Ice Skating.

On the last Friday in school, we went on a trip out to Blanchardstown shopping center, sounds weird I know,  we left at 9:05 while everyone else was doing their exams and got on the bus.  Once we got to blanch we had hours to look around and to get some food to eat, but silly me forgot to bring money so i just had to borrow some of Orla.  Orla and I got McDonald's and it was very yummy, we walked around the shops for a while but it was kinda sad walking around looking at all the stuff I couldn't buy, so we ended up back in McDonald's.

While we were there Orla was meant to be meeting up with someone who was going to sell her Justin Bieber tickets, this person was meant to be reliable but ended up not even having tickets and so Orla was kind of sad but she got over it when we went ice-skating.

When we walked across to the ice-skating tent everyone was already excited and everyone was taking out their extra pairs of socks and putting them on.  It didn't take long for us to get on the ice but of course before we did we had to take lots of cute pictures. Ice-skating is not as easy as it looks which made us all look like fools when we fell, I promised myself I wouldn't be the first person to fall and I was happy I kept that promise. 

Afterwards, when we were going home loads of people were drenched from falling on the ice and of course I was one of them.  My dad also forgot about me so i had to walk home in the freezing cold drenched to the bone, but luckily he had the fire on so when i got home i could warm up with a cup of tea and in my pj's, I was so exhausted I fell asleep for a couple of hours but that was probably from all the exercise when i was walking around blanch. 

Etiquette workshop

On the same day as our first aid workshop we had an Etiquette workshop also, when I first heard of this I was very very confused because I had no idea what Etiquette was all we were told was to bring in our high heels, so I did.  I asked around to see if anyone knew what it was and as it turned out Etiquette is a code of behavior that delineates expectations for social behaviors according to contemporary conventional norms within a society, social class, or group, which really just means, we had a work shop on how to act correctly or as some people like to say "ladylike" in society.

The first thing we did was play an ice-breaker or two then we were shown a power point and video all about Etiquette and whats right and wrong.  We were told how to were our clothes, what clothes to wear even what underwear to wear.  after that we got up to walk the red carpet, we had to walk with a book on our head to make sure our spine was aligned and then we had to try and do it in our high heels, we were also taught how to sit politely and i found that helpful in an interview.  

Retreat

I know its a bit late to be writing about something that happened towards the start of the year but I felt it was something that i should write about and not let it be forgotten.  So for our TY retreat we started off in the Celbridge Manor hotel.  I had to walk there because my family left at 8:15 and I didn't want to be 45 minutes early.  At 8:50 a.m i embarked on my journey to the hotel across the road from my house, the hardest part was walking up the long avenue up to the hotel itself.  Once I got into the hotel I realized i should have left earlier because everyone was already sitting in a big circle and Mr.Kerrigan was calling the role.  

I walked in after two other girls Emma and Aoife and sat down beside my buddy Orla.  Just as i sat down 4 or 5 other girls came in which made me feel better for being just a tad late.  So to start the retreat a tall man with a beard walked into the room with candles and what looked to be a bible and set it up on a desk.  Everyone was in shock because we thought this year our retreat wouldn't be religious (I'm not against religion).  He started to say a prayer and list off the things we were going to be doing, he said we were going to be in silence for a long amount of time and fast all day, that's when i started to get angry because i need my food!!  After the man finished his prayer he went on to tell us it was a joke and we all broke out in laughter it was such a relief.  

we started off being introduced to the people running it then we began some ice-breakers, they were doing a story telling ice breaker and one like fruit bowl and another one where we had to sit on each other (sounds weird believe me I know).  After these ice-breakers we had a little bit of time to each our break and just chat.  So we sat outside since it was a lovely day and we ate our lovely lunches.  When we went back inside we were told to get into groups of 6 or 7, they asked us to try not to go with our friends but they didn't want us to feel uncomfortable so we could go with our friends if we wanted.

I went with Aoife, Aoife, Orla, Niamh, Eilis and myself I think thats all.  Once we were in groups we were given a piece of paper which had a philosophical question on it, our question was "if you could change one thing about your parents would you and if so what would you change?"  our answer was simple, We would make them more understanding but also keep them the same because if they weren't the same they wouldn't be our parents. *Q the waterworks*.   We decided on our answer quite quickly and so we decided to have a sing song in our little group of old pop songs like the ones from disney channel.

Everyone got a chance to read out their questions and answers then everyone could comment and say their own opinion.  One of the questions i found interesting was "If your long-time partner cheated on you would you want them to tell you?" there were loads of other questions but that one struck up quite the debate within the group.  After all the questions, one of the leaders set up a display in the middle of the floor and we did a game sort of thing where we turned over cards with words which described us, I got enlightened.

After this we had lunch and we were allowed to order food from the bar so loads of people did and ordered chips, this was also the day that snapchat updated filters onto the snapchat cameras so everyone was having fun with them.  We got called in after lunch to do meditation.  The mediation was very emotional and I ended up crying. The day ended at 3:20pm and I went home.  It was a very good day and I had lots of fun.