Final Pictures from Sperlonga

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Sperlonga

The final stage of our adventure was the wonderful Italian beach town of Sperlonga.  The weather was perfect and so was the beach.  The students worked hard to finish their ISUs and to prepare for the final exam, that hard work certainly paid off when the marks were tallied by the teachers on Saturday afternoon.  The students have received their marks and reports will be mailed out in August. 

Everyone enjoyed our free day on Saturday.  Some went for a boat ride on the Mediterranean, some went shopping, everyone visited the beach for a final time.  We enjoyed a final "dress" dinner at our hotel and then spent a final evening celebrating our month together.  Everyone, including the staff, was sad that our European adventure has come to a close.  Ciao!

Pictures from Rome

Florence - Krista's blog

On the morning of July 19^th, we got a group together after breakfast and went to go see the statue of David. We walked the surprisingly short distance from our hotel and waited in line for around 20 minutes for the building to open. We got our tickets and walked in to the main room. There were a lot of old paintings on the walls. For me, it was mostly just insanely awesome to see how old some of them were, although was almost eerie seeing paintings of people who had died centuries ago. I got separated from my friends at one point, so I wandered off into the next room. I saw the statue from the opposite end of the hallway, and I was honestly shocked at how impressive it was. I don't know very much about art at all, but I feel like I could have just stood there the whole day looking at it. One part from that trip that made us laugh was the mirrored floors in one of the rooms. The girls who had worn skirts that day were pretty eager to get out of there.

After we got back, we had class and then free time. Mrs. Young had organized a couple appointments in the leather market for us. Almost everyone bought things, and the store owners gave us really awesome prices.

While everyone else went shopping or back to the hotel, a group of 3 of us (Alex Dow, Laura Lebeau and myself) decided to climb the stairs in the Duomo. We went back and got changed into clothing that was appropriate for the church, and then walked back. The 486 steps were a little bit intimidating at first, but there were a lot of places to stop and take pictures on the way up, and once we got to the top, it was absolutely worth it. W+e got some incredible pictures of Florence from the sky, and we also found our hotel and some of the places we had to walk to. We hadn't realized how much we'd been walking each day in Florence, but it was definitely kinda cool to know we'd done it.

Right before dinner, we all got back to our rooms and got dressed up for “Try Again Thursday” (after a failed attempt at “We Look Nice Wednesday”). It was really fun to take pictures of ourselves dressed nicely for a change before we left the hotel, and I think the girls appreciated finally getting an opportunity to look nice after 2 weeks of sweatpants and hoodies in Ireland.

We did a lot of walking this day, but it was definitely action-packed and ridiculously fun. Seeing as it was our last real day in Florence, I'd say we did it pretty well.

Pictures from Florence

Pictures from Florence

Our Days in Florence

Our time in Florence continues to be filled with new and wonderful experiences.  On Wednesday, the English class visited the hilltop church of San Miniatore for their class.  The views are spectacular - best in the city according to our guide - and the cemetary is unlike anything we have ever seen.  The students worked hard and then it was time for photos.  Wow!

After some gelato on the walk back to our hotel, we met the bus and set off for Pisa and another great afternoon.  Lots of photos of the students and the tower, lots of laughter, lots of great Italian food to end another amazing day.

Thursday brought an optional excursion to the Academia to see the "real" David.  24 students attended and were wowed by this sculpture.  Mrs. Young took the students on an optional trip to the leather market in the afternoon  - I think that you will really like the gifts your children purchased.  The rest of the afternoon was free for students to climb the duomo, explore the shops or catch up on homework.  Another 4 course meal brought the day to a close and after an hour or so to explore the students all signed in for curfew.

Friday is a full day trip to Venice!

Tuesday, July 17 - Italy, Day 2

Matt MacAskill

Today was a day full of interesting facts and beautiful art. We started the day with an early breakfast. It was filling and delicious! Definitely a nice change the bread we got served in Ireland. Next, we spent a few ours in class. We studied A Farwell To Arms and we broke down all aspects of the book. After class, we got a group tour of Venice, where we were shown all ancient aspect of the great city. After a long tour and a fun afternoon, we headed to a pizzeria for dinner. Here we were served a variety of unlimited pizza. It was amazing! Finally, we explored all the shops in the main square before we headed back to the hotel to go to sleep.

