My TY Dairy - Retreat

We are nearing the end of our TY journey and I am excited for the summer but I have really enjoyed my year and don't want it to end. This week we had a religion trip in Maynooth University where we had a retreat. We left the school at 9:15 for Maynooth. We got there at around 9:30 and went straight in. It was a dark room with lots of 'valuable' paintings. We sat around in a circle while the speakers introduced themselves. They were really nice and we were all excited for the rest of the day. We did different activities during the day, one of which being quite a physical one. Everybody had to link arms and hold their own hands together to make a strong bond while four girls had to break them apart. The girls were called the dentists and we were the teeth. The dentists grabbed your legs and tried the break the bond. I'm not too sure what the point of it was, but it was really fun! We played another game called 'Lifeboats' where the speakers had to call out a number and we had to get into groups groups of that size. That was also very fun! It was around 11 then so we had lunch.Then we went back and did some quiet stuff. We had a moment of silence for ourselves just to reflect on our lives. We then had to get into groups of around 10 people and we were given a question or circumstance. We then had to discuss in those groups what we would do in the circumstances given to us and then share it with the class. Everybody had very strong thoughts, especially when it came to the discussion about who have easier lives, men or women. We then went out and had lunch and some Starbucks and when we came back in, we continued with our discussion. The time flew by and it was soon 2:50 and we had to get back on the buses to go home. I really enjoyed the day and thought it was nice to get time out of our busy lives to reflect and think about things. The retreat was good fun and I think everybody else enjoyed it too!

Until Next Time,
     Goodbye! :)
                  Emer x

          

My TY Diary - Driving

Week 35


This week was a very enjoyable week. We have been off for the past two weeks due to the Easter Holidays and we all enjoyed the time off as well as all the chocolate eggs we received! The first thing we did when we got back to school on Monday was to go for a DRIVING LESSON!!! We went down to The Leinster Driving Campus in Maynooth and i went for my first ever driving lesson. First we split up into two groups. Our group went into a little prefab first. We did basic driving sign posts and signals and a fake theory test. We also had to do some fun activities like making up the funniest name for sign posts. We all laughed so much. It was great fun. After that, we went into another prefab and had lunch. We then swapped the groups over and the girls who were doing the theory first went out. we were split up into smaller groups of 3 and we when with those groups in the car. I was in a car with Eimhear and Zoe. We each got around 50 minutes to drive around their specially designed course. We learned the basics as well going around roundabouts and through crossroads and stuff like that. It was so fun at the end, some people got a free lesson worth €40 for being most improved or best driver and for getting every answer right in the theory. After that, we can home and were back for 2 O'clock. We ate our lunch and went back to class for the rest of the day.
I have to say that I enjoyed the experience and would happily do it again. We all had a great day and the people in the Driving School were so friendly and helpful. I would definitely go back in the future, when I need my driving lessons.

 That was all for this week!
            Until next time, Goodbye x :)


                                     
                               
     
                                       

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My TY Diary - Gaisce Hike

Week 36

It was a very exciting week this week as we had our Gaisce Hike. Gaisce is a program that TY's across Ireland can take part in. It involves taking three activities: a physical activity, a recreational activity and a community service and doing them for an hour a week for 13 weeks. The final part of the program is doing a 25 km hike. This year, we went to Kippure in the Wicklow Mountains. We went off in a bus at 2 pm on Friday afternoon and arrived at the lodges at around 3 pm. We packed our stuff and chose our beds and then set off at 3:30. It was a lovely afternoon and we walked 15 km over 3 mountains. When we arrived back at 9 pm, we were dead. We had been walking for 5 hours and our feet were killing us. We then cooked dinner. We already had a pasta dish made thanks to Eve :). We also made 3 pizzas. Two of them were burned at the bottom and uncooked at the top so we were left with one. Our chips also didn't do very well with the outside burned and the inside raw. We ate the food in minutes. We then sat down and watched TV with another house who came into our house and then we all fell fast  asleep. We got up at 7:30 the next morning and had our breakfast. We made our lunches and tidied up the house a bit and got our bags ready for the next day. We then went our to the adventure center. We were split up into groups and did different activities. My group started off with the Leap Of Faith. It is when you stand up in this really tall pillar and them jump off onto the hanging bar. It was terrifying standing on the top but then it was great fun when you got down and I felt like I had achieved something. We then went over to the rock climbing wall and the the vertical challenge. It is like a vertical obstacle course between two trees. It was really hard to do but we reached the top and got a big clap. It started to get really cold all of a sudden while we were doing the abseiling. We went inside and ate something before wrappig up in ay extra clothes that we had and heading out. A van brought us to our starting point and the second we stood out of the van it started to snow. It was freezing and we had to do a 10km hike. Everybody was really grumpy and cold and all we wanted was to go and sit down with a cup of tea and a biscuit. After 4 painful hours, we made it to the bottom and everybody ran inside looking for warmth. We were so wet from the snow, that we may as well had been swimming in all of our clothes. We all got into and dry clothes we had  left, which was (pyjamas for most of us) and headed home. We were all freezing and tired and wet. When we got home I fell asleep for the rest of the day.
Although there was a lot of moaning on the hike, I enjoyed the trip overall. It was a fun experience and I would do it again! (maybe without the walking this time:). )