The Camping Trip
Last Wednesday I got my results and I wasn't as happy as I thought I'd be. I worked pretty hard for A's in business and history but I got B's so that was a let down. I gave my results to my parents, got my bags and got on the bus. I sat with Amy and my friends were in the seats surrounding too, the chats on the bus ride about all the results was nice but as soon as we got off the bus the results weren't mentioned again. As we arrived we began to set up the tent, I had Aido, Ste, Jose, Sean, Hugo, Josh and Paddy in my tent who helped put up the tent. My advice for the camping trip is don't have a Steven in your group. He didn't help with anything at all but we forgive him. After setting up the tent most of us had snacks, the majority of snacks were all koka noodles which were eaten at every meal. After the quick snack we then all went on a 6km walk which was really nice. Half way there we took a couple of pictures, drank some water and then turned back. On the walk most of us got really dirty and wet so after some of us had showers. The showers were surprisingly really nice and since the room was small it turned into a steam room in a way. We then had dinner, I had pasta and balinaise which was grand and I scabbed a few sausages and other meats here and there from groups. After dinner we hungout in tents and had some soft drinks, then at around 8 we began the campfire where the whole year was for the night. At the campfire there was the usual getting of weak prey where the predictors would hunt in packs and demolish the weak. We all had great talks and banter and then we went to bed. In bed at 10:59 the entire campsite went absolutely mad shouting, "Jono," at the top of our lungs.
On Thursday morning most people had slept terribly throughout the night and were grumpy. Everyone had slept in full clothes and some still woke up feeling very cold. I had a very nice sleeping bag that was warm and didn't wake up during the night which was very nice. The next morning we began to cook breakfast which included sausages, rashers, French toast and pancakes. Our group made pancakes and sausages but I got French toast and rashers from other groups who were giving away food. Surprisingly most tents had excess food so we were set for all of our meals. At breakfast the teachers gave out free bread and milk and I made myself a big sandwich for the long walk ahead. I brought a two litre bottle of water, a protein bar, jellies, chocolate and popcorn for the walk. We began the walk at 11 and we all knew we had a long road ahead. The majority of the beginning of the walk was difficult because it was all uphill, however I think it was nice to get the hard piece knocked out at the beginning. The weather was surprisingly nice during the beginning of the walk and I had shorts underneath my track suits which I changed into because it was very hot. We had a large group of people and I think we had over 90 on the walk so as you'd imagine we weren't all together because groups were faster than others. Every 2-3 kilometres the front group would stop and wait for the slower group to catch up so that we wouldn't lose them and then maybe they'd lose their way back to the campsite. About 8 kilometres in most of us were quite tired and we stopped to take pictures as a group which will be in my photos section if the blog. We kept walking after that and still had around 10 more kilometres to do. After around another 5 kilometres of trudging through the muck and grass we stopped for food. Everyone was exashuted and this was a needed break. I had a nice lunch and gave away a few pieces of chocolate and popcorn to friends. We began to walk for the last part of the walk and we ran into a stream. Surprisingly only about half of us had hiking boots so many knew that they were going to get quite wet but we found a way around it. Many of the lads and I gave everyone waiting a piggy back ride over the small river and that way only a few got wet rather than everyone. After another few kilometres we all finally made it back to the campsite and were all very worn out. It was about 5 and I had a shower almost straight away and it was quite nice to relax in the hot water. After we had all showered and were about to start dinner the teachers nicely made burgers for everyone which were very nice. Jason had brought a full barbecue and cooked us all our food. After the burgers I had some more food, Koka noodles, another protein bar and a few sausages from other tent groups. It was about 6:30 by the time everyone had finished dinner and we then began the campfire outside where everyone would gather and hangout. We stayed at the campfire for about an hour and a half and then it began to lash rain so the teachers told us to go back to our tents. As we were all walking back sadly I started to shout, "The Barn," and then everyone began shouting it as we all crammed into the barn and began making some food, playing cards and playing atomas. I was really good at atomas and I really enjoyed it. The card games were getting intense as Ben and LK had a great game of spit where LK won on a close call. We spent the rest of the night with each other having a great time and then went off to sleep at 11. Everyone was looking forward to bed after the long walk so we weren't reluctant to go to sleep. I didn't sleep well that night because of all the noise caused by Spuke's tent but we won't get into that story. Finally falling asleep at the late a.m. Just to be woken up by Ella and Masisie at 6 a.m. Although I didn't get much sleep I wasn't as tired and I thought I would be.
