Tipperary on Thursday

Dear All,
Please find below links to the places we will be visitng on Thursday 10th Febr

09.30 to 11.00 at St. Annes secondary school.

http://www.surf.to/stannes

11.00 to 14.00 tour of Glen of Aherlow & lunch.

http://www.aherlow.com/

 

14.00 to 15.00 at Abbey secondary school

http://www.iol.ie/~abbeycbs/index.html

Exchange @ Glanmire on Tuesday 8th February 2011

Federico & Glanmire boys

Joe Aherne, former exchange student in Argentina (2005) and now a teacher @ Glanmire giving ´mate' to one of his students.

Group photo at the end of a very rewarding exchange event @ Glanmire, Co Cork.

Limerick University Sports Arena

Limerick University Sports Arena

On Thursday, we visited the sports Arena, a place provided by the university where you can play sports and train, as well as swim. Some of us went to the gym, others to the swimming pool and the rest went running. We’ve been there for about an hour or more. However, the ones who didn’t want to go there, stayed at the computers. The sports Arena is a really huge and great place for the ones who enjoy doing sports, as you have all you need to get fit and have fun.

By Victoria and Ana.

Limerick Sports Area

Yesterday we went to the sports arena in the university. We could choose between going to the gym, the swimming pool and the running track. The majority went to the gym as there were many modern machines, such as bycicles and running machines. The swimming pool was enormous, 50 mts of water. The running track was long and suitable for running for hours. Besides there are many badminton courts as well as basketball, but they were closed when we went. It was a very good experience and we look forward to going there again.

 Agustin Ferrero, Fernando Courreges, Nicolas Ferrandini and Facundo Torres

Live Music in Limerick

Live Music

At saturday night, we all went to Killmurry chapel for a music gig at night. The plave was scary as hell but as we opened the church and set all the gear for the ones who would like to play we started to enjoy it.

First Ignacio Borrego played "seminare" of Seru Giran in the piano, then Jack and his friend did an acoustic rap metal show and Pedro,Nicolas and Franco played two songs as a band (without singer), one of argentina actually (de musica ligera). After that many wanted to do their own part, so Jacks sister played some songs with her friend and Fernando and Eliana sang Imagine of John Lennon. Also many others wanted to show their musical skills, for example Rodrigo at drums and Pedro and Fede at Guitar. We finally chatted with the Irish girls who came that night.

St Fintan's School

St Fintans School

We went to St. Fintan’s C.B.S. School, Doon. It was a boy’s school and there were many photos and t-shirts about hurling in the corridor. It was an awesome experience to exchange our cultures in this event due to the fact that we showed them the main characteristic things of our country such as the typical dishes, the most popular football teams and so on. The most amusing part was when they tried the “mate” and the “alfajores” that we brought from Argentina. Seeing their faces when they sampled them was extremely entertaining for us. We also danced “chacarera” for them and after that they joined us enthusiastically and we danced all together. Moreover, some of us went outside to play volleyball and football while others talked with the students about their interests and hobbies. Finally, we had lunch with them and we could exchange our Facebook and email accounts. We think that we all spent a great time there!  

Sabrina Macri, Rocio Pereira, Julian Rondina and Camila Suprun.

St Joseph's School

A Day in St Josephs School

Yesterday (Thursday 3rd), all the students of St. Brigid's School went to a girl school, St. Joseph. First of all, we watched a presentation they had prepared for us and then we talked about the differences between Ireland, Argentina and the way teenagers live. After that, we spent some time eating some cupcakes, alfajores and drinking mate. Later, we showed them some presentation of our country and we danced reggaeton with them. Finally, we visited some of the school facilities and we took a group photo with the girls. We had great fun and the girls, who were really happy, standed near our bus waving goodbye.

Maru and Flor (St. Brigid's School)

We were divided in two groups. The first one went to a boys school, and the second one, to a girls school. The girls school was called St. Joseph. When we arrived to their classroom, they all were waiting for us in a semi circle and with a lot of different types of biscuits and Doritos. After listening to an irish girl who made a powerpoint presentation in order to explain to us a bit of how they live, we started showing them our presentations. Then we started chating with the girls, who were very cool, about many different things. The boys wanted to show the irish girls what type of music we dance in Argentina, that is why we played reggaeton and showed them how we dance to it. Then we invited them to try it. At first they were a bit shy, but after a while they started dancing a lot. And they showed us how to dance irish dances and the dance of the broom. We had fun.

Manuel de la Mata, Daniel Martin Gallego, Nicolas Mengochea and Francisco Porres.

International Irish and Argetinian P-A-R-T-Y!

