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So, I attended a full-time
summer language programme at The International Study Centre from the 9th
of July until 27th of July. In this intensive programme I had 25 hours
tuition per week: The first one was vocabulary building and idiomatic
English; the second one, grammar; the third one, reading and writing skills;
the forth one, listening and speaking skills; and the last one, authentic
English.
When I arrived in
Dublin, the manager of the school was waiting for me and drove me to my
new house. I was going to spend these days with a marriage whom children
had grown up and left the house. The woman was a nurse and the man was
a barrister. The first contact with them was good although I was a little
nervous because I didn’t know what speak about with them.
The first thing that
I had to do when I got the school was a test to know my level. Finally,
they decided that it was going to be good for me the advanced level.
During the morning,
every day was similar. However, in the afternoon we had different activities,
which were cultural and social activities:
- Visiting Trinity
College. Where we could see the Book of Kells. It’s a manuscript
which contains the four New Testament gospels, written in Latin.
- Visiting Dowth:
Dowth is the least well known of the three great tombs of Brú
Bóinne. The mound is surrounded by a lot of stones and has two
tombs facing westwards.
- Visiting the
Guinness Store House. Where apart from drinking Guinness (which I don’t
like) and buying some souveniers,
we could know how
to make Guinness and history of it. However, the most interesting of
it is the spectacular view across Dublin. From my point of view, it
wasn’t an interesting excursion because I felt boring visiting
it.
- Visiting St.
Patrick’s Cathedral.
- Excursion to
Howth: Howth is a pretty little town built on steep streets running
down to the waterfront. Most of the town backs onto the extensive of
Howth Castle. Due to Howth is essentially a very large hill surrounded
by cliffs; we walked along them enjoying the excellent views across
Dublin Bay right down to Wicklow. So we went to the Baily Lighthouse.
It was a fantastic excursion with wonderful views!
- Excursion to
Malahide Castle: This castle is in the pretty seaside town of Malahide.
This beautiful castle is a mix of architectural styles. The house is
furnished with period furniture together with an extensive collection
of Irish portrait paintings, which tell us the story of the family.
- Irish National
Stud: Where we could visit the Japanese Gardens and The Horse Museum.
- Skerries Mills:
Here we could see an efficient and clean use of the water and wind power
thanks of the watermill and the windmills.
- Glendalough:
It was a place of churches and living quarters. The monastic site includes
a round tower and a Celtic High Cross. The round tower was built during
the era of the Viking invasions into Ireland in order to protect the
religious books and the chalices. Furthermore, there are many walking
trains to be made around Glendalough. We visited the two lakes where
we took several photographs.
- Belfast: The
school organized a journey to Belfast. Although my host family didn’t
want me to go there y decided to visit this place. For me, the best
of this one were the wall murals. The pictures depict many events and
scenes relating to local culture, folklore and history. Some of the
images are quite disturbing, but are a feature of life for those who
live in the areas. The Belfast murals exist predominantly in the patchworks
of public housing which are usually divided along sectarian lines of
Catholics and Protestants
- Gaelic football
and hurling: For me, it was one of the most wonderful activities. Gaelic
games are fast, furious and not for the fainthearted. The contact between
players is extremely aggressive. Furthermore, people were nice because
they explained me the game and the rules. After that, we went to drink
to the pubs.
- Horse racing:
As you know, Dubliners love betting on racing. For this reason, I couldn’t
lose to go to a one of them. However, I didn’t enjoy a lot but
I was really surprise watching people betting and betting constantly.
In conclusion, as
you can see after reading the memory I’m not only improved my level
of English studying it and speaking with my host family but also I was
involved in the English culture. In my opinion, this last aspect was the
most important in this experience because it is the only way to learn
a new language. As for the course, it has been very enjoyable and I have
learned a lot of things about the culture and I have improved my English.
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