Study? No let's draw pictures instead.

Amy Winehooooose

El Dia de los Muertos

So as many people know, I love Spain and it's culture. Spanish is one of my favourite subjects in school, and lately, though unseasonably, I've become obsessed with "El Dia de los Muertos".

El Dia de los Muertos is a Spanish holiday celebrating the dead. They have parades, they dress up, make skulls out of sugar, and the God whom the festivities are dedicated to is a lonely dead woman named Catrina, it's just got me written all over it.

We watched a PowerPoint presentation on the festivities that go on in Spain and Central and Southern America during the holiday in Spanish class in November, and i kinda forgot about it until the past few weeks.

Anyway I've made a promise to myself to be at one of the parades in Spain or Latin America once I leave school.

Anyway, I've been bored and was looking at photos etc and decided to start drawing again.. So here is my depiction of Catrina, the 'Lady of the Dead'.

Ireland being Bipolar

Last week, Ireland had the best weather we've seen in years, better even than we have in the summers. All through the week everyone was getting so excited for a lovely, sunny, Easter break, but to no avail. After wasting 10 hours in school every day last week, and all the sun, it snowed in Dublin today. IT SNOWED.

Each day has been misleading in the mornings, with the sun creeping through the window promising a good day, so I've been getting dressed in pretty sun dresses and shorts, and then realising the second I step out the door that it's colder than the Arctic, and I'm forced to go back inside and put on a big wooly geansai.

I'm sick of it and I'm really counting down the days till I go to Spain for 4 weeks, where hopefully I'll lose this pale glow and replace it with an off-white tint.

Little bit of this, little bit of that (And my final time mentioning Junk Kouture)

The St. Patricks Day weekend has always been a busy one, and this year nothing changed. On Friday, my class took a trip to Deansgrange Graveyard for a history trip. I don't really know what to say about this - except that it was led by my Physics teacher, in the lashing rain, freezing cold, and was, let's be honest, just the teeniest bit boring. There was one umbrella, and 18 students, tanned and showered, ready to go out for Paddy's Day, you can imagine they were not very thrilled to be getting frizzy hair and a cold.
On Saturday morning I got up bright and early to head into town for the day. All the girls got ready in my friend Aoife's house, using an excessive amount of face paint, fake tattoos and green and orange hairspray. We were extremely festive to say the least. We walked around Dublin City Centre for a few hours, visiting the amusements and Merrion Park etc. Twas a nice day indeed.

And most importantly: Sunday. Once again I was up early to gather absolutely everything I could possibly need, from Celotape to Panadol to hairspray, for the Junk Kouture Eastern Regional Finals. I picked up Rachel and Maria and off we went to Blanchardstown for the show. The day was an amazing experience, and though I didn't make it through to the All-Ireland Final, I realised that there were so many people who were a lot more talented than I am in Fashion Design, and it's probably a good thing that I'm veering more towards Industrial Design!
20 teams were picked to go through out of the 78 Leinster finalists, and clearly almost every one of them deserved it. I did however, question the judges over a couple of them, and seeing all the other designs back stage, would definitely disagree with the results. For example in our dressing room, next to us were a team from Wexford with an amazing dress called Princess of China. We spent the whole day oo-ing and ah-ing at it, and it didn't get through. Obviously I am disappointed that I didn't get in but I'm really shocked that they didn't.

On the topic of Art and Design, I have confirmed that this Easter holiday, I am starting a portfolio for Industrial Design in NCAD. My friend, Rachel, who did the make up for the show yesterday, is also doing a portfolio for her Make-Up Design for Stage and Screen, so we're going to do a course together over the summer. I'm excited but I've realised -What the hell goes into that sort of portfolio? Not paintings or posters anyway I'll tell ya that much. My Guidance Counsellor will be getting a few visits from me over the next few weeks.

I'd also like to say a wee congratulations to my Daddy, who's in the process of writing his second book, about learning on YouTube, for getting an interest from an American publisher. He's running around the house like a 6 year old on Christmas eve (Before they've been slipped a sleeping pill - or is that just what my mother did?). Well done Dad!

