Schedule
Day 1 – Sunday
Full Day Excursion to Dublin
See Bus Timetable Below

Day 2 – Monday
10.00 – 12.15 Cultural Class
2.30 – 6.00 Clonmacnoise

Day 3 – Tuesday
10.00 – 12.15 Cultural Class
2.30 – 6.00 Belvedere House

Day 4 – Wednesday
10.00 – 12.15 Cultural Class
2.30 – 5.30 Dun na Si Heritage Park

Day 5 – Thursday
10.00 – 12.15 Cultural Class
1.30 – 7.30 Galway

Departure Information
07/09/2011 – Friday
Flight FR7156 Dublin – Madrid at 13.50
Departure 9am from Supervalu, Monksland, Athlone

Bus Timetable – Sunday Morning ONLY (Host Family must drop off student from Mon – Thurs mornings at Shannon Academy, 44 Connaught St. )
The Mill 9.30
River Village 9.30
Vivo 9.30
Shines 9.30
Halls Bridge 9.35
B+Q 9.40
Swimming Pool 9.40
St. Mary’s 9.45
Auburn Hts. 9.45
Joe’s Shop 9.50

Thursday 24th:
Arrival: 11am:
E1 521
Visit Dublin City and see the book of Kells. Walk through Trinity College and take a picture at the famous Molly Malone statue. Free time for some shopping.
Host families will collect students at meeting point at 7pm

Friday 25th:
10.00-1.00:
Classes
2.00- 4.00:
Treasure Hunt around Athlone Town. Be the fastest and win prizes for your team

Saturday 26th:
10.00-1.00:
Classes
2.00- 4.30:
Visit to Clonmacnoise Monastic Site. Explore the ruins of this historic area and discover Irelands history

Sunday 27th:
8.00-19.00:
Full day excursion
Visit Belfast City.
Visit to the Ulster Museum.
Free time in Belfast city

Monday 28th
12.00-16.30:
An afternoon in Athlone town. Spend an afternoon in Athlone exchanging traditions and cultures with Irish teenagers. Have some
free time for shopping.
8.00-10.00:
Irish evening of Music and dance

Tuesday 29th:
10.00am:
Departure Day:
Host families will drop students to meeting point (super Valu Monksland). Families will provide students with a packed lunch for the journey home.
Spend time in Dublin city. Visit the National Art Gallery and the Natural History Museum

Some of you maybe wondering what an Au Pair is?? Well Au Pair is french for ‘on par’ or ‘equal to’. It means that Au Pairs live on an equal basis in a caring relationship between the host family and children. Typically they are young women from a foreign country who choose to help look after the children of the host families and help with light housekeeping. For this assistance the Au Pair is given a room and board and is typically paid weekly ‘pocket-money’. Au Pairs usually stay with their families for a year and are also usually aged between 18 and 26, however older au pairs can sometimes be requested or still apply.

Au Pairs are typically in search of a new cultural experience while also desiring to serve as an integral part of a parenting team and learning/improvement in the English Language. Some of the main and typical duties and responsiblities of an Au Pair would include waking the children in the mornings, ensuring they were groomed and dressed, prepare breakfast, grocery shopping, drop and pick children up from school etc. Most of their evenings would need to be free for their english classes and time for themselves.

So having an Au Pair can be an affordable means of child care and a great way to introduce your child/children to a new culture and language. You will also have a reliable babysitter 1-2 nights a week and of course less housework giving you more time to spend with your children. As a working mother of three I have to say ‘having more time with my children’ alone tempts me, who knows, we’ll see how it goes and if I do decide to try it out, I’ll keep you all posted about it.

Have a great weekend everyone!

One of the groups presentation on Traditional Irish Instruments.

Finally have broadband in the new building and downloading is no longer an issue YAYYY! Here are a few videos of class presentation and I have to stay I really enjoyed watching the interaction between the Spanish and Irish students.

During the week the group spent 3 hours every day in the class with their Irish teachers and mixed in were the local students from the Marist College. Everyday there was a different topic studied and the children were asked to stand up in their groups with their presentations on what they had learnt and how they felt about the lesson in general. Although very shy on the first couple of days, they were much more open towards the end of the stay and we were even sung a beautiful song by ‘Tobi’ on the last day (which i will load shortly).

After their classroom lessons they visited a different town, dublin and Clonmacnoise and on the first day enjoyed a fun-filled day of running around Athlone on a Treasurehunt which proved to be very popular with the students.

Having had problems all day today with trying to upload videos and pictures I will hopefully have them up in the next day or two.