It`s February, and us fourth years are still being kept busy!

      Yesterday my YSI (Young Social Innovators) group who`re tackling alcohol abuse in irish teenagers joined forces with the YSI group against drugs to raise money for the Aislinn Centre; a rehabilitation centre for young adults in Ballyragget. We had a valentine`s day themed cake sale (needless to say my kitchen was an atrocious mess Sunday night!) , painted nails, charged for the privelege of wearing pink accessories - think tights, lipstick, hairbands! Though we haven`t yet counted the money, I reckon we raised in or around E300!

     We went to UCD last Wednesday, and despite the unfortunate incident of a friend of mine (let`s not name names) walking head first into a lampost a good day was had by all! We were split into groups of 10 and given an informal tour by one of the students from UCD.

      We`re still going strong with our computers classes - we had the first part of our official IC3 exam today - the tension waiting outside room 14 was ridiculous. Despite the majority of us completely maybe freaking out, all was graaaaand and we were fine 5 minutes afterwards!

      So all of that is important I won`t deny, but the BIG news? I`m going to Berlin with the rest of the senior german classes on Friday. So. Excited. Thing is, it appears I`ve packed for a beach holiday and it`s gonna be -3 degrees (maximum). I may rethink my holiday wardrobe....if I have the time!

November. “November?!?” I hear you ask, “Already?!?”. Okay, so maybe the rest of you are accustomed to the passing of time but it’s come as a real surprise to me. How can it already be socially acceptable to mention the C-H-R-I-S-T-M-A-S word? So that means that I’ve had two-and-a-half months of TY. Ah TY. I won’t go too much into the blissful wonder that is TY, ‘cause we don’t want to make the 5th years too jealous. Instead I’ll give you a brief overview of what us TYs have been up to so far this year. ~ We all went hill walking on Coomshingaun (no-one will ever spell that right, so let’s just go with the Comeragh’s). Despite the cries of “But Miss! This isn’t a hill! Are ye crazy?! To the top of where-?! Omg the wind is making my hair frizzy! Ew exercise and sheep and mud!” (Teenage girls eh?) I’m pretty sure everyone enjoyed themselves. ~ On the 21st September we all headed off to the ploughing: collecting pens, eating chips, hanging by the Flahavan’s Oats stall (can’t beat a bit of free porridge!), collecting pens, nabbing freebies, managing to spend the day without seeing a single plough….oh and did I mention collecting pens? ~I attended a Justice & Peace seminar in Dublin with Sinead McDonagh and Ciara Comerford. Through a series of informative lectures we were convinced we could change the world (between tea and KitKat breaks that is). ~While we were raving it up in Dublin, the rest of our year headed to Glendalough for a Geography/History trip. Despite losing one or two or three people, it seemed to be great success. Don’t worry, we got them back eventually. ~On Monday the 18th we all piled onto the bus and headed to the Ursuline Convent for their production of The Sound Of Music. It was mega impressive, let alone the actresses, the set was pretty phenomenal, and I think I must’ve had “The hiiiiills are aliiiiive with the sound of muuuuuuusiiiic” stuck in my head for at least a fortnight afterward. ~As a member of the debating team, I went up to UCD (*cough* via Dundrum shopping centre *cough*) with Vicky Day, Shauna Scannell and Ciara Mahon to propose the motion that cannabis should be legalised. Despite winning the inter-Loreto debating competition way back in second year we were all pretty nervous, maybe even freaked out, as the debate had a completely different format. We all got really positive feedback, and Ciara Mahon was chosen to proceed to the next round. Well that’s it so far, and there’s a lot else happening besides trips! But again, we don’t wanna make the 5th years too envious, eh? With that I’ll bid you adieu! Over and out, Hannah.