Adventure Ireland Summer Camp Diaries

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Enjoy!

I have just edited our final photos of the USA/Irish Way program which came to Adventure Ireland for a Donegal program, and travelled onwards around the country with me, as guest lecturer and tour guide. We had 23 students and 3 wonderful leaders- and Joe, our busdriver and excellent guide. It’s hard to say which places were best- everyone on the students will tell you about my passion for ol’ WB Yeats, and I love taking students to Glencar, Drumcliff, under Ben Bulben- all of these beautiful places that inspired such wonderful poetry. I also really enjoyed roaming around Dublin- well, it is my home town- and Kinsale was a great day too. I think Kilmainham Gaol is always a fabulous, if sombre experience, and Killarney National Park and the Torc Waterfall is hard to beat for sheer beauty! But then there was great ‘craic’ too as we say- Tom, a non-stop comedy act with fantastic political insight- I’ll be watching out for you! James- such a muso, fantastic trading bands - Shannon- same birthday as me and so lovely to all of us here- Katie- took me ages to get your name right (So sorry!) but loved getting to know you, even slowly - Catherine, Johnny & Caroline- keep an eye out for the real U2:-) - Ellie-being me has its privileges -Meghan, Carolyn and Heather: steady on with all that chocolate..is it all gone yet? -Derek, still can’t say your name right, but best song of the last evening was you, Leah- style queen and definitely my vote for ‘most likely person to live in Ireland…on a motorbike’- Erin- love the funky outfits too, you will set trends- Anna- I love my hat and am keeping my eye out for a suitable trade-off - Brigid- remember you are the mother-godess, and live up to your name - Beau-will think of you doing a Leopold Bloom-type saunter around St. Stephen’s Green ‘talking to people’, Jessica- lunatic woman in almost every photo I took, you’re brilliant!- Caitlin D- miss your hyperactive breakfast time rants more than you know , Kayla, best line of the whole trip- ‘top of the morning’? ‘keep it!’ (ha ha) Caitlin C & Brianna, expectin’ to see you girls on TV, The Hills maybe ? Now- did I leave anyone out? Hopefully not, but if I did, mail me and I’ll dedicate a whole post to you. Hi to Moms, Dads, family and friends, thanks for sending your dearest to us, and I hope we will meet sometime, somewhere. Thanks to The Irish Way, Nicole, Katie, Jackie, John, Justin & Noreen for arranging all the travel and the stay here in Donegal, and keep in touch. Not goodbye, just Slan go Foill from us all xxx

Everyone is now safely back in the bosom of their families in Europe, the States and even Asia. Oh and Paddy is back on planet Longford. The adventure never stops here- I write this from the Hostel where we are full this weekend and a new surf camp program starts in the DAC on August 3. But I want to take this moment to thank all the people who have made the last three weeks so succesful. Firstly all the instructors who worked with surf camp, English camps and The Irish Way. To Kyle,Rachel, Kieran,Ken,Fiddy,Morgan,Melissa,Punk,Jamie,Neil, & Darby thanks for all your hard work for ensuring all our kids got home happy safe and very tired:) Siobhan and Eimear who worked every single day, making sure the centre was clean & kids were well fed - not to mention for the constant cheer and good will. We must also mention Vlad and all the staff at Stakes- who made sure the kids had variety as well quantity and of course quality. To Trish and Ciara for doing all the unseen work , aranging flights and payment and schedules, without which none of this would be possible. Niamh who started this all off and works as hard as ever.To Lee & Aoife who kepy the Rock Hostel running when I was away with the students.  Special mention goes to Richard or Dickie as he known by all- he came in early and stayed late every day to make sure everyone was behaving , happy and safe. Couldn’t have done it without you.In 21 days, not once did any of the over forty teenagers we had staying with us ,say that they were bored. Surely a record

 And finally to the students themselves - You should all be very proud of yourself and the way you behaved- ok sometimes you needed a little guidance in the right direction but seriously you were a credit to yourselves, your families and your countries. Even Longford

Collie

Hello again- has it really been three days- it just never stops here. On Monday after our usual classes - we had the second day of our kayak / surf split. Evening was spent with the helmet police - Dickie’s new invention and our Jacobs ladder - a series of logs strung together with ever increasing gaps. Great craic as we say here in Ireland and we were delighted to see our two new campers Tomas and Sven from Utrecht in Holland joining in with everyone else as if they’d been here all week .

