Internship programme celebrates one year

Launched in November last year, the programme has received some 200 applica-

tions so far. 105 of the applicants – or more than two students per week – got work experience placements in Irish companies. Most of the students who did not get placements either failed to finish the application process or pulled out of the programme for various rea-sons.

The programme provides unpaid internships to students who would like to practice their English in a real work environment and enhance their skills

with a stint working in an Irish com-pany. The placements generally last from a month to several months and can often be done part-time. Several students went on to get jobs with their host companies after completing the internships, however most did not get an employment offer.

The majority of students who com-pleted the internships were very happy with the experience as it allowed them to gain new skills and feel more confi-dent about their English.

“It was very helpful,” said Nath-alie Ortega who got a placement with

a Dublin accounting company called DCA Accountants. “As an accountant in my country and not knowing the law here, it was a great opportunity to learn new things. I also learned the language and the terms related to my career which is very important for me. Doing this internship was beyond my expectations and it was one of the best decisions I made here!”

“It was a great time: I learned a lot since my first day and also made lots of friends,” said Elicio Pereira who fin-ished an internship with global freight forwarding company Kuehne + Nagel.

“Nobody there spoke my language, so I was forced to speak English all the time. I was also dealing with pa-perwork, emails etc so I was in con-tact with the language all the time. I learned how to deal with big customer accounts, handle export and import paperwork. I was also responsible for doing all the accruals which helped me to understand how the company makes profits. I have gained good work experience from this internship and it will be an advantage when ap-plying for jobs in my country”.

SEDA has now established con-

tact with over 60 companies in Dublin ranging from small tech start-ups to large hotel chains, all of whom need interns. Placements are available in fields like marketing, general adminis-tration, IT, accounting, sales, architec-ture, hospitality, catering and others.

More information can be found on http://sedacollege.com/en/services/internship

If you would like to apply send your CV to internship@seda.ie

SEDA News, Issue 25, December 2013 Copyright: SEDA College | www.news.sedacollege.com

SEDA’s internship programme, which helps international students find work place-ments in Irish companies, has now been around for a year. So far some 200 appli-cations were received, with most of the applicants getting a placement.

Unmissable events dur-ing the Christ-

mas holidays

Staff of the month: Maria Antoni-etta’s

journey

How do the Irish celebrate Christmas?

CHRISTMAS

INTERVIEW

GOING OUTPage 6

Page 9

Page 4

SEDA students preparing to wish a very happy Christmas to the residents of Belvilla nursing home in Dublin. See pages 3 & 11 for more. Pic by Netania Gomes.

2

News

Students get blogging about their Dublin experience

Class reps invited to special Student Council meetingAll class representatives at

SEDA are invited to a special December meeting of the

Student Council which will include refreshments. At the meeting student representatives and the school admin-istration will sum up the main issues that have come up during the Coun-cil’s three-month existence and will also sketch plans for the year ahead.

The date and time of the meeting will be announced soon.

The last meeting of the Student Coun-cil was on November 20. A number of issues were discussed, including:

• It was decided that SEDA would start a programme of introducing pro-jectors with computer links to every

classroom (currently only the large sem-inar rooms in the school are equipped with this technology).

• The issue of crowding in certain classrooms was raised by class reps. Ad-ministration pointed out that the main reason for this was students returning unannounced to class after absence from school. The students were remind-

ed that it was SEDA’s policy to remove a student from class list if they were absent for 4 consecutive days. Such stu-dents have to report to Director of Stud-ies before they can be re-admitted.

• School staff reminded the class reps that in general students cannot receive holidays until they have completed their course.

Students who wish to bring up any issue for discussion are welcome to get in touch with their class rep (every class in SEDA now has one), or get in touch with members of school admin-istration directly.

SEDA’s two Advanced English classes are locked in an exciting competition

and the winner will be announced later this month. Each of the two groups has started a blog and the students take turns to post about their experiences in Dublin, with the rest of the class commenting. The better of the two blogs will be chosen by SEDA teachers soon, and the author of the best post will be crowned the winner of the competition.

So far students have posted on a range of different subjects from things to eat to things they’ve learned about the Irish people. The names of the blogs are being kept secret for the time being, but will be

revealed after the competition is over. The best posts will be published in SEDA News next month.

