Updates from Ireland

 Saying goodbye is never easy, and it certainly wasn't last week as we said to the last two students on this semester's Blended Programme. While our Finnish students Tessa, Erika and Sun stayed 10 weeks in Ireland, the Dutch students stayed longer, Dorienke staying 13 weeks and David and Laurie 18 weeks. I think it is safe to say there were lots of sad faces leaving as all the students succeeded brilliantly in immersing themselves into Irish culture. They worked at a variety of workplaces in Carlow and surrounding areas, including Hillview Nursing Home, The Delta Centre, St. Catherine's Childcare facility, Maven TM, Irish Wheelchair association and Kildare Youth Services. All of the students worked excellently and CIELS received glowing reports for each student and all the workplaces were sad to see the students leave. While in Ireland the students spent most of their weekends off exploring different parts of the country, they visited Belfast, Galway, Wicklow, Kilkenny and may more. As each student left we indulged in goodbye lunches as you can see above. It is never easy saying goodbye but I'm sure we will see them all again soon!

Hello! From Ireland

Hello!

We’ve been here, in Ireland for about seven weeks now. It feels like we’ve been
here for ages but at the same time the time is flying. I'm really sad about going home in a few weeks..

So far I've really liked it here. The group that I live with (two other Finns and three Dutch) is really nice, they feel like family to me. We do a lot together.

I'm doing my internship at Kildare Youth Services, the Curragh Camp,
which is located at an army base! At first that felt really weird because you see a lot of military people walking around but by now I'm used to it.
Right now the army is rehearsing for a big parade because it's been 100
years since Ireland's Easter Rising in 1916. One time they shut down the whole Camp!
My supervisor drove me around the Curragh and the scenery is absolutely
beautiful as well. There's so much green and hills and everything... also so many sheep!

My favourite place in Carlow so far is a park near the Carlow Castle. We
went there one Sunday when the weather was good (for once!). We've also
been to the Dolmen, the biggest rock in Europe. Instead of taking the
shorter way we kind of got lost but it didn't matter because it was a
really nice, warm and sunny day. We also got to see bit of the country
side, which I was way too excited about! 

 

I also love Kilkenny. The Kilkenny Castle is so nice and reaaaally huge! The park around it is really nice as well, you could spend hours there. I walked around the town and saw some really nice looking houses, I'm a big fan of the coloured doors. Kilkenny also has many nice churches and other sight seeings. I definitely want to go there again!

 

Last weekend I went to the Oak Park Forest Park. It was a long walk because we weren't actually sure where we were supposed to go but it was so worth it. The way there we saw some proper country side again and the park itself was pretty as well - it had a great view to the mountains.

I absolutely love Ireland, the people are nice and friendly and really
social! It's been the best few weeks and I'm so glad I took this opportunity.

 

Tessa

 

 

Finally one other message

Dear all, at the moment I am in Finland, my 8th day already. And 3 more to go. The steeringboard of BP met last week and I stayed longer in order to offer a workshop on Prove2Move and to visit some more workplacements.

I am inviting you all, especially BP participants, to help us keep this blog as updated as possible.
Add a photo and tell something about it in less than ten phrases.

Challenging you: who's next?

Hello

Time in Ireland has gone really fast and it is difficult to believe that we really've been here 10 weeks !? I'm really grateful that I got the opportunity to go to Ireland. It is learned, seen and experienced a lot. Living in 10 different human being has been a lot of fun, interesting, instructive and sometimes challenging. Before the trip I stretching a lot, how do I cope language skills, because I have not used my English language skills so long time.. Initially, it was difficult to understand and to get themselves understood, but every week my language skills improved and now speaking is much smoother.

My work placement

I was in Tullow`s Cheshire home. (a small town near our hometown  Carlow)

Cheshire Ireland provides a range of support services to people with both physical and neurological conditions in their homes, in residential centres and in supported accommodation.  Provide services to people often with very complex and high support needs.

Cheshire Ireland provide services to 281 people in 21 centres in Dublin, Cork, Galway, Wicklow, Limerick, Donegal, Kerry,Carlow, Waterford, Sligo and Mayo.

 Aim is to provide quality, person-centred services, which facilitate people with disabilities to live a life of their own choosing.

Cheshire Ireland has been established in Ireland for nearly 50 years ago

Work experience has gone well and i am so happy that i got to work in Cheshire home. I have learned / saw a lot of Irish nursing and it`s been interesting.When I started, I had difficulty in understanding, for example tasks that I got. But when my English skills have improved and knew day`s schedule so it`s was so much easier to work.

What is the difference of studying nursing in Finland and in Ireland? 

In Finland we valued the student's independence and work adhesion.  In Ireland, I was just a little assist the cleaning situations, and to change the client to bed clothes. My job was to more watch

how nursing care are made . And always had to ask permission "can I do this."

visited teacher Sean's home in St.patrick`s day

Lovely starters!! 

Parade in St.patricks day

Teachers visited :)

We went to a sheep farm

-Veera

Greetings from Ireland

So hello from Ireland!

 Our ten weeks in here Carlow is almost over. In couple of days we are flying back to home. I’m leaving with really mixed feelings: in other hand this has been really amazing experience and I've had so great time, but in other hand I really miss home, all my friend and family. 

We have had so many great experiences here that I don’t even know where to start: trip to London, my weekend in Dublin with my sister, our day in Kilkenny etc.

We’ve had some awesome experiences that I will never forget!

Like Joonas has mentioned in his blog, the school system in here is really different from ours. In Finland, we do lot of group works and different kind of assignments, when in here they want all in writing. So we have been doing a lot of essays and learning logs etc. We are going to school on every Monday and Tuesday and rest of the week we are in our placements.

