Interacting in Ireland

Last Day

2007-07-27T15:48:00.000-07:00

I want to say, on behalf of the Interacting staff, that we had a tremendous time in Belfast with the kids and are so proud of them and what they've done. They have made us laugh and smile so much and have each improved their English and have grown more than we had expected. We will both be very sad to see them go. On top of that we have been hosted by a fantastic staff at Methodist College and would like to thank everyone there for their hospitality. I hope you have had fun reading our blog and please come back again to see us next year!

Carrie, Vikki, Ed and James

Heaney family - last day

2007-07-27T15:35:00.000-07:00

Cyril: There isn't one best moment. But at this moment I feel a strange sensation, because I miss my home and my family but I think these 2 weeks have passed too quickly.

Paxeco: My best experience was when I met the two Belgian boys. One was crazy and the other one, who was like an elephant, was big and friendly. Curro, Angle, Marta and me enjoyed being with them a lot. At the end they gave us their beer bottles as momentos.

Marta: My best moment was when Ed did the play because I laughed a lot.

Maria: My best moments in Interacting were when we skated and when we were riding horses because I had never done that.

Best family - last day

2007-07-27T15:32:00.000-07:00

The Best Moments of the Bests

- We have met new people that are now our good friends...

- We won't forget the sandwiches, every day at lunch we were eating them!

- The breaks have been very important because on the course we have sometimes been a little tired.

- Other moments, like the computers, the trips, the time we spent in the rooms.

Joining all these things = THE PERFECT CAMP

Dunlop family - last day

2007-07-27T15:28:00.000-07:00

One of our best moments was at the rock concert the other day when we met two funny people. They were Belgian but they lived in Ireland. One of them speaks many languages: a bit of Greek, Spanish, English, French, Italian and Flemish. The other one speaks Spanish, English and French. It was funny because before we were bored at the concert until we found the in the street. After this moment we were very relaxed and happy.

The Heaney family - Wed 24

2007-07-26T03:08:00.000-07:00

School Ghost

Two days ago, at night in the corridor, we saw a strange white thing. We went to the library frightened but the lights were turned off. We began to hear hitting so we opened the door and we saw the strange thing taking Carrie and hitting her. We tried to help her but we couldn't and suddenly the hitting stopped and Carrie and the ghost disappeared. This is the story of the school ghost.

The Best family - Wed 24

2007-07-26T03:04:00.000-07:00

When we went to the bridge area on Sunday, something funny (for us) and tragic (for Ed) happened. While Ed was on the bridge somebody moved it and he fell off. He went to the hospital because he was bleeding by his ears and his mouth and his right leg. It was terrible. In the hospital the doctors told us that he had broken his right leg and his ears. He really had bad luck.

The Dunlop family - Wed 25

2007-07-26T03:01:00.000-07:00

Yesterday while I was looking out the window I heard some strange voices. Those voices came from the boy's room. When we got in this room we saw Pacheco and Angel dressing like women and singing in falsetto. We started laughing, but they heard us so they ran out. They were embarrassed but it didn't stop them from wearing woman's clothes and putting on make-up.

Tuesday 23 - New Friends

2007-07-25T07:58:00.000-07:00

As a part of Interacting we try and promote group cohesion and establish relationships between students so as to create a safe environment in which they can feel comfortable to speak in English. The group has been getting along so well and so today I asked them to think about someone they didn't know before last week and write about them. This is what they wrote.

I never happened to know a Spanish person before I met Marta. Marta is a very good person because she is always happy and funny with us and she always gives us positive energy. Also, I think she is a bit careless because of what happened yesterday when she bought two left shoes. Marta has a very good voice. I'll miss her very much!

Cyril is very good in the games because he makes an effort. He also is very intelligent because he understands everything. He's a very hard working person because he is always working. He likes English very much because he speaks it very well!! I don't know him very well but I think that he's a good person!!

Marina is a good person. She is very funny and she's always happy. Sometimes she is relaxed. She has red hair and she is like pipicazalargas. She is really nice. FINISH.