Finally on Friday morning I went back to sleep and woke back up at 8 and went for a shower with some of the lads. After the shower we began breakfast and I had a rasher sandwich and a sausage sandwich and they were both really delicious. Then after breakfast we began to pack up our tent which was extremely unorganised. After about 10 minutes of cleaning and packing our bags we finally cleared it out. After we cleared out the tent we took out the poles, folded it and put it back in the bag. I was all ready to leave and it was about 11. I went over to help with other tents because most of the others were struggling and eventually they were all taken down. It was about 11:30 and as a year we walked in a line together and picked up rubbish that we had left on the ground. After cleaning the rest of the site we just sat and talked for the last 20 or so minutes waiting for the buses to arrive. They finally arrived and went back to Gerard's and then home. I was over tired and went home to sleep.
I really enjoyed the camping trip and I'm not mad that I missed the results events in town. It was so nice to camp with friends and be with a lot of nice people. I hope the rest of fourth year can be as great as this trip was.
On Thursday morning most people had slept terribly throughout the night and were grumpy. Everyone had slept in full clothes and some still woke up feeling very cold. I had a very nice sleeping bag that was warm and didn't wake up during the night which was very nice. The next morning we began to cook breakfast which included sausages, rashers, French toast and pancakes. Our group made pancakes and sausages but I got French toast and rashers from other groups who were giving away food. Surprisingly most tents had excess food so we were set for all of our meals. At breakfast the teachers gave out free bread and milk and I made myself a big sandwich for the long walk ahead. I brought a two litre bottle of water, a protein bar, jellies, chocolate and popcorn for the walk. We began the walk at 11 and we all knew we had a long road ahead. The majority of the beginning of the walk was difficult because it was all uphill, however I think it was nice to get the hard piece knocked out at the beginning. The weather was surprisingly nice during the beginning of the walk and I had shorts underneath my track suits which I changed into because it was very hot. We had a large group of people and I think we had over 90 on the walk so as you'd imagine we weren't all together because groups were faster than others. Every 2-3 kilometres the front group would stop and wait for the slower group to catch up so that we wouldn't lose them and then maybe they'd lose their way back to the campsite. About 8 kilometres in most of us were quite tired and we stopped to take pictures as a group which will be in my photos section if the blog. We kept walking after that and still had around 10 more kilometres to do. After around another 5 kilometres of trudging through the muck and grass we stopped for food. Everyone was exashuted and this was a needed break. I had a nice lunch and gave away a few pieces of chocolate and popcorn to friends. We began to walk for the last part of the walk and we ran into a stream. Surprisingly only about half of us had hiking boots so many knew that they were going to get quite wet but we found a way around it. Many of the lads and I gave everyone waiting a piggy back ride over the small river and that way only a few got wet rather than everyone. After another few kilometres we all finally made it back to the campsite and were all very worn out. It was about 5 and I had a shower almost straight away and it was quite nice to relax in the hot water. After we had all showered and were about to start dinner the teachers nicely made burgers for everyone which were very nice. Jason had brought a full barbecue and cooked us all our food. After the burgers I had some more food, Koka noodles, another protein bar and a few sausages from other tent groups. It was about 6:30 by the time everyone had finished dinner and we then began the campfire outside where everyone would gather and hangout. We stayed at the campfire for about an hour and a half and then it began to lash rain so the teachers told us to go back to our tents. As we were all walking back sadly I started to shout, "The Barn," and then everyone began shouting it as we all crammed into the barn and began making some food, playing cards and playing atomas. I was really good at atomas and I really enjoyed it. The card games were getting intense as Ben and LK had a great game of spit where LK won on a close call. We spent the rest of the night with each other having a great time and then went off to sleep at 11. Everyone was looking forward to bed after the long walk so we weren't reluctant to go to sleep. I didn't sleep well that night because of all the noise caused by Spuke's tent but we won't get into that story. Finally falling asleep at the late a.m. Just to be woken up by Ella and Masisie at 6 a.m. Although I didn't get much sleep I wasn't as tired and I thought I would be.
