Jabba Jabba Jembe

Last week we had a percussion workshop with Dave from Jabba Jabba Jembe, at first I didn't know what to expect but we soon found out we would be drumming on African drums called Jembes. We started off with easy beats and we developed them as we went on. Over the course of the day we all improved alot and it sounded great even all the teachers got involved. He was a great teacher he was laid back and really friendly but taught us alot too. I really enjoyed the day and I'm pretty sure everyone else did too, after Carlingford it could be one of the best things we've done all year, It was Great :)

Retreat in Glendalough

On Tuesday we went to Glendalogh in Wicklow for our retreat. It took about an hour and a half, the bus ride was lovely cause we were just relaxing but when we got there it was a different story. We were assigned a tour guide woman to show us around and do our retreat. It started off a bit weird when she was telling us to do a dance, she had words to go with it, it was hilarious after that the real work began. We were walking along and she showed us St. Kevin's well. The walk to that was fine and after that we went to the information centre to watch a video about Celtic Ireland, that was okay too it made me a bit tired though. After this we didn't know what was coming we went on a huge walk which was all uphill, we thought it was never going to end, everyone was knackered and roasting hoping we'd get there soon. At one point Lauren and I thought we were finished it but we weren't, it was so disappointing. When we finally got to the top we thankfully went down a different easy way but I was just jealous we didn't come up that way, would have saved a lot of energy. After that we had lunch and went walking again but this walk wasn't that much uphill and it was a lot more bearable than the "hike" before. We then got on the bus to go back to the school. We tried to have a snooze but didn't quite get to. Overall it was a good day for something different and I enjoyed the experience (even the uphill parts).

Trip to Museums in town

Yesterday we went into town in order to visit some museum exhibitions. The first one we went to see was an exhibition on W.B yeasts. It was quite interesting to learn about him, we found out there was a high chance that he was diclecsic which I found very interesting because he's so famous. We found out about his poetry and his personal life which was a bit mad. We found out he was pretty much obsessed with a lady called Maude Gonne, she was 6ft tall which was very unusual back then and he thought she was the most beautiful woman he'd ever seen. He thought she was the love of her life so he proposed to her formally 5 times and informally more but she rejected him each time. Later in life he decided to ask her daughter to marry him but like her mother, she declined. I think it's pretty weird to ask a mother and her daughter to marry you but that's how he was. He finally married another woman with the same intrests as her but he thought he was just settling for her and still wanted Maude. Because of this his wife pretended spirits were saying Maude was not the love of his life, and Yeats was then happier in his marridge. To be honest he was a bit of a snob too, but very talented none the less.

After the W.B Yeats exhibition we went to the national museum where we mainly went to see the bog bodies. They showed us stone age and bronze age items too but we were more interested in seeing the bog bodies. We saw two bodies both preserved excellently. One of the bodies' hair was the most amazing thing about him was how perfect his hair was. The other man's hands were perfectly preserved. I was really impressesd by those.

The last place we went to was an art museum. The first paintings they showed us were paintings by Willam Yeats' brother Jack. We saw some realists paintings by him and then his style dramatically changed to expressionist paintings. It was interesting to see the dramatic differences in his style. We then saw paintings by other artists all over the world which were just as impessive but we didn't go into as much detail on those.
Overall we learned alot but had fun walking around town for the day.

Work Experience - March (7-11)

Last week we had our second and last work experience of ty. I went to the air coprps in Baldonnel. Before I went I was really nervous but I was lucky because my friend Rebekah came too so at least I wasn't by myself like alot of people there. There were about 32 of us in total there on work experience, it was just like a class. At first it was really awkward because everyone was nervous and quiet and Rebekah ani I were the only two girls there but after a while people started talking and a few more girls showed up.
I really enjoyed the week, it was more observing than doing but we understood, alot of the boys were very dissapointed though they didn't understand like we did ha. They showed us around the place in general on the first day and we looked at things in more detail over the week. They showed us all of the guns and weapons they use in the air corps. We also got to see all the planes and helicopters they have at the base. We got to go inside of the government jet that the new Taoiseach would be in later that day which was pretty cool. They showed us how they work and what pilots do in the cockpits and all sorts. They brought one of the fire engins around and told us about it and we all got to sit in it and look, they turned the hoses on aswell, it was good. One of the days we went up to thr bird control unit. There they showed us incidents like crashes of planes caused by birds and how they prevent it from happening. One way is to set a hawk out so all the other birds are scared and fly away. We got to hold one of these hawks and I held it first but it didn't like me! I was scared so I ran and screamed a couple of times but it was still fun.
They showed us a DVD of the work you have to do in the Curra when you're joining the army or the air corps it lo0oks really hard but really fun too. They told us about the fitness tests you have to pass to get into the army aswell. You also have to pass an interview and a test to make sure you're not crazy which I thought was pretty funny.
On the last day we got a talk from a Pilot and he told us all about how you become a pilot what you do and how much you get paid and everything. I wasn't interested in being a pilot before it but after hearing him it sounds like a great job with good pay and other benifits so now its something to consider :) The lunch was one of the best things about the whole week, it was great. If you brought in €2 you got a lunch which was really more like a dinner. You got a choice but most days I had chicken chips and neans and whatever salads too oh and a drink it was great.
Overall I really enjoyed this week it was my favourite work experience of the two by far and was alot of fun.

Mini Company

Yesterday, we went to Clane G.A.A. for our mini company competition to see who goes thorough to the next rounds for the county. We all got the bus there everybody was supposed to be given a board to put things about their company on but of course with our luck we were the only group not to get one. Instead we had to use an empty box of one of the boards and put it on top of two chairs, it worked quite well, it was quite the cunning plan if I do say so myself. We had a table too but because we had no board we decided to use two tables. We used lights and made it all pretty and our stand looked very well. We were waiting for hours to get judged, I actually think we were the last group to get judged. The man who judged us was very nice and we were able to answer all his questions. Unfortunately our group didn't get through but our school had the most groups shortlisted to go through which was impressive. Even though we didn't get through
it was still a good day and we got to see alot of brilliant companies.

Movement workshop

Today we had a man called Ian in to give us a workshop in movement. The aim of the workshop was to help us with our movement in our dramas because we are entering another drama competition (Festival to celebrate the work of Margaret Aylward).
The workshop was great made us do warm-ups like jumoing walking and shaking out our arms and legs etc. At the end he had us play a sort of game. We had to get into pairs and one of us were to make a shape while the other filled in the gaps making another shape and so on. He made us pick out two of our favourites shapes and switch from one to the other in a second. It was really helpful and it was good fun too.

Home Ec

As part of our home ecenomics project we had to cook a dish from a country of our choice. For our entire project Orlaigh & I chose to do Japan. We decided to cook the chinese chicken teriyaki. We were the fastest group to finish our dish, it only took about 20-30 minutes for the whole thing. We marinaded chicken fillets in teriyaki sauce chopped and fried it. We also served it with rice and a few vegetables. It was AMAZING! Because we were inished so early we had to go round and help other people in the class. We got to taste eat our food for a while aswell. I liked that alot :) Over all it was a very successful dish.