Curro is a little strange character who is always repeating the things he has to do. That is annoying but at the same time is very funny. I met him at the Madrid airport but I started knowing him here in Ireland and it has been a good experience.

Pacheco is, with Marta and Curro, my best partner and friend because he's funny, a good guy and he knows what to say in each moment. I would like seeing him more because I think we could be good friends and two weeks is not enough.

Lida, she is Greek. She always listens to music, she likes rock. I like her style and the music she listens to. She likes sleeping so it's difficult to get her up at 8. So she never has breakfast. She has a strong character but she's friendly.

One of the best things that can happen when you go to summer school is that you make new friends. One of my new friends is Carla!!! Carla is very funny and I can have a very good time with her. She is very beautiful and she is very smart as well. She is smiling all day but at night she can't sleep so in the morning she can't wake up. I think that I will miss Carla.

Angel is very very funny! He always makes us laugh! He is always is here when you need his help, except when he's angry, he runs away!

Loukia is always happy and I never see her angry. She is a very good girl because she always wants to help you if you have a problem. She likes to learn new things. Every time in class she is always quiet and listening, when she's not taking photos. She is a very hard worker. She makes an effort in everything that the teachers tell us to do and she is a very very friendly person.

I don't know Maria very well but I wish I knew her better because Marina and Carla are always happy when they are near her. She was nervous the first day but now she smiles a lot and makes an effort with her English.

2007-07-24T15:06:00.001-07:00

Monday 23 - The Wild Wild West

2007-07-23T15:10:00.001-07:00

Tonight, Interacting performed one of their shows for the group, "The Wild West". It was about an hour and a half long and I asked the students to write a very short abridged version of the play for the blog. This is what they came up with...

The Dunlop family - Monday 23

2007-07-23T15:01:00.000-07:00

The Wild Wild West!!!

Bob: "Hi guys! Let's go rob a train!"
Daisy and the others: "Come on!"
Red: "Daisy can stop the train!"
Bob: "That's a good idea!"
Daisy: "Ok. Stop, train!!!"
Bob: "Daisy, take all the money."

She took the money and Bob kept it all for himself and then when they were all sleeping she took all the money and ran out.

The next morning, when the sheriff came to catch the robbers, Daisy went with the sheriff because she fell in love with him.

The Best family - Monday 23

2007-07-23T14:57:00.000-07:00

Once upon a time in the wild west there was Bob, Red and Bob's girlfriend named Daisy. They were outlaws and they wanted to rob a train!

"We will rob that train" Bob said.

The barman listened to what they were talking about and he went to the sheriff and told him what he heard.

"We will go together to stop Bob", said the Sheriff.

The sheriff and the barman were late so Bob and his friends had already robbed the train. But at night Daisy took all the money from Bob and Red and gave it to the sheriff because she was in love with him...........

The Heaney family - Monday 23

2007-07-23T14:44:00.000-07:00

The Wild West:
- Hey!! I have seen the wild west, you know that play don't you?
- Yes, I saw it yesturday, It's with the Sheriff and Bad Bob.
- Yes, it is! You know I love when Bob, Silence, Daisy, and Red stop the train and when Silence dies.
- Oh it's funny, they rob the money from the train.
- Yes, but Daisy was a traitor of the bad guys, because she loved the Sheriff.
- Yes, but Bob took the money and the Sheriff took Daisy.

2007-07-22T14:38:00.001-07:00

The Weekend Poem

2007-07-22T14:21:00.000-07:00

Tonight I asked the students to write down the first word they thought of relating to this weekend in the following categories:

person
thing
emotion
action
expression
color
place

Then I asked them to get in their families and write a poem together (verse or prose)using some or all of the words they'd chosen. The following entries are what they came up with. Enjoy!

The Heaney family - Weekend poem

2007-07-22T14:11:00.000-07:00

Charlie is a hero who always goes with the captain Perkins. When we were in Newcastle we saw Charlie kissing Alba and touching her bottom. Alba is Harry Potter's girlfriend. Alba wore a pink tracksuit and green stilettos. Then Harry Potter appeared and said, "Oh, my God!" and that was when all of us started laughing. Harry Potter became angry and he went to a dirty cave in Glapagar. We were tired so we decided to go back to the school when we saw captain Perkins flying over the sea. When we arrived at the school Marta started singing strange music (nobody knows why) while she and Cyril started playing with the computer. We had a happy day.

