Happy New Year!!

Alex arrived at the Dublin International airport on the 27th of December, which is when we celebrated our Christmas. The week was filled with her tourism and shopping, talking and catching up. She left a week later and has since then arrived safely at home.

I now have less than 5 months left of my senior year at St. Andrews. Everything is becoming rushed and stressful. The good news is the homework load is limited but we have papers, exams, IA’s, and orals to prepare for and complete. College applications have officially been sent out and I’m ready to get there!

Some people at school have started to realise that some of the things we do together may be the last time. I find myself very conflicted with missing people. On the one side I want to go back to Rochester and see friends and family but I don’t want to leave Ireland and the friends and people who I have met here. I know their life long and I am incredible grateful for the opportunities I have had and the doors that have opened because of the people I have met. I thank them for everything they have taught me xx

Sorry this entry is short, not much has happened I’ve just been writing papers and losing sleep. Till next time 🙂

Nollaig Shona Daoibh

Tis the holiday season which means I have finished my Mock Exams, ACT’s and have 5 months left of my 6th year.
This month I had two weeks of exams for teachers to predict our final grades and for us to get a feel for what the actual exams are going to be like. Most of them went well, students only walked out on the Chemistry one because it was filled with subjects that we haven’t covered in completion. I didn’t know walking out was an option so I finished it the best I could. On Friday the 12th my mum and I flew back out to Belgium to take the ACT’s again. If you haven’t read about the first attempt at taking the ACT’s you can read about it here . We arrived at the same hotel past midnight. Since I have anxiety Insomnia I find difficulties falling asleep in new environments, so I got 2 hours of sleep before testing. The day of testing we arrived 23 minutes early for safe measures. I took the ACT’s and smiled at its simplicity all the way through. Seriously, I sat there smiling. The guy probably thought I was crazy. I do admit at some points I struggled during subjects we don’t cover in IB. We don’t do geometry in maths we do trigonometry instead. After the testing was over mum and I went downtown for lunch and a quick walk throughout some Christmas stalls. We then got back on a plane and headed home. Once home I showered and readied myself for the last Christmas party that the 6IB’s and I would be celebrating together. Everyone brought something to eat and we passed around out secret Santa presents. We also played one heated round of BS.

Our Christmas this year is going to be postponed till the 27th because that is when Alex will be traveling to Ireland from India. She has been teaching abroad there, if you want to read about her travels there you can read about it in her own blog here! We decided to wait for her because we know how much she loves Christmas, but mostly waking everyone up early…

Today my dad and I will be taking a leap off of Forty Foot in Dun Laoghaire. It is a tradition for some to jump off and into the cold waters on Christmas day. I decided to turn it into a charity, similar to the Polar Plunge, and raise money for the Solas Project. My dad and I will be jumping no matter what and my mum will be there to take pictures. Please feel free to donate if you haven’t yet! 🙂

I hope that you have a wonderful holiday with family and friends. Drive safe but enjoy the snow 🙂

Forty Foot for the Solas Project

Hello everyone! This is just a quick post to inform you that my dad and I are planning on jumping off of Forty Foot, a ledge in Dun Laoghaire. I decided to make it into a fundraiser for the Solas Project. Any donation helps! I didn’t want to make it an online donation system because they take a portion of the money, and you may have to pay a fee for converting currencies. Instead I will donate any amount of money that you wish to donate and you can refund me when we see you next. Please if you wish to donate just leave a comment down below of how many USD or Euros you wish to donate. Anything helps!

Also I will have an updated post out on Christmas morning at 9.30

Happy Xmas!

Wicked (musical) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

WOW! Christmas already, time flies when your in Ireland 🙂 We celebrated our very first Christmas in our new home today. It was amazing, Alex even let me sleep in until 7:50. It was truly a Christmas miracle. Yesterday our family went to go see Wicked at the theater and it was brilliant. The set, mechanics, charters, presentation and voices were all top notch, I want to go again! It was the first time anyone in my family had seen it, so we didn’t know what to expect, we only knew roughly what it was about.

EARLY tomorrow we will be catching a bus (at 4:50am) to get to the airport and fly off to Belgium for a weekend vacation. We will be going to Waterloo, were my sister and I grew up for two years (Again thanks to my dad’s job being moved) and to Amsterdam, Germany and hopefully possibly to one other country that is escaping my memory. I still have to pack…

Happy Holidays to everyone!!

International Arrival

Alex made it to Dublin today, she will be spending the next 5 weeks following us around. She also lost her luggage (which had my contacts) somewhere between London and Dublin. In other news Christmas is next week and my family and I will be leaving for Belgium and possibly Germany for a week-ish. Friday will be my last day of school until break and I passed all of my exams! The weather here is a wonderful 40F everyday with gusts of strong wind. No sign of snow ever coming and I am okay with that 🙂

 

Holiday sweaters and Christmas pints

Yesterday my family and I decided to do a little holiday shopping in Dublin. We missed the Dart so we took the bus instead. Because it was a weekend, about 11 am and close to Christmas the bus was packed with people. One special charter came on to join us. This man was in his late thirties early forties, and roaring drunk. He was yelling about anything and everything that came to his mind, he was telling everyone something about child abuse and getting pushed down the stairs and someone getting punched in the face. Then he was on a “phone call” with someone telling them he’s all right and safe and that he didn’t feel threatened. The bus driver yelled at him to shut up and the man  told him he wasn’t doing anything, wasn’t  hurting anyone, that he wasn’t crazy he just had “schizophrenic”. They continued to yell at each other until the bus driver pulled over and told the man to get off the bus or he’ll call the Guarda. The drunk man went on about how we were treating him like a criminal and he wasn’t a criminal and refused to get off the bus and promised to be a nicer person. We continued on our journey with the man and when it came to his stop he made a huge scene and told us that we were not to worry because the criminal was getting off the bus at the next stop and that we were all bad people, and he didn’t deserve it because he’d killed thousands of Germans in the war. Yeah, as soon as he got off he fell down drunk on someones front steps. One lady clapped in the back and told him to go break his neck. I REALLY miss Minnesota nice…

One thing about Ireland is that they always go all out for any holiday that I’ve witnessed so far. Christmas lights hanging from buildings on the over head walk, giant Christmas trees at the ends of streets, its hardcore stuff. The Christmas music here starts the day after Halloween, so if you think you have it bad starting the day after Thanksgiving, think again. Christmas sweaters are everywhere! not just for sale in the stores but the people here actually wear them! Sweaters with reindeer faces and eyes that are goggly, sparkles and colors and little bells that jingle. Everyone wears either a sweater or a festive hat of some kind. Its nothing like back home.