Swim a Mile

6/5/2015
On the 6th of May 2015, the TYs from St. Wolstan's made our way to the National Aquatic Centre in Blanchardstown in hopes of swimming a mile with a smile in support of the Ian Daly Foundation. We arrived at the NAC at around 10am and were straight into the dressing room. Some girls decided to swim the mile (which is the equivalent of laps of the pool) in groups of 4 or 5 and some very brave girls decided to swim the whole mile alone!!

Since I am a beginner at swimming, to say the least, I swam in a group of 4 people which included myself, Sadhbh, Eimhear and Chloe. This meant we only had to swim 16 laps each. At about the 10 lap marker, I had just about given up but with some brilliant coercing from Sadhbh I managed to not only finish my 16 laps but I completed 40 laps by the end of the day!!


Overall it was a great day. We got the opportunity to do something fun and challenging for a good cause and afterwords we were brought down to the Blanchardstown shopping centre for food and some shopping!

Thanks for reading,
                 Anita xx

Driving

So we went driving on Monday!! #hideyokids No there were no fatal collisions. Nobody was killed in the process. Much to our surprise we were all pretty good at driving (granted we were going at 20km/hr but still!!)

We left the school at 9:05am and boarded the bus to the Leinster school of driving. We arrived there at 9:30 and were split into two groups. The first group (the group I was in) got to go driving for the first two hours while the other group did a fun exercise with the theory test. We were put into cars with three people and an instructor. Each person got to drive for twenty minutes at a time before we rotated. I was first up to drive in my car and I didn't cut out once might I add.

After we had gotten two twenty minute turns of driving each, we went to lunch and then switched with the second group. The theory test also much to our surprise was a lot of fun. In our group, we had to answer the 40 questions and the group to get 40/40 received a free lesson worth 40 euro. Unfortunately, nobody got the free lesson but we got the opportunity to earn points when we were shown a picture and the group with the funniest caption received an extra point

After the theory test, we were then taken outside to try on a pair of beer goggles. Yes, you read that right. Beer goggles.

They were goggles that simulated the loss of depth perception that comes along with excessive drinking. We had to complete simple tasks such as stacking cones or giving the instructor a high five but these were easier said than done! In the end we managed to convince our teacher to take part in the beer goggles challenge as well.

Overall it was a brilliant day. One of the highlights of TY and it's encouraged me to start studying for my theory test which I will sit during the summer and hopefully collect my learner's permit in May 2016 when I turn 17.

Thanks for reading,

xoxo AO

Easter Break!

Can we all please get it into our heads that we're off for the Easter midterm break in less than 6 hours?! That's 2 weeks or 332 hours or 20160 minutes or 1,263,600 seconds of no school!! 

Here's a little look at what my midterm itinerary looks like so far

Monday 30th- Sleep all day

Tuesday 31st- Sleep all day

Wednesday 1st- Sleep all day

Thursday 2nd- Sleep till noon, maybe order takeout, sleep for the rest of the day.

Friday 3rd- Stick head out the window, get some fresh air, and then... sleep all day

Well I think you  get the picture of how my midterm break is going to pan out. Now here comes the even better part... After midterm, there's only 7 weeks of school left until summer and then  we're off for three months!!

Counting down the days now!!!

Thanks for reading,

Anita x

Third Work Placement

Haven't posted in a while what with all the different trips, competitions and Fridays away that come with TY, we haven't had IT class in over a month. Anyway, I finished my work experience placement at Peamount Hospital about 5 weeks ago (I know, crazy how time flies right?) and I began my new placement at St. James's on the 25th February 2015. I guess there is somewhat of a pattern in the placments I have chosen this year (The Irish Red Cross, Peamound & James's Hoisptal
). They are all somewhat medical, whichof course is an area I hope to enter in the future.

I started at half nine on the 23rd and I was slightly nervous as I didn't know my way to the hospital as I'd never been there before (smart move, I know *sigh*) but I managed to find it  easily enough. I arrived into town an hour early just to be on the safe side and when I stopped to ask for directions (something I am absolutely terrified of doing, might I add), the person I had asked was a 1st year midwifery student at the hospital and so led the way.

When I arrived at the hospital, that slight nervousness escalated to a bone crushingly terrifying a freak out. The hospital was absolutely nothing like Peamount. It was about 10x the size of Peamount to begin with, everybody was rushing around in a calm manner (If that makes any sense whatsoever). I felt absolutely miniscule to say the least.

My first day was't as exciting as I'd expected it to be. I didn't get to do any workl around the hospital as unfortunately my supervisor had nothing planned for me as she was in a meeting (bummer). So I folded letters and adressed envelopes for 6 hours until I went home at 3:30.

Work Experience

I started my second work experience at Peamount Hospital in Newcastle. I started work at 9.30 am on the morning of Wednesday 7th January 2015. This was a completely different experience to that of my first placement at the Irish Red Cross head office. For one thing there were other transition year students also on placements at Peamount which was a huge relief!

As soon as I arrived I was introduced to a nursing student and two other Transition Years from St. Joseph's secondary school in Lucan who are also doing their work placements. We were then asked to go on a tea/coffee break until 10am (I found this really strange considering the fact that I had arrived at the hospital only three minutes earlier but oh well yay tea!)

After our much deserved break after that gruesome three WHOLE minutes of work,  I was put through some basic wheelchair training, health and safety guidelines and given a talk about what I am and am not allowed to do while on placement.

At 10:30 am, I was given my first task which was to bring two of the patients to Wednesday morning mass which lasted half an hour. After the mass, we then brought some of the patients to the computer room for 45 minutes. This was one of my favourite parts of the day becasuse we got a chance to see the kinds of music the people listened to and very often, it was music from their time which I would never have heard before that day.
The rest of my day consisted of lunch, reading to the patients, having one on one talks with them about their families and lives and giving the ladies hand care which consisted of hand massages, nail filing, painting and pampering and I was finished at 3:30pm

My first day wasn't what I imagined it to be, it was even better. In a short period of time I had gotten to know the people I work with, heard stories about the lives of some very interesting people.

Thanks for reading,
Anita x