BZU GOES BRAY 2012 – a review

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My host family

(Claudia Gisler)

Our family lives in a small house on O'Byrne Road. Since Lily was two years old, her father

has no longer lived with them, but they have good contact to him. The food was mostly

very good, but the water was almost undrinkable. Our room was very large in comparison to

the others in the house. Despite the fact that the mattress was not very comfortable, I was

able to sleep pretty well. We had a great time with them.

Journey to Bray

(Patrizia Häne)

It was Sunday morning at

7.20 when we met at the

station in Wil. We travelled to

Zurich by train and checked

in. Everyone felt very nervous

and looked forward to seeing

their host family. The plane

took off at 9.30 and all the

students got a little snack

from the flight attendant. The

sun was shining above the

clouds and we hoped that the

weather would be great in

Ireland. After two hours we

landed in Dublin, then we

collected our luggage from

the roller conveyor. Later we

travelled to Bray by bus and

at ATC we waited for our

host families.

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Day 1 (Ron Lieberherr)

The first day was Monday, 1 October. We had to do a test at school so they could see how

our English was. The test lasted about one hour and after the test we went to our classes

and had our first two English lessons in Ireland. In the afternoon we went to Dublin with

the bzu group, to have a look at the city and the monuments. In the evening we went to

the bowling centre in Bray and had a funny evening.

Going out in Bray

(Simon Heim)

On Saturday we went to a

pub for a drink, before we

went to the beach. The air

was cool and the

atmosphere was beautiful.

We went outside every day,

because the weather in Bray

was always great. Once we

walked to the Tesco store

near our accommodation

and talked to native girls.

After a short chat we went

on. On the Tuesday of the

first week of our language

stay we went bowling with

the whole group it was

funny.

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My teachers at ATC

(Nadine Bähler)

In the mornings we had two

lessons. The teachers almost

always arrived late. In the first

lesson in the morning we had

grammar and vocabulary. The

teacher of our first lesson in the

first week was Karen. I think

she is a good teacher and we

could learn many new things

from her. In the second week

we had a different teacher. His

name was Noel. After the first

lesson we had a break of thirty

minutes. The name of the

teacher in our second lesson is

Mary. Mary is 43 years old and

she has three girls. On Tuesday

and Thursday afternoons we

also had school; on Tuesdays

with Mary and on Thursdays

with Joseph. Joseph comes from

Australia.

Our English lessons (Nadine Künzle)

On the first day at school we had to write an English placement test. Then we were divided

into different classes so no one would be overworked or underworked. The first lesson was

from 9 o’clock to 11 o’clock. In this time we had grammar and vocabulary. At 11:30 the

second lesson started and it finished at 13:30. Then we had a speaking lesson and some

vocabulary. The lessons were interesting, but we had to concentrate all time that we

understood the teachers. On Tuesday and Thursday we had school to 17:15. In the

afternoons we learnt about Irish life and culture. But now the 26 lessons are through. We

learnt a lot and had a good time!

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Day 2 (Adrian Niedermann)

What an ordinary day. We got up at 7.30 and ate breakfast. At 9 o'clock school started with

the first lesson. In the first lesson we talked about different things in the past. In the

second lesson we spoke about plastic surgery. We found out that men are having surgery

more often. The afternoon was a funny part. First we talked about different homophones,

like the words sun - son, one - won or flower - flour. After that our teacher told us

something about the Celtic Tiger, a period in Irish history. The Celtic Tiger was the period

from 1994 to 2003. In the evening we went to the Hibernia Inn near the sea. We enjoyed

some Irish folk music from local musicians and a nice Guinness. At 11 o'clock we had to

leave the pub, but our teacher were able to stay. That was unfair ;D

Irish pubs (Lukas Bossart)

In Ireland all the pubs are

Irish so the name Irish pub

is not necessary. The people

inside are always very

friendly. You can ask them

all kinds of questions. For

example where you can

have a nice Irish breakfast,

or where the young people

go out. And they will gladly

answer you. You can also

drink the world famous

Guinness or any other stout.

It takes time to get a pint of

stout because the landlord

doesn’t fill the pint all the

way at first but waits for a

minute until the froth has

settled. Then he fills the pint

fully.