This innovative classroom project was started by teacher Stephen Cloak who is currently doing a Master’s degree in Educa-tion. “We were studying some ideas on us-ing technology in the classroom, and I liked these ideas so much that I wanted to use them straight away,” he told SEDA News.

Stephen Cloak presented his blogging project at the conference of International Association of Teachers of English as a For-eign Language (IATEFL), which took place in Dublin’s Digital Hub last month. The idea of using blogs to get students writing

was met with much interest and Stephen was invited to talk about it in more detail at IATEFL’s next meeting.

SEDA’s Director of Studies Carol Cregg also had lots of enthusiasm for the pro-ject. She said: “The problem with a lot of student writing is that when you write for your teacher it’s hard to be motivated as in this case the writing is only to be cor-rected. But when you do something like this, you’re writing for your piece it to be read, which is a more realistic scenario. You write so people can enjoy what you’ve written and this is what a blog does – you’re writing for other people’s enjoyment”.

Immigration Service warns of possible fraud

Celebrate Christmas with SeDa!

18 students take Cambridge First Certificate exam

All SEDA students are invited to a glamorous Christmas party in

one of Dublin’s biggest nightclubs. The party will be on Thursday, Decem-

ber 12, in Howl At The Moon which is just off Merrion Square, a park in Dublin 2. A large section of the nightclub, which has the capacity to receive over 1000 people, will be reserved for SEDA stu-dents. The party will begin at 6 pm and

students are encouraged to arrive early as there will be free finger food before 9 pm. The party will continue until the early hours of Friday morning, and or-ganisers have prepared lots of surprises, including games, competitions and lots of cool prizes! So make sure to get the armband at the reception and come along!

18 students take Cambridge First Certificate exam18 SEDA stu-

dents travelled to UCD at the beginning of this month in order to take the Cam-bridge First Certificate English exams. The students, mostly from Upper Inter-mediate classes, visited the Cambridge examination centre in UCD twice: for the writing and speaking tests. On both

occasions SEDA organised transport to the centre and students were accom-panied by teachers Rosa and Ashleigh. Results should be released at the start of next year. SEDA News would like to congratulate all the students for the achievement of preparing for and taking the exams!

SEDA News: Ireland’s first newspaper for international students. Circulation: 1000 copies. Design by Isabelle Portes. Editor: Viktor Posudnevsky.SEDA College,68-72 Capel Street, Dublin 1.Ph: 01 473 4915; news@seda.ie; www.news.sedacollege.com; http://www.facebook.com/mySEDA.Ireland

for services”. It added that fees for various services were published on the website and payable to INIS as part of the application process. So the payment of “fines” never arises. “Applicants are asked to be vigilant.

Do not give details of your im-migration application to telephone callers unless you are sure who they are. If someone demands pay-ment of a fine, contact INIS and the Garda”, the Immigration Service ad-vised.

Classes start on January 6 | 2014

SEDA News wishes everyone a very happy Christmas and New

Year! See you in 2014!

3

SeDa students will bring Christmas spirit to Belvilla nursing home again

On Saturday December 14 a group of SEDA students and staff will bring Christmas spirit to Belvilla nursing home in Dublin’s South Circular Road. For the second year in a row the college will present Christmas gifts to every one of the nursing home’s 46 residents and put on a special show with music, singing and dance.

The elderly residents of Bel-villa nursing home in Dublin’s South Circular Road may ex-

pect a very special day on December 14. Up to 30 SEDA students – one for every class – as well as some of the college’s staff will visit the home for a special Christmas-themed event.

The students will bring presents for every one of the 46 residents and will perform a show – rehearsals are already underway in the college. The students,

many of whom come from Brazil, Venezuela and other far-off countries, will perform their national music and dance and will also put on a version of the traditional Irish Christmas songs. SEDA College organised a similar Christmas show for Belvilla’s residents last year and the event was a great suc-cess. Students, dressed up as Santas and elves, brought Christmas presents for their Irish “grannies” and “granddads”, but more importantly they showed

love and warmth for the elderly resi-dents, some of whom will be spending Christmas on their own. The students also performed a show, with flamenco dancing, Spanish guitar and a jazzed up version of “I saw mommy kissing Santa Claus”.

SEDA News will be covering the event in the January edition.

