The Nutcracker, Ceili.

     Saturday, we went to see the Nutcracker at 2 PM. It was very good, the ballerinas were Russian, from Moscow, so they were really good. It was about 2 hours long, then we had to find some place to eat before we went to the Ceili Party. Ceili is an Irish dance, and we were going somewhere later where we would learn to dance. I was not going to dance because I had learned dances at the beginning of TY. We found a place to eat close to the place where the Ceili was. Me and Levi split a burger, and we had french fries with horseradish garlic mayonaise sauce. It was really good!

     We walked back to the Ceili, and we hung out there for a couple of hours. There were desserts and snacks, and my Mom and Oma learned to dance in the dancing hall. Me and levi just watched. We were offered a ride home by 2 friends my mom and Oma had made there, and they drove us home. They were from Chicago, so my Mom was really good friends with them. We got home at about 9:30 PM, and then levi had to go to bed. I slept in the Piano room by the TV when I eventually fell asleep probably around midnight.

    Today is Sunday, and Levi is having his friend Abdella over to play. They are about to go over to the park. I am going to order a ton of American Snacks for the Winter fare, which is December 15. I go back to GR in 25 days which is exciting. I have a ton of ideas for what to do!

      -November 27, 2016 (Sunday)

Run in the Dark Results, THANKSGIVING!

     A couple days ago, I went to check out runinthedark.org to see what I had got for my time. I wanted to get under 25 minutes. I looked and I got 23:42! I was 6th place out of all of the kids from St. Andrews College who ran the 5k. There were 74 people from St. Andrews that ran the 5k, and I got 6th, I was really surprised. Hugh got like 18 minutes which is crazy. He got 13th place in the 5k out of everybody who ran it!


       
        Thursday, the Transition Year people had a IB presentation from Mr. Hehir, the Teacher who does all of the IB stuff. All of the Irish students did not know a lot about It, and they had to start thinking about if they were going to do IB, or do the Leaving Certificate. I knew about IB already, and that I am doing IB, so I was just there to see how the other students thought about it. IB is better for going to College in the US, which is what Im doing, because its recognized internationally.

      Thursday after school, I took the Dart with Chance to his house, and we were going to have a huge Thanksgiving feast. My Mom came, and there were a bunch of other cool people there. We had a ton of Turkey, Mashed Potatoes, bread, rolls, and there was this thing that was Sweet Potatoes with Marshmellows melted into it, and It was so good! Me and Chance played some Call of Duty Zombies Nuketown. We got to round 18 I think. His house is cool. He has 2 cats, and a cute girl dog! Here is a picture of her.

     Friday, we had a talk from someone who works with IB, and knows everything about it, and she was persuading everyone to do it. She talked about CAS, the Extended Essay, and TOK. (Theory of Knowledge)

      Friday for the last 3 hours of school, I had Gym. We basically just did a bunch of exercises, and it was a lot of work. My legs are sore today because of Friday. Today is Saturday, and we are going to see the Nutcracker at 2 PM, then going to a thing at 6 PM where they teach you some irish dances and stuff. I already learned Irish dances at Uisce in the beginning of TY, but hopefully we will be home before 9 PM.

    -November 26, 2016 (Saturday)

ONE MORE MONTH!!!

       Today, I officially have one more month until I go home for Christmas for about 18 days! I have only one thing on my Christmas list, and it is Ableton Live 9 which is a music making software that my friend uses, and that I am going to start using soon also! Sunday, Me and Oma got some groceries and we got a new lamp from Argos. We walked through St. Stevens Green on the way home.

     I have been working to get Work Experience. I have a lot of people that are helping me, which is awesome, and I am also trying to get ready for the Winter Fare. The Winter Fare is December 15, and I am going to order a bunch of American Snacks off of a website. I am going to get some Reeses, Jolly Ranchers, Poptarts, and some Twizzlers. I hope the American Sweets stall can make a ton of money for Uganda December 15. I think that a lot of people will buy from our stall.

      I have Christmas Exams the week of December 5, which will be only in English, Spanish, Math, and History. Sunday night, I built the Jet Gun on Transit and that was awesome.

      I cant wait to go back to GR in December, because the Christmas vibe will be much better. Also, I am going to have all of my friends over December 22, the day I get back, and then me and my dad might go see Passengers in theaters December 22 also. I also cant wait to eat Taco Bell again, and I am having a huge New Years Party for New Years, and a ton of my friends are coming to that also!!

    -November 22, 2016 (Tuesday)

Saturday Adventure!

