Monday 16 December 2013

Book Review

Posted by Rebecca at 07:59 0 comments

Pride And Prejudice 


Brief Outline

Pride and Prejudice is a novel written by Jane Austen about Elizabeth Bennett and her family. It follows her journey to marriage and tells of the tales or marriage of her friends and family, for example her friend Charlotte Lucas marries Mr. Collins because she 'has' to, she believes she has become a problem to her parents because she was not married and The youngest daughter Lydia Elopes with Mr Wickham. Then the book follows Elizabeth and her journey to her marriage to Mr. Darcy mainly, but describes how for women to survive in this age they had to marry rich. Elizabeth defied this normality by refusing engagement not just once but twice, from Mr. Collins and Mr. Darcy. 

A Character You Found Interesting.

I found the character of Elizabeth Bennett to be most interesting, as she has a strong personality and doesn't take the easy option in life. She displays this many times through out the novel e.g. when she turns down Mr Collins and Mr Darcy. Although I admire her strength she does have a weakness of prejudice, which the book title is based upon. She judges Mr Darcy before she learns the whole story but as she over comes this obstacle she becomes a better person and falls in love with Mr Darcy.

A Theme That is Explored

A theme explored in Pride and Prejudice is Class. The idea of class almost prevented the marriage of both Elizabeth and her older sister Jane by Mr Darcy. He pride comes from his high position in aristocracy. He believes that Jane is not good enough for Mr Bingly and is only marrying him for his money not love. Then he is rude to Elizabeth saying 'She is not handsome enough to tempt me, she is only tolerable' because of who her family is. This also is a factor in Elizabeth's prejudice to Mr Darcy that because he is in a higher class he is an ignorant snob, at the beginning of the novel he fits this description but proves otherwise towards the end. Through the novel Mr Darcy learns that factors other than wealth determines if you belong in aristocracy or not. For example Ms Bingly and Ms Hurst were born into aristocracy, and  are mean spirited and annoying where as Mr and Mrs Gardiner are part of aristocracy due too their good breeding and their intelligence.

Insight you gained into the world of text

From reading this novel I have discovered how much society has progressed in some aspects and the lack of progression in other areas. Such as women do not need to depend on marriage to live a good life. But women are still treated unequal to men in some cases. 

What type of vision or viewpoint does the author have? Is it a Dark/Bright insight of the world?

Jane Austen has a vision of a world where women don't need to depend on the opposite sex, she shows this through Elizabeth for a while in the novel in the way she stays true to her beliefs and refuses a marriage proposal.The author has both a bright and dark insight into the world of the novel as she shows how cruel men can be but also how kind they can also be. For example Mr Wickham was painted as the deprived solider but turned out to be a deceiving manipulative man  when he elopes with Lydia so he would get the Bennett estate and also got a 'bribe' from Mr Darcy. This is how Mr Darcy proves he isn't mean spirited and cruel. 

Comment on The Imagery in the novel

There is a lot of imagery in the novel which is brought to life with help from the numerous visual aids available to us. She uses descriptive manner when she wrote the novel. This makes it easier to imagine the scenes in the novel as if you where there. She also is very good at describing the feelings the characters experience like the heartbreak suffered by Elizabeth many times.

Did You Like The Novel?  Would You Like to Live There ?

I did enjoy the novel because it kept you guessing through out it, there were unexpected twists and turns like uncovering Wickhams past and finding out Mr Darcy paid Wickham to stay with Lydia.

In my opinion I would not like to live in this world as it is very hard to be a woman in this time. They had to depend on their husband and were not aloud to get jobs or even take part in any sport which i would find very difficult. 
Overall i really enjoyed the novel and would recommend it to anyone to read it.

Thursday 12 December 2013

Cumpleaños Numero Dos!

Posted by Rebecca at 18:00 0 comments
HAPPY BIRTHDAY BEAN!!!

And there is another birthday among the amigos... Aoibheanns!!! I don't know how many times we sang happy birthday to her today in many different versions including Spanish, Irish and even in the tune of jungle bells.... Anyway Jayne made the cake in the shape of a can of beans (since her nickname is bean) and it was amazing! and delicious also! Hope you have a wonderful day Bean! 





Holly Day

Posted by Rebecca at 11:44 0 comments
'Would you like to support the ISPCC?' 'Hi, would you like to support the ISPCC it's a great cause' ....
I never thought I'd stop saying this over and over again, We were fundraising in town for the ISPCC


Upon arrival we were divided into groups of two, I went with Aoibheann. We then each had to put on a yellow bib and grab a box of holly pins,  then we were sent to the Hibernian Club by Stephens Green. I had absolutely no idea where that was but we were given a map, and that's when we realised we can't read maps... Firstly we went in the wrong direction then we were told to go over O'Connell bridge and then we walked past it we were hopeless!


That is when we started to sound like parrots repeating the same thing to everybody who walked by.... Most people just walked by and didn't pay any attention to us, then some on the other hand went out of their way to avoid us... They crossed the road before us the crossed back again just after us and then some people walked out and around the taxis parked in front of us we're not that scary are we? But then some nice people bought a badge :)


We were so hungry by the time lunch came my belly was rumbling and you must have guessed where we went by now... McDonald's. Then Jayne and I left early to try get a birthday present for Aoibheann in Abercrombie but we were 3 euro short on everything! typical... It's like a maze in there you could get lost and never find your way out... That's how we almost missed our bus.. we were still in the shop at 2:15 when we were meant to be at the bus so we legged it .... turns out the bus hadn't arrived yet by the time we got there so we were safe! I had fun fundraising and I'm looking forward to doing it again in February for Lollipop Day.