Ryanair passengers will now be able to bring a second bag on

board of flights as part of their carry-on luggage. The airline is also cutting its fee for re-issuing boarding cards from €70 to €15 as part of its new more customer-friendly policy. Up to last month passengers had to pack all their stuff into a single 10 kg cabin bag,

but now another small item of lug-gage – such as a handbag or an airport shopping bag – is allowed. The maxi-mum dimensions of this second bag are 35cm by 20cm by 20cms.

The changes are a part of Ryanair’s drive to promote a more user-friendly image. The airline has also improved its website and introduced a 24-hour

grace period where minor booking er-rors, such as misspellings can be cor-rected. From January 3 Ryanair will also cut its standard airport check-in bag fees from €60 to €30. The airline has introduced a new email address for customer que-

ries and complaints: customer queries @ryanair.ie. On February 1 Ryanair will introduce fully allocated seating.

At the same time the company has added new routes to the Czech Repub-

lic, Italy and Morocco. The Irish airline was also granted

permission for flights to Russia and is expected to start a flight to Moscow in spring next year.

News

Second bag now allowed on Ryanair flights

Wish your friend a happy birthday with SEDA News! Send your greetings, postcards and photos to news@seda.ie we will publish them in the December issue of the paper.

YURI GalizA

Stella Eunhye Lee

Yaneth Villanueva

Maria Antonietta Stehlik

December 23On your birthday, be aware thatI love you more than I can say, more than you can know.Happy Birthday, my love!

Eternally yours, Isabelle.

“We wish you the best in everything that you’ll want to do, hope this New Year of your life will bring you just happiness and prosperity”

December 3

Your Flatmates

December 22

December 8

SEDA News wishes a very happy birthday to these people born in December:

o

B

A

d

4

Staff of the Month: Maria Antonietta’s journey

What do you do in SEDA? What did you do before work-ing in student support?

I work in Venezuelan Marketing together with Ricardo, and we have created a great team now with five other people to support and pro-vide all the necessary help that our students need. We learn and im-prove our work every day in order to achieve our goals.

I used to work in the medical in-dustry in Venezuela for five years before making the decision to go to Ireland, learn English and find a new life.

Nowadays Dublin is my home and I love my life here, but Venezuela will always be in my heart and in my mind!

What’s your best personal tip about living in Dublin as a student?

From the moment you make the decision to come here, you have to

change your ide-as, and you must be prepared for a 360° change in your life. Eve-rything in Dub-lin is different: the weather, the food, the people, the culture, the houses, every-thing… so, you must adapt to Dublin, not Dub-lin to you.

You just have to have a little patience while you adapt to your new life and find the things that you like: practice some sports, meet new friends, play a musical instru-ment… And of course one thing is very important: study English and DON’T miss your class! And if you need something you should always talk to us because we can´t guess what you need. Feel free to talk to us

and ask us, whatever you need!

What’s the best thing about working in student support?

The best thing in my work is that every day its different, every person I meet is different, and every problem has a different solution. So this makes work really fun, though sometimes I have to go through a lot of stress! It’s very gratifying to help people solve their problems, especially when they appreciate your help!

      What’s your favourite place in Ireland? What’s the best pub in Dublin to go out at night?

My favourite place is the Phoe-nix Park. I usually go there to run, walk, skate, read and of course cycle. I used to practice mountain biking in Venezuela and it’s my favorite sport, though I fell a lot of times!

And my favourite pub in Dublin is Buskers, it’s in Temple Bar and it

always has live music!!

    Tell me about your baby – when are you ex-pecting? Have you picked a name yet?

I am now 6 months’ preg-nant, and it’s the most beautiful experience in my life! I feel full of life, I’m ac-tive, happy and very excited. We

planned to have a baby this year and here we are: Samantha is coming in the last week of February. We are crazy to have our baby in our home!! I’m doing yoga and preparing my body for a natural delivery…

Actually I don’t think I will stop

my work as I can work from my house when Samantha is born: I can answer the phone, emails, texts and keep supporting the students be-cause I love my job and I don’t mind to keep working this way while the baby its little. The students can al-ways count on me!

How are you spending your time in Venezueal? What would you like to wish to your friends in Dublin and every-one at SEDA?

