CHRISTMAS IN IRELAND

Christmas in Ireland is a little bit different from Spain. In my Irish house there are a lot of decorations in the house. They have two pines with all kind of decorations like baubles, canes, snowmen, Santa Claus, stars... but they don’t have a crib. Irish people don’t usually put up the crib. They celebrate Christmas day on the 25 of December with a big lunch-dinner. The main course is turkey and the dessert are minced pies. On the 24 of december they don’t do anything special. Some people go the church but nothing more. During the night they give the presents or they leave the presents for the children and they open them the next day. On the 26 of December they´ll celebrate St Stevens day and you might say to me: what’s that? Well, St. Stevens day is the day that people meet with their friends and they go out for drinking and chatting. The pubs that day are crowded with people. At new years eve, they have a special dinner but it isn’t a big dinner and later they go out with the family or with friends.

Irish people don’t celebrate the kings so for them Christmas finishs by New Year day. In fact the winter sales starts on 27-28 of december. One more thing the fool day isn’t on 28 of December like in Spain they celebrate that day on the first day of April. 

Happy New Year and I hope that you have a good one.

Celebrating the last day of the year in the academy

CHRISTMAS PARTY

On 7th of December we celebrated a Christmas party in the academy. It was my first party in the institute and I´d like to tell you that it was very funny. The party started at 7 pm but I was a little bit late arriving at 7.15 pm. There were a lot of people inside when I arrived. Two brazilian guys were singing portuguese songs while we were eating and chatting. During the week our class was rehearsaling a Christmas carol which we had to sing at the party. The song was "Happy Christmas. The war is over" by John Lennon. I’ve never listened this song in Spain but I have to say that I like it. It’s a catchy song. Firstly we rehearsed the song with the original song and the next days we rehearsed without music only with the sound of the guitar. Cathal, our teacher, plays the guitar and he played the song while we were singing it. There are 7-8 people in class but unfortunately that day there were only 3 of us. Daiana, Cristina and I but we didn’t care. We did it. We sang very well. After that the rest of the people sang two more Christmas songs.

During the party, I met different people who come to the academy in the afternoon and at the weekend. When the food finished. We played a game. The game is “musical chairs” I don’t know what the name is exactely in English but it’s the same game in Spain. There are a lot of chairs together in a circle and the music is playing as people are moving in circle. There is one extra person than there are chairs and when the music is stopped everyone has to sit down. The person who is standing up, lost the game. It continues until one person is the winner. I played but I was out very soon. The winner was a girl. She’s from Norway and she won the prize. The prize was money but I don’t know how much money she won.

When the party in the academy was over everybody went to Grace’s pub. We were celebrating Christmas. We drank a few shots. In the smoking area we met two irish guys. One of them spoke very clear and I could understand him but I couldn’t undestand anything the other one said. He’s from the north of Ireland and he had a strong accent that was quite difficult to understand plus he was drunk. In conclusion we had a very good night and we enjoyed it a lot.

Merry Christmas,

With Jolie and Andrés

With some friends

At Grace´s pub

All students from Avanti school

Spanish students

THIS IS IRELAND

There are some different things in Ireland than in Spain. Nowadays the sun sets at 4.05 pm so at 4.30 it is completely dark. It’s curious but in the evening you can see a lot of people in the street walking with yellow bibs or orange bibs. At the beggining I didn’t understand why the people used them but now I can understand it. There isn’t enough light in the street. You can see only properly on main street but on other streets the light is scarce. You must put a bib on because the cars can run you over if they don’t see you. Another thing is that the ambulances sound is very annoying. You can hear the sound from one side of the town to the other. It’s incredible. The drivers must be deaf. At Christmas the council installs speakers on the main street and you can listen to the christmas carols. One thing that catchs my attention is that people in Ireland don't feel the cold like the spanish people do. I've seen children working out without sweatshirts only wearing shirt on cold days. I usually wear a hat, gloves and neckwarmer but they don't wear anything like that. It's strange, isn't it? Also I've seen girls wearing little dresses without putting coats or warm clothes on at the weekend. We are in winter time, you know. I'd like to see these girls in summer in Spain. They would go out completely naked. The teenagers are two faced in Ireland. On one hand, they are very polite. For example when we finish our work out every child says thank you to all the coaches. Every time they say thanks but on the other hand they are very filfthy. In the main street there is a fast food shop where every child goes and you can see the street full of rubbish. They don't use the waste baskets. It's a pity.