Junk Kouture 2012 - Part 4

So over the past couple of days I've been campaigning like crazy to get people to vote for my outfit on the Junk Kouture website. You can vote here and I need all the help I can get! Share it on Facebook, Tweet it, text your friends, get creative! I really need a hand!
Of course I have my whole family put to work, asking colleagues, friends and classmates to vote, but no matter how many people promise to, it seems like about 5 other contestants are getting triple!
I brought Maria, my model, down to my old primary school, Guardian Angels National School, on Tuesday morning for "Prayers and Assembly" in the junior classes. I got a great response, cheers and claps and promises go leor, but my guess is five minutes after the left the assembly hall, they forgot what happened and didn't vote. God damn the short attention spans of children under the age of 7.
Every day in school, an announcement is made over the intercom to vote for me and support the school blah blah blah, but apart from some of the girls in my year, a lot don't seem to be bothering. Myself and a friend, Tara, plan to spam it all over Facebook tonight, creating a sort of school spirit/Loreto sisterhood and get everyone in on it.
Anyway the show is on this Sunday, I'm ridiculously excited but also so scared. It's going to be awkward if I don't get through after making so many people share the link everywhere and take the time to vote for me! I'll have a post up about that, possibly on the Monday if it goes well and I'm not too ashamed to spread the word.
Pip, pip.

Junk Kouture 2012 - Part 3

As I've posted about twice already, I entered the competition Junk Kouture this year, and designed a "Candy Man" inspired outfit out of plastic bags and the likes. Entry closed in mid February and the results came out on the 27th. The lists of students who got through was posted on the Junk Kouture Facebook, by the name of the outfit and the school they go to. Of course the name of my school was mixed up, and I thought I hadn't gotten through because Loreto Foxrock was not on the list. For some reason they had me down on the list as a student of Blackrock, a pretentious boys school. How pleasant.
Anyway the reason for this post is I qualified for the Leinster finals! I'll be showcasing my dress at the Junk Kouture Fashion Show on the 18th March (The day after Paddy's, GREAT) in the Crown Plaza Hotel in Blanchardstown, Dublin. A friend, Rachel Cody will be coming with myself and my model, Maria Browne, to do her make-up, and a friend of my Mother's will be doing her nails on the 16th! I'm so excited, tickets are €12.50 and it should be a great night!
Public voting begins on Monday 12th on the website, a link which I shall be spamming absolutely everywhere. My art teacher, lovely Ms Norton, is getting some of her younger students to make posters encouraging students to vote, and I'll be taking a trip down to my old primary school, Guardian Angels, later on in the week to try get the little ones to vote for me!
For now,
Adieu

History Trip to Londonderry, the only county with 6 silent letters.

On the 10th February, my History class 5C went on a trip to Derry, in Northern Ireland. We spent two days there. 

On day one, we experienced the Unionist side of the city, We got a tour of the Apprentice Boy's Memorial Hall, one of their members was our guide. I didn't exactly "enjoy" this part of the trip, as our guide was a horrible, closed-minded sexist - I can't imagine he enjoyed giving a tour to a group of 21 Catholic teenage girls either. After that, we went to the Tower Museum. I liked this a lot more, but it was really long. It basically told a complete history of Ireland, North and South. The museum was huge, interactive and easy to follow, but after waking up at 6am, travelling for 3 hours and having to put up with "Jerry from Derry" the Apprentice Boy, we were all exhausted and began to get quite sleepy. 

We went back to the hotel at around half five, dinner was at eight, it was quite disappointing really - dry chicken and pasta with sauce straight out of the jar. Luckily there was enough bread and butter to go around. 

At nine, we went to Brunswick Moviebowl for bowling. We had about 45 minutes before the lanes would be free, so we played the arcade games and I spent £5 in 10p's to win tokens, which I traded for a lollypop that made my tongue bleed, and one of those slippery toy things that have glitter in them.. WORTH IT. Of course myself, my friends Aoife and Rachel got shafted and were left to be on a bowling team with the teachers. Myself and Ms. Potter drew for first. 

Day Two: Started off with a walking tour around Nationalist Derry. This was my favourite part of the trip. Our guide was an ex-IRA member, who was in prison for 14 years for his part in the Troubles. He showed us all the Murals in the area and told us what each meant, every one of them told a specific story, I'll put a few of them at the end of this post. It was really interesting getting the story from someone who was really affected by the Troubles. 

After that tour, we went to the Free Derry Museum, which had an amazing amount of information and first hand sources. For example, there were jackets of men who were shot on Bloody Sunday, with the bullet holes clearly shown, handkerchiefs with blood stains on them, and photos taken during the fights. This museum was a lot smaller than the Tower Museum, smaller than my school cafeteria, but they're hoping to extend it in the next few years.

After that we had about an hour to roam the streets of Derry, it wasn't long before we found a McDonalds and had a lovely nutritious lunch, before we packed ourselves back onto the bus and drove back to the Republic. 

This mural was painted from a photo taken during The Battle of the Bogside, of an 11 year old boy throwing a petrol bomb. This mural is called The Petrol Bomber.

 

The Free Derry wall is changed a lot to support political movements across the world. Nationalist Derry show their support through this. For example, for Gay Rights they painted the wall pink and to support the Palestinians, they changed the words to "You are now entering Free Gaza".