Book Review

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.

Cumpleaños Numero Dos!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BEAN!!!

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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

'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

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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!

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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 :)

Some cute boys ;)

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.

Christmas has arrived :D

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!

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The Windy City...

Calamity Jane is coming to Celbridge GAA!! 

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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 ;)....

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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

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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! 

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Kildare Road Safety Expo

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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. 

Jayne on the bike

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.

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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. 

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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.

VOTE NOW!

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 


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

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Maths Trip!!

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. 

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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.

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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! 

Help The Philippines

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On Friday we held a bake sale to donate the money to the Philippines who suffered from Super Typhoon Haiyan. All money raised is going to be donated to the Savings Children's Lives UNICEF appeal. So far we've been told we have raised over €1,500. With all the hard work of many students in the school making things such as cookies, cupcakes (which i made :D with the Filipino flag on them, it wasn't easy...) and even a rainbow cake! I'm sure this donation is of great need and will be used wisely :)

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Schools Across Borders

On Thursday we went to City West to attend the Global Citizens Student Conference hosted by Darren Irvine of schools across borders. His aim is to stop conflict in and promote peace world wide. We got the typical blue double decker bus no surprise there... and made our way to City west! On arrival I was impressed with the hotel it was beautiful. We were led to a big function room. All the other schools were already seated. A few other girls and I had our Radio Ty stickers because we would be interviewing some of the NGO's such as Concern, Irish aid, Burma Action Ireland etc. You can read all these on the radio TY blog. 

Firstly Darren introduced the program and each school gave a presentation on what we have researched so far. Our slideshows were by far the best...not bias at all... Then we were all sat in a circle and colourful pages with a word on them were placed in the center of the room...and were told we were going to pair up with other schools. We chose the word Dignity but were unsure as to what we had to do, we were sat in a circle in relative silence. Then we were told to get out of our circle as there was a group preforming a play, It was about the genocide in the Burma and how one voice can make a difference. It was a real eye opener!

When the play finished the actors were sat in a row and were joined by students on either side they were wearing white masks on their faces it was to symbolise how they don't have an identity as one of their lives doesn't have as much value as one of ours. They took the mask off to reveal they were from Rohingya and Pakistan. He also asked them some questions about life in Ireland and got them to speak in their native language. Then finally FOOD! we got chicken goujons and chips, chicken was nice the chips not so much but its better than nothing :D 

When we returned to function room and were told to sit around the floor again and the NGO's were going to give a pitch to interest us in coming to listen to their presentation. This was when Aoibheann, Jayne, Eilís and I went around to interview the different NGO's. Then it was time to return to Celbridge . The day had some confusing moments but it was great fun interviewing the NGO's.

ZUMBA!!!

 Over the past few weeks on a Friday we've had zumba! at first I was nervous because I've never done it before, i have done water zumba but this was rather different... A lady called Grainne came into to instruct us. The spanish music is really catchy though and i am pretty tired afterwards. I think i might look into joining a local zumba class to help keep me fit!

This is an example of what we've done :)

History, Poetry and much more....

Not another trip.... If anything this is not a 'doss' year, with two trips in one week and plenty of projects to be done too. This time we headed into town to visit the national gallery, natural history museum AND the national library!! all thanks to Ms. B :D

As usual we were divided into class groups, class tabei went to the national art museum first  to view paintings from the time of W. B. Yates and also two that were painted by his brother.

Liffey Swim by Jack b. Yates

Johannes Vermeers painting 

I decided to put this photo in because we are currently watching the girl with the pearl earring in art so far it's good. Anyway back to the point ... I found the museum interesting but i cant remember the name of my favorite painting typical... 

A Lunula 

After this we went to the museum of natural history. I love history so i was looking forward to this part. We got a tour of the exhibition about the bog bodies. We had to wait in the gift shop area for the tour guide it was rather dull until you looked up. The ceiling was beautiful, it was a complete contrast to the walls around the gift shop. There was a minor distraction to some waiting as there was a boys school there also nothing to noteworthy though... 

Tollund Man from Denmark

This is the best preserved bog body in the world, they injected it with wax unlike the other bog bodies. Seeing these just amazes me how little our anatomy has changed over the years, but it also evokes great emotion from me at how they were all brutally murdered and their corpses are on display, some say that if your body doesn't decompose you don't reach the after life, but everyone to their own.

a hyper Claire and I

And then we were let lose on Grafton street for lunch and obviously we went where every TY would go Mc Donalds... again... And there was a cute guy behind us also hahah im not only concerned about boys... And lunch is complete without starbucks for dessert typical teenage girl

After lunch we made are way to the Yates exhibition in the national library. It was a lovely exhibition showing us the many different things associated with W. B. Yates and his family. It was a great day and a special thanks again to Ms. B for organising it !!

Science Week

It's Science week !!!

This post may be a bit late... but as they say better late then never! Monday was the start of science week and to mark this we went to the Institute of Technology Tallaght. As usual we got the blue doble decker bus, lets just say its not as nice as other buses.. Well when we arrived we were directed into a laboratory. The laboratory created bacteria in machines like below.

But just as we were about to move on Lauren fainted (queue exasperated gasp) but she's all right now thank god! We had to pass through the hallways of the college to get to the seminar room it looks so cool in college. We were sat in the classroom and were told there was another school coming, first thoughts were ..... will there be BOYS?!?!? Someone must've been watching over us as there was and a whole lot of them at that. Aoife even got caught trying to take a picture of one...creep (jkjk). Then the show began....

The presenter was British so he had a cool accent lol, anyway there was a whole slideshow prepared and it was brilliant with a hint of humour which was quite funny. So many things happened he shot a bottle in the air just by increasing the pressure within it, made a potato gun, told us were carrying 10 kg's of air at any one time if you hold your hand out flat and blew up a balloon containing hydrogen it made a huge bang and scared some people eeeeek!! He also showed this video of a vacuum...

Tank Vacuum

I found it really fascinating... 

Had my phone stolen by these two idiots...

Then we were informed my Mr. L on his "stage" that we were going to Liffey Valley wooo (queue girls shrieking). We went to Mc Donalds, surprise surprise, and of course sanpchat was involved... but we'll leave that out for now. We had planned to do a prom for mini company but the idea fell through, even so aoibheann and I tried on our prom dresses ... 

But as always these days come to end, but a brilliant day it was!!