I´m going to tell you that in Tesco metro there is a beggar who plays his accordion outside.I always see him at 9.00 am and at 8.00 pm so he spents all day there. He always plays the same Christmas song. Can you imagine listen the same song during 11 hours every day? Sorry, but I couldn’t do it.

Take care yourself.

Any afternoon in Naas

MY HOLIDAYS

I’ve been checking the prices of the flights to Spain during these days but they are very expensive. It’s normal. Everybody wants to go back at Christmas. I didn’t know what to do because I didn’t want to pay 400 euros for going and returning. The prices of the flights are cheaper this week than the next week so I’ve finally decided to go this weekend. Yes, I’ve booked the flight for this weekend and I’m going to return to Ireland on the 27 of December. I’ll stay 2 weeks in Spain. I know that it’s not too much time but the prices after New Year Day are very high and also I didn’t want to stay until 9-10 of January. So I’ll see everybody in a few hours.
Happy Christmas and Happy New Year to everybody.

I´ve just received this present from Naas FC. Thanks a million.

WE HAVE OCHO

This is my fourth week working as a football coach and I want to tell you that it’s not easy for me. Yes, you can think is only football and everybody knows about it. It’s true but I have more knowledge than I can explain in English. Sometimes my explanations aren’t good enough. The children understand me just because I always do the demostrations before the drills are done although I’m happy because everyday I feel more confident in myself and I’m able to talk without thinking in Spanish. Last Sunday morning I had a funny anecdote. One of the balls was flat and I wanted to inflate it but I didn’t know what the name of the machine was which inflates the balls. In Spanish it's bomb so I shouted to the coach out: Antho, have you got a bomb? Everybody laughed and in that moment I got it. Imagine that Antho had answered: yes, in fact I have one in my car. Go there. Haha Another anecdote was when I was counting the number of one team and when I finished I said: ok, guys, let’s start, we have the same number of the other team, we have ocho (eight).

I work out two days a week with the club Naas AFC (every Monday and Wednesday from 6 to 8pm) and Sunday morning with kildare academy. Naas fc is trained by Mike. The team is under 11 years old and there are 3 other coaches who help him. The team has 15 players and there are 4 coaches like in Real Madrid and Barcelona. On Monday we work out on the artificial pitch and we usually do tecnique exercises and ball possesions and on Wednesday we do combination activitites on the natural pitch. These days the weather isn’t too bad for training but the bad weather is coming. On Sunday morning I train with 2 teams. The first team is from 10.00 to 12.00 pm. They’re under 10 years old and we do skill exercises like: pass, control, dribling... They are easy exercises. Later at 12.00 pm I work out with a team under 14. Good lads.

It´s a hard morning because it’s a long time outdoors in cold and windy weather. I will get used to it. From my personal point of view the knowledges of the coaches aren’t enough. They have good manners but they make a lot of mistakes. For example, they separate the team into 2 groups: defenders on one side and midfielders and strikers on another side. Football is a team game, why do they separate them?

See you soon,

Naas FC is the white's team

Throw in

Owen is protecting the ball

Trying to get the ball back

BOWLING DAY

During the week I was preparing for the weekend I knew that there’s a bowling alley in Naas because I went there during my summer camp so I proposed to go there at the weekend. I talked with Cristina, Silvia, Natty, Claudia and Silvia. All of them wanted to go and I also talked with Daiana and she told me that she’d like to go. Firstly, I called to the bowling alley because I needed to know where exactly it was and how we could get there. They said to me that there was a bus which stops beside the bowling alley. They also told me that we neeeded to make a reservation because it’s usually very busy at weekends. Because of this I made the reservation for 6 pm on Saturday for six people. We made an appoinment for 5.15pm at the bus stop but nobody was there on time except me. I saw the bus at 5.20pm but on the timetable the bus runs at 5.25 and Daiana didn’t appear. We couldn’t call her because we didn’t have her mobile phone. Anyway, the bus had passed and the next bus runs at 6.25 so I rang Claudia and she came to pick us up. Claudia had to come to Naas because she lives in Newbridge for that reason we were late to the bowling alley. I thought that we couldn’t play but there were enough free lanes and we could play. The cost of the lane for six people is 36 euros and we were only five but there was an offer that consists of paying only 10 euros per person and you can play two games and they give you coke and a French fries so we decided to pay 10 euros each. 2 games, food and drink, not too bad.

