Let me tell you what happened:
Well I tried riding but it kind of didn't really work out so I quit but I'm trying to find another place but I'm not sure where.
I joined History because I think it's really interesting to learn about the Northern Irish history but because I joined so late I wasn't there for the start so I didn't really get the hang of it and it is still really difficult for me. But Ailbhe, a classmate helped me a lot and I think I would be even worse without her help.
Then we had break and we didn't really do much except that on Thursday, during our holidays,
I met up with my friend, Lynn. We went to Dublin and went shopping. I bought lots of nice stuff and I think I spent way too much money but I told myself that I'm going to save my money until we meet again. We made a promise that we'll meet up in January, before she's going back home. It was so much fun and I even bought an "ugly Christmas sweater", I've always wanted to do that.
Then on Saturday, I went on a Viking boat with Anna and Sofie. It is on the river Shannon and it goes to Hudson Bay and then back to Athlone. It was really cold and there were strong winds so we had to cuddle up in the blankets we got. Still, we had loads of fun.
And then two weeks after our holidays finished, I cut my hair. I was thinking of doing it for a long time because I don't like having long hair and then Sofie went to the barber to get highlights so it was the perfect opportunity. The place where I cut my hair is called Custom Cuts and it's amazing, even though it's expensive. Bernie always goes there to cut and blowdry her hair.
Before:
After:
Once, Bernie took Sofie and me to her school and we dressed up as Santi's elves. It was so much fun. Bernie is the principle of a school and there are three classrooms. The smallest children are about 4 years old, the others are like 6 years old and Bernie teaches the oldest class and they are 11 years old. Of course, the eleven year olds didn't believe that we are elves but all the other kids did and they were so adorable, they asked us all kinds of questions like if WE did their presents and why we don't have pointy ears and why we're so tall. We told them that Santi makes a magical powder, he prepares it with fallen stars. That magical powder can make us look like humans because we don't want people to find out that we're elves, do we?
That was one of the best days so far and during their break they always wanted me to go skipping and to have a race with them, they were too cute for words. And when we visited their classrooms they were singing for us and we gave them treats from Santi.
My school life is as normal as it can be, it's just school. But I had to start thinking about my Christmas exams. Because I'm in fifth year, we had timetabled exams and we had to write them in the sports hall. All the fifth year students in one hall, that's gonna be grand.
But before that, we had a non-uniform day again, it was a nice thing to get into the mood of Christams.
The exams weren't that difficult and I didn't have to study that much. For English, I had to learn some poems by Eavan Boland and the play All my sons, in Maths I had to understand everything we did during this semester, in Economics we had to know everything as well, in Extra English we had some questions she took out of the Cambridge English Exam, in French we had to learn some essays by heart and an opinion question and some tenses and in History I had to know everything about Northern Ireland.
I would say that History went the worst because I had no clue about the things they did before I joined that subject but I tried my best and that's the only thing that counts. I don't know when we'll get our results but I hope soon because I'm curious.
The exams were from Tuesday to Thursday in the last week before break and on Thursday we were finished at one, our last hurdle was maths. I was so glad to finally have holidays.
On the 19th of december, Bernie's school had a performance. They were in a barn and were singing Christmas Carols like "Oh what a glorious night". The barn belonged to the family of one of the students so Bernie and I went there to prepare it (Sofie was studying). We put lights in jam jars and lit them to show the way to the barn. It looked beautiful.
Then the children came and their singing was magnificent. Because the barn was wonderfully decorated with branches and there were some sheep and alpacas in cages it looked even more magical.
After the performance every child got chocolate from Santi and went home. Shane, the son of the family which owned the barn, helped us collect the lights and clean everythign up. He's almost the same age as my brother, a year younger, and it was funny to see the difference in their behaviour.
I wish I could go to Bernie's school again, I really liked it.
Now to Christmas. They celebrate on the 25th and wake up early in the morning to open their presents. Sofie and I got a lot of presents from home and that was so cute.
