Our adventure trip started on Saturday, 5 October when 28 students and their English teachers hopped on the bus to Munich airport. After a bumpy flight we arrived safely in the country of “ 50 shades of green”. On the first day we had time to relax and to get to know our host families. On Sunday morning we started our daytrip to Glendalough with our minds full of motivation. The beautiful green scenery including lakes and mountains reminded us a bit of Austria. Gerry, our teacher told us about the history of this extraordinary monastic site and he explained some Gaelic words.
On Monday we had our English lessons in a historical building called “The Irish Writers’ Centre”. We started at 9 am and we finished at half past twelve. We were split in two groups with one teacher for each group. The lessons consisted of a lot of teamwork and funny (the Irish would say:”craig”) games. We were taught by enthusiastic native speakers called Pia and Gerry. In our view we could practice our fluency a lot, which is not always possible in our classes at home with that many students.
Later that day we met at “The Garden of Remembrance” where our literary walking tour through Dublin started. During this tour, we learned how proud the Irish are of their poets and writers, especially of James Joyce.
On Tuesday we had lessons until 12:30. Our afternoon activity was a Storytelling Session in a typically Irish pub. An enthusiastic lady told us old legends and stories from Ireland and she was accompanied by a man playing the guitar. We also sang an Irish song.
On Wednesday morning there was class time again. In the afternoon we had a Pub Singalong Session in “The Ha’Penny Inn”. Everybody was looking forward to it. The singer who motivated us to sing with him was the boss of the language school. One highlight of our trip was definitely the duet Antonella sang with him on stage in front of an audience consisting of about 50 people. That was such a wonderful moment!
After class on Thursday we had our free afternoon. Some of us decided to go to the picturesque seaport Howth, whereas others decided to go to Malahide, a lovely castle. In Howth it is a must to eat the traditional dish fish and chips, which we devoured immediately, of course. Some of us took a cliff walk and we even saw seals and dolphins. Oh, there were lots of seagulls as well.
On Friday after our last lessons we visited “Trinity College”, one of the most renowned universities in Europe. We had the privilege to have a tour guide who was one of the students of Trinity College. There we saw the “Book of Kells” a beautifully illustrated old bible.
On Saturday, we left beautiful Ireland with a lot of wonderful memories in our minds. The culture, the people, the pubs, the food, our host families, the time we had there was just incredible. Thanks a lot to our teachers for perfectly organizing this last trip together and to all of the students who made this week unforgettable!
Alena & Laura Trescher