day. Emma & Mia had ensured that morning that we got a decent display board which wouldn't fall down (like the one we had in our regional final!). We got it up and put black sheet over it with fairy lights. My dad had helped us to make a big thing in the shape of our de-knotter with our mini-company name on it and we hung that up above the board (after the disastrous one we made ourselves out of paper-maché). We started to panic when the internet wouldn't work but we manage to get the home page of our website open so the judges could see it. We set up our table and then went for lunch (potato wdges and chicken goujons...mmmm...) courtesy of the competition.
At 2 o'clock the judging started. We had three judges...the first was a lady who was judging our interview skills and our stand as well as the product itself. The second was a man from AIB who was judging our finances, and the third was another man who was judging marketing and sales. Overall, we were very happy with our interviews. Out of the 18 schools in the final, our school had the most entries (four); Baby Cakes, The Just Desserts, Spoover and us. After the judging we had to wait a short while before the results were announced...meanwhile there was a lot of attention from people who had come for the prize-ceremony in our project. We were saying that had we manufactured we could have made loads of sales that day....oh well!!
Finally the results were announced..The Just Desserts were the first to win a prize...they won the judges award for excellent presentation and an excellent interview (they made cookbook on a USB key)...well done girls!! Four other prizes were given out...most innovative, best business report and best display. Then they announced that we had won second place! We were sooo happy...out of 120 groups who entered in Kildare we had come second! We got a gorgeous trophy and €200, and we were offered a free marketing package from KFM, our local radio station. Sadly, we won't be going through to the next round but we're still really happy with how we did...I don't know yet what the future hold for Knot A Problem but we might yet manufacture...keep an eye out on http://www.dknotter.com/ (our website). Well done to everyone!
By the time we got home that evening we were all wreckedbut had had a very enjoyable day... :)
Btw...we owe a huge thanks to Ms L & Ms L (two different teachers...our year head and our mini-company teacher) for all their help and guidance throughout the project... :D

Work Experience Day 5...it's all over now :(

Today was my last day of work experience in the courts....actually it was my last ever day of work experience in TY!! :'( I really will miss it!
Today I just did more filing and alphabetising. I also interviewed my supervisor, Ann Marie, for my Work Experience report booklet. I found out loads from her about her job...she only gets 27 days holiday a year! Like woah! She also works Flexi-time, which means she picks the hours she works...she can work from 8am to 7pm and has to work 6 hours 57 minutes a day (isn't that a mad number?!). She says that the most important thing in her job is not breaching confidentiality, and also..you have to have good customer service skills because, as a public servant, she answers to the public. The lucnhtimes are from 12.30 - 2.00 in my office and people can decide how long to use themselves...they also take tea breaks sometimes...which I'm not used to so I never went on one.. :)
I spent a while after lunch finishing off my booklet...I had filled it in each day but I was just adding in a few bits of extra information about the building and stuff (one of the ladies there gave me a booklet to get some of the information).
I learned loads about the building; there are 22 courts, 16 have space for juries, the otheres don'tt. The building was built btween 2007 and 2009 to bring all the criminal jurisdictions (I didn't spell that right...) together. There are eight floors, including a basement that holds prison cells for the prisoners awaiting trial. There are loads of lifts...4 main ones in the "grand hall", but also loads of others that can't be seen, including ones leading from the jail cells to the court rooms. There is a separate "dining room" for judges and another one for members of the jury. Staff and the public can eat in a self-service canteen, but its divided into separate sections for both parties. The building is very, very modern because it's so new. It very bright and spacious.. and clean! When you go in the front door there is a security point like at the airport! I needed a special card (like all the other workers there) to let me in and out of my office and other doors that are locked to non-employees.
Some of the jobs in the Criminal Courts of Justice include barristers, judges, solicitors, court clerks, registrars, interpreters, prison guards and clerical workers, aswell as LOADS more.
I learned a lot from this work experience; before I went I wanted to do medicine or law when I'm finished school but I'm pretty sure now that I don't want to do law...I didn't find it interesting enough. I also know for definite that I don't want to work in an office...I like being able to walk around freely and I just don't think it would suit me personally.
From the work experience programme as a whole, I've learned a lot too. I'm nearly 100% sure now that I want to do medicine after school. I learned that it takes a lot of patience when applying for a job...I wrote sooo many letters (waaay before the work experience dates) and got hardly any back. I also learned how to write a letter to apply for a job and how to make a CV. Another thing I learned was how hard it is to start a new job...going in on the first day was really awkward because I didn't know anyone. I learned how to communicate well with different people and with adults too. Also, the independence skills I learned were phenomenal...more so this time round...having to make my own way to work experience by bus and make my own lunch arrangements and stuff was kinda scary but very cool aswell...there were no teachers or parents to spoonfeed so I had to make decisions myself...even knowing what to do next when my supervisor was away from her desk (or what bus-stop to get off at!). Work epxperience has definitley been one of the most worthwhile module so far this year...I really enjoyed it and I can't wait to start working for real now! (I bet I'll take that back in a few years!)
I'd love to be able to do another week or two in other places seeing what they're like...for example at a school (I was only there for one day in November so I'd like to spend more time there). Thanks to everyone at Naas Hospital, Tirmohan National School, The Courts Service & The Criminal Courts of Justice for all their help! :)

