lunes, 29 de abril de 2013

The Irish came to San Sebastian

After a month without seeing each other the Irish exchange students came to spend a couple of days in San Sebastian. They arrived on the 18th April and we gave them a welcome with a kind of picknick. After that, we visited the "Comb of the winds" and "Miramar". They loved them.
After making some trips to the city centre we started knowing them better and we got on well very quickly. All of them were really friendly and we enjoyed spending the night out with them.
Moreover, we improved our English level because we used it everyday.
Thanks to this exchange we have been able to learn about their culture and to show them ours. We even taught them some words in Basque and they showed us some words in Irish.
The last day, on the 23rd we organised a dinner with them and had the best time ever. The last day, we couldn't find the time to say goodbye and they all left us in tears hoping they would come back soon.
Some people have even made plans for the summer to visit their students. It has been a life changing experience and can't wait to see them again. 


lunes, 8 de abril de 2013

Activities during Easter

 A film which had a mayor impact in my way of thinking about war and womens way of fighting was "Las Trece Rosas" (the Thirteen Roses). It is the name given in Spain to a group of thirteen young women, seven of whom were under age (in Francoist Spain the age of majority was 21), who were executed by a Francoist firing squad just after the conclusion of the Spanish Civil War, as part of a massive execution campaign known as the "saca de agosto" along with 43 young men (among them a fourteen-year-old).
These women fighted till the end like their husbands and they showed they could be as brave as them. I would recommend everyone interested in womens rights to watch it.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/6e/Las_Trece_Rosas.jpeg/350px-Las_Trece_Rosas.jpeg

Another interesting thing was a short tale which appeared in the book we had to read for the Spanish class this term: "El lápiz del carpintero". This tale tells the story of why people did not know how bees were born. This was due to the fact that Aristoteles and other well-known scientist would not accept the fact that there was a queen bee.

Our visit to Ireland

On the 20th of March we took a plane to Ireland to visit our exchange students as planed. As soon as we arrived in Dublin a bus was waiting for us to take us to Wilson's Hospital School where they were waiting.

 https://encrypted-tbn2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSzpzLhNubNIye9Q3vM80HAMlUhHE-QJ5_MNDgWdkihHlgkqjg9Og

That same day each of us went to our irish students house and met their family.
During the next five days we did a lot of activities such as visiting Mullingar, going out with the irish family etc. But nothing can compare to our visit to Dublin where we could see the modern part of Ireland. There we visited Collin's Barracks which is the
National Museum of Ireland and has items related to History and Arts.


File:Collins Barracks Museum courtyard west.jpg

We also did a lot of shopping, for that we went to Jervis shopping centre. There we were able to appreciate the differences not only in clothes but also in their way of life.
Another interesting place we saw was Trinity College where some of the irish students wanted to study in the near future.
During our stay we spent a day in their school doing workshops with two women who worked for different NGOs.
There is no doubt we won't forget this trip as it has been a fantastic experience, we have learnt a lot about the irish culture and also how unfair the society with women is. We are looking forward to their visit as we want to show them our culture and our lifestyle which we think is completely different from theirs.