The Irish Blog

THE IRISH BLOG: THE CONCLUSION      Looking back to it, I can confidently state that this trip has change my life in a good way. It is an opportunity that I think every young lad, if they has the chance, have to try. I'm  very thankful to the Erasmus+ program, I'm very thankful to all the teachers that organised the trip and I'm very thankful to my centre for having given me this great opportunity. I hope that this program keeps going for all the years left, so this chance can reach as much people as possible. If any Young student is seeing, go for It, you won't regret It.

  THE IRISH BLOG: THINGS I LIKE THE MOST      After all this time spent there in Ireland, I´ve caught some feeling for things that I wish they were here. One that I would love to see here in Spainis the educational system. There in Ireland, the way of learning is simple and concise. No need for extra subject, everything is the way it is merely for you future as a student. They help find your vocation, the classes are fun, not boring and amuseant.  Another thing I loved about Ireland was its scenary. I´m a big fan of skies, I love the patrons that the clouds above, I love the gradient that the sky adquires in the  morning and evenings, I love the pinkish tone that the clouds get in the sunset, you name It. So beacause Ireland is so little polute that the sky can be percibe perfectly. But obviously the people will forever be inside my heart. They are so loving and friendly that you can get on well with anybody. And beacause they don't usually live in t...

      IRISH BLOG: CLIFFS OF MOHER AND SURFING Of course we could leave Ireland without seeing its most emblematic and iconic place. Unfotunetly, the day didn´t turn out as good as we wanted. It was really windy, cold and humid. This accentuated the closer you got to the cliffs themselves. Nevertheless, that didn´t stop us to see this wonder of the natural world.             Right after we had seen the cliffs, we went directly to a nearby town, called Lahinch, to have surfing practicing. The thing is, it was so cold that the mere idea of getting into the sea terrified all of us. Some people even rejected the opportunity in order to keep themselves warm. However, we got used to the freezing temperatures much quicker than we thought. The surfing courses itselves were really good, I would love to do them again. They taught us progressily how to catch a good wave and the basic mechanics, all the way to standing up on the ...

  IRISH BLOG: THE PLOUGHING COMPETITION.       The Ploughing Compitition, or Ploughing for short, is a tournament of, you guessed it, ploughing. It took place far from us, like an hour train journey.        There were so many tractor all over the place. But altough the ploughing itself could have been cool, we went because all the shops that they set up at the competition. And, lucky us! We had the opportunity to be there, beacuse its only once a year. Moreover, we had the greatest weather that we could have had. Usually, the place its very muddy due to all the rain. But while we were there, the previous days were really sunny, so the event was really enjoyable.        The competition normally has around 60.000 people that go, mainly for the shops. The trick to atract so many people are the prices and the free samples. The clearest example is O´neails. O´neails its a hurling shop, the biggest...

  IRISH BLOG: 1º TRIP: LIMERICK            Right away, on our second day, we went to the nearest big city: Limerick. The single act of driving there already took one hour. When we arrived, we were showed the typical things a big historical city like itself had. A case in point, the longest river in Ireland, Shannon, goes through the city. From a near park, we had and incredible view where we could see both the river and the castle.                   After a bit of walking, we eventually started seeing all the stores. As we walk, surrounded by these, we realised we were entering a market. As expected, we quickly saw a circular estructure. Of course, it was the nucleus of the market.            The way back seemed a lot slower than the first drive, maybe because we were too tired to acknowledge the time...

  IRISH BLOG: THE FAMILY       This entry maybe a bit more personal, because, at the end of the day, it has been the family with I´ve spent the whole month. So it is understandable that I have formed a strond bond with them.          The family consists of both parents and 5 sons (yes, they´re all boys). Going from oldest to youngest they are: Liam (father), Ciara (mother), Seán (16 years old), Geroid (15 years old), Cian (13 yars old), Micheál (9 years old) and Liam Óg (5 years old). Fun fact: “Óg” in irish stands for Jr.          The “Flanagan” family is very recognised because they have 3 “public figures”. There´s Liam, a musician that plays the fiddle who travels to the cities in order to perfom. Ciara doesn´t fall behind. She is the founder of both the local traditional dance and the local academy. Last but not least. There´s Seán, a talented     ...

