Ireland: Day 6 - Galway and Connemara

By Jone Vicente

First of all, we woke up at 7 o'clock and  had breakfast at 8:15. At 9 o'clock we took the bus to go to the opposite side of the island (the west), exactly to Galway. 
We arrived at the village at 12:30. We spent only 15 minutes to see the street full of musicians and marvellous shops. 
After that, we had lunch at a gorgeus hotel near the harbour. It was amazing! We had typical Irish food. When we finished lunch we went shopping for an hour. 
At 16:30 we were taken to a marvellous beach with white sand and clear water. Finally, we had dinner on a seafood restaurant. Again nwe tasted traditional Irish foof. We especially liked some rich tarts. To end this amazing day we did the check in on our new hostel. Although we all wanted to go to a pub to listen to Irish musica, we had to postpone it. It was too late.

Again It has really been a fantastic day!

Ireland Day 6 from J. Carlos Martínez

Day 5 - Wicklow: Botanic Garden, Beach and Gaol

By Aitziber Pulido

Today, Saturday, we woke up at 7:30 to have breakfast. After the breakfast, we took the bus to Paddy's house which is located in Glendalough. There, we had a presentation about ecology and environment: past, present and future. There we've learnt many words and ideas we didn't know before. 

When Paddy finished the lecture, we took the bus again to the Botanic Garden where we've discovered many kinds of trees and flowers from all continents. In the picture we can see the 16 students surrounding a giant sequoia from the USA. 

After those amazing images of nature, we went to the beach, where some girls took a bath in the cold water. 
We had lunch there and then we went to an old prison in Wicklow. After visiting the scary prison, we had free time before lunch to buy some gifts.

Before going back to the hostel we visited the ruins of and old Viking-Normand Castle next to the see, where we 5 jumped for the picture.

Again and again, we had a wonderful day.

Day 4 - Glendalough

By Estera Mardarie

We woke up at 7 o'clock and we got ready to go to the next stop. When we arrived to Glendalough Valley we had some free time to look for souvenirs and eat. Then we started our hiking. Two of us couldn't do the large route and they did the small one. When we were at the middle of the trip we saw our mates from the  mountain and we started to talk with them from the hill of the mountain to the bottom of the valley. We had fun because we sang the famous song "sardina bat... Bi sardina..." and they answered us back.

Then, we continued hiking for many hours and finally we had dinner at an old traditional pub. After the dinner, our tutor Juan Carlos told us a "horror  story " and once again all of us had a great time. 

Ireland Day 4 Glendalough from J. Carlos Martínez

Day 3 - Dublin

By Alba and Aitziber

We woke up at 8:00 to have breakfast. After breakfast, we went to Paddy's house, an Irish writer and guide. After an interesting presentation about Irish literature and the Invention of Ireland, we took a bus to James Joyce Centre, where we learnt many things about the life of this writer. We saw the big post office located in the centre of Dublin and we walked to the Trinity College to see the big amazing library and. There we saw the Book of Kells. In the library some students bought t-shirts and gifts for their family. 

We had lunch in a pub, and with more energy, we visited the oldest cathedral in Dublin: St. Patrick's Cathedral. 

We went walking from the cathedral to the Guinness Storehouse. There our teacher Juan Carlos gave us the chance to taste the Guinness. 

Before dinner, we went to the city hall to meet with Comhairle na n-Og, Dublin's 'youth parliament'. There we talked with young Irish people to know the situation of the Irish language between young people. Their aim is to help young people around Ireland. 

Finally, we had dinner in a pub. Here we ate traditional and delicious Irish food. 

Ireland Day 3 Dublin from J. Carlos Martínez

Day 2 - Dublin

Article by Iratxe Cea (to be uploaded)

Today it has been a very long intense day. First we visited Paddy’s house for the first time and he told us some interesting facts about Ireland and the Irish History, from the Middle Ages to our days. Then, we went for a great walk through an anusual park called Phoenix Park. There, we saw some kind of animals such as deers, squirrels and magpies.  Finally, we visited the giant cross where the Pope Juan Pablo II met over a million Irish people.

At one o’clock approximately we had lunch and visited the 1916 Memorial. There, we read about that historical and revolutionary time and saw the yatch where the Irish patriots carried over 100.000 rifles and weaponry.

We were supposed to finish at 5 o’clock to have a little free time, but as we ended earlier tan we thought, we had the whole afternoon free to do some shopping. At 7 p.m. we went to Fitzgeralds Bar to listen to some traditional Irish music. However, as there was a really warm atmosphere we decided to take part of it by singing some Basque songs.

To finish or fantastic day we had dinner at another classical Dublines restaurant and went back to the hostel to go to bed, as the following day was going to be even harder.

Ireland Day 2 from J. Carlos Martínez

Trip to Ireland: First Day - First Impressions

Article by Estera Laura Mardarie

Time is over. At last we have started our culture-trip to Ireland. We've met at high school at 1.45 and then gone to Loiu Airport. Once there, we've kept a long queue to do the check-in. After that, we came into the plane and our wonderful flight started. The journey took us two hours. 

When we landed, Paddy, our guide,  was waiting for us with a banner saying "Ongi Etorri". We took a bus to the center of Dublin, where our hostel was situated. After half an hour we had dinner at a nice restaurant very near the hostel. There, we had the chance to know our mates better. And our conclusiones were good: "They are nice people!!!"

