IRISH DANCE

Last week I was in Hayden’s pub. We went there because we wanted to learn how to Irish dance. Anyway, the place is typical in Irish, with people chatting and drinking beer. To tell the truth I went there just to drink and see how people dance because I don’t like dancing too much. Apparently, it isn’t difficult.

There was an Irish guy who taught us a few steps. At the beginning I tried it but quite honestly it was boring. I prefer another kind of music. No doubt, I have hot blood. Haha. At least, I tried it. To be honest, it was easy. I thought that it will be difficult but you only have to move your feet forward and back. So to speak, it’s like doing aerobics but with different music.

The night started at 9.00 pm. For me, obviously, it was early because I usually have dinner at 9.30 pm. So basically, I had dinner before. We went with the school. It was a social programme and there were a lot of us. They stood us a beer.

As I was saying, I danced only for the first 20 minutes. Afterwards, I was chatting with the Spanish girls in the smoking area. We talked about Claudia and Daiana’s leaving party. The idea is to have a barbacue party. I mean, with hamburgers, sausages, bacon, french fries.. but the only and main problem is the weather. Quite honestly, we’ll have to change the idea. We’ll see it.

Anyway, getting back to what I was saying about the night in Hayden’s. I’d like to say that some of us we enjoying it, specially the japanese girls. However, others, like me, went on chatting. Moreover, the pub offered us a portion of pizza. There were very nice to us. I’m grateful. It was a good idea. Natty, took pictures and I recorded a video although the images aren’t good because thre wasn’t enough light. Therefore, I had to delete the video. It was rubbish. Finally, I said goodbye to everybody and I went home.

So, in conclusion the night was really good. I learned some Irish steps and I spent a few hours in good company.

Ñan, ñan.. tasty pizza

Sandra dancing

Chatting and drinking in the smoking area

ST PATRICK´S DAY (PART II)

Special green lager

The parade finished at 1.30 pm. The group was split into 2 groups. People over 18 years old and under 18. Our group went to Temple bar. We were looking for a place to drink a beer but all pubs were crowded. Therefore, it was impossible to enter. Finally we decided to go to a different area so we went to Dublin 2. At last, we found one. There weren’t a lot of people so we decided go in. Some of us drank Guiness but I prefered to drink a green lager. The taste was similar to normal lager with green colouring. Not too bad. We met Italian guys. They were there spending their days for St Patrick’s. We were talking a little bit with them. Nice people.

One hour later we went to St Stephen Green. It was time to have lunch. The park was crowded as well. The weather was cloudy, but at least, it wasn’t raining. After having lunch we went to another pub. This time, the pub was bigger than the other one and in addition there was live music. We were drinking but I could see the faces of the people and I felt that everybody was exhausted. The day had been hard.

We came back close to Ha Penny bridge. The bus was waiting for us. It was 6 pm. Shane’s group arrived 10 minutes later. In the end, we came back to Naas. Cristina and Katha wanted to continue the party in Grace’s pub. They asked me if I wanted to join them. It wasn’t late so I didn’t mind. It was curious because there wasn’t anybody inside. Everybody had been in Dublin. We had a beer and talked about how we had enjoyed the day.

In conclusion, we had an incredibly, amazing day. The experience was unbelievable. I hope to repeat it some year.

Watching the parade

The group at St. Stephen green

ST. PATRICK'S DAY

St. Stephen's green

I felt extremely tired last week because on 17 of March was a hard day. What did I do? I was experiencing St Patrick’s day in Dublin. I’ve been in St. Patrick’s before with Pichaldo. But this time was different and it was incredible. There could have been over half a million people in the streets. It’s a manner of speaking but plenty of people. The day started early. I went to the school. There were 24 of us. Most of them from Japan. Everybody had to put something green on therefore I wore my green sweater. On the bus, Daiana painted my face with the Irish’s flag although she painted it wrong. She painted the flag in different order: orange, white and green. I didn’t notice it until I saw the pictures. Nevertheless I saw Claudia’s face and she painted the flag with horizontal lines instead of vertical lines.

As I was saying I went to the school to Dublin by bus. After one hour we arrived at O’Connell street. Everybody was very excited because it was a different day for everyone. When we got off the bus, we went to the souvenir shop. I needed to buy something extravagant such as a bow tie, hat, shamrock pins.... finally I bought a big, colourful hat. We took some pictures and we went to the coffee shop. We needed stamina for the day. While I was drinking my coffe I burnt my tongue. I’ve never drink anything so hot. OMG!!, I had to drink water for alleviating my tongue.