Interational Irish and Argentinian Party

The parties are not similar in all the countries. In Ireland, as people have dinner at 6 in the evening, parties start earlier than in Argentina, at 8 o' clock and finish at midnight more or less. It's common that people invite others to their houses insted of going to discos, even though they have classes on the following day. However, argentinian teenagers are used to go dancing from 1 am to 6 am only on weekends, no matter if they aren't over 18. In Ireland, teens are not allow to be alone after 11 pm.

Belen Garea, Teresa Koopmann and Paula Puentes

Irish Cinema

Film

On Monday we went to see an Irish movie, Agnes Brown. The story is about a woman that after the death of his husband had to maintain not only herself but her seven children and had to live really rough moments.  It is a really interesting movie, sometimes sad and sometimes very funny. We really enjoyed it!!

By Federico C., Belen Puentes and Natalia Quintana. 

Food in Ireland

We will talk about the food in Ireland:
Breakfast: We always have it at home before going to the University, our experience show us that they like eating tea, cereals, toast with jam or butter, coffee and orange juice. Besides a traditional breakfast includes eggs, pancakes, waffles, sausages and bacon. In fact they eat all this once in a while and the most of the people don't have lunch later.
 
Lunch: We have it at university unless we are on a trip. Our teachers give us €6 to buy food, and with it we can choose between lots of different foods like: pasta, pizza, fish, soup, meat, chicken, vegetables and fruits, pie. They use potatoes in all the dishes. For drink we can get free water or buy any kind of sodas. As a matter of fact, desserts are delicious, you can eat muffins, sweets, cakes, cookies, coffee or hot chocolate.
 
Dinner: When we arrived home at 5 o' clock more or less dinner is ready, they are used to eat very early. Like in lunch you have a lot of options but usually there are hot meals, for example: meat, chicken, fish, pizza, pie, pasta all full of complements like salad, potatoes, beans and they use a lot of strange sauces. In our experience they offer us milk or yogurt while we were eating. Then for dessert they drink tea or coffee, fruit, ice-cream and maybe a cake or cookies. Finally at 8 o'clock more or less they have a tea or a snack before going to sleep.

Luckily we don't have any problems to get used to the ireland food, it is very tasty and filling. We are really happy and more fat.

Julieta Calciati
Andrea Alvarez
Eliana Stanicio

International Food Fair

Food Fair

The food fair was a great event to exchange different cultures and meet new friendly people. At the stall we met a couple of Argentinian people that prepared empanadas and mate and we brought alfajores Havanna, alfajores de maicena, chocotorta and mantecol. It was difficult to explain the people what a chocotorta or an alfajor was, but finally we managed to do it well. By the end of the event we realised that there were no more alfajores left and we went dancing with the other people. It was an excellent (and tasty) way to meet people from all over the world!

MELANIE CHONG

FOOD FAIR:

Thursday night, we had a world food fair. There were stands of several countries, such as Spain, Sweden, China, Brazil, Ireland, of our own country Argentina and a huge line outside the place in the stables, were people waited to get the bracelet with the names of the countries they wanted to have a taste of their foods in particular (yet later you could have a try of what was left without having the bracelets).

Our stand had the “desserts” (since the people of other countries brought salad, meat, etc.), we had a chocotorta, which was the most popular amongst Irish, lots of alfajores that were sliced in four and given to the people by our students, some mantecol, crackers with dulce de leche and also we served some mate (which was the least popular sadly)

After that, the DJ put some music popular amongst us, mainly cumbia and reggaeton, and we started to dance. It was fun, but Irish and most of the other ones of other countries didn’t did so they were quite boring.

 Anyway we had a great time and we are looking forward for more.

Franco Vidal

Families

OUR FAMILY

By Aldana and Felicitas.

Our family is composed by Phil, the mother, and Chris, the father. They have two big daughters. One of them is single and she works in Castletroy and the other one is married and has two lovely daughters whose names are Ava and Erin. Phils works at UL and Chris is retired but he loves playing golf and watching rugby. He is a Munster fan. 

At home there is also a Korean student. Her name is Kim and she is 21 years old.  Unfortunately, she is leaving Ireland next Sunday.

We are very happy to be there because the Humphries are lovely; they make us feel like at home. Since we arrived we have been eating very tasty foods.

We also feel very lucky because we live very near from UL so it is easier to get to the University. We are very thankful they are hosting

Our Host Family

By Federico and Rodrigo

Our family is composed by 8 members. Bernard and Anne Buckley are married with 5 sons. Two daughters, Aoife (23) although nowadays she is living in Edinburgh and Kate (11), she is really lovely and friendly. The sons are Brian (20), Naill (19) and Mark (16), they are so polite. Finally, they have a small and pretty dog. Bernard is an electrician, and he is a really fan of hurling just like his 3 sons. Fortunately, Anne is a professional cook that makes a lot of delicious food like for an army. I think that this is a perfect family with only one defect; they live far away from the University.

