My Erasmus+ experience in Ireland

 Today was our last day at Scoil Pól, tomorrow we are leaving at 7 o'clock in the morning, I can't believe it, the time went by so fast.  It's Tuesday so the first three hours are sport, we could choose between swimming (this one was full actually), hiking and boxing. I did boxing, we did one hour boxing, one hour rugby and another hour of sport statistics, where we went to the computers classroom and watch a football match.  We also did more experiments in physics, about heat again, this time we had to compare how different materials acted as insulators. we had to put boiling water into a glass and compare which way did it lose heat faster, with no insulator, wrapped in paper or wrapped in cotton.  the glass wrapped in paper  At the end of the school day we said our last goodbye to all the other Spanish students that were there for the whole year, and other people we've met at school.  I spent all the afternoon at home packing for tomorrow, I really enjoye...

 Today I had my last wood work class, unfortunately I wasn't able to finish, I would've love to but it's okay, I loved this subject so much, I really wish we had something similar in Spain.  my (almost) finished boat  We also had a barista course, where we were taught how to make a coffee with profesional equipment and a bit more about how to make coffees and work in a coffee shop. It was really interesting and we get to drink the coffee, it was really good, and for those who didn't like coffee there was the option to make hot chocolate instead, but I love coffee.  the equipment  hot chocolate  coffee latte

 I didn’t do much this weekend.  On Saturday I went to the shop with Eimear and her dad.  In the afternoon Eimear and I baked some brownies, they turned out amazing, and her neighbor Rebecca came to try them so we spent the afternoon.  Sunday was a bit boring because we didn't do anything interesting, but still it was a nice day  This was my last weekend, and I'm really excited about going back to Spain, but I also feel kind of sad about leaving. 

 Today I went to school, it was my last day of musical, it was so fun but I'm a bit sad because I'm going to miss it.  After school I stayed at the pitch with some Spanish and Irish students, we just did what we usually do. After that I went home, and Eimear and her neighbor, Rebecca, showed me a waterfall that’s near their houses, it was so beautiful.  It was around 12 degrees but they went into the water, with clothes and everything, they even said the water was “warm” (I was literally freezing), I had to get into the water to cross to the other side of the waterfall and I swear the water was not “warm”, but I had so much fun and the waterfall was stunning.  After going to the waterfall I played some sports with Eimear and her siblings, they tried to teach me some hurling but I don’t really think is my thing, I got to hit the ball a few time thought.  After that we had dinner and finished the day playing uno and monopoly until almost midnight, I had so mu...

Today after school we had an Irish music night. All the international students were invited, not only the ones doing the Erasmus. This school has a lot of international students, Germans, Italians and Spanish mainly, I already knew most of the other Spanish students, some of them are staying for the whole year and others just for one term.  After school we stayed at the pitch again until seven, the Spanish students did the musical dance because we love it so much, I'm going to miss it when I leave.  The music night started with some Irish dances and songs some really talented students performed.   And it continued with some songs the international students performed, including the Spanish ones, and some games, dancing and more. I had such a good time, we finished the night with some food and then we went home at 9.  

 Today I went to school. In physics we did an experiment to see how different colors lose heat different. We had three bottles, one white, one black and other silver, we had to put boiling water in all three to see which one lost heat faster.  physics experiment   I also had wood work, we started to cut the wood to make a boat, I love this subject, I would love to have it in Spain. It was basically my first time cutting wood, so I'm not sure if it's going to turn out ok, but I hope it does.  In applied maths, one of the subjects we are doing, we did a work sheet, that's probably one of the classes that is more similar to the ones we have in Spain. We learnt about networks and graphs, it was an interesting class and I actually learnt new things that weren't related to English.  networks work sheet