Written by Paxeco and Company

The Dunlop Family - Weekend poem

2007-07-22T14:08:00.000-07:00

My parents have a cat and a dog
and I say "Oh my god!"
The bathroom is blue
The countryside is green
and I want something to hit.
My hands go shopping
Oh look! They are walking with presents saying,
"Very good, very good, where are the children?"
Now I want to sleep
because my hair is pink.

The Best family - Weekend poem

2007-07-22T14:00:00.000-07:00

How happy we were sleeping.
We woke up and listened to our mp3.
We had to make the bed
and put on our t-shirt red.
Vikki was playing piano in my green room
I was in my purple house
Brushing my hair.
My mobile rang and I said,
"Oh my god!"
It was my mother.

Thursday 19

2007-07-19T15:09:00.000-07:00

"What has suprised you the most about Ireland? What is something they do here that is the most different than in your country?"

Cyril: "The thing that is the most different to my country is the eating time. In France nobody eats lunch at 6, maybe except old people at the retirement homes!"

Loukia: "I'm suprised at the type of food and the weather.Also the most different thing here is the buildings and the time of lunch and dinner."

Curro: "I'm surprised with the girls because nobody is beautiful.
the most different thing than in my country are the buildings and the time of lunch and dinner."

Lida: "A big suprise for me here in Ireland is that many guys and girls are emo or punks!!! That's not the same in Greece!!! In Greece we have only trendy's and not many emos or punk's!"

Paxeco: "I'm surprised with people's weight because here you can eat all the time so the people are extremely fat!!! The most diferent thing betwen Irish people and Spanish people is their appearance because they seem like freaks."

Maria " I'm suprised by the weather because it is very different than in my country and the most different thing than in my country is the hours of lunch and dinner because in Spain I have lunch at 2:00 and the dinner at 10:00."

Marina: " What surprise me is how the people dress, because they dress a bit more strange than the people dress in Spain, only some people. And the most different thing that I find here is the meal's hours, because here the people have breakfast, lunch and dinner earlier than in Spain."

Carla:"a lot of things suprise me, the people, the meals, and the people wearing very strange and differnt clothes. What is differnet is the time of the meal, and in Spain the weather now is hot and here the weather is very cold and rainy."

Angel: "The money suprised me the most because there are lots of difeferents coins. The timetable of the meals is quite different because they eat dinner at 5-6 o'clock. The clothes are more expensive than in spain. The weather is a bit cold but good."

Marta: "I'm surprised with the people from here because they wear very exagerated clothes and with strong colours."

The Dunlops - Wed 18

2007-07-19T15:06:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, after breakfast we went together to the classrooms. There we played some games like The Supermarket Game or the game with lost things. Later, after class we had lunch with a lot of sanwiches and after this we went to the classrooms again. Before beginning class again we celebrated Vikki's birthday. James then taught us to play the tin whistle, to dance some Irish songs and also sang an Astrian song. Later we went to an old cemetary and met the teachers. AFter that we came here again and we went ice-skating and played golf. And at the end of the day we came back home again. We ate some sandwiches and we went to sleep.

The Heaney family - Wed 18

2007-07-19T14:44:00.001-07:00

Hello, we are the Heaneys and we are going to tell you the story of our day. First, we woke up at 8 and then all of us went downstairs to have breakfast. At 9 we went to class where we were from 9-12. Then we had lunch and from 2-4 we had class again and after that we had dinner. Then we went by foot to a very old cemetary where a crazy man explained to us the history of the monument. At 7 we returned to take the bus and we went to a place with mini golf, bowling and ice skating. There the girls and 1 boy, Cyril, went skating. The teachers and the rest of the boys played in the mini golf and the winner was "PACHECO". When we went back to the school we were so tired that we went upstairs to try to sleep but we were awake for some time. OH! Yesterday was Vikki's birthday too!!