Finally on Friday morning I went back to sleep and woke back up at 8 and went for a shower with some of the lads. After the shower we began breakfast and I had a rasher sandwich and a sausage sandwich and they were both really delicious. Then after breakfast we began to pack up our tent which was extremely unorganised. After about 10 minutes of cleaning and packing our bags we finally cleared it out. After we cleared out the tent we took out the poles, folded it and put it back in the bag. I was all ready to leave and it was about 11. I went over to help with other tents because most of the others were struggling and eventually they were all taken down. It was about 11:30 and as a year we walked in a line together and picked up rubbish that we had left on the ground. After cleaning the rest of the site we just sat and talked for the last 20 or so minutes waiting for the buses to arrive. They finally arrived and went back to Gerard's and then home. I was over tired and went home to sleep.
I really enjoyed the camping trip and I'm not mad that I missed the results events in town. It was so nice to camp with friends and be with a lot of nice people. I hope the rest of fourth year can be as great as this trip was.
Enterprise Talk
Serena from county enterprise board was a speaker that was brought in to our school on September 20th to talk to us as a year about our mini company projects. She explained to us that such a simple object, even a paper clip, can be used for a variety of things once you change your mindset and really think about it. She separated us off into groups of three, gave each group a paper clip and told us to come up with as many uses as possible. My group with Ken and John came up with 17 idea which included a nail cleaner, key holder and many more cool little gadgets. She then gave us a PowerPoint presentation about the last few years of competition between all of the counties and Wicklow has one the last two years. The ideas were a headphone holder set and an engine table. Both idea gave each of the young entrepreneurs a lot of profit and they were each also rewarded with a weekend in a foreign country in Europe. My group for mini company in my business class is with Jake and Ste, I cannot say what we're planning because the teachers do not want us to spread the word until we get permission from Mr. Geraghty. I really enjoyed the talk because it gave me a perspective of how big the competition is and the great rewards you can earn if you out in the hard work.
Eagles Flight Workshop
The Eagles Flight workshop was a great experience that took this Thursday the 21st of September that I thought was a really cool and interesting experience with our class. Well it wasn't exactly with my class to be completely honest it was with Form B and a few people from my form. (Form D) The Eagles Flight workshop was a strategy board game that everyone in the year participated in. The aim of the game to collect as much gold as you can, to collect gold you have to be in mine for a day, to stay in the mine you need a tent, to get to the mine you will need to travel one of the three journeys. At the beginning of the game each group was given a set of supplies that would be needed for each day, to survive you would need a supply card and a fuel card. I'm not going to go over each and every rule but the game was a collaboration game which we all figured out in the beginning and was the reason why our group did the best out of the three groups. Nobody knew what to expect when going into this activity but everyone who came out loved it and we all learned that working together in groups as a collaborative effort is a very effective way to get work done.
Guiness Storehouse
This Friday a few of my friends, Aidan, Luke, Jake, Jack, Josh and Steven and I took off the day to go into town and visit the Guinness storehouse. We booked tickets online for a 11:30 tour and we took the bus in from Bray in the morning. As we got off the bus we had about a 10 minute walk to the factory. We then stayed in the storehouse for about 2 hours for the tour, took some pictures, learned some new things and left. I learned that the temperature that that barley is roasted at is two hundred and two degrees Celsius. I learned that hops only grow in certain regions of the world because it's only available between 35 degrees and 55 degrees north and south of the equator. I learned that barley provides the basic raw ingredient for fermentation and that 100,000 tonnes of Irish grown barley is used every year in Guinness making. After we had lunch in Subway which was so nice, V introduced me to a southwest sauce which is incredible. After Subway we went into the main streets of Dublin and looked around in a few stores. Some of the lads bought new clothes and shoes but I didn't buy anything. It was a really nice day and break from school.