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Day 3 (Pascal Fischli)

On Wednesday 3 October I went to Dublin with my friends after a normal morning of

school. We took the train from Bray to Dublin, which took us about 40 minutes. First we

went shopping at Penneys and ate a burger and pizza in one of the many really good take-

away restaurants. Later we went to a lovely Pub in the middle of town. After that we walked

to the famous Temple Bar Square. There we thought we must drink a pint of Guinness in

the Temple Bar, which is a pub in Temple Bar Square. We sadly noticed that this was just a

tourist bar. The atmosphere was not like in the other pubs we'd visited and it was also very

expensive. Afterwards we were hungry and walked into the next best Irish restaurant on the

other side of the street. This was a tourist place too. The food was good but, like most of

the Irish food, a bit tasteless. After dinner we went to Connolly Station to get our train back

to Bray. In Bray we took a goodnight pint at Crissy D's, a nice pub just a few minutes from

our host family’s house.

The weather in Ireland

(Ramona Schönenberger)

Before we travelled to Ireland, I

thought that the weather wouldn’t

be good. When we arrived on

Sunday, I thought my prediction

had been right. In the course of the

day the weather became better and

better and the sun came out. The

following day the weather was

relatively cold, but the sun was

always shining. The weather in

Ireland is mostly very windy and

cool. And when it rained you just

had to wait for about an hour and

then became better again. The

weather in Ireland brings a new

surprise every day.

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Day 4 (Raphael Baer)

The fourth day was a really long day. We were at school the whole day. The first lessons

were the same as the other days. So we had school from 09.00 - 11.00 a.m. and from 11.30

- 01.30 p.m. Then we had a short break of 45 min. In this break we had time to eat

something and to relax. In the afternoon we went to school again. At school we learned

something about Guinness and the story of Guinness. It was very interesting. At 05.15 p.m.

we finished school and went home. We were all tired. In the evening we didn't have any

programme so my friends and I went to the beach. Later we went home and slept till the

morning.

Day 5 (Sebastian Lehner)

On Friday 5th October went to

the Guinness Storehouse in

Dublin. We met at 2 o'clock at

ATC and walked to the train

station. We got off the train at

Tara Street in Dublin and walked

through Dublin to the museum

for about half an hour. Then we

visited the exhibition and learnt

something about how Guinness

was brewed and its ingredients.

We also saw some information

about the history of Guinness.

After we had seen the whole

museum, we enjoyed a pint of

Guinness in the attic bar of the

Storehouse and also enjoyed the

breath-taking view over Dublin.

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The city of Dublin

(Simon Hengartner)

Dublin is the capital City of

Ireland. A very important means

of transport is the Dart train. With

the Dart connection you can

travel from the towns along the

coast into the city centre. In the

centre you can go sightseeing or

shopping. Next to Grafton Street

there is a big park called

St. Steven's Green. To the south

of Grafton Street lies St. Steven's

Green shopping centre, built in

October 1988. Trinity College of

Dublin was established in 1592.

Dublin has about 530’000

inhabitants.

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Sports activities (Pascal Berger)

The sports activities were more than welcome, because the food was mostly unhealthy.

They were not always well attended though. The following sports were performed:

GOLF: A lot of fun could be expected. For most of us it was premiere. Obviously some of us

have potential in golf. Unfortunately, the course suffered a bit from our golf skills.

RUNNING: Our top athletes were active during the day and at night, trying to break the

course record running up to Bray Head. SWIMMING: The swimming was used by few

students. It took place at Shoreline Leisure, a swimming pool in Bray. Some reckless

students even dared swimming in the icy sea! FOOTBALL: The football players got their fair

share; they had a lot of fun on the pitch, and showed what they were capable of. HORSE

RIDING and BOWLING were also part of the sports programme.

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The countryside (Severin Heeb)

On Sunday we went to see the Irish countryside. We went to Powerscourt Gardens and to

the Glendalough lakes. Powerscourt is a very beautiful old castle with a really amazing

garden which you must see when you go to Ireland. There is also a restaurant inside, but

that’s a bit expensive. The Glendalough lakes are really picturesque. It’s a walk of about 25

minutes and when the weather’s nice it’s great. I like the Irish countryside because

everything is really green and lovely.

