Before I went back to Ireland, I got to hang out a lot with my friends in Michigan, and we had 3 sleepovers before I left. I also got to get my new Macbook Pro before we went back to Ireland. My Mom had it in my room waiting for me when I got back to Grand Rapids. I opened it later that day and got to try it out, and it was really nice. The screen is nice, and the speakers were amazing, probably the best speakers I have ever heard from any laptop, which is nice. The Touch Bar is really cool, and it is very light for a Macbook Pro.
I also got to check out how the garden was going before I left. Specifically the part where we were growing carrots, tomatoes, and jalapeno peppers. They have all grown a lot in one month. Here is what it looked like about a week ago.
I got back in Ireland last Monday, and today it is Friday. I flew out of Grand Rapids last Sunday around 1:40 PM. I flew with my Mom, my brother and oma would be coming later. My Mom and I only had 2 flights to get to Ireland from Grand Rapids. The first flight was from Grand Rapids to Atlanta, then we would fly from Atlanta to Dublin, Ireland.
The Grand Rapids Airport is getting a lot of construction work done on it, so now there is a whole new area where people go through security now, and it looks really nice, and is faster. We got on our first flight, which was only about 2.5 hours long. I listened to music and watched shows on that flight. Once we got to Atlanta, we had a very long layover until we had our next flight. We had about a 5 hour layover, so my Mom and I went to the Delta sky lounge, and hung out in there until we had our next flight.
The lounge had food so I had a lot of cool food like cheese, some sandwich things, and they also had soups, and a coffee maker. Once it was around 8:00 PM, we walked to our gate, and got on our plane. While we were boarding, my Mom and I both got a new ticket printed for first class seats, which was a surprise my mom had for us. She used some vouchers for first class seats for me and her, which was really awesome. That meant I got to sit in first class, which is good because I had to sleep that night because I had a meeting about 1 hour right after I landed in Dublin.
I had a pillow and a blanket because my seat was able to fold all the way down into a bed. I watched 'The Circle' on the airplane on my Macbook Pro, and it was a very good movie. I also had dinner before I went to sleep. For starters, I had some Cranberry juice with some nuts.
Then I had some salad, with some shrimp which was delicious.
Lastly, I had steak for my main meal. It came with some chicken and a weird cheese / mashed potato thing. At least that is what it looked and tasted like, it was tasty.
Finally, I went to sleep and got about 4 hours of sleep until we had to land. Once we landed we went to grab our bags, then we took a taxi home. I got home, and changed into my uniform, then went straight to school in a Taxi because it was cold and rainy. I had a meeting that day (Monday) and on Tuesday as well. They were both from 9:30 AM to 2:30 PM. We basically just connected our laptops to the internet, and talked about CAS in the 2 days. The CAS system is doing activities involving, Creativity, Action, and Service. You can count a ton of things as CAS hours like me playing the piano, or working on songs on Ableton Live.
Wednesday I had no meetings or anything. Thursday, I had a meeting at 7:30 PM at my school. It was for all 5th years, so IB people had to go also, but it gave out information mostly for people not doing IB. We have an only IB meeting next Thursday at 7:30 PM. I got to see a ton of people that I saw last year. Friday, I had a meeting with my new Form teacher at 10:30 AM at school. I met my new form teacher Mr. Reidy and he was very nice. I got my locker number, and my schedule.
After I had my meeting, I went to lunch with Alec, Pierce and Boan. We went to this place called Vanilla Pod Eatery. It was located in Blackrock, which is really close to my school. We all walked there from school, except Pierce who rode his bike. The Vanilla Pod had sandwiches, and soups, and I got a honey roast ham sandwich with cheddar cheese, rocket, red pepper, and Dijon Mayo. It was very delicious, and I also got the soup of the day which was a mushroom soup.
After lunch, I took the dart down by Grafton street to go to St. Georges Arcade to get something for the Ganesh Chaturthi that my Mom and I were going to later that day. We knew an Indian man who ran a shop in St. Georges Arcade, his shop sold raw nuts, along with dried fruits, and honey roasted nuts also. I went to his shop and asked him what I should bring, and he made me 2 boxes of things to take. They included raw nuts, because you never bring any nuts that are honey roasted or anything like that to a Ganesh Chaturthi. We also put some dried apricots, and dried figs in the boxes also.