Karios
On Friday, the thirteenth of November my form class and I went on an English field trip to a recording studio. On the bus up Spin 1038 was playing and they made an announcement advertising for two Macklemore tickets. As a joke we messaged in that we'd trade in our Spanish student because they were looking for the best trade in, funnily enough we got mentioned on the radio which was pretty cool. As we arrived we were shown around at first and they had a cool set, a canteen, a makeup room, a sound room and an effects room. We dove right into the work and began working on our speech. I was Jeremy Kyle, the talk show host for my section. We did a section on weather, an interview, the weekly news and a Jeremy Kyle segment. In my segment I was working with Molly, Adele, Jack and Oskar. The show was terrible at our first take but by the second it was quite good. We then had lunch and had a final take which worked out well. After our final take we took some photos and headed back to school. It was a really fun day and I enjoyed it.
Wellbeing week
At the start of wellbeing week we had three speakers, Simon Harris, Alison Canavan and a nutritional therapist who were all talking to us about our mental health. They addressed that as we grow up we are given talks and learn a lot about of physical health but mental health is almost never talked about. Simon Harris is the minister of health in Ireland and is one of the seven people in the cabinet. He showed up that there is an updated version of the food pyramid, where they swapped the carbohydrate and fruit and vegetable sections with each other. Making fruit and vegetable at the bottom of the table, which means that we must try to consume fruit and vegetable the most out of all of our foods. It was really cool to have someone who is very influential in our country to come to our school and talk to us. He came in because our YSI group, which I am in, had emailed and got in touch with him and asked if he would mind coming in. He kindly took time out of his busy schedule and we all really appreciated it and learned from the experience. Simon Harris addressed that our diet impacts all parts of our physical and mental health because food gives you energy which doesn't only impact your movement but your attitude toward everything. Alison Canavan was our second guest speaker and I really enjoyed her talk as well. She is an ex-supermodel who began modelling at only fifteen years old. She dropped out of school to participate in modelling full time and at the beginning she loved it. As everything was happening she developed anxiety and this eventually led to an alcohol dependent lifestyle. She began to realise that this wasn't the correct way and at 32 years old she had a baby. This baby gave her the inspiration to turn her life around and she found peace through meditation. She wakes up now everyday at 5:30 am and meditates for an hour. She works hard jobs and goes to school and night to create a better future for her son. She is an inspiration and a hard working person. Our third speaker was a nutritional therapist. The nutritional therapist gave us the science behind how food really does impact our mental health. It addresses how the bacteria within our stomach actually makes us feel normal or ill.
Martial arts
On the 23rd and 24th of October our fourth year group had a martial arts course. We had a man come in called Daragh who has worked within self defensive jobs his entire life. Although this was called a martial arts course we mainly focused on self defence. On the first day he began to show us moves which would work if we were being attacked. We were taught to hit with out palms because often fighters break their knuckles, to punch with the bottom of our pinky finger with a closed fist, to elbow, to knee and to kick properly. We split into groups and practiced this for about an hour. We then had lunch and came right back down after. After lunch we worked on take downs and it was really fun. On the second day of the course we practiced disarming and working on the ground. We were taught how to handle an attacker with a gun or knife and how to get back to your feet and take your attacker down if you're on the ground. We finally had a fitness test where we would have to perform all of the moves, run a lot and do many workouts. After the test we were all tired and sat down. We then ended the day on that note, thanked Daragh and left for games. I really liked this course and am happy that I participated in it.
Public access to law
On Friday the 10th of November 35 others and I took part in the public access to law extra curricular course. This course was a small look into the life of a solicitor or barrister. The women running the course was named Mary Bunyan who was a very nice women and experienced lawyer. I really like law and am considering entering the course in my college years. We began our course first thing in the morning and we were going to be missing all of our classes. For the first 2 hours of the course we read through court cases, looked at the facts which proved the clients innocent or guilty and watched a short film of a specific case. After listening to some crazy things that happen throughout the world we went for our break. After coming back from our break we began to simulate mock trials which were good fun. In the first one I was trying to get a part as a barrister but she didn't pick my hand so I was in the jury. The first case dealt with a father who was an alcoholic and gambler who was accusing his daughters boy friend who he was not fond of at all that he had burnt down €30,000 worth of damages from his house. In the end Tadgh's prosecution was the most compelling and we voted that the child was guilty. In the second trial I got the place as a witness and it was really fun because I was much more engaged then the last trial. My case dealt with a road rage which turned into a assault against my character. In the end my lawyers weren't very compelling and my group lost the case. I really enjoyed the day and would recommend it to everyone.