     Today, Me, Levi and Oma went on a tiny adventure this morning. It was Saturday, and I woke up at about 10:30. We were going to walk down across the Liffey to a store that Oma wanted to go to, and we were going to walk there, and take the bus back. We walked down Grafton, and we stopped at Lush to get some bath bombs. Some of the people who worked there showed us how 2 of them looked. We ended up getting 2 Halloween bath bombs and 1 Intergalactic one for my mom.

Inside of Lush today!

The Pumpkin bath bombs!

Lush!

        Also, while we were walking down Grafton, we saw a cool house that had lights that made it look like a big present.

      After we got 3 bath bombs from Lush, we walked down by the Liffey, and went to Candy Lab. Candy Lab is a store that has all american snacks. They had Reeses, Hersheys, Nerds, Hot cheetos, Red Vines, Twizzlers, and much more! I got 2 tins of Hot Cheetos, because over here they are in Tins not in bags. 

      That is what they look like, not in a Bag. I am saving up money now to get a ton of hot cheetos when I go back to Grand Rapids in December. Its almost only a month away! After going to Candy Lab, we went across the Liffey, and went to a store called "Hickeys" which had things like yarn and fabric that Oma wanted to visit. We were right by the Spire, so Oma knew how to get back there. We went to the Spire, then took a bus back to our house.

      For Dinner, we went to a Thai food place. I got Pad Thai, and they had a ice cream machine also. It was really good, we got a extra order of something that we did not order so we had 4 boxes to take home. 

       -November 19, 2016 (Saturday)

HUGE RUN IN THE DARK BLOG!!!

    Today is WEDNESDAY, or THE RUN IN THE DARK DAY!!!! I have been training for about a month now leading up to today. I have been running anywhere between 3KM and 5KM for the past month every night. I stopped 3 days ago running with a 3KM run. I did a 3 Kilometer run in under 14 minutes. The next 2 days I did not run, because my Mom talked with other runners, and they said leading up to a big run, they would not train 2-3 nights before it. It was good to let my legs rest, because my legs (especially my right leg) was very sore from all of that training.

     Monday, and Tuesday passed, and Wednesday came. I had a Half Day Wednesday. I had a piano lesson right after school, but before my lesson I went to get a snack from a nearby shop because I would have no lunch. I had a very good Piano lesson, and Im learning a new song called "Golliwogs Cakewalk" It is a upbeat kind of funny song. I might record it once I have learned it. I went home Wednesday, and got ready for the run.

        GETTING READY:
                 To get ready, I got my envelope that had my running number on it that I put on my shirt to display, a yellow wristband that lights up that everyone wears because it is a "Run in the Dark" and also my zone bracelet. I was in the last Zone which were the people who thought they would do the 5K in more than 35 minutes. Luckily when I got to the Custom House (where the run began) Ms. King and Mr. Hickmott were there and they gave me a Zone 2 Bracelet.

      I had 2 pairs of Gloves that I was wearing during the run. Me and My Mom left and walked down across the Liffey. We got some beginning pictures when no body was there. I got a picture infront of the Custom House, the Starting Line, and my Mom got to meet my friend Pierce!

My Running Number and Yellow Wristband that lights up!

Me standing in front of the starting line! (Custom House in the Background)

Custom House from across the Liffey!

Starting Line!!

Me and Pierce getting ready for the Run in the Dark!

         When I got to where my Zone was, (Zone 2) I saw a lot of other people from St. Andrews in a group with Ms. King. I went over and my Mom was there until we were about to go. She took my Sweatshirt so that my running number could be visible. I put my Yellow Light up band on my leg because it was easier for me that way. I got some cool videos of people lining up and running. My mom got this cool picture of where I was, right next to the Run in the Dark stage where they were playing music and talking to people with a microphone. 

All of the 10,000 people lined up ready to start the Run in the Dark!

           When we started running, I got separated from everyone I knew, because everyone runs at their own pace, and I wanted to do the best that I could. I started out pretty fast, I was passing a lot of people. There were certain areas where people could pass people like on sidewalks when most people running were in the roads. I was doing a lot of passing people. It was kind of interesting to weave in-between so many people running so close together. I did not listen to music. 

       Some people were out of breath around 3km and panting, and that just reminded me that the most important thing about running (or for me at least) is breathing. I try to not breathe a lot, and I take deep breaths, slowly, and I keep my breathing as slow as possible, and that helps me not cramp up in my stomach. When I saw the 3km sign that told me that we were 3km through the race, I was thinking we might be almost half way through, so It was re-assuring to see that we were more than half way through.