I feel like i always start writing like this but today was such a good day. We went to Lahinch beach surfing and to the Cliffs of Moher. I must say that surfing with 15 degrees, rain and wind was definitely an experience. I had a lot of fun surfing, it wasn’t my first time so I was actually able to catch a good amount of waves. Surfing with the wetsuit was ok, it was not that cold but once you got out with the wind and the hair wet, I was really cold. After surfing we went to the cliffs of Moher, the landscape was stunning, I really loved it, but the wind there was crazy, it was probably one of the strongest winds I’ve experience.  After having lunch and a short walk through the cliffs we headed back to the school and finally home.  cliffs of Moher  Eimear’s little cousins Charlotte and  (I’m not sure that’s how it’s spelled) came to visit and we spent the afternoon together, they are both so funny I had the best time. We also went to visit the farm again, the first ...

 Today was a chill day. We went grocery shopping in the morning and the we had lunch at the restaurant Eimear works, she wasn’t working today though. It's way more common to work as a teenager and as a student in Ireland than in Spain, here a lot of people our age have part time jobs, the weekends or after school, while I´ve never met anyone my age that has an actual job in Spain. Me and Eimear also baked some really nice cookies.

 Today was such a fun day.  I didn’t go to school because is Saturday but I went to limerick again with some Erasmus students, without teachers this time.  But before going to limerick some Spanish students met at the school pitch to watch “el chupinazo” (on the phone obviously), I was kind of sad that I wasn’t in Logroño for this day, but I tried to focus on all the experiences and great memories I’m getting from my stay in Ireland, San Mateo is every year but the opportunity to study abroad as a teenager doesn’t happen that often.  San Mateo from Ireland  We didn’t really do anything special, we just went shopping, walked around the city and went to a shopping center, but I had a lot of fun. I really like limerick and it’s nice to walk around without teachers.  Belen, Paul and I.  Paul, one of the Irish students   

today I went to school, we had some classes like junk kouture,  I've already post a designe one of the Irish groups made, but today we got to make our own.  my designe for a dress In English class we started reading two books, the teacher let the students choose between those which one do they want to read. One book was The hate u give, by Angie Thomas, and the other one was Foster, by Claire Keegan. I liked the begging of both novels, but they were really different.  the copy the teacher gave us After school I went with Eimear to get our nails done, I really like mines. 

 Today was such a nice day, actually it was just like a usual day but I had so much fun. I love school here because we don’t get any homework and we do classes we don’t usually do in Spain.  I was a little bit worry about religion because I had never been to a religion class and I’m personally not catholic, but it was i great class, I found it interesting to learn a bit about what faith is for people really different to me, and I’m glad I was at that class because I don’t know think I would ever go to a religion class in Spain.  religion notes  All the other classes were nice too, and today after school we hanged out at the pitch again, this time there was a hurling match, I still don’t really understand the sport but I think this time I was able to get it a bit better. It was really fun but it was raining a lot so I got so cold, I hope I don’t get sick.    Hurling match after school

Today was a really muddy/rainy day.  I went to the ploughing, a really big and important event for Irish people. I went with Eimear, her aunt, uncle and her 3 little cousins. The national ploughing championship is an outdoor exhibition and ploughing contest, there are a lot of different stands, shops, etc. Today it was raining a lot and there was so much mud, like really a lot of mud, I was so grateful they could lend me wellies because otherwise I would have ended up cover in mud from head to toes. We spent the whole day at the ploughing, just looking what was going on and everything, but when we wanted to leave we realized that the car was stuck in the mud, it wouldn’t move at all so we had to get our car towed to get out of the mud. It was so much fun actually.       

 Today was a great day, all TY students went to Ballyhass Lakes, it’s a place with zip lines, rock climbing and there’s a lake with inflatable mattresses.  The zip line  First thing my group and I did was the water thing, I was a little doubtful because it was so cold and it was going to rain, I was freezing, but at the end most people (including me) got into the water, they gave us wetsuits so it wasn’t that bad, actually I was colder outside of the water than inside.  The inflatable mattresses in the lake  I really liked the water activity it was so much fun. After that and having lunch we did rock climbing, and we finished with the zip lines. Those went over the lakes, they were really cool.  I think today was my favorite day so far, I had so much fun. 