  IRISH BLOG: THE HOUSEHOLD          The house itself is fair big. It´s a 2 storey house with a total of 4 bedrooms. But still, it falls short for the 5 brothers and both parents that live there. In Ireland, it is pretty common for each sibling to have its own individual bedroom. But due to the size of the family, some of them were forced to share a room.          Outside the house, they have a large yard with a, 2 story-garage! The ground floor was used as a big storage room. The first floor however, was used as a workplace for, as far as I know, Seán´s bussiness. They also have a parcel   for their two donkeys to wander.          The house I just described is really usual there. There´s almost no city spirit in Ireland. Instead, the rustic and traditional lifestyle has been the one shining over the years in this country.

  IRISH BLOG: THE SCHOOL AND SUBJECTS PT.2          Apart from the modals, the rest of the subjects are also really exotic. For instance, there is wook technology, where we work with a wide range of tools. The proyect we were doing was a frame with an image that we had previously burned. Unfortunately, I hadn´t enough time to finish it.          Another interesting subject is future leaders. This one consist of participating, organizing or taking part in different sports events. A couple of students go to a lot of the local matches, one helps the coaches with the warm-up equipment, and the another one is the first-aid option. For us, we just prepared a gaelic football tournament for the youngster.                         Finally, irish student in Ty (transition year) have to perform i...

IRISH BLOG: THE SCHOOL AND SUBJECTS            It´s called Scoil Pol. And like in almost everything, it´s in irish. It represents the Saint Paul. Now, the building itself its big. It´s a big hallway with classes on both sides. Although it´s only one story, it´s fair big compared to some spanish highschools.            Because we were staying in Transition Year, the subjects were pretty interesting. The one that stood up the most was “P.E.”. Instead of normal P.E. on a gym, we did a single activity. Every Tuesday, we spent the first three hours of class doing either: swimming, hiking, cooking or fitness. I did both swimming and hiking.             As always, we had to take a bus to get where the activity wasmeant to be. We went to Limerick city for swimming and out in the mountains for hiking. I loved both, they were really good.  

  IRISH BLOG: THE SPORTS           Sports in Ireland are a bit strange. They are used to train 3 or even 4 different sports, something unthinkable here in Spain. Plus, it´s rare to see someone play a world-wide known sport like. Almos every single of them compete in both: Hurling and Gaelic Football          Although it has the Word football in it, it´s mainly played with thr hands. It has its similarities to american football. There´s a big structure on both sides of the pitch with the shape of an “H”. The top half is worth 1 points and scoring in it is called “point”. Whereas on the top bottom, it´s worth 3 points and its called goal. But there´s a goalkeeper at all times. You cand both pass with your hands, similar to ((pelotamano)), and with your foot. To move, you can take 4 steps without the need to bounce the ball or selfkicking to you. You cant bounce twice in a row.    ...

  IRISH BLOG: THE FOOD              I knew from the first moment that i was going to be shocked. But, to my surprise, the food is not that different. They actually love potatoes. However, they cook everything inside the airfryer. At first, i didn´t really get used to that style of cooking. Nevertheless, after eating airfried food day in day out, my taste buds started to accept the new textures and flavours. Also, i thought that i would be eating much more vegetables, but it wasn´t the case. Maybe it was only my household, but every time they cooked some kind of meat, they will always add some spice to it.          The meals wasn´t something crazy, they were something simple, like a normal Burger. Sometimes they could cook something a bit fancier, something as pasta a la carbonara, all from scratch. By and large, they just like something easy to make, quick but also tasty.    ...

                                                                   THE IRISH BLOG     For the last month, I´ve taken part of an exangue program called Erasmus+. Thanks to it, I´ve been able a wonderful experience: living one whole month in a different country with a local family.          At first, I was a bit skeptical and scared. Was I going to be able to change my whole lifestyle for the entirity of a month? What if I got housesick ? And what about my friends? And my goals? But still, moved by the fantastic scenaries I was making in my head, I finally boarded the plane. I had great luck with the others from the program, because, from the first moment they were really nice. Still, the cultural shock was inevitable. But I had hope, hope in my level of English, and t...