       I never really sprinted at the end, but I did speed up a little bit. I tried to keep a steady, fast pace throughout the run, and I had no energy to sprint at the end, but I did keep that constant speed. I think that all of the energy I could have used to Sprint the end, was used weaving through all of the people, and passing the people that were slower than me. Pierce came in about probably 1 or 2 minutes after I finished. His watch said 26 minutes. Im hoping I got under 25 minutes or even 24 if im insanely lucky. 

Me and Pierce after the Run. (Glad that they had free waters at the end)

Me at the end (everyone else is ending also)

St. Andrews Run in the Dark Squad. 

          I was really tired at the end of the run, but most of all, my legs really hurt. They will probably hurt worse in the morning, especially my right leg, which always hurts more for some reason. I will probably not run at night for about maybe another week, than start running every night again to train for next year, maybe a 10km!

      Oma, Levi and My Mom were there to greet me at the end of the race, and we walked home. On the way home we stopped at a store next to the Pierce Street Dart station to get me a snack for like a reward for doing the Run. Then we finally got home. It was a fun experience, and I wore the shirt that my Grandma Nancy got me, its really cool and its from Peru!

-November 16, 2016

     

Weekend, More Training!!

       Friday, for Outward Bound, I had Tennis. Me and my group went to this place where it was a huge tent like thing that had tennis courts inside of it. It was held up by air inside, so when we went inside the pressurized tent, our ears popped because it was like being inside a huge bubble. It looked like this. It was all full of air. It was fun to play Tennis inside of it. We all got candy also.


       Friday, Levi had his friend over, and they played a lot on the Xbox so I just hungout Friday night and watched YouTube. Saturday, I went to the Food Co-Op with Oma in the morning. We got a lot of Vegetables, especially the green ones. I got a Pancake from the Co-Op which is what I usually get. It comes with syrup, and a strawberry syrup and it is really tasty. I did Piano, and Saturday night, Me and Levi watched a scary movie, then some Spongebob. Mama and Oma went out for dinner Saturday night so it was just me and Levi. I put him to bed at about 9:00 PM.

     Sunday, I woke up and we ate at 10 AM. I cleaned all of the Bathrooms to get 20 Euro that I am saving up to buy some American Snacks off of some websites soon. I have 80 Euro saved up right now. We went to walk down to Grafton at about 5 PM to see the Lights turn on for Christmas, but they said it was going to be happening at 7 PM so we had to walk back, because we could not wait around that long. We still needed to eat dinner.

     I am still running to train for the 5k Run in the Dark that is in 3 days on Wednesday! Here are some new times I have recorded! I ran a 5k Last night!

November 11: 

Lap 1= 2:09   (2:09)

Lap 2= 2:12   (4:21)

Lap 3= 2:10   (6:31)

Lap 4= 2:09   (8:41)

Lap 5=  2:10   (10:52)

Lap 6=  2:13    (13:06)

Lap 7=  2:10    (15:16)

Lap 8= 2:07   (17:23)

Lap 9= 1:56    (19:20)

Total= 19:20 (4.5 KM)

November 12

Lap 1= 2:06   (2:06)

Lap 2= 2:19   (4:25)

Lap 3= 2:14   (6:39)

Lap 4= 2:16   (8:56)

Lap 5= 2:15   (11:11)

Lap 6= 2:17   (13:28)

Lap 7= 2:17   (15:46)

Lap 8= 2:13   (18:00)

Lap 9= 2:13   (20:13)

Lap 10= 1:55   (22:08)

Total= 22:08 (5KM)

My times now are about 2:20 or 2:10 now. They are pretty consistent which I am happy about. I did better November 11th for some reason. I only ran 9 laps that day though. I finished a 5k in about 22 Minutes. I think it might be a little bit less than a 5k because when I measured the distance around the park in google maps, I measured the roads, but I run on the Sidewalk, so We will see what the real 5k time I can do on Wednesday. I hope to get under 25. That is my final goal, maybe 24 or 23 minutes if I am really fast. I estimate that my time will be around 24 minutes. Under 25 hopefully!

    Here are some pictures from Grafton street. One building had some nice lights on it already lit up, but some of them were not lit up yet.

    Also, something really exciting happened today. I got an Email from someone at GameStop regarding my Work Experience, and It turns out I have a week on March 6th, for 5 days. They said I would be in the Merchandise department that week. It will be so fun to do and I can not wait! It might be an awesome job to look into for the future!