The First Day At Limerick University

OUR FIRST DAY AT THE UNIVERSITY

By Aldana, Felicitas, Florencia and  Violeta

Our first day here was on the first of February. We met at the language centre at nine o’clock and after an introduction given by our teachers they split us up in different groups with one teacher each.  Our teacher was called Elaine and she explained us how to move around the university and also around Castletroy.  After that we discussed Irish food especially potatoes.  When we finished the class Elaine told us that day was the only one she was staying with us. 

At twelve o’ clock we went to have lunch to the Eden Restaurant inside the University.  Fernando and Carla gave us tickets of six euros to buy whatever we wanted; we ate some fish with couscous and salad which was delicious!

In the afternoon we went by bus to the centre of Limerick and there we played a treasure hunt and we talked with a lot of people in the city. Sometimes we found it difficult to understand but we could manage.  In the treasure hunt we had to take photos of some important places like St Mary's Cathedral, King John's Castle and The Hunt museum.

After that we all came back to our home and we had dinner with the families, then we got together at the university again, and we had an excibition of international food. We had lots of fun and we met a lot of new people!

NOW!

By Violeta and Florencia

Today is the lab work and we are all writting different things for the blog to let you now what a great time we are having. We hope you like what we have written, see you soon!

At the Airport

We are at the airport just to leave to the UK & United Kingdom

The flight was very long but we have very good moments!! Later, we had to take the plane to Ireland. Some people took it earlier than the others so they arrived on time to visit the university of Limerick. The others had to wait at the airport for four hours. Those people had to wait there making questions and taking photos with the people that were also travelling. Finally, we arrived at Shannon's airport, we took our luggage, we took the bus to the University and here we met our new family.

I only need the photo that silvia luppi has it.

Nadia Fernández Cid

Heathrow

Last monday was a very hard day for us. We had had a very long trip from Argentina. We arrived at Heathrow airport at half past six, and our plane to Limerick was leaving at three pm.
Luckily, we were so excited and tired, that nobody complained about the delay of the plane.
First, we played a game in which we had to collect information asking questions to unknown people from different countries. We walked around all the shops.
After that, we had lunch at "Caffe Nero". We ate some delicious sandwiches and some of us ate some chocolate muffins too !
A couple or hours later, everybody had fallen asleep, and the paparazzi appeared with their cameras ! haha
Finally we board our plane and we had a really good journey.

International Food Fair @ The Stables

There is a video clip in You Tube on the International Food Fair.
Viviana Martinez found it and shared this with us: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=toP3eTYNlZU
Thanks, Viviana!

Some Random Pictures from last week

Students from Santa Brigida & St Joseph's School for Girls, Doon, Ireland

Students from Colegio Modelo de Lomas ready to perform a chacarera at St Fintan's School for Boys, Doon, Ireland

Students from Colegio Modelo Lomas, Colegio Tiempos Modernos, Colegio St Paul's, Lenguas Vivas R. Fernandez, New Westland and St Fintan's School for Boys, Doon, Ireland

Students from Argentina with Kieran Phipps at the Gathering for UL and Argentinean students @ The Stables.



Random Pictures

Students and teachers at the International Food Fair

Manuel, Federico and Nacho giving a presentation on Mate at St Joseph's School, Doon.

Pedro and some of the girl at St Joseph's School, Doon, on Thursday 3rd February.

Wild Days in Limerick

Dear All,
Everyone is fine, enjoying themselves, discovering Ireland, speaking a lot of English, learning about the culture, the language and about themselves. They are making new friends, meeting new people and exploring alternate ways of doing things.
We are sharing a few pictures here so that you can see the group is in great spirit!
On Friday the students will start writing for the blog and sharing some of their pictures -which I bet are better than ours.

Most of the group (including counsellors Eoin and Christy) at Arthur's Quay in the city centre.

Half the group with Brown Thomas, an icon at UL

Tuesday night at the International Food Fair.

Alfajores, chocotorta (thanks Melanie and Susan!) and mate were offered at the Argentinean Stall.

SuperQuinn Challenge

This morning we set up a stall at Superquinn. Students had to interview people and invite them to share Argentinean food and drink. Some pictures.

Federico trying to lift Jack

Friendly lady at the Argentinean Stall

Joke collected by Federico
it was this guy, walking through the side road with this bad weather,y'know, so bad that you coudn't see anything exept for this car comming his way, so he made signs to be picked up. And the car picked him up, however there was no one inside but still the car moved. He was so frightened just like a lonely little puppy. Suddenly, a hand appeared from the window and moved the steering wheel and now you can really see him scared.
They arrived to a pub, where this man ordered a coffee but he was so frightened the he was shaking  his cup of coffee, and from behind him a man shows up and shouted laughing
Are you the man that was inside the car while we were pushing it through the road!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Survey on Tea by Fernando9 prefered Barrys
1 prefered Lions

