Wicklow mountains

Last weeks have been filled with writing essays but I found some time for a last trip: Wicklow mountains, south of Dublin.
A lot of people advised me to visit this area because of it's green hills, fluffy sheep, wild flowers and abandonned churches. And I have to admit: the nature is as breathtaking as in the film "P.S. I Love You".

I started my trip in Glendalough, famous for it's Medieval round tower and churches. The weather was nice, so after some sightseeing I went walking for a couple of hours in the moutains. The scenery was amazing which made this a perfect last trip in Ireland.

The Round Tower, Glendalough

Graveyard, Glendalough

Reefert Church, Glendalough



Upper Lake, Wicklow National Park

Since I'm going home, this will be my last blog from Ireland.

I hope you all enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed the trips and activities I wrote about.

Tess x

Teaching practice a Loreto Abbey

Dalkey, 30 minutes outside of Dublin, isn't only famous because it's the town where Bono lives. It also has a school with an excellent reputation: Loreto Abbey. This is a Catholic, fee paying secondary school for girls that tries to give each girl all the opportunities she needs to explore her talents.

I go the chance to do my teaching practice at this school, one week long.

It was difficult to get in contact with the principal and set a date for the teaching practice, but once I passed those problems, my week became great.

Like it happens in  Belgium, I started my practice with observating some teachers and pupils so I would learn more about the Irish subjects, class management, education system, ... . And it definitely was instructive: I attended classes like Irish, Social, Personal and Health Education, Civic, Social and Political Education, Choir, Cultural Studies, ... . During most of these classes, the pupils got to practise skills and seemed to study less theory than the Flemish ones. 

On day 3 and 4, it was up to me to stand in front of the class. The two main things I did was giving presentations about Belgium and my Erasmus experience in Ireland. Funny were the questions I got during these presentations: Do they have swimming pools in Belgium? Is it easy to get out of the country? The teachers and pupils seemed to find it interesting since the knew absolutely nothing about our country. Except that we have delicious waffles and choclate. 

Next to that, I also had to help the 6th years with their preparation for their French oral exams. In small groups, we talked about their future plans, family, hobbies, ... . Not that my French is that good, it's actually kind of rusty, but it was good enough to help them.

To wrap up this teaching practice, I guided the 3rd years to a hockey game where they could support the 3rd year hockey team in the finals of a school competition. Since hockey isn't that well-known in Belgium, I was luckily to join this group and have a nice completion of my amazing week at Loreto Abbey. Even though the girls lost the game, which was completely unfair of course!

Some pitcures:

The convent/ the old school building

The new school building

the sports fields

English classroom form the pupils' point of view

English classroom form the teacher's point of view

The Loreto Abbey girls while playing hockey

The amazing view!

Tess x

Sunny days

Just like in Belgium, the weather was beautiful this weekend in Dublin! Spring has arrived!

Since my house doesn't have a garden, I had to find other possibilities to be outside.

Luckily, Ireland has a lot of public places where you can hang out when you feel the need to enjoy some sunshine.

I chose to spend my weekend in Phoenix Park and Bray.

On Saturday, we went to Phoenix Park: the biggest park of Ireland where a lot of people spend their free time enjoy silence and sun. A blanket, a bit of music, ice cream and drinks: all I needed to have a lazy Saturday

first spring ice-cream



Sunday = Bray-day. Bray is a small seatown 45 minutes outside of Dublin by DART. It was kind of touristic but Sofie and I managed to find a quiet seaside-view spot on our walk from Bray to Greystones. The view was magnificent, food and drinks were provided, the sun was shining. We loved it!

Bray in the morning

Bray Cliffs

View from our picknick

My weekend was great, the week will be a bit less relaxing now teaching practice starts!

Tess x





Saint Patrick's Day

Last weekend I got prepaed for what they told me would be the biggest party of the year... St Patrick's Day!