Everyone gets stockings here in Ireland and Bernie even gave some to us that was so lovely of her. Roisin, Aoife and Bernie gave us both a bracelet with our birthstone on it. I never want to take it off it looks so beautiful. My birthstone is Aquamarine and that was such a thoughtful gift. They said they wanted to give us something Irish and that means a lot.
I sent some presents home and I hope that they liked them. I sent Christmas tree decorations and a book and one of my favourite Irish candy. The Christmas decoration is made of real Irish silver from Tipperary. I bought them in the shop Roisin works in, I was so stressed because I didn't know what to buy my family and she made my day when she suggested sending them this.
The reason why I wanted to send them something was because they sent me something as well and I felt bad. And I will bring them presents home when this exchange year is finished but I just wanted to give them something from Ireland already.
Well after we opened our presents we dressed up and went to mass. It is something very important to go to mass on Christmas day. Afer church was over, we started driving to Josephine and Sean's house, that's where they ususally spent Christmas. But first we had a few stops. First we visited Ger (Bernie's sister) and her family and talked a bit, then Aoife, Roisin and Bernie went to the cemetary to visit Bernie's parents, then we went to Matt, Bernie's brother, and met Ger and Christina and Matt there as well. Then we picked up Kevin, another relative and finally drove to Josephine's. Her house is beautiful and really big. There, we met almost everyone, some couldn't come but there were a lot of people. Roisin and Aoife have many cousins and Bernie has a lot of siblings.
There are Roisin, Aoife, Ali, Shane, Maeve, Niall, Sinead, David (he couldn't be there though) and some I think but there are so many. Most of them took their partners with them so there were even more people. Bernie has Ger, Marian, Christina and Josephine as sisters and Matt as a brother and all of her sisters are married but Matt isn't. Josephine was extremely hospitable and we bought chocolate for her to thank her that we were allowed to spent Christmas with them.
First they opened their secret santa and then it was time for dinner. We had turkey and ham, brussel sprouts, gravy, mashed potatoes and more potatoes and soup. My stomach was full after that dinner.
After dinner Sofie and I were a bit scared that we're just going to sit in a corner and talk to no one but that wasn't the case at all. They asked us if we'd like to play a game with them, "pictionary". Bernie told us later that they chose the game because they were thinking that it has to be a game we can also play. It was so much fun to play, I was on a team with Shane and we were really good, but maybe we were just lucky because sometimes we got words like "nose" or "house". He was so funny and he was also one of the first people to talk to Sofie and me when we arrived.
Later he and Sean, Josephine's husband asked us if we wanted to go see the lambs, some were born yesterday and one was born that day. We went to see them and they were adorable. Their mothers were really protective though but we even took a picture with them. I'd like to see them again.
When we came back they started playing cards. Sofie, Roisin and me didn't know how to play at all so we were sitting together and talked. Then I went up to Aoife and tried to understand the game, it was a bit difficult at first but I got the hang of it (I think). They played until three o'clock in the morning and then Aoife had to bring some people home and then we finall went home, I was beat. Usually they would stay over at Ger's and go on the 10km walk the next day but Ger went to Scottland so they weren't able to, so we stayed home the next day.
Preparations for Christmas:
Bernie gave this to Sofie and me on the evening before Christmas
Christmas Day:
Sean, Sofie and me and the newborn lambs
I hope I can see some of them again.
Today, Sofie and myself, we finally went outside again, I think the first time in four days. We wanted to go bowling with Gergely and Wiktor but the bowling place was a bit creepy so we went to watch a movie instead. We watched "Passengers" with Jennifer Lawrence, it's a really good movie. Then we went to Tesco, to buy food, of course, and I bought too much. I bought 4 packs of crisps, but I mean you can never have too much food.
River Shannon at night and Wiktor
Picture by Wiktor in Tesco, me with my crisps
Lots of love
Shannon