At the moment I’m working in SEDA’s office in San Cristobal – I’m supporting the new students who will be coming over to Ireland next year.

I wish everybody a beautiful Christmas, full of love, peace, joy and the best of luck to everybody, see you soon guys!! FELIZ NAVIDAD !!

Interview

Maria Antonietta Stehlik went from a Beginner level student to running SEDA’s whole Venezuelan marketing department and student support team. She is now expecting her first baby daughter Samantha and wishes everybody a very happy Christmas from her home in Venezuela where she is currently in holidays.

5

6

Nollaig Shona: Christmas in Ireland

With four children our house-hold is very busy at Christmas. We like to decorate the tree and the house a few weeks before Christmas day to get in the festive mood. On Christmas Eve I try and get some of the food prepared. The traditional dinner would be turkey & ham with stuffing, gravy, roast pota-toes done in goose fat and all the trim-mings. A lot of Irish people would also have trifle for dessert which is jelly, fruit, sponge, custard and cream and a shot of sherry for the chef. We like to go to mass on Christmas Eve and when we return the children will light the candle in the window to direct Santa to the house and leave a glass of milk and a can of Guinness out

on the fireplace for Santa and a plate with some carrots and cookies for the reindeer!I think Christmas starts way too early in this day and age. You can buy deco-rations for Christmas at Halloween. When I was a child you would never see this. It was not until December that the festive season kicked in. We hosted two students last Christ-mas: a guy from Columbia and a girl from Italy. They both had a great time, but the guy had a little better of a time as he had a lot of wine to drink and had to go to bed early!!

I actually don’t spend Christ-mas in Ireland at all: we usually go abroad, somewhere warm and sun-ny. I’m not a traditionalist. I think Christmas in this country is over hyped and over commercialised. It’s all about the money and how much the shops can make. Most people are not religious, they just pretend to be!

Normally my family celebrates Christmas by coming together for Christmas dinner and exchanging gifts. We have this special tradition that on Christmas Eve we are allowed to open one present and we have a glass of wine and toast the year gone.Another tradition we have in my fam-ily is trifle. This is a dessert and my mother still makes it every year even though no one likes it or eats it. With-out fail there will always be a trifle for dessert! Another thing that we always have on our table at Christmas is tur-key.My best childhood memory about Christmas is of Santa writing me a let-ter on my new typewriter: I thought

I was so special to get a letter from him! A lot of things have changed since then: for example, now I buy the

present instead of my parents! But I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

We spend every second Christ-mas with my family in the west of Ire-land and every other Christmas with my husband’s family in Dublin. This year we are going to spend Christ-mas with my family. We will go down Christmas Eve and stay there for four or five days. Then it’s back to Dublin to spend the New Year with my in-laws.We do have some Christmas tradi-tions in my family. We go to Mass on Christmas morning, then we usually come home to prepare dinner and then we play card or board games to-gether.One thing we always do for Christ-mas is get a real Christmas tree – the smell in the house is so lovely! At din-ner we usually have turkey & ham, stuffing, Brussels sprouts, roast pota-toes, Christmas Pudding and Christ-mas Cake.

My best childhood memory about Christmas is wait-ing for Santa to arrive. I shared a room with my sister and she used to sing Christmas songs to me the night before Christmas. But I think a lot has changed since then. Unfortunately Christmas is a lot more commercial-ised now – children expect a lot more gifts whereas, when I was a child we got one gift.

How do people celebrate Christmas in Ireland? What is normally on their table and what are some of the Irish Christmas traditions that have been passed down the years? To find out SEDA News spoke to some of the Irish host families that have accepted our students.

Christmas time

Nathania Herbert and her family are ready for Christmas!

By Netania GOMES

By Leopoldo CARRASQUERO

Ingredients

300g Madeira or sponge cake, halved and cut into thick slices300g fresh strawberries, frozen are fine but defrost thoroughly6 table spoons of sweet sherry500ml/ 2 cups thick custard, ready made or using custard powder500ml/ 2 cups double or whipping cream, softly whippedHandful, toasted, flaked almonds

Cooking instructions

The trifle can be made in one large glass dish or into individual glasses.Line the bottom of the dish or glasses with the cake slices.Slice the strawberries if fresh and reserve a few for decoration (if using frozen, leave whole) then layer the remaining evenly over the cake. Press lightly with a fork to release the juices. Sprinkle with the sherry.Spoon over the custard, again in a thick layer.Finish with a thick layer of whipped cream either spooned over or piped using a piping bag.