The first game I won as you can imagine. I scored 115 points I don’t remember which it’s my record in Spain but I think is quite close to 115 points. The next game it wasn’t my best but I had to pleasure to the ladies meanwhile we were eating and drinking. When we finished the bowling we were to Naas and we went to Mc Donalds. After that we went to Grace´s pub. We were chatting and drinking until midnight. Definitively it was a good evening. We enjoy a lot of.

Best wishes,

Cristina and I

Bowling team

Doing spare

MY CLASS

Last day we did an exercise in class about use of comparatives. The teacher told us that we could do whatever topics we wanted so I decided to talk about my classroom and my classmates.

I’ m going to describe my English class. The classroom is as small as a box of matches. The room has a big window so it’s as bright as a daylight. It has a big whiteboard. it’s as white as a sheet and also the room has a chimney but it’s as fake as five euros coin. There are eight people in the class. Natty, Nora, Alex, Daiana, Sandra, Eli, Cristina and me. Natty, the Japanese girl, she’s as sweet as a candy chocolate. She has a slanting eyes. Her eyes are as close as a mail box. Nora works as a aupair. She lives close to me. She’s as lovely as a dozen roses. She has a beautiful smile. Her smile is as perfect as Beethoven’s music. Eli, the catalan girl, is as smart as Google. She has a perfect body. Her body is as spectacular as a ballet dancer.

Sandra is from Basque country. She comes Monday, Wednesday and Friday. She’s as pretty as a diamond. Her blonde hair is as bright as the sun. The only other boy in the class is Alex. He’s from Moldavia. It’s a small country between Russia and Rumania. I’ve never known anybody from Moldavia. He has lived in Ireland for seven years. He has come this week. He’s as cold as a Russian soldier. He looks like as quiet as a spy. Cristina, the Spanish girl, comes here two days a week. She’s as sporty as an athelete. She’s as funny as cartoon characters. Daiana, the argentinan girl, works as a au pair. She is from Mendoza like she always says. She’s as warm as a puppy. She has colourful eyes. Her eyes are as beautiful as a gold.

Finally, Cathal is our English teacher. He’s a PE teacher like me. He’s as shy as a boy. He has a curly brown hair. His hair is as curly as Gonzalo’s dog.That´s all, folks.

Best wishes,

Some of my classmates

VICTOR'S LEAVING PARTY

There’s a pub called “The Court hotel” in Naas that there’s karaoke every Wednesday night.  It’s a good place for drinking and dancing. It’s very big with two floors, nice people and very well-known because a lot of people go there on the weekend. The karaoke starts at 10.30pm until 1.30 pm and after that there’s dance music until 2.30 pm when it  closes. The karaoke is supported by a speaker and he sings the first songs. We celebrated Victor’s leaving party. Victor is a guy from Barcelona. He studied at the same school as me although he only was here for 4 weeks. He’s a very nice guy although he’s sometimes a little bit absent-minded. We’ll miss him. There were six of us. Natty, Claudia, Silvia, Cristina, who works as an intern teacher in some primary school, and Maria, who works as an au-pair. Both of them I hadn’t met either of them before. They are from Spain and so am I. We arrived at 10.00 pm and we had drunk a few paints before we started to sing. There’s a book with the songs and you can choose one of them. It’s very difficult to choose only one because there’re a lot. Fortunately I had decided what song I would sing. The girls chose to sing “wannabe” by Spice Girls. They did very well although the song was quite difficult because the song is very quick. The second performance was given by Victor and I. Both of us sang the song “Imagine” by John Lennon. I like this song but it isn’t a good song for karaoke because it’s very slow but Victor had decided on the song and we sang it. I acted in the third position. I’d decided to sing “I’ll be there for you” by The Rembrants. I like this song because it’s the theme of the serie Friends. I knew the lyrics and for that reason it was easy for me. Everybody gave me congratulations at the end of the song. I think I gave a good performance and the last person who sang was the japanese girl, Natty. I’d made some rules before singing to the karaoke. Rules number 1- the songs have to be very well known 2- nobody should say what song they are going to sing 3- the song has to be in English and the last but not least was that it’s forbidden to take any videos o photos.