Our first day in Italy!

Our first day in Italy started early with our flight to Rome through Frankfurt (don't we sound like world travellers).  Our connection was tight but we made it.  After meeting our bus in Rome we travelled to the beautiful hilltop town of San Gimignano.  Everyone had their first taste of the 'World's Best Gelato" - fabulous - and then set off the explore this lovely ancient walled city.  The views were spectacular.  Then it was off to Florence and dinner in a local restaurant.  Our hotel is lovely and the food seems to never stop.  It is all wonderful.  Probably the highlight of this day was our first glimpse of the Duomo lit up for the evening.  Mrs Young took us on a short tour, we were all in awe as we rounded the corner and saw this huge, beautiful church for the first time.  After a short walk back to the hotel, we all went straight to bed.  It was a wonderful introduction to Italy.

Sam Dyment Blog - July 13

Today’s class differed from any other class we’ve had. This class stood out from the others as Mr. Crane and Miss. Kidd provided us with videos of inspirational and motivating speeches that aided in our understanding of pathos and ethos. A group of us ventured to the Wicklow Mountains where we explored the ancient forest and enjoyed the breath taking scenery! On our bus ride back through the vast, diverse landscape, we stopped at a wide river that flowed down through the valley and into a large lake at the bottom. We were told that at this site was where a scene from ps. I love you was filmed! Usually we all fall asleep on the ride back into Dublin but the scenery was so breath taking where none of us were at a loss of concentration! Lastly we were shown Collin Ferrell’s house on the outskirts of Dublin! This was by far the most exciting excursion for many of us, and we are looking forward to our free day in Dublin tomorrow where we will be drawing inspiration for our descriptive essays.

Riverdance Pics July 14

Josie's Blog - Guinness Storehouse and Lady A

Dublin - Day 4

The morning started off as usual with an early breakfast in the cafeteria. After a small bowl of frosted flakes we were ready to head to the classroom. Most of us were tired after staying up late in groups to work on presentations for the next day. All of the presentations were short stories from the novel Dubliners by James Joyce. Knowing that after class, everyone would be going to the Guinness Factory Storehouse helped passed the long hours. With a quick lunch of coffees and crepes from the café on the university campus, we walked to the bus stop. A highlight for some I think is riding the double decker buses from the campus to the city centre of Dublin.

Once arrived, everyone was handed and map and a ticket and let loose. At first you could tell that the building was an interesting shape but actually it is the world’s largest pint glass which rises up through the 7 stories. There was so much to see and learning how the whole process of using the ingredients, the brewing, the transport and the advertising was really cool. I think some of us were really excited and loved exploring everything and after taking some photos under the huge Guinness sign, we rode the glass elevator up to the Gravity Bar. The Gravity bar is a stunning circular room with a 360degree view of Dublin and looked at the gorgeous view.

Once the group had finished looking at everything and buying half the Guinness store’s souvenirs, the lucky 14 who were going to the concert had to quickly catch the bus home, eat some dinner, get ready and get back on the bus and head back into Dublin. The rest our group either stayed in town a little later or went back to campus for dinner. The 14 of us were incredibly excited for the concert, Lady Antebellum who is a country pop music group. With the tickets clutched in our hands were walked to the theater. The outside of the Olympia Theater didn’t look like somewhere a concert could be played and upon finding our seats it looked like we were about to see some opera. The lights dimmed and the concert opened with a country singer called Kasey Musgraves who was good and wore cute blue cowboy boots. Once her act finished, the tension began to build, then with flashing lights Lady Antebellum began. It was amazing music filled with excitement, energy, soul and emotion. The energy within that small theater was crazy. No one cared if we didn’t know the words so instead tried our best and waved our arms around wildly. I think most of us had an amazing time and it was well worth it. One of my favourite parts was seeing some of our group dancing madly and singing in their seats across the theater – as we weren’t all sitting together – and looking at their huge smiles as well.

Josie

Pictures from Howth and Glendalough