 Today we went to Dublin because the Erasmus+ students that were staying two weeks arrived today.  They arrived at around 6pm but we went in the morning to see the city a little bit.  We did some kind of tour around the city, we visited some iconic places like the GPO, Temple Bar or Trinity college.  Trinity College I really liked the Trinity college and Temple Bar, I would have love to spend more time in Dublin because I feel like we didn’t see much of the city. After collecting the other Erasmus+ students we head back to Kilfinane, I was exhausted when we get home at around 10/11pm so I just went straight to bed.

 Today was a long day, I didn’t go to school even thought is Monday because I went with my host sister, her dad and grandfather to one of Eimear’s aunt diamond jubilee.  It started with a mass and then we had dinner (I still don’t really understand how can they have “dinner” so early). It was definitely something I’m not used to, I’m not really a religious person, but its really nice to have experiences I wouldn’t normally have.  There were a lot of people in this event, and it was at a fancy hotel, actually I was kind of scared to do something off at dinner because how fancy everything looked.  After the 3 courses dinner people started singing, Eimear told me they were singing Irish music, it was great, and everyone came near me to ask me about Spain and what I thought about Ireland, everyone was really nice, but after all that I was sooo tired, even if it wasn’t that late, I fell asleep in the car on our way home. 

 Today I woke up really excited about the water park we are going. We stopped to have breakfast on our way there and I had some really good pancakes, I wasn’t brave enough to try a full Irish breakfast, maybe another time.  The water park kind of thing we went to was called “Bay Sports” it was in a lake, I was worry it was going to be to cold to get into the water but we got given wetsuits, so it was nice. I really had a great time there. After one hour in the water park we had lunch and headed back home, in our way home it started to rain, for the first time since I’m here, actually all these past days the weather was so hot,  I’m glad we have “real Irish weather” now.  Bay sports 

 Today was a great day, we didn’t have school because it’s Saturday but we went to Limerick, which is the biggest city nearby.  In Limerick we went to the milk market, and walked around the city for a bit, we also saw King John’s castle but we didn’t go inside, still it was so beautiful even from the outside.  King John’s castle Milk market  After going around the city for a bit we went to a shopping center to have lunch.  After lunch we went to see a hurling match, it was my first time seeing one so I didn’t really get what was going on but it was fun.  Hurling match  My host father picked my host sister and I up and then we watch a movie on Netflix, we just had a chill afternoon. 

 Today i went to school where I had musical, coaching studies, Spanish, tutorial and applied maths.  In coaching studies they were doing dresses out of trash, I thought it was really cool so I asked one team if I could take a picture of the design they were doing.  Designe for a dress  Something that I thought was weird is that they didn’t speak any Spanish in Spanish class, at least not today, we went to the town to do some kind of gymkana around Kilfinane, it was a great experience to discover the village but we didn't speak Spanish at all.  The highlight of today was hanging out in the pitch after school, all Erasmus students, Irish and Spanish, met in the school pitch and just spent the afternoon there. we played some sports and just talked, it was nice to get to know us better. After that I went to have dinner (here they have dinner a lot earlier than in Spain) with my host sister Eimear, her friend Rebecca and her father Kevin, it was really nice. The chur...

 Today was the first day at Scoil Pol for me and the other Erasmus+ students. I woke up at 7am feeling really excited for my first day but also a bit nervous.  Scoil Pól We had 5 classes today: musical, young social innovators, religion, wood technology and English. My favorite subject of those was probably musical where we spent the whole class dancing, it was really fun. After school I went with Eimear (my host sister) for a walk and she showed me her family’s farm, there were a lot of cows and a horse. I also went grocery shopping with my host father and Eimear to Tesco, it was my first time in that shop because we don’t have it in Spain.  some of the cows at the farm