   -November 13, 2016

Training for Run in the Dark!

      I am currently training for a 5k that is called the Run in the Dark. It is for Mark Pollock, who is paralyzed, and helps raise money for him. For the last couple weeks, I have been running around Fitzwilliam square every night. The first night I ran, I was so happy I could run 4 laps around the Square, which is 2 km. Now, I am running 9 times around the park until Saturday, where I will be running 10 times around the park every night 4 nights in a row. The 4 nights will be Saturday, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. Wednesday is the Run in the Dark, and it starts at 8 PM. It is right by the Liffey.

      I hope I can finish my 5k in less than 25 minutes, because my average .5km is about 2:20 minutes to 2:30 minutes, which is less than a 5 minute 1km. I hope I can keep my Kilometers under 4:40 minutes on Wednesday.

     I got my Run in the Dark things today at school. I got my envelope and inside was my number that I clip to my shirt, the little band that times electronically how long it takes for you to run it so that you do not need to time it yourself. Here are 2 nights of my Running time that I recorded on my Phone while I was running!

Each lap is a Half of a Kilometer so 2 Laps = 1km.

November 6:

Lap 1= 2:20  (2:20)

Lap 2= 2:27  (4:48)

Lap 3= 2:20  (7:08)

Lap 4= 2:21  (9:30)

Lap 5= 2:27  (11:58)

Lap 6= 2: 25  (14:23)

Lap 7= 2:24   (16:48)

Lap 8= 1:48  (18:36)

Total= 18:36

November 7:

Lap 1= 2:13  (2:13)

Lap 2= 2:18  (4:32)

Lap 3= 2:21  (6:54)

Lap 4= 2:26  (9:20)

Lap 5= 2:22   (11:42)

Lap 6= 2:18  (14:01)

Lap 7= 2:21  (16:22)

 Lap 8= 1:48  (18:10)

Total= 18:10

 - November 11, 2016

Back to School!!

      Monday, I was back to school. I had to put on my fancy shirt, tie, and pants again. I had not worn them in about 10 days so it felt a bit weird. I woke up Monday at 7 AM, but I did not want to go to school since I was so used to sleeping in for the past week. I got up though, and got ready for school. I forgot to bring my pencil case to school, so I had no pencil the whole of Monday, but other than that, It was not that bad of a day.

     I had about 12 Euro left on my smartcard for Monday, so I had enough to get Lunch Monday, and thats about it. Lunch was good! In English we were starting Poetry, and we had to do Poetry until Christmas. At Christmas we will switch English teachers and do a Novel and a Play the next half of the year. I am saving up money for the Winter Fair. I am on the American Snacks committee, and I want to get a ton of american snacks to raise money for the Uganda trip. I have 50 Euro saved up, and from what I know, other kids in my committee will not do a lot to help, so I just plan to get all the snacks myself. Just like I saw with the Project of Me, some people put a lot of time and work into it like me, and others start it the night before.

        Tuesday, we did not have school since the Strikes with the teachers were still going on. I got Tuesday off! I went to see Doctor Strange by Marvel, and It was really good! Marvel has been doing a ton of great movies lately, I dont know how they are able to put out so many movies that are this good in a small amount of time! Their best movies which are Iron man 3, the 2 Avengers, and Civil war made over 1 Billion dollars each! They are doing great. I have started to watch this Youtuber named VSauce who trys to answer questions in his videos, but also asks more questions and trys to answer them as well. Some of his video titles are "How much do Shadows Weigh", "How to count Past Infinity", and "What is Random". He is a great youtuber and I suggest you watch some of his videos. His name is Vsauce.

     Today, (Wednesday) was a half day, and I got out of piano early since one girl did not have a lesson so I was able to get most of my lesson done early! I went home, and I was able to hang out the whole night because I had no homework!

            -November 9, 2016

Phoenix Park, Animal Museum!

       Friday was our last full day with Papa, and we decided that we were just going to have a Chill day. We did not go to any major places, but we did go to a few. We walked to St. Stevens Green Shopping Center. The Mall that is right on the start of Grafton close to our house, and we walked through it. We went to T.K. Max to get Papa a new pair of gloves. He did not see any that he really wanted, and instead got a hat!

Papa has his new Hat, infront of St. Stevens Green!

         We walked by Tesco to get some food and other things, but before that we went to the Dublin Natural History Museum, right next to Merrion Square, on the way to walk to the Pierce Dart Station. It is a free museum that has a TON of stuffed animals of all kinds, and it is 2 whole floors! Here are some pictures we got at the Museum!