And what a party it was! I've never seen a city being so crowded as Dublin was  that day. Not that there were a lot of Irish people: I heard more French and Spanish than any other language. And ow yeah,  Dublin was filled with wannabe leprechauns.

My landlord told me that St Patrick's starts with going to church in the morning, watching the parade and having  lunch in the afternoon and going to a pub to finish the day. But most of all: you must have a great and unforgetable time! We didn't really follow every step but we sure had a jolly day.

Since I live close to the city centre, the parade-tour wasn't too far. What I didn't know, was that it started in front of my door. Rather early. I think this is the first and last time I was awakened by a Scottish bagpipe orchestra.

View from my window: The Scottish bagpipe players

view from my front door



The parade itself can't be compared with the ones you have in Belgium. Here, it's a real honour to be part of it so no one acts like an idiot or makes funt of it. The costumes and music were fantastic to look at and listen to.

Since the centre was too crowded, we just had a quick look at Temple Bar and celebrated the rest of our day in pubs just outside the city after we watched some rugby. Eventually, it became a great Finnish-French-Belgian party in Ireland.

Why we left the city centre...

... and we still had a great time.

What a week

I didn't manage to post something last week because I had loads of other things to do!

The week started with a 4-day-visit by the family. I had been looking forward to their arrival because  I hadn't seen them for almost two months. Next to visiting places likeDublin Castle and Christ Church Cathdral, drinking Guinness in the Guinness Storehouse, eating Irish food at restaurants, ... I still had classes to go to. The combination of being a tourist and being a student wasn't easy, but I managed prett well I think.

One of my favourite picures of the family-visit

The family had just left Dublin city and I was already packing for the second part of the week: a trip to Northern Ireland together with Sofie.

We arrived at Belfast after a two-hour-trip and for our first day, we decided to take it easy and so we just had a look at the city centre, do a bit of shopping, went for a drink, ... .

Day 2 was a lot more active: we went to Carrickfergus Castle, Carrick-a-rede, Bushmill Distillery, Dunluce Castle and, our favourite, the Giant's Causeway!

Carrickfergus Castle, just outside of Belfast: a Norman Castle form the 12th century

Carrick-a-rede: beautiful viewings!

Carrick-a-rede: it was a bit disappointing that you had to pay £5 to cross a small rope bridge.

Bushmills: because we didn't had a lot of time, we didn't visit the distillery itself. But it was a great place for a delicious lunch.

The ruines of Dunluce Castle, just outside of Bushmills.

The Giant's Causeway

The Giant's Causeway: impressive!

Overwhelmed and tired by our second day, we stayed in Belfast city for our third and last day. Belfast really surprised us as a modern and pleasant city.

Art near St Anne's Cathedral

St Anne's Square

Titanic Museum

Shopping centre: great view over Belfast at the top of the building

The leaning Clock Tower

Botanic Garden

Queen's University

Murals in the Protestant area

Murals in the Catholic area

Even though Belfast and Northern Ireland were great: we were happy to be back in Dublin.

Tess x

Going for a walk

This week is reading week which meant there was some extra time to visit Ireland.
The group of Erasmus students decided to go to Howth, a small harbour just outside of Dublin.

Brave as we were, Elien, Morvan, Sofie and myself chose to do the big tour around the peninsula : walking 10km up and down the the hills. The others prefered to stay in the village.

After a couple of climbs, it became clear that the Belgian girls had overestimated their condition a bit but we finished the tour eventually in 3 hours.

At the end of the day, everyone was exhausted but also happy they did the tour because the view was magnificent.

Seals in the harbour

resting a bit before starting the walk

 

 

Some views

Tess x

My first Irish birthday

This week started really good since I had something to celebrate: my birthday!

Hanne came over from Belgium to celebrate it with me and the other Erasmus students from Mater Dei.

My room got re-decorated by Hanne

Some birthday gifts and cards.

I simply love Percy Pig!

My pancake-baking team

Birthday cake and muffin

And the birthday party of course!

Thanks everyone for the food, drinks, presents and wishes!

Tess x