The surf was excellent on Tuesday so we had a double session for our hardcore surf brigade- Jean, Simon, Pau Mathilda etc. The rest of them finshed of their artwork in our “Yellow Room” which the various crews have been decorating over the years.  However , what followed was no oil painting- our annual surf chick competition. Yes this where the girls get their hands on the boys and give them a beauty make over to turn them into a contender for miss Donegal.  Despite all our veterans such as Miss Longford (Paddy) and strong showings from Miss Italia (Joanathan) and Miss Mouth (Gori) our suprise winner was the lady who loves Espanyol - our own Pol

After last nights madness we needed a busy day to get all the memories of the boys in girls clothes out of our heads - so this afternoon was spent scaling the heights of our climbing area and finishing all the activities off High ropes, Trapeze and our super Zip line. 
It is a full moon tonight (as if they weren’t crazy enough) so we have a huge tide of 4.2 metres - so as I write this your little darlings are flinging themselves of the rocks - don’t worry its only cliff jumping …and I’m off to join them.

Collie

ps Tomorrow is the last full day in Donegal !Except for Boris who may as well just move here 

Lots of new photos - I think Pau is even there somewhere Click here to see all the new ones

http://www.flickr.com/photos/adventureireland/?saved=1 the photos are here- we’ve been to Kinsale, Cork City, Blarney Castle, and are now en-route to Killarney for the day. Craic is mighty- the students presented their mini-dramas in the courtyard at Dean’s Hall yesterday evening- hilarious! Having a great time, sadly, this is the last day! Update later.

I used to think it was my friend. But this year for some reason the internet keeps swallowing my work and indeed all Marga’s photos from the camp !
Anyway- let me catch you up with the story so far
On Monday, we reverted to our usual pattern of surf camp / English lessons. The surf on Monday & Tuesday was epic , by far the best we’ve had so far on the camp so everyone was up for as much surfing as possible. On Tuesday night we had a special treat in store for the gang- THE NIGHTLINE! The Nightline is a blindfolded assault course through a local forest and is always one of the highlights of the trip- funny, scary and challenging with extra soakings for anyone not speaking English , everyone had a brilliant time and will be talking about it for a long time.
By Wednesday the camp was just the way I like it - full of very happy and very tired kids. We did some laundry in the afternoon and went to the beach to play some football because, as Pau said, ” Collie my head wants to surf but arms want me to play football !!!”
we took it easy-ish on Wednesday night- a spot of climbing and skateboarding as we had a big day ahead of us on Thursday-
After our usual surf / English split, we gobbled down our lunch and charged down to Main beach to indulge in a spot of cliff jumping.After dinner, we got all dolled up and made the short walk down to Bundoran Cineplex for the first showing of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.
The verdict was mixed to say the least but I thought it was really good even if the end wasn’t as good as the book.
On Friday, we had our first departures from the camp- Aude and Giacomo were first, followed by Felix and Draco sorry Constantin early on Saturday. we miss you all very much but we were cheered up immensely by the arrival of our old friend Boris the Legend all the way from Moscow.
On Saturdays, we usually do an excursion and this Saturday was no different. We pilled onto the bus and headed for the beautiful city of Galway where the gang really enjoyed a bit of shopping time and a little time out of a wetsuit. As I write this, Jamie and Morgan are preparing some of the gang for an afternoons kayaking whereas the rest of them have elected to go to the beach for the day. The surf charts look promising for tomorrow and we look forward to meeting Tomas and Sven but more about this in our next post !

wrote a huge post yesterday and travelled of to Galway today not knowing that somehow my pc swalled it and it never appeared on the site - Sincere apologies and I will put up a blow by blow account of our week first thing in the morn..

Hey there from the USA Irish Way group - we have been in Dublin for the last few days, mixing culture with that worldwide pleasure, retail therapy! We have had a wonderful time visiting The National Musuem and the Yeats exhibition at the National Library, Kilmainham Gaol and the President of Ireland’s residence. We met Caroline’s brother Alex, we pounded the pavements looking for a Leinster Jersey for Leah, we made Tom stand in a cell in Kilmainham, we took the Harry Potter fans to see the latest movie, - Ellie reckons that Dumbledore stole my line - ‘Being me has its privileges’ -Christina stubbed her toe and got some excellent TLC and the loan of a pair of shoes, Beau rambled around St. Stephen’s Green making friends, Erin got my ‘outfit of the day’ award with a very sassy shirt & tie combo, Brianna and Shannon served as excellent PA’s, - sorry for not mentioning everyone’s name, but I’m in an internet cafe on our last day in Dublin rushing as usual- everyone is having fun! We’re off to Cork in the morning, the gang are going to kiss the blarney stone- but honestly - honestly, I think they may have kissed it before! Love for now, Niamh.

Big post tomorrow I promise, heres a quick hello to say we are all happy and alive. Just came back from Harry Potter - they weren’t crazy about it, I liked it! Very sad tonight though cos we had to say goodbye to Aude and Giacomo who leave very early in the morning and Felix who leaves at a much more respectable time Will fill you in tomorrow .