We were walking up and down until we found a place to watch the parade. The mexican girls were in the first row and they saw the parade perfectely nonetheless the rest of us had to watch it in the pavement. Consequently, we didnt’t watch anything. The parade lasted roughly one hour although we couldn’t watch see anything I didn’t mind because the atmosphere was amazing. Everybody was dressed up and people were very cheerful.... To be continued.

Avanti Academy

Some of the students with the manager

FIRST CERTIFICATE EXAM (PART II)

Daiana and myself

The day of the exam I got up early. It was roughly 6.30 am and I didn’t sleep well. You know. I was thinking of doing the exam properly. Fortunately, Daiana’s host mum gave us a lift to the university. The exam took place at UCD university in Dublin. As I told you in the previous blog the FCE lasted 4 hours. We started at 9.00 am and we finished around 3 pm. There were 2 shorts breaks between each part and a big break to have lunch. The vast majority of people were from Spain. It looked like Madrid. Everybody talked Spanish and most surprising was that they were very young people, in their twenties. Even I saw a tiny percentage of them under 18. Unbelievable!!!

When we finished doing the exam, we went to Dublin. Daiana had an arrangement with Manon. She’s a girl from France who had studied in the summer. They went shopping but I prefered to go back to Naas. I was tired and I needed to rest.

I arrived at Naas at 5.30 pm and I took a nap. I was so exhausted. Later I arranged to meet the girls at Eddie Rockets. Eddie Rocket’s is a fast food restaurant similar to Foster Hollywood in Spain. There were Daiana, Cristina, Manon and I.

Afterwards we went to Grace’s. We were there only one hour and after we went to the Court Hotel. We were drinking and dancing. I heard the song “Macarena”. I couldn’t believe it. It was 15 years ago the last time I heard that song. People were dancing to it. It was so funny!!! In the end, Daiana and I went home early because we both were tired. The day had been long and hard.

Daiana, Manon and Cristina

FIRST CERTIFICATE EXAM

I’m going to talk about everything what I’ve done in the previous months. My live could be summed up in only one word: study. Consequently, I couldn’t write in the blog, but now I’m back!!!

Daiana and I were preparing for the FCE (first certificate exam) for  the previous 2 months. It had been a hard times but I don’t regret it and now I’m happy for having done the exam with her. She had been a supportive person to me. Thanks Daiana for your help and your advice.

Two weeks before I did the speaking part. This is the part of the exam that everybody is anxious about. Nevertheless, it could be the easiest part. I understand why people are nervous is because I also was. The situation isn’t easy because you’re in front of the examiner and he/she is asking you some questions and you have to answer him/her. It’s important to keep calm and try to say something. It doesn’t matter what you say. It only lasts 15 minutes. I felt confident although I had a little bit bad luck.

Normally the exam is in pairs but in my case there were three. One of the students before me didn’t appear and I had to do the speaking part in a group of three. Actually it’s the same structure but you never know if the score is the same or it could be less because you speak less than the rest of the people. I reckon that it’s a disadvantage. Any way, I did the best I could and for me that’s the most important thing.

Last week was the main part: reading, writing, grammar and listening. In this case the exam lasts four hours. I know it’s a long time. I’ve heard that next year the exam will be different. The same parts but with less content, therefore, it will be shorter. I believe that it’s better. 4 hours is too much.

The first part was reading. It lasted 1 hour. It was my worst part. I thought that it’ll be my best but in fact it was my worst. There are 3 readings and you must read each part in roughly 20 minutes. I spent almost 25-30 minutes in the first part. The articles were with a lot of phrasal verbs and the vocabulary was very hard and tricky. In conclusion it wasn’t easy. Everybody shared the shame opinion as me.

The next part was writing. There are 2 parts in the writing. The first part is a letter. It’s compulsary. In our exam it was an email and the second part is a report, article or essay. You have to choose what you prefer to do. I chose an essay about the difference between living in a very cold city and living in a very hot city. I think I did very good compositions although this part it’s very subjetive. Consequently, it’ll depend on the examiner.

The third part was “use of English”. I mean, grammar. It used to be my worst part but I think I’ve improved a lot and I did it well.

Afterwards we did the last part: listening. I’m glad about how I did it but sometimes you think that people are talking about something and they say something that it’s completely different but you don’t understand. As a result of that you put one answer and it’s another completely different. I have to trust in my listening and I think that the first impression was right.

To sump up, except for the reading the rest of the exam I did well. I did my best. Could it be enough? I don’t know. Only time will say. I’ll know the results more or less in four weeks. Meanwhile it’s high time I relaxed. I prefer not to think any more about the FCE. It’s done and nobody is going to change it.