After dinner, we went downstairs, to the pub, to listen to a little concert. Both boys were very good at playing the acoustic guitar and the trikitixa, so we enjoyed their performance a lot!

Before midnight, we went to the hotelk to go to bed.

Excitement and expectations are filled out!. 

Kultura Ondarea Saria - Ireland Day 1 from J. Carlos Martínez

Words and Prizes

After receiving the diplomas from the Basque Government representatives, the students and the tutor thanked for the prize with the following words:

HITZALDIA (by Iratxe Cea)

  Kultura ondareak antolatu  duen lehiaketaren esperientzia bikaina izan dela uste dut. Hasiera batean, gure tutoreak proiektu hau planteatu zigun, eta nahiko ezohikoa iruditu zitzaidan, eta kuriositateak jota, parte hartu nuen. Baina, benetan, denbora pasa ahala, gure kulturak izan ditzakeen berezitasunak itzelezkoak direla ohartu nintzen, eta horrek euskaldun izatearen nire harrotasuna gehiago piztu du.

  Lehiaketa honetan itsasontzi zaharren berreraikuntzari buruz hitz egin izan nahi dugu. Gure herrian, Getxon, arrantzan eta bestelako ekintzetan tradizio handia zegoen , baina, urteak pasa ahala, ohitura batzuk galdu egin dira, eta lehen hain ezaguna zen tradizioa dezente galdu da. Orduan, gure helburu nagusia inguruan daukagun  jendeari, behintzat, aintzinean zeuden lanak ezagutzeko  grina piztea izan da, eta antza denez, lortu dugu. Beraz, bidai hau ohore bat da guretzat, eta ahalik eta gehien disfrutatzen saiatuko gara!

¡Buenos días!

Mi nombre es Estera Mardarie y pertenezco al grupo ganador del instituto JCB dirigido por Carlos M.  Creo que hablo en nombre de todos mis compañeros/as al decir que estoy tremendamente agradecida a Kultura Ondarea por la oportunidad que nos ha brindado.

 Es verdad que trabajamos con mucha ilusión y dedicación para llevar a cabo este proyecto, con el que finalmente nos encariñamos; y aunque, como todos los aquí presentes, teníamos la esperanza de ganar, el resultado nos sorprendió muchísimo. .

Al iniciar esta "investigación" nuestra principal meta era ganar pero al adentrarnos más nuestro interés empezó a crecer. 

Por otra parte, me gustaría destacar la dedicación y pasión con la que los miembros de IEH (asociación que nos ha sido de gran ayuda para nuestro proyecto y en quien hemos basado el mismo) trabajan para mantener viva esta tradición de restauración de barcos antiguos, que personalmente la considero más bien un legado. 

Sentimos gran admiración y respeto hacia estas personas que dedican su tiempo y energía para que esta parte del patrimonio cultural vasco, pequeña pero aún así importante,  no se pierda. Por eso mismo queríamos concienciar a las personas sobre la importancia que se le debiera dar a la transmisión de valores culturales. 

Muchas gracias. 

                                              J. Carlos Martínez

Good afternoon, Ladies and Gentlemen

It is a pleasure and an honour to be here, especially as we have something in common to celebrate.

When we were invited to take part in Kultura Ondarea Saria, it took less than 24 hours to decide. Six wonderful students from different courses immediately offered to carry out the project making the decision easy.

Julio Caro Baroja High School has traditionally enhanced modern languages (yesterday we celebrated our Forth Multilingual Encounters) and worked on CLIL projects. However, our Kultura Ondarea Saria Project has been the most ambitious and challenging student project at school for two reasons :-

1.      Time required

2.      The overall size of the project

So, our first step was to ensure we had good and easy communication by using mobile phones, whatsapps and the internet in order to share our efforts and progress. We adopted a positive  “Can do”  attitude.

Kultura Ondarea Saria has given us three things:

Firstly, An insight into a brand new world - the world of rebuilding old traditional Basque boats. Once we found the topic, we were very lucky to meet Iñaki, Alfredo and Jesús from Itxas Egurra Haizean, an association that rebuilds old Basque boats in the traditional way. They showed us their small boatyards, shared their knowledge of boats and even took us for a small boat ride.

Secondly,   Kultura Ondarea Saria has provided us with the chance to develop team work, different from the norm, by observing and sharing new skills and experiences in the real world.

Finally, last but not least, this contest has taught us how to face new and difficult challenges impossible to carry out in the classroom.

When we saw on Facebook that everyday more and more participants were entering the competition, we realized just how difficult it would be to impress the panel of judges, let alone win a prize. Therefore, we focused on the task, to at least achieve the satisfaction of knowing we had done our best.

When it was announced that “Surfing  our Traditional Basque boat Rebuilding” had won one of the prizes, we were so happy, full of pride, and our satisfaction complete.

To finish, I’d like to give our deepest thanks to the Basque Department of Education and Culture for promoting this type of contest, motivating students and teachers to work together creating projects on Basque Heritage making us more aware of our rich and sometimes unknown traditions.

Thank you very much.

And the Winner is... IES Julio Caro Baroja BHI !!!

Today, June 19th, at 12:30 p.m. our students have received the Kultura Ondarea Saria Prize. It is the First Contest that the Basque Government  makes to promote the Basque Heritage among young students.

Congratulations to the winners.