Phones Numbers in Ireland

Dear All,
These are the phone numbers in Ireland for the Teachers and Coordinators.
Before you dial, please bear in mind that unless it is an emergeny, we suggest email contact. Otherwise, phone calls could be interfering with the activities.
Thanks

Susan Sáinz: 00 353 85 8238149 (Santa Brigida)
Silvia Luppi: 00 353 85 8112245 (Santa Brigida)
Delma Sánchez: 00 353 85 753 6639 (Tiempos Modernos)
Silvia Biasioli: 00 353 85 753 6494 (Modelo Lomas)
Carla Marletta: 00 353 85 7023763 (Coordinator)
Fernando Carro: 00 353 85 738 7066 (Coordinator)

Articles by Melanie, Natalia, Belen, Federico & Fernando

Blarney Castle I

It took only one hour and a half to arrive to the marvellous village of Blarney. Fernando took us in the van and Jack, one of the guys who is coordinating some of the activities, came with us. The weather was extremely cold, but that was not a serious problem. We climbed a 100 steps to get to the original Blarney Stone and up there the wind was incredibly strong and the temperature was freezing. We thought that it would be easy to kiss the stone, but surprisingly there were two men waiting for us to help us lean backwards to kiss the stone. We took plenty of pictures as proof of our daring adventure. The legend says that if you kiss the stone, you get the gift of the gab (eloquence) for the rest of your life!  By Melanie

Blarney Castle II 

On Thursday we visited the Blarney Castle. It was huge and very old so we were very impressed. There were more than 100 steps on the way up, and we were very tired, but it was worth it. On top we were offered to kiss the famous stone, which is said to grant you the gift of eloquence (to be able to speak a lot).

Later we went to a 20 minute walk and there we climbed the wishing steps. However, we had to climb them backwards and with our eyes closed, as we wished what we wanted to happen in one year.

Finally, to end the day, we went shopping to Crescent’s shopping mall where we saw the backstage of a fashion programme. We bought many things at cheap prices and we enjoyed the day.

By Federico, Natalia, Belen and Fernando.

University of Limerick

When we arrived at the university it was huge, bigger than anything we had ever imagined. It was like a labyrinth; however we find our way easy. At first you will find the main campus, where hectic undergraduate students are everywhere. You can choose different directions to go to several places.

There is a language centre, where we are given classes, as well as a sport centre, where there is a 50m swimming pool (second largest in Ireland), a rugby pitch and a running track. There is also a huge library, where we can read or access to free university student’s internet. As it’s very extensive many students have the opportunity of living in the campus so for them there are some shops, like supermarkets and cafes/pubs. 

At last but not least, I have to mention the living bridge in which you can feel the whole of it moving under your feet.

Federico-Fernando

Classes

I’m going to talk about classes at the University of Limerick. We start at nine o’clock so we all meet at the Language Centre with our teacher, Juliet, who’s really friendly. We go to the Students Centre where we talk about our country, Ireland and many different things. Also, Juliet show us some interesting places of the University and ask us to do a project in which we have to investigate about this country, prepare a presentation and show it to her. But I think the most interesting part was when we had to make questions and then asked them to Irish Students.

By Natalia

Arts

Art is present in all ways here in Ireland. Limerick has plenty of talented and alternative artists, and the city is full of street art, such as graffiti artwork, stencil graffiti, sticker art, wheatpasting and street poster. Yesterday we went to an art gallery that was situated in the Hunt Museum, where we saw different and contemporary masterpieces made by independent artists. After that, we went to another gallery where most of the stuff shown was drawings and paintings made by other artists, including our friends Jack and Owen!

 Limerick is the perfect place to think, relax and appreciate the marvellous power of art.

By Melanie

Families

I would like to talk about our families in Ireland, the ones we are staying with. They are all really nice and very considerate. They prepare delicious, and sometimes traditional, dishes for dinner and also we have breakfast with them. It is really amazing because you can ask them whatever you want to know about life in Ireland as they ask about Argentina. Staying in the house of people from here is a really good experience and another way to improve the language and to get to know the culture.

By Belen



Week 1 in Ireland

 

 On Wednesday we went to see STORYBOOK. At the end of this very impressive performance (storytelling combined with drawing and live music) we took a picture with Luke and James.

 A day trip to Blarney Castle to gain the gift of eloquence

Brown Thomas and us

Group of students with Eoin, Susan, Jack and Caimin

Small Group Departs on Sunday 23rd January

 Melanie, Fernando, Belen, Susan, Federico & Belen at Heathrow

Eoin, Natalia & Belen having lunch at Arthur's Quay

At Ezeiza before departure.

Videos of students preparing their presentations for the 2011 Discovery Trail...

Two students practising Tango y Gato for the exchange events in February



Students practising their presentation of the typical Argentinian dance Ensayo Chacarera