Work Experience Day 4

So today I'll write about yesterday and today. Yesterday was a really good day...I was on time for the bus (and therefore didn't miss it/nearly miss it) and I got off at the right busstop (very proud moment for me..) :L I did more filing and putting sheets in alphabetical order. After lunch the other girl doing work experience in the criminal courts came down and I showed her how to do the filing...she had nothing to do in her office so she came to help me out.
Putting bundles of files in alphabetical order was NOT fun! Each pile was about 30cm deep and they all started with the same letter! I have some advice for anyone who will be doing work experience or just working in an office in general; learn youur alphabet. Everyone thinks they know it...but wait until you have one hundred different second names all beginning with con...then you'll know all about it! I had a post-it note stuck on the partition between my desk and the desk infront of me with the alphabet written on it! :L I had fun though...the ladies who work around me are all so nice and very very funny!!!
I got the bus home without missing it too...overall, it was a very good day! Yay :)

Work Experience Day 3

I'm a bit behind in my posts about work experience due to a lack of spare time, so even though it's Thursday, I'm going to write about yesterday.
I knew I had to be in early yesterday (9.30 instead of 10) because I was going on a tour around the courts with a school from Ballymun at half nine, so I was getting an earlier bus than usuual. Unfortunately, I have bad luck when it comes to buses and when I came around the corner out of my estate the bus was already after leaving the busstop and was stopped at the traffic lights! I ran up to the door and luckily the driver let me on (just a quick note: I was on time, the bus was just early). I was really happy when I got into Dubin because I only got off one stop early this time...I'm getting better!
I went through security and then waited on the school to arrive. We went around with a barrister named Carl. We went into one of the court rooms and had a mock trial...some people got to try on the barristers' gowns!
After that I went to see a real trial...it was a very interesting case beacause it was a famous murder trial. I stayed there until the court was adjourned at 13.00 and then I went home (I had a half day!).
It was very interesting to see a proper big case like that..I'll write about today, tomorrow (I'm tired now.. :L)
Working is hard...I think I'm just gonna retire after secondary school..I now know why my mam and dad are complaining by the end of the week! :D

Pancake Tuesday!

By the way...for anyone who forgot, today was pancake Tuesday...I had two pancakes with Nutella and one with lemon and sugar (don't worry..they were small(ish))! I just got back from step aerobics (for Gáisce) so that will burn off some of the calories I consumed from the pancakes :L
Tomorrow is the start of lent so I won't be eating chocolate for weeks!!! Yelp!! How will I survive? A teacher once said to me the worst thing a girl can do is give up chocolate for Lent 'cause girls need chocolate to put them in a good mood...I agree! (Watch out!!!!!) JK :P