My placement was in The Vault, which is kind of youth community center. It is run by Carlow Regional Youth Services, and it’s a place for teenagers to hang out and spend time in a safe environment. So my place is really just about interacting with the young people and making The Vault a nice and safe place for them to be in. I’m there on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays and weekends I have time off. 

There is a lot of things that I am going to miss from Carlow. Most of the people have been super friendly, and that’s new for me because in Finland strangers hardly never speak to each other if they don't have to. People also go in to pub's really often: not like in Finland just to get drunk, but just to hang a round and spend time. 

I think that Ireland is a really beautiful country. It's not that different from Finland, just a lot greener. And there is a lot more sheep's! The weather is also kind of different, warmer and a lot wetter. It also can change in minutes: first it can be raining and in blink of an eye the sun starts to shine.

We have seen some really nice places in here, like Carlow castle, Carlow Town Park, Kilkenny (the whole town were absolutely beautiful!) and lot more.  And there would still be so much more to see! 

I would recommend anybody who has the opportunity to visit Ireland; it has been so amazing ten weeks. 

Here are some pictures from my journey!

Views from our flight

Really gorgeous cathedral in Carlow

Kilkenny Castle

A fountain from garden in Kilkenny Castle

From London!

Big Ben in London

London underground 

Photo from St. Patrick's day parade

Amazing Ireland

Hello from Ireland, where we are currently starting the third last week of our exchange.

When we first arrived here in the end of January it was surprisingly easy to settle down here. People are great and really, really friendly. Our teachers Danny and Sean are awesome and it would have been harder to come here if they weren't here. When we have needed help, we've gotten it.

We have school on Mondays and Tuesdays. The school system is really different here. In Finland we are used to doing lots of PowerPoint presentations and group work. Here we do a lot of essays. Everything needs to be written down. Ireland just loves reports. School days can be very long and I'm usually pretty tired after them.

I'm doing my work placement in Irish Wheelchair Association in Kilkenny. It's a national organisation for people who have different kinds of disabilities. They have day care centres around Ireland.

I'm working on Wednesdays and on Thursdays. The work is really different from what I'm used to. In Finland I have done my work placements in hospitals and the first one in a kindergarten. I have never worked in a day care centre before. There really isn't much for me to do but I'm glad I'm here in Ireland and I got to talk English on a daily basis.

Weekends we have for our own activities, we can do what we want to. We have tried to visit as many places as we can. We have gone somewhere almost every weekend, although it's great to hang out in Carlow too.

You got to love Ireland. It's really hard not to. I'm so sad we have to leave Carlow in three and half weeks because it's been such a good time. We have met loads of new people and had some incredible experiences. But you know, you have to leave so you can come back. And I definitely will.

I'm really going to miss Irish people, Irish scenery, the live musicians in pubs etc. But it isn't over yet!
At the end there are some photos and a video of Pat Byrne singing in The Tully's, which is a student pub.

Greetings,

Eetu

Picture from Mount Leinster where we went on Valentine's Day.

From Carlow town centre.

Institute of Technology Carlow.

Feelings about Ireland

Good morning from Carlow!

Me and the other Finnish guys came to Carlow 48 days ago. And now we have only 22 days left. Feels like time is flying here!

We're living with 4 Dutch girls who are also studying to be nurses in The Netherlands.  All together there's 10 people living in our house, which is pretty much. Sometimes it's difficult when you have no space of your own, but we've used to it.

I have really fell in love with Ireland. People here are amazingly nice and the scenery just incredible. Strangers saying hello on the street, people letting you go first on the counter of the grocery store... you don't see all this in Finland. On our second day here in Carlow we were asking help from some young guy on the street to get to the Carlow College. First he gave us directions, but then he walked with us and showed us where the College is, even when he was in a hurry himself! We were reeeally amazed.

It's a strong pub culture here and even if Carlow is not a big town we were told that there's over 40 pubs in Carlow. It's like Irish peoples living room. When there's a rugby, football or hurling match going on, pubs are pretty fully packed. Pubs are a great way to get to know local people and make new friends. And what I really love here, is musicians playing live in pubs! It's like almost every night somebody is playing somewhere. It's almost a tradition already that we go listen to live music every week. These two guys, Pat & Kiran, from IT Carlow Music Society are playing every week in two pubs and they're great! Pat plays guitar and sings and Kiran beatboxes and sings. Pat also conciders to come in Finland in May! There's many other performers that we've got to see. I'm so going to miss this in Finland!

We're living in Carlow which is the county town of County Carlow. Even when we spent the most time in here, we've been also travelling around. In the very first weeks in Ireland we went to Kilkenny, which is a county town of County Kilkenny. It's half an hour away with a train. It's little bigger town than Carlow. We've also been travelling in  Waterford, Dublin and Mount Leinster, where we climbed all the way to the top. Last weekend we went to London because it's so near and cheaper to fly from here than from Finland. It was a great city, but still I felt a little home sick and I was delighted to come back in Carlow :) We're planning to go to the Cliffs of Moher next weekend. There's like a thousand places in Ireland that I want to see, feels like I'm running out of time. There's County Kerry, Bray, Galway, Limerick, Cork... I have to come back sometime!!

We have college on Mondays and Tuesdays and work placement two or three times a week, depends where you have your work placement. I work only Wednesdays and Thursdays. My freetime I try to spend vicely seeing as much as I can in Ireland and getting to know new people.  We have a few Irish friends already! And American. And Dutch ofcourse :)

Here's a short writing of our life here in Ireland. Now it's time for some pictures!

-joonas

Carlow

Carlow

Liberty Tree in Carlow Town Centre

Carlow

Carlow

Carlow Castle

Carlow

Carlow Castle

Carlow

Kilkenny Castle

Views from Mount Leinster

Views from Mount Leinster

London Eye in London

Views from London Eye

Views from London Eye

London Eye