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Irish people

(Alexandra Zahnd)

Irish people don’t worry so

much about punctuality. They

find it okay to be late. Here’s an

example from my host family:

We had to meet for a school

event and I only had half an

hour to get ready but my host

mother hadn’t finished

preparing dinner. She said ‘no

stress - don't hurry, it’s normal

here be late’. Here in Bray I find

that people are very friendly

because in the morning a lot of

people say good morning to

you, but in Dublin people are

very different.

Shopping (Alessia Hauser)

Shopping in Bray is not very interesting, because there aren’t a lot of shops. The

supermarket Tesco is everywhere. In Dublin on the other hand, there are lots of shops, for

example Penneys! Penneys is a shop everyone loves! There are clothes & shoes for men &

women and they are cheaper than in Switzerland! In Switzerland the shops are a lot more

expensive than in Dublin! But there’s also a Zara or H&M as in Switzerland. So if you go to

Dublin, you must go to Penneys, the most famous shop in Dublin! The shops are also open

until 6 o'clock on Sundays. During the week the shops are open until 7 o'clock, on Thursdays

they're open until 9. So if you want to go big shopping, you're right in Dublin!

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Day 8 (Felix Scheiwiller)

I woke up at 7:45 and we met at 8:45 in front of the school for some information, like every

morning. It was a normal school day with grammar and speaking exercises. At 14:00 we

met again in front of the school to do the Cliff Walk from Bray to Greystones. It took about

2 hours to get to Greystones. The railway along the cliffs is beautiful. The weather looked

like it would start to rain any moment. This railway part is the most expensive part of

railway in all of Ireland. The cliff walk is 7 km long and the path lies above the railway

tracks. When we arrived in Greystones we went to a pub and had a drink. At 15:45 we took

the train from Greystones back to Bray, so we saw the cliffs from out of the train. When we

arrived in Bray we all went back to our own host families.

Cliff walk to Greystones

(Fabrice Göldi)

On Monday, 08/10/2012 after

school, we could do the Cliff Walk.

The Cliff Walk is a straight path

between Bray and Greystones. It’s

6.2 km long and took around one

and a half hours to complete. It’s

above the railway which links Bray

to Greystones. After lunch we

started to walk in a group of 8

people. The weather wasn’t very

good, but it was not so bad. It was

Irish weather. The walk was really

beautiful. We enjoyed the whole

walk and when we arrived in

Greystones, we went to a pub and

had a drink. Then we took the train

back to Bray. The train journey was

definitely shorter than the long

walk. It was a great afternoon.

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The Picture of Dorian Gray

(Ralf Zellweger)

On Tuesday 9th October, we met at

ATC at 6 p.m. 20 students and 2

teachers travelled together from Bray

to the Abbey Theatre in Dublin. We

saw a very interesting stage play

called "The Picture of Dorian Gray"

which was written by Oscar (Fingal

O' Flahertie Wills) Wilde. He was an

Irish author and was born in Dublin

on 16th October 1854. On 30th

November 1900 Oscar Wilde died in

Paris.

Day 9

(Simon Krämer)

In the morning we had school at 9 o'clock.

It's the same every morning at school and

this is a little boring. But we learned a lot at

school. In the afternoon we also had school.

In this lesson we learned a lot about the

history and the teacher. It wasn't very

interesting. The teacher told us a lot about

the history of Ireland but most things we

had already heard about in secondary

school. In the evening most students went

to the theatre. The other students had free

time.

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Day 11 (Annina Lanker)

Today was the second last day, not a very interesting day because we had go to school the

whole day. The first thing I saw as I looked out of the window was rainy weather… In the

morning we learnt something about English grammar and speaking. In the afternoon we

played some games and did exercises to expand our vocabulary. After school some crazy

people went swimming in the sea. I think it was very cold because of this bad weather

today (but only to watch it was funny ;P). In the evening we went to the Harbour Pub for

the last time with our friends and some Swiss students from Luzern. It was a great evening,

I’ll miss Bray!

Our leaders

(Marc Fräfel)

On our journey to Bray our

leaders were Mr Müller and

Mr Mathis. We had two

weeks full of fun and

interesting sightseeing.

We've seen so many

different things all around

Bray and Dublin. We took a

city trip to Dublin, a guided

tour to Powerscourt and

Glendalough; in Dublin we

also visited the world

famous Guinness brewery.

Once we went golfing at a

local golf club. We had some

really nice experiences with

our leaders.

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