Work Experience Day 2

Day two in the courts was really cool and very interesting..I didn't get off to the best start this morning (it was just one of those days) because I neaarrly missed my bus and then I got off the bust two early and had to walk for aaaages (I'm not good with the whole bus thing..)! Finally I arrived in the office I'm working in though...with one minute to spare! Ann-Marie, my supervisor, told me I was going to the courts today to see some cases. I did some files and at half ten went down to court 3 to see the trials. The 10.30 ones all were very quick (about 2 minutes each!) and I didn't really understand much (they spoke very fast and used lots of big legal phrases) but the 12 o'clock ones were longer and I understood a lot more!
The court room was really cool...there was a big table at the top where the judge sits and under that there's a table for the registrar and someone else (I can't remember their job). Then there are two tables for solicitors and barristers. At the sides of the tables there are two stands for witnesses and the person being brought before the court sits either to the side of the tables (if they're in custody) or in front in the seats (if they're not in custody).
It was very busy in the court room...there were loads of Gardaí there and solicitors & barristers. It finished at one and I went back up to the office to get my stuff so I could go on lunch but I had forgotten my card thiong that opens the doors so I was locked out...I got help from a man who showed me to the information desk and the lady there called Ann-Marie to let me in! Oops! :/
After lunch I went back to my files....there was a LOT of work to do...one of the files for court on Wednesday was HUUUUUUGE and it took me aaaages to do!
I finished at four and got the bus home (I actually missed my bus 'cause I was in the toilet but I just got the next one a half hour later).
Tomorrow I'm goung on a tour with a school around the place and then I get a half day...I think I'm getting off at lunch time but I'm not entirely sure...
I had a really good day today...seeing what a court is like was pretty cool!
I'll right again about it tomorrow.. :)

Work Experience Day 1

This week I'm in the Criminal Courts of Justice for Work Experience. I was a little bit nervous going in this morning because I had to get the bus into Dublin city and even though it's only about a half hour away, I'm not a big fan of Dublin and always have no sense of direction and therefore get lost very easily! I was rather proud however because I managed to get to Phoenix House in Smithfield - where I was meeting my contact - without getting lost or having to ask for directions (although I did get off at the wrong bus stop but I was very early so it didn't make a difference!). When I met my contact we went up to her office and I signed some paperwork re work experience. She told me a little bit about the courts and then we got on the Luas (which conveniently had a stop outside the building) and went up to the criminal courts of justice where I'll spend the week. She introduced me to my supervisor, Ann-Marie. After she left Ann-Marie showed me around and then told me what I'd be doing for the day....
I had to take a pile of court order sheet things and then stamp them with the date the person was due to arrive in court...that took a good while. Then I separated them into two piles depending on the time of the trial. Then I put them in alphabetical order and ticked them off a list. I did that for all of the court cases this Wednesday and for some of the Thursday ones. I was allowed to take lunch any time between 12.30 and 2 for as long or as little as I wanted. I went from 1 till 1.35 (I had soup in a little cafe). I finished at 4. The bus-stop is just across the road which is dead handy! And then my bus (66) came straight away!!! I was very happy... :)
I'm really looking forward to the rest of the week...on Wednesday I'm going a tour with a school (so yeah, a school tour) around the courts and I'll also get to the see the courts in action!
The courst are very different ot the hospital (where I went on my last work experience). It's a much slower pace (if that makes any sense) and just totally different....I really enjoyed today...I'll write again tomorrow :)

New Design!!

As part of Challenge 1 for the blogger challenge we were asked to change the theme of our blog...so I went for Shamrocks because they're kinda apt in light of what season it is...in Ireland at the moment we're busy getting ready for St. Patrick's day next Thursday 17th March 2011. I can't wait! I don't know if I'm going to a parade yet...I might just watch the Dublin one on TV...but the atmosphere is always great on the day..and the higlights are brill on RTE News that evening! St. Patrick is the patron saint of Ireland so it's a big deal...parades not only occur all over Ireland, but all around the world too! I'd love to go to the New York one someday... :) Oooo..update: just figured out how to change the font and stuff...I really like my new blog "makeover"...pretty awsum!

Blogger Challenge 1: About My Blog

Challenge 1 in the student blog challenge is to write about the purpose of our blog...so I made a page on what my blog is about. You can check it out above^^ Basically this is an account of my year in Transition Year (4th year). So far it has been the best year ever and I've enjoyed every minute of it!...read above or send me questinos to find out more... :)

Busy Week!