Ciao

Ok, American people, apologies for the lack of posts, but we’ve been touring the highways and byeways from Bundoran North to the Giant’s Causeway, then on to Dublin to our current home at King’s Hospital, Dublin. Before we left Donegal, we supplemented our learning about penal times in Ireland with a visit to the Abbey Mass Rock in Ballyshannon, and St. Patrick’s well, where several brave souls washed their feet for good health! Darby accompanied the group on their Northern Oddyssey, and I met up with everyone again in Dublin yesterday morning - we had a wonderful day, beginning with a trip to The Hill of Tara, and then on to St. Kevin’s monastary at Glendalough, Co. Wicklow. As if the poor angels hadn’t had enough culture, we had a class last night about the potato famine, and emigration to the United States. Today, we travelled into Dublin city to visit The National Museum and The W.B. Yeats exhibition at the National Library. I have just let them loose on the shops of Dublin now (can you feel the pain of credit cards being used?) but all our Irish Way students are totally adorable- excellent students, I must say, and a pleasure to be with. I’m going to rush now to get some more photos up- our internet access is very limited, so I will do my best! Try this link- http://www.flickr.com/photos/adventureireland/?saved=1  enjoy folks, I’ll check back soon as I can x Niamh

Hello from a very tired Ireland- In the last few days the surf has been AMAZING and everyone is really happy and really tired I have lots to tell you because we have been having trouble with our internet at night again- not just us, the whole town, so I haven’t updated as much as I would like.

Let me start with Sunday. Sunday is a bit of a day of rest so we had a lie in and had a big brunch (breakfast & lunch) of scrambled eggs and tomato prepared as always by the lovely Eimear. We then went literally across the road with all the gang and our American students too. Dickie had organised tickets for them all to watch the big championship game against rivals Cloughanneely. Everyone was very excited especially as both Dickie and Diarmuid were playing. What a game , Bundoran stormed into the lead only to go two men down…I bet it was the first time this referee was called bad names in french,german,spanish, catalan and cantonese! Paddy had a few choice Longford words for him too. Things were tense but Bundoran, led on masterfully by our boys, held on for the win. For one afternoon,whether Spanish or German, Irish, American or Belgian,  everyone was from Bundoran! We were so proud of our instructors but I have to say they were equally proud of our students and all the support they gave.

Hard to believe though it is, that wasn’t the highlight of our day. Still to come was our talent contest - and despite their protests what a talented bunch they are- there were too many to list but some of my highlights were our demanding divas Spanish acrobats (The Marias, Andrea, Ursula, Elena and Catalina) Aude and Toni’s solo acts, Jean & Aude’s dnace routine The international -our band of french backing singers(Valetine, Aude, Alice and Mathilda) , James from the US on bass and Guacamole..sorry Giacomo playing guitar. And Miguels skating and Shannons dancing , Giacomos juggling and the Mallorcan Macerana. And The Americans impressions of the staff and Constantin, Jonathan and Simon’s hillarious dance routine and Swan lake Barca style. And Cristina’s Bohemian Rhapsody and Jonas brilliant beatbox and felix jonas and miguel’s tricks not to metnion the annual shoulders knees and toes song by Kyle, Paddy and ….do you know what? you’ll just have to come next year and see for yourself……….

Collie

ps click here to see all the new pictures

Sun is shining outside contary to predictions we are all going to see Dickie and Diarmuid in the big game- new photos http://www.flickr.com/photos/donegaladventurecentre/

Lee-Aine great to hear from you - we miss you

Phew - whatt a lot we’ve done since we last spoke-,we’ve surfed, been to a fun fair, met a local surf star, Pep actually rang home and the kids CLEANED THEIR ROOMS! Shock Horror!
Let me start with Thursday- as usual we had class, english or surf, for everyone. In the afternoon , we had a very special treat- the local cinema put on a special showing of waveriders- a movie made by local Surf Legend Richard Fitzgerald showing him and other pro-surfers including 8 times world champion Kelly Slater surfing monster waves right here in Bundoran. After the movie the guys all got to meet Richard who spent about thirty minutes talking to them all and signing posters. Even if you have no interest in surfing I would highly recommend this movie! You can watch the trailer here

To finish off a lovely day, the gang went to a local funfair last night with our instructors Rachelle and Punk where they had a great time.

Today the surf was very good-probably the best we’ve had so far, the gang are really getting good, then in the afternoon it was time to clean our rooms and do laundry which they did really well believe it or not, even if they did need a little encouragement
Tonight Dickie & Punk are teaching all the students including the Americans how to play Gaelic football.

Football is played by teams of 15 on a rectangular grass pitch with H-shaped goals at each end. The primary object is to score by kicking or striking the ball with the hand and getting it through the goals. The team with the highest score at the end of the match wins. Players advance the ball up the field with a combination of carrying, soloing (dropping and then toe-kicking the ball upward into the hands), kicking, and hand-passing to their team-mates. But really its just very good fun!

Tomorrow we go on a day trip to Sligo