My Moms friend Prasad invited us to their house for the Ganesh Chaturthi celebration which honors Ganesha's birthday. Prasads daughter Riddhi is going to my school starting this year in 5 IB. We took the 46a down to where they lived, and it took us a while to find the right place, but we found it soon enough. We were served delicious food, my favorite food were these balls that looked deep fried and had potato on the inside of them.
I also had tea with cream, and Mukhwas after I finished my food, which are a natural breath freshener and also help with digestion.
We got told the story of how the god Ganesha got the elephant head. From what I remember, Parvati was going for a bath, and created a figure of a young boy and told him he was her son and to guard the entrance while she was in the bath. Later, Shiva came to see Parvati but the young boy would not let him in, and since Shiva did not know he was his son, he fought him and cut off his head in the battle. Then Parvati saw what had happened and got very angered at Shiva. They then placed the head of an elephant on his head so he would come back to life, and Shiva named him Ganesha.
It was an awesome night, and at the end they gave all of us a little box with some Indian sweets in it.
Saturday, I woke up around Noon, and I had some scrambled eggs for breakfast. We went to a play around 2:30 PM. It was the Addams Family, which I have never heard of before, but it was a good play. After the play, we went right to dinner at The Church. It is a church, but turned into a restaurant, the 1st floor is mostly a bar, and the 2nd floor has more seating for the people who want to eat there. I ordered a 10 oz Steak. It was very good, and had a very good gravy that came with it since it came with mashed potatoes.
After I had my meeting, I went to lunch with Alec, Pierce and Boan. We went to this place called Vanilla Pod Eatery. It was located in Blackrock, which is really close to my school. We all walked there from school, except Pierce who rode his bike. The Vanilla Pod had sandwiches, and soups, and I got a honey roast ham sandwich with cheddar cheese, rocket, red pepper, and Dijon Mayo. It was very delicious, and I also got the soup of the day which was a mushroom soup.
After lunch, I took the dart down by Grafton street to go to St. Georges Arcade to get something for the Ganesh Chaturthi that my Mom and I were going to later that day. We knew an Indian man who ran a shop in St. Georges Arcade, his shop sold raw nuts, along with dried fruits, and honey roasted nuts also. I went to his shop and asked him what I should bring, and he made me 2 boxes of things to take. They included raw nuts, because you never bring any nuts that are honey roasted or anything like that to a Ganesh Chaturthi. We also put some dried apricots, and dried figs in the boxes also.
My Moms friend Prasad invited us to their house for the Ganesh Chaturthi celebration which honors Ganesha's birthday. Prasads daughter Riddhi is going to my school starting this year in 5 IB. We took the 46a down to where they lived, and it took us a while to find the right place, but we found it soon enough. We were served delicious food, my favorite food were these balls that looked deep fried and had potato on the inside of them.
I also had tea with cream, and Mukhwas after I finished my food, which are a natural breath freshener and also help with digestion.
We got told the story of how the god Ganesha got the elephant head. From what I remember, Parvati was going for a bath, and created a figure of a young boy and told him he was her son and to guard the entrance while she was in the bath. Later, Shiva came to see Parvati but the young boy would not let him in, and since Shiva did not know he was his son, he fought him and cut off his head in the battle. Then Parvati saw what had happened and got very angered at Shiva. They then placed the head of an elephant on his head so he would come back to life, and Shiva named him Ganesha.
It was an awesome night, and at the end they gave all of us a little box with some Indian sweets in it.
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| Picture with Riddhi and her mom Chandrika |
Saturday, I woke up around Noon, and I had some scrambled eggs for breakfast. We went to a play around 2:30 PM. It was the Addams Family, which I have never heard of before, but it was a good play. After the play, we went right to dinner at The Church. It is a church, but turned into a restaurant, the 1st floor is mostly a bar, and the 2nd floor has more seating for the people who want to eat there. I ordered a 10 oz Steak. It was very good, and had a very good gravy that came with it since it came with mashed potatoes.
-August 19-26, 2017