Wednesday 11 December 2013

Christmas has arrived :D

Posted by Rebecca at 09:00 0 comments
I just put up my Christmas tree this is so exciting, Christmas is almost here!! We've been singing Christmas Carols in music so it's inspired me to learn Winter Song by Sara Bareilles on the piano, it's difficult but its getting there!


Our school Choir has been practising plenty of Christmas carols as they preformed at the Castletown fair and they will be preforming at our school mass. Walking into school this morning I was shocked, for the first time ever the school had Christmas decorations up, it's so cute. All the trees outside have baubles and tinsel and some notice boards have lights around them. The school is so festive it puts a smile on my face when I walk by!


Tuesday 10 December 2013

The Windy City...

Posted by Rebecca at 09:54 0 comments
Calamity Jane is coming to Celbridge GAA!! 





Basically its a love triangle in the wild west, I'm hoping i'll be able to help out in the musical with props or something similar. But to promote our production of Calamity Jane we held a flash mob! Unfortunately  I don't have a video but we'll be doing another one soon in a different location ;)....



We had practised about 10 times in school, the song was a mash up of the Windy City and Animals by Martin Garrix.



This is the beginning of the song.


And this was or course we wanted to add in something different to make it stand out


As a rehearsal for the flash mob we had three in school, the first one we danced in the court yard but it didn't go to well as everyone was embarrassed. For the second and third flash mob we dressed in  checked shirts and black tracksuit bottoms, the second one was preformed in the first year mall, the space was limited but it went well. The third and final flash mob was done in the courtyard again and it was ten times better than any of the other ones. Then the big day came, we were preforming our flash mob in the church courtyard when they were turning on the lights. No one was expecting it, it was a flash mob, but no one had let word slip! Here's some more pictures from the day below :D




Don't forget to vote for my blog as best new blog 2013 in the Edublog awards! And if you have time my friend Eilí's blog was nominated in the best student category and our RTY- Radio Ty was nominated in best podcast! 
Please Vote!!


Saturday 7 December 2013

Kildare Road Safety Expo

Posted by Rebecca at 11:26 0 comments

On Thursday we visited the Kildare Road Safety Expo in Punchestown Race Course. Upon arrival we got out of the bus and then the wind hit us, hair went everywhere, not fun. As we entered the hall we got yellow wrist bands and we were set free. First thing everyone went to was the free stuff obviously. We got high-vis vests, stickers and key rings. 


The RSA had a big section in the expo, there was a big van/truck and inside they had different demos such as to test your break reaction time and a bike you cycle on and steer with a tv screen showing you on a road. My friend Jayne got snapped on the bike, even through her cries of horror he still took like 10 pictures.  The RSA also had their 'Roll Over Car Simulator'. Jayne, Sophie, Niamh and I queued for over an hour and a half but was rudely turned away just as we were about to go. I'm disappointed that I didn't get to try out this valuable experience.


We then all gathered in an area for a presentation about road safety. First the NYPD and their 'Tangobot' entertained us. Firstly we achieved the perfect Mexican wave then they invited a student up on stage and got him to act like a gangster and speak some French too, and finally we were asked to make a difficult decision, would we prefer a Garda patrolling the streets or Tangobot obviously the Garda won. 


Then the scary stuff came, we were informed of the statistics on road deaths and shown some videos aswell. It was okay altogether but not getting to go on the car roll over simulator was a disappointment.





Friday 6 December 2013

VOTE NOW!

Posted by Rebecca at 18:55 0 comments
I have been nominated as Best New Blog in the edublog awards! I'm so happy I've put alot of work into this :) Please vote for me as much as you can, you can vote once a day, please help :D 


See full list on Listly

Also my friend Eilís has been nominated for Best Student Blog in the edublog awards also! All your votes are much appreciated!


See full list on Listly

Maths Trip!!

Posted by Rebecca at 10:34 0 comments
Today we went to Rathbeggan Lakes for a Maths Trip!! We arrived at around 10 and it was freezing, there was still icy patches on the grass, and typical me, I forgot my gloves and couldn't feel my fingers. 

When we arrived we were separated into groups of four. I was in group five with Aoife, Cecila and Caoimhe. We were given different tasks to do as a group and there was even a prize for the winners, A family pass to the lakes. We really wanted the prize so that motivated us even more! 

Aoife in the stocks...

The first task was easy enough we had to find circumferences and diameters of circles and divide them by each other, From this we discovered that if you divide the circumference by the diameter you will always get pi! Task two wasn't so easy... We had to find the height of a pole using similar triangles and ratios, it took us a while but we got the right answer in the end! We got various other tasks to complete over the 2 hours, we completed over 5 tasks, but unfortunately we didn't win the free family pass.


But never the less we go to go to Blanchardstown after. Typical TY behavior meant we went straight to McDonalds. After we went for a walk around the shopping centre. Aoibheann and I went to Debenhams and covered ourselves in the One Direction perfume our moment, It smells amazing! After all the mind boggling maths questions and over using perfume testers it was time to return to Celbridge. It was great fun I'll'll definitely return to Rathbeggan lakes during the summer! 
 

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