The Best family - Wed 18

2007-07-19T14:37:00.000-07:00

Hello my friends! How are you? Today we woke up sleepy. We did a game to improve our brain capacity and memory....and one important thing, it was Vikki's birthday!! We sang the birthday song (at least we tried). For lunch we had sanwiches again. We were lucky that they were good. In the afternoon we played the tin whistle with Mr.James. (I call him James Blunt). He is a wonderful musician! For dinner at five o'clock we ate strange curly chips. Carla woke up, felt ill, and went back to bed. And the best part of the day was the skating rink and the mini golf. It was really funny.

The Dunlop family - Tuesday 17

2007-07-17T14:40:00.001-07:00

Loukia (Greece) and Curro and Marina (Spain): "The food in Ireland isn't much different than the food in Spain but there are some differences with the food in Greece because the food there is more rich and varied. In our countries most of us don't have breakfast but the people who do have breakfast drink "colacao", milk or coffee with cereals. Lunch and dinner are quite the same, however, as in Ireland. Our favorite foods here are spaghetti, eggs, cereal, sausage and chicken. In Ireland they eat at different times than in our countries because we eat dinner at 9 or 10 and the Irish eat at 6 or 7.

See you tomorrow!

The Best family - Tuesday 17

2007-07-17T14:34:00.000-07:00

Lida (Greece): "The food in Greece is much different than the food in Ireland. For breakfast, in Greece, we don't eat very much. We only eat cereal but in Ireland they eat lots of things like eggs and sausages. I think that the food here is good and my favorite meal was dinner on Monday cause we had spaghetti and spaghetti is my favorite food.

Carla and Angel (Spain): "What's the crack??? Here everything is perfect, including the food. It's very different than in Spain but it's good. In Spain we don't eat very much for breakfast but here we eat a lot. We eat lots of sandwiches and rice. It's delicious. Here the cook cooks the rice with curry. In Spain we eat dinner at 9:30 and here we eat at 6. In this country we can't take a nap and it's terrible.

The Heaney family - Tuesday 17

2007-07-17T14:23:00.000-07:00

Cyril (France): "Irish food is quite different than French food. For breakfast, like in France, there is cereal and milk and orange juice but there is also bacon and eggs. I love both but in France they aren't eaten in the morning. The lunch is not different than in France but we have it later, at 1:00-1:30. The dinner in Ireland is very early, at 6:00!!! In France we have it at nearly 9, but we eat the same thing. So the Irish foof isn't very different than french food."

Maria, Marta, Pacheco (Spain): "Here, the meals and the hours to eat are completely different from Spain. Why? The reason is that in Spain we have lunch at 2:00, more or less, and we have dinner at 10:00, and here we have lunch at 12:30 and we have dinner at 6:00. It's a very big change. Sometimes in the evening we get hungry and we haven't got any food, but it isn't important. Referring to the food here, the meals are more fatty than in Spain and the breakfast is heavier. Because of this people in Ireland are usually very fat (because they are eating all the time)."

The Heaney family - Monday 16

2007-07-17T05:44:00.000-07:00

Hey, we are the Heaneys!!! We are Pacheco, Marta, Maria and Cyril. The best part of the day was the afternoon with friends outside. Another part of the day that was fun was sleeping because everybody was in silence and we could think in a relaxed way.

We'll see you tomorrow!!

The Dunlop family - Monday 16

2007-07-17T05:40:00.000-07:00

We are the Dunlop family: Curro, Marina and Loukia. We are in Belfast, Ireland in the Methodist College with seven other kids learning English. Today we played some English games like the Alphabet Game, which was our favorite. The reason we liked it was because we played with a ball and we were good at it.

See you tomorrow!

The Best Family - Monday 16

2007-07-17T05:29:00.000-07:00

Hi! We're the "Best" family and our names are Carla, Lida and Angel. Today, our favorite activity was the Samurai because it was really funny. People seemed rediculous doing slow motion killings with their arms.

The weather in Ireland is a bit strange because one day it's raining and the next day we have sun, so the weather is going to drive us crazy.

See you later alligator!!