Woah...this week was soooo busy...but definitely a good one!

On Thursday we went to Clane GAA for the local finals of the Mini Comapany competition. When we arrived we found our stand...we were really happy coz we got a big table to fit all our stuff!! Emma had collected the posters the night before and they looked great! Our stand was a bit hard to put up coz it was broken but it looked really good when it was finished. Our interview with the judge went pretty well...we were happy, even though our report book was too big. The funniest bit was when five minutes after the judge left our stand, the whole display collapsed!! It took a great team effort to get it back up but it was very funny afterwards! Loads of the other projects were brill and the standard was huge, but at the end we were told (along with five other groups from our year) that we got shortlisted for the next round, and we found out later that day that we made it to the next round!! We're so happy...the next competition is on 14th March.

Our Formula 1 in schools regional final was yesterday. We had a very stressful week with that but by Thursday evening our uniforms, portfolio, poster and car were all ready to go and I stopped hyperventilating (I'm the team manager(!)). So we arrived at the school at 7.45am(!). We got a bit lost on the way but eventually we arrived at Griffith College and got set up for the competition. Our display poster looked really well...Mr W loved it! Firstly we had our portfolio interview. Two judges came to our stand and looked through our portfolio, asking us each abou the part we had to play in it. Everyone had something to say and we were very happy with how it went. Then it was time to race our car. We were up against a team from Carlow called Team Phoenix. We had a false start in the first race, and in the next two we were beaten by 0.2 seconds! The gap was so tiny! Sarah, the "driver" did an excellent job, and we were so proud of her! After that we had our visual display interview. We presented a PowerPoint presentation to two different judges and basically told them what we did again, as well as answering some of their questions. It went very well and we were really, really happy at the end at how it had gone! After lunch (in the college restaurant...chips...mmm...) another judge came over to ask us about the manufacturing of our car. He was only with us briefly. At the end of the day there were some fun races, that anyone could take part in. They were just testing reaction times. Then there was the awards. After giving out some of the awards (we didn't win any..aw well) they announced the teams who had gotten through to the nexxt round, the national finals. It's safe to say that we were sufficiently shocked when they called out our team name..we have a few stuff to fix up with our car but we're looking forward to it in April.
Thanks to Ms. L & Mr. W, our teachers for Mini Company & Tech/F1 respectively for all their help! Oh, and to Ms. L our year head and all the other teachers who let us work on our projects in their class coming up to the deadline!

After F1 we had the Wesley College choir competition. Everyone sang really well, but sadly we didn't place-the standard was really high!

It's been such a busy week...I was glad to have a lie-in today! Next week we're on work experience. I'll be in the criminal courts in Dublin. I went in with my mam today to find out where I've to go on the first day (I dind't know where Phoenix House was). It should be an interesting week. I'll blog about it each day. :)

Back At School

Woah...it's only Wednesday and already so much has happened! Firstly, we got back after our week-long midterm break..
On Monday we had Mini-Company. Our competition is tomorrow so it's all go. We had a very interesting class trying to battle against display boards...thankfully our group are getting one of the easily-assembled ones tomorrow but there are four boards that will prove difficult for whoever gets them...
I can't wait for the competition tomorrow. We're collecting our posters this evening (by we I mean Emma & Michelle), we have our project book ready and our prototypes are painted and looking sooo cute. I have to fix up the name-tags for everyone. I should be fun and fingers crossed we'll get through to the next round...
Yesterday we did soccer in P.E. I was the goalie which wasn't a good idea because I tended to flinch when the ball came my way...and I let in three goals...but it's all in the effort! :L
The Wesley College Choir competition is on Friday so we were busy singing to our hearts' content yesterday and today in extra practises to be ready for Friday.
Also on Friday is our F1 in Schools competition. Our poster has been submitted and will be delivered to our school tomorrow morning. I just finished the portfolio and the PowerPoint and our car is being spray-painted this evening. It got pretty stressful there at one stage but thankfully, we're nearly ready to go!
Next week we're on work experience. I'm going to the court's service in Dublin. It should be interesting!
I'll write tomorrow about the competition...we've a half too :D