From April 24th to May 1st, 60 students attending the 6th forms at our school spent a wonderful week in Bray, Ireland. For many of our students it was the first time they had ever spent abroad without their families and so they were increasingly nervous when our plane finally landed in Dublin. After the first shy “hello”, they soon forgot about their initial worries and immediately took to their warm and friendly Irish host families.
The next four mornings the students attended language classes with Irish teachers, who focused on communication and a little bit of Irish history, but also Irish songs and games were part of the lessons and the students could even pick up some Gaelic phrases, which they particularly enjoyed.
Every afternoon we visited various tourist attractions in Dublin, such as the Dublinia Viking exhibition, St. Patrick’s Cathedral or the Guinness Storehouse, but we also explored the capital’s surroundings to give the students a chance to discover the beautiful Irish landscape. One of the highlights that the students particularly enjoyed was the cliffwalk from Greystones to Bray, which offered a breathtaking scenery as well as typically Irish weather. Another highlight was our trip to Powerscourt Gardens, which is listed as no. 3 in the world’s top ten gardens by the National Geographic, and which we could fully enjoy not least thanks to perfect weather conditions. Also the evenings were spent doing fun activities. Particularly one evening of Irish dancing was extremely popular with the students.
Sadly, the week in Ireland was over much too fast and the students had to say goodbye to their host families. They left this country of “a hundred thousand welcomes” with fond memories. In the end all of them could honestly say that this week had given them a profound insight into the Irish culture and way of life.
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