Blog Erasmus Silvia

We had to wake up very early because we had to go to Scoil Pol to take the bus to Dublin. In the airport we had to wait a long time because our plane was 1 hour delayed because of rain and in the plane we had to wait another hour. In Spain we took a bus that had the flag of La Rioja painted in one side. When we were arriving to Logroño the Irish started to take pictures. We found that funny, as they had never seen so many houses that high before. After the long journey I finally arrived home and we ordered hamburgers for dinner.

On Tuesday we chose once again if we wanted to go hiking or to stay at school. I chose to stay but there wasn’t enough space in PE class so I ended up going to Limerick’s University with the Irish students that went swimming. There we walked a bit and bought some food. After school I went with Jack’s family to watch one of Conor’s hurling matches. When it ended we went to buy pizza and we had dinner together to celebrate our last day there.

On Monday we went to school. I had Spanish and they were learning about the family so we talked about ours to help them. Then we had a barista course where we prepared coffee. Most people didn’t like it but I think it tasted very well. After that we went to Wellbeing and Religion. After school I went to the pitch once again where we talked about how it would be to have the Irish students in Spain and about the excursions in Spain.

I went with Clara, Jennifer and Michelle, Jack’s aunt, to Cork. There we visited a castle where a girl explained a few things about astronomy. After that we went to the Marina Market to have lunch. I loved that place because it had a lot of food stands with a big variety of meals. To finish the day we went to a shopping centre. There, Clara was trying to convince her mother to buy her Stitch clothes at Primark and I found a bookshop with a lot of books I wanted but I couldn’t buy them because there were packs of at least 6 books I didn’t have enough space in my suitcase. 

At school we went to practice for the musical once again and we learnt a new dance, we played cards in Lea and we help the Irish students with the Spanish present tense. After school I didn’t know where I had to go because I couldn’t find Jack anywhere so I stayed at the pitch with some of my friends. In the evening we went to an Irish music night and we had a lot of fun. A girl performed two typical dances, a girl and a boy played the harp and the banjo and a woman played the guitar and sang a song about Molly Malone. After that the Spaniards danced “Paquito el chocolatero” and we played some games.

I went with Jack and his grandparents to the ploughing. This is a tractor competition but in the place where it’s celebrated there are also other things you can do or see like a funfair, animals, food stands and some shops. Even though our friends were going we weren’t able to find any of them but that was probably because we left early as Jack was sick and he had thrown up. I didn’t really enjoy the place because there was a lot of mud but I had a good time learning about Jack’s family and telling them about mine.

We went to school and we had PE with the TY. We could choose if we wanted to go hiking or to stay at school. Most of us chose to stay because it was raining a lot outside. At school we had a self-defence class, a CPR class and a chess class. Then we had English were they were learning about the book King Lear written by William Shakespeare, and differentiating between the plot and subplot. Our last class that day was Home Ec, where we were divided in groups and the teacher gave each group 8 questions to answer and the one with more questions correct would win.

We went on an excursion to a beach to go surfing. When we arrived most of us didn’t want to surf because it was raining and it was very cold, but we all ended up going into the sea. There some teachers taught us how to stand in the surfing board and even though I wasn’t able to and I got hit by the board multiple times I had a fun time trying and watching my friends try. After that we went to the cliffs of Moher where we had lunch. It was very windy but the cliffs were very nice to see.

We also went to practice for the musical. Then we went to Lea where we played different card games. After that we went to an advanced Math class where we did some equations. In Religion we listened to the teacher talking about the meaning of some films. Our last class that day was Business, we had the wrong class in our schedules so we were almost unable to find the class. At 9 pm we went back to school because there was a movie night for the Erasmus students. We watched Jumanji but we weren’t able to finish it.

This was our first day going to school in Ireland. There wasn’t enough space in the TY classes so we were put with fifth years instead. Despite this, we could go to some classes with the TY. One of them was the musical, they were preparing Footloose so we sang and danced with them. The second class I had was LCVP where we did a CV. After that I had Biology and then Spanish where we presented ourselves. This was probably my favourite class because it was a class where we could interact. Our last class was Lea which was also one of my favourite classes, and one that I think we should have in Spain as well. In this class you can do your homework and as we didn’t have any we spent the entire hour talking to a Spanish student that was staying in Ireland the whole year.

We went on an excursion with all the TY students to the Ballyhass Lakes. There, we divided in groups, I was with Zoe, Inés and Ángela and with some Irish students. We did some climbing and zip-lining and we had a lot of fun. After lunch, we went to an aquapark that had slides, hamster wheels and other similar things. At first I didn’t want to get in the water as it was freezing but I’m glad I did because I had a great time.

Inés, Ángela, Sofía, Belén, Marina and I started our Ireland journey. It was the opening of the new bus station so there were a lot of photographers and journalists when we took our bus to Bilbao. At the airport we had a lot of problems trying to get our plane tickets but luckily we had time because we arrived early and our plane was delayed. When we arrived in Dublin the other Erasmus students gave us a warm welcome and I met Jack, my Irish exchange student. Then we headed to the bus that took us to Scoil Pol where Jennifer, Jack’s mother picked us up and took us home.