          They had Crabs, Bugs, Lobsters, and different animals that were in Ireland, but not in Michigan that we had ever seen. They had really tiny bugs also, and the only way that we thought possible to know what kind of bug it is, was to use a microscope. They were barely visible! We spent the rest of the day at home.

      Saturday, Papa had to leave at about 9:15 AM. I set my alarm for 8 AM. I got up and we all ate breakfast together. We all had cereal. When Papa had to go, we went outside and hailed a taxi for him. He got a big van and we said our last good byes. He texted me when he got to Chicago. The week was incredibly fun going all around Dublin and seeing so many cool things with Papa. We got some cool pictures also. I cant wait to go back for Christmas. 

    Oma and Mama got home Saturday at about 11 AM. We just hung out the whole day. Sunday, Me, Levi and Oma took the bus 46A to Phoenix park. We walked around, it was green and cold. It was nice though. There was a monument thing that Me and Levi went to climb. It was really fun!

         Tomorrow is Monday, and I go back to school again. I have Badminton tomorrow which is good, but it will be interesting to see how tomorrow goes because a lot of the teachers were talking about how the strikes would affect the schools. They said if they did not reach an agreement, then they would have to close public schools in Ireland since the teachers would be striking, and the government would not have enough money to hire substitute teachers. St. Andrews would stay open, because we are Private, but we might have nothing to do all day. 

        -November 6, 2016

WEEK WITH PAPA!! (HUGE BLOG)

       I have a lot to write about since I have not posted in a while. First, My Dad got here Sunday to spend the week with Me and Levi. He was suppose to get here Saturday, but there was a Plane Fire in the Chicago Airport so he had to wait an extra night. He brought me and Levi over a bag of Hot Cheetos Each. I still have not eaten mine because I am trying to save them. I will probably eat them tonight. We went to go eat dinner Sunday night at a place called "Osteria Lucio" They had really good Italian Pizza. We got 2 pizzas and a big salami Plate. Here is a picture:

     The pizza was really delicious. We walked back on the Grand Canal where I would go pokemoning a lot. Me, Levi, Mama, and Papa went to Killiney Hill. It is suppose to be the biggest hill in Ireland. It was really high and the view from the top was really good!

       I also took Levi and my Dad through Trinity Collage when we were walking close to the Liffey. 

       Me and Levi also took Papa to Howth. We had been there before for a cliff walk but we just went there to check out the fishermans village. It was really cold and windy, but we went out on both piers and we ate dinner at a place called O'Connells, which is where Me, Levi, Oma and my Mom ate last time we were here. 

       Me and Levi each got an Apple Crumble for Desert. They were really good. We went to see the old Abandoned church in Howth before we took the dart back to our house. It was closed but we were able to look into it. It looked very creepy since the abandoned church had a graveyard right next to it. Today, we went to Malahide which is about a 30 minute ride on the Dart. Malahide has the Malahide Castle and Parks. We took a tour of Malahide Castle. Here are some pictures of the Castle and Inside. 

  

       We had learned that the family that had owned the Castle brought over a ton of new species of plants over to ireland, and they are still preserved in a garden building made of glass. It is really warm inside because the plants need humidity and heat, and we got to go inside and see all of them. 

All of the Plants in the glass building.

        We took Papa to Levis school and my school also. We walked to Levis school and on the way there, I showed Papa and Levi a cool alley way that had a ton of graffiti all over. After we saw Levis school, we walked back to the Bus to take it to my School. On the way to my school, we stopped at UCD (University College Dublin) just to check it out. I got a Sweatshirt from there, and then we went to my school. We were able to go inside of my school because the janitors did not seem to care, so we went all through my school. We then took the Dart back to the Liffey, and we walked to a Cineworld, which is a Movie Theater. We were going to see "Jack Reacher #2" It was really good! Then we walked back to our house on Grafton Street.

      These pictures are from Howth. We saw these cool boats where they had these mechanisms where it looked like they could put something under the water to drag on the bottom to pick up things on the bottom of the sea floor. 

      Tomorrow we are just going to have a Chill day, mabye go see another movie, and we are going to go to St. Stevens Green shopping center to get Papa some gloves that he wants. When we were walking by the Liffey, we saw this candy shop called "Candy Lab" and I had looked it up online before, and they had a ton of American sweets like Reeses, hersheys, and cheetos, just not the flamin hot ones. 

   -November 3, 2016