Decorate with strawberry slices and a few toasted, flaked, almonds.

IrIsh sherry trIfle

The Christmas

recipe

Siobhan Smyth _______________________

Martina Griffith:

Ann Timlin:

Nathania Herbert:

“ “

“

“ “

“

“

“

7

In Venezuela, the Christmas season is the most beautiful of the whole year. Ven-ezuelans breathe an air of happiness and enjoy their music, food and traditions during those December days.

Fancy meeting U2’s Bono this Christmas? Walk down to Grafton Street and you might just be lucky...

Student Diva Helena de Medeiros shared her plans for Christmas with SEDA News.

Walking through the city centre, everything shouts Christmas. Dec-

orations and lights around the streets, stores completely full of Christmas presents and playing Christmas songs, and the famous “Ho Ho Ho” followed by ringing bells are just some of the signs that it is Christmas time.All of it makes me home-sick, and I remember great moments with my family in Brazil. Every-body together (parents, siblings, grandparents, nieces, nephews, cousins, in-laws, some friends), in a big house, having a special dinner (each one would bring some Christ-mas food). We used to do “Secret Santa” as a way for exchanging presents in a fun way. The bright Christmas tree was always there andthe children were so excited wait-ing for the best moment of the night. Suddenly, we hear the sound of bells coming from the dark street. “Santa

Claus is here!” one of the kids shouts with excitement. Then, Santa Claus (one of our relatives) calls each child for getting their presents. Surprised, the children say: it is exactly what I asked for! After all the presents have been given, this poor and sweaty man

(my city is very hot during that period for walking around in a Santa Claus’ costume) is going away saying: “Bye bye children, I have to give presents to other kids who are waiting for me. Please, keep being good and I will

come back next year”. Good memories!!! But in on the other hand when I walk down Grafton or Henry Street in this cold weather – something that I really like, I am sure that I am fulfilling a dream and I think

of myself as the main char-acter in a Christmas film.For this year, I am not planning to prepare any-thing special, I will prob-ably spend Christmas Eve with some friends, having dinner, listening to songs from our coun-try and that is all. How-ever, I just hope that in 2013 I will be as lucky as I was in 2012. Last year, I was work-ing as an au pair. The children’s dad got back home at 4pm and told

me I could go out if I wanted to. I did not know he would come back home so early, and I did not have any plans. But I decided to go to town to see the Christmas lights and see what was happening in town.

After walking through the empty Temple Bar I decided to go to Grafton Street. It was about 7pm when I was at the the top of Grafton Street, in front of Stephen’s Green Shopping Centre when I saw lots of people as if they were watching something. As a curi-ous person I approached them and got shocked! Bono, the U2 singer, had just got there. I could not believe that! I had heard some rumour when I arrived in Dub-

lin that he used to sing in the street every Christmas. But I confess, I was not expecting it. Glen Hansard, another famous Irish artist, who starred in the film “Once”, also was there.So come Christmas, I will put on a warm jacket, scarf, gloves and go to-wards Grafton Street holding my cam-era wishing to meet Bono once again on Christmas night!

“After 6 months of studying Eng-lish at SEDA College, I got an op-portunity to work as an au pair in Navan, a small city situated near Dublin. I am very happy here!My plan for Christmas is to spend 15 days travelling in London and Paris where I am going to meet some friends who live there. I will also meet my husband who lives in Mexico and will come here to cele-brate Christmas and New Year’s Eve with me. I am extremely anxious for my trip to London to begin because I believe it will be one of the most wonderful New Year’s Eves that I’ve ever had!

And I may say: never regret some-thing you have done, instead regret something you haven’t done yet be-cause the worse thing is regret for something that you didn’t try. I wish all of you Happy Christmas and a blessed New Year!”

And so Happy Christmas...