Natty broke one of the rules because she sang in Japanese. She did very well but nobody understood what she was saying. To sump up, the night was very funny. Everyone enjoyed it and Victor will have very good memories of that night. At least I hope so. 

All the best,

The Court hotel

Victor and I singing

NAAS AFC

Last weekend I sent an email to Naas AFC. One of the football clubs in Naas. I told them that I worked as a football coach in Spain and I had played in third division for several years. Also I told them that I had a pro licence. They replied to me days later and the head coach wrote his phone number and he told me to call him. The next day I called him and we were talking and he said to me that on Sunday morning there is a football academy between Naas and Newbridge and I could go there. I don’t have a car but he picked me up at Tesco. The pitches are 10 kilometres from Naas. We arrived at 9.30 am and the work out started at 9.45 until 11.45. The level of the group is under eleven years old. The coach is Cooper and I was his assistant coach. The weather wasn’t too bad because it wasn’t raining but it was a freezing day. My feet were wet and I could scarcely move. The coach did a great job although the drills were a little bit dynamic but the explanations were good. I observed all the work out and I sometimes tried to say something but I didn’t have enough words to explain properly. The next group was at 12.00 to 14.00 pm in this group the coach let me to do a drill. He did a lot of exercises about possession and when he finished he told me it was my turn and I had to do any exercise about possession. I did one with 3 teams. Purpose: two of them have to try keeping the ball and the third team has to get the ball back, when the team recovers the ball, they have to keep the ball with the other team which didn’t lose the ball. My explanation wasn’t good enough but the players had done it before in their clubs so it was easy to understand it. That morning I learnt a lot of vocabulary about football and I hope to improve everyday. The next day will be on Monday. I promise to tell you more details about my experience as a football coach. At this moment I’m trying to listen and see the work out but when I have more confidence I’ll try to do my own work out.

Regards,

On Sunday mornings

Football pitches

Kildare Academy

THE DINNER

Natty's house

On Thursday night I had my first party at Natty’s house. I enjoyed it a lot. There were six of us. Claudia, Silvia (I didn’t know her although she’s studying at Avanti in the evening), Victor and two japanese girls: Natty, who is in my class and Aya, who is studying at Avanti as well. We gathered at 6:30 in Aldi’s car park. Aldi is a supermarket located close to Natty’s house. I had arrived first so I waited for the rest of the people. A few minutes later Silvia and Claudia arrived. We had to call to Natty because she was late. In the end she arrived with her friend. All together we were to her house. It was very beautiful and very cosy. We had the opportunity to meet the hostmum. She’s a lovely person. She’s an English and music teacher and she spoke to me about her previous guest meanwhile the girls were cooking the dinner. The spanish girls prepared a delicious spanish omelette without salt because they forget it. The japanese girls made an amazing oriental food. I can’t tell you the name of the food because I don’t remember it. Victor and I set the table and opened the red wine bottles as gentlemen does. We had dinner late around 10 pm because we didn’t have enough oil and eggs and we had to go back to Aldi to buy more. The girls made an omelette with eleven eggs. Oh my God!! I’ve never seen such a big omelette as that in my life.

During the dinner we were eating and drinking. It was a great dinner. We laughed a lot. The dinner was excelent with marvellous dishes and the company couldn’t  be better. We decided to repeat it again. Probably the next day would be when we have to say goodbye to Victor. The distance from Natty’s house to my house is a little bit far but fortunately Aya lives close to my house and her hostmum picked us up and she gave me a lift. It was late and I tried to sleep but it was impossible because I remembered the dinner and I couldn’t stop laughing.

Cheers!!

Making the omelette

For clowns