The best New Year’s ever

Your story

U2’s Bono busking in Grafton Street last year

Venezuelan Christmas dish Traditional Christmas table in Brazil

Carolina Bernal with Irish singer Glen Hansard

By María Gabriela MARCANO

By Carolina Nobre BERNAL

Christmas in Venezuela

Food is very important in any Venezuelan Christmas celebration, and it is com-

mon to overeat during these days. Our country has a variety of dishes typical for this time of year. The hal-laca, is the most important of them: it is a rolled dough inside which you can find chicken, beef, raisins, on-ions, olives and capers, among other things. The roll is then covered with a banana leaf and placed to boil in a pot. The ham loaf is another favorite of many because it is a delicious bread roll with ham and sweet raisins in-side. The chicken salad is another

staple among Venezuelan Christ-mas dishes. It’s made with potatoes, carrots, beef and chicken and other seasonings. The panettone, sweet papaya, grapes, mandarin oranges, walnuts and hazelnuts are some of the other things you can not miss on the Venezuelan Christmas table.

MusicBagpipes set the musical rhythm for Venezuelans during this time of year. This kind of music was born in Zulia state, Northwest of the coun-try and later adopted by all Ven-ezuelans. This is a tune to the sound of a four: accompanied by the fur-

ruco and drums, it delights all who listen. Most Venezuelans start Christmas cel-ebrations at home from listening to a bagpipe at a fam-ily gathering. Songs and carols are also characteristic rhythms of this time in Venezuela.

TraditionsIn Venezuela, Christmas traditions are not that different from customs in other parts of the world. Each household typically gets a Christmas tree and decorates it with images of St. Nicholas, rein-deer and colorful flowers. What dis-tinguishes Venezuelan Christmas are the traditions of Avila Cross: a cross in the mountains of Caracas, the Venezuelan capital. There is also the Fair Lady of Chiquinquirá: In Zulia state, a fair is held to venerate the chinita. The fair includes food, music and noise and prayers to the Virgin for favors received.

GiftsUnlike in some countries, Venezue-lans normally give gifts to each oth-er on the evening of December 24th, not the 25th in the morning when Santa’s gifts arrive in most of the world. Usually families gather for dinner on that day and expect the child Jesus to arrive with gifts for the little family. In Venezuela it is the child Jesus who brings gifts for children, and it is also he who re-ceives letters some days in advance.

Diva Helena de Medeiros is about to have the best Christmas of her life!

8

Shows & Gigs in Dublin

Maroon 516 January,

The O2American band will play one date in Dublin with

supporting act Robin Thicke. Tickets: €39.50 – 44.50.

Daft funk13 December,The Academy

No, it’s not Daft Punk, but it’s a good cover band and if you like electronic music it’s sure to be a

good night out. Tickets: €15.

tenacious D17 December, The Academy

American comedy rock duo is coming to Dublin.

Tickets: €49.50.

sepultura4 February,

The AcademyMetal icons will be paying

a visit to Dublin in February next year. Tickets: €25.

WickeD: the MusicalAll month of December @ Bord Gais Energy Theatre, Grand Canal Dock,

Dublin 2The famous musical, produced by

Universal Pictures and based on The Wizard of Oz story, is finally coming

to Dublin. Tickets: €35-60.

GaMe18 December, The Academy

American West Coast rapper will play a show in

Dublin. Tickets: €39.

the VillaGers17&18 December,

Vicar StreetIrish band will play two

dates in Dublin.

Bell X120 & 21 December ,

Vicar Street, Dublin 8Dublin-based indie

rockers will play their established hits as well as songs from their latest album.

Delorentos21 December

Whelan’s, Camden St, Dublin 2

Dublin-based indie rock band will play in Whelan’s just before Christmas. Tickets:

€17.50.christy Moore

16, 22, 23 & 29 December Vicar Street, Dublin 8 Legendary

Irish singer-songwriter famous for ballads like Ride On and

Lisdoonvarna will give a series of performances around the country

including 4 dates in Dublin.

asiDeMainstreaM

BanDs | Groups | sinGers

BsiDealternatiVe

BanDs | Groups | sinGers

DaMien DeMpsey13 & 14 December, The Vicar Street

The Dublin singer will perform two shows at

Vicar Street in the run-up to Christmas.i

siDeirish

BanDs | Groups | sinGers

fun loVin criMinals16 January,

The Academy,American hip-hop/funk/rock/comedy band will rock the Academy in Dublin early

next year. Tickets: €22.10.

Butlers chocolate experienceBy Isabelle PORTES

Butlers Chocolates is an Irish owned manufacturer of luxury chocolate and

other chocolate products that was founded way back in 1932 by Ms Bailey-Butler. The company pro-duces lots of yummy sweets, includ-ing chocolate assortments, truffles, fudge, toffee, chocolate bars and so on. The company has also created a chain of Butlers Chocolate Cafes, which you can find all over Dub-lin. The cafes allow you to try the famous Butlers chocolates together with some seriously tasty coffee!

If you’re into chocolates make your-self a treat and visit The Butlers Chocolate Experience – a very special – and very sweet! – tour of the factory that produces the finest chocolates in Dublin. The tour allows you to get in touch with the staff responsible for the manufacture of these delicacies and learn the process of how every Butlers product is made. The experience takes about one hour, and you are guided by one of the staff

through the factory, where you learn the history of the chocolate and the brand. And, of course, the important part of this visit: you get a lot of choc-olaty treats during the tour!At the end of the Chocolate Experi-ence, prepare to get your hands dirty (with chocolate!) You will get the chance to decorate your own chocolate bear using white chocolate and little broken pieces of chocolate. An overdose of chocolate! Yummy!

Where: The Butlers Choco-late Experience takes place at the factory: Clonshaugh Business Park, Dublin 17

When: From Monday to Fri-day – 10am – 15:30pm.

How much: Adult €12,85 | Child €12,85 | Infant under 3 €0,00 | Family €47,50

Daniel o’DonnellN14 & 15 December,

The Convention CentreFamous Irish country singer will give two shows in support if his

latest album. Tickets: €45.

9

Going Out

Christmas fun

Looking for some Christ-mas fun? Make sure to visit RDS this month and

check out GloHealth Christmas Wonderland. The fair will feature iSkate – Ireland’s largest ice rink, a continental Christmas market with lots of delicious food and Funderland – one of Ireland’s larg-est fun parks! Funderland has eve-rything from rollercoasters and a giant Ferris wheel to more mod-ern attractions such as 3D Cyber-vision and Bounce World. Thrills and plenty of fun guaranteed! There will also be a special Santa’s

Christmas circus, an adventure journey through Jingle Town, the famous Custard Pie puppet com-pany and award winning interna-tional illusionist Guy Barrett. If you just want to ice skate you can also go to Dundrum On Ice – a large skating rink in Dundrum Town Centre, not far from the famous shopping mall. The rink will be open until January 12. There will also be a number of other skating rinks around Dub-lin, including in Swords.More info: www.christmaswonderland.ie

If you’re in Dublin for New Year’s Eve make sure to check out the Three NYE Dublin –

a four-day festival to celebrate the coming of the new year. The 30th December is the Love Dublin Day and there will be many events to celebrate the city’s history and her-itage. On December 31st everyone can take part in the Procession of Light – a parade through the streets of the capital. It’s similar to St Pat-rick’s Day parade, but instead of professional and semi-professional performers this parade will be made up of ordinary Dubliners

(and visitors are welcome too!). You can sign up on www.3nyedublin.ie At the end of the parade there will be a large Open air concert and a countdown to the New year in front of the Trinity College. Tickets for the Countdown Concert are avail-able online at www.3nyedublin.ie and are priced at €25.00. Some of the bands performing at the show will be Madness, The Strypes, MKS (formerly known as Sugababes) and Ryan Sheridan.

www.christmaswonderland.ie

On Saturday December 21st at 2pm Harbour Plaza in Dun Laoghaire

(a beautiful seaside town just South of Dublin – you can get the DART to get there) will host a World Record Attempt to gather the most people wearing Santa Hats in one place at one time! The record is currently held by Brock-ton, Massachusetts, USA with 872

Santa Hat wearers assembled on November 23, 2010. Surely, this won’t be too hard to beat! The event promises to be really fun, so come along and bring all your friends!

(This event will charge an admis-sion price of €2.00 with all pro-ceeds going to Barnardos charity)

More info: www.dunlaoghaire.ie

If you want to hear tradi-tional Christmas Carols come along to the beauti-

ful Pepper Canister Church be-side Merrion Square in Dublin 2. The event is free and is part of Christmas on the Square festival.

More info: www.merrionsquare.ie

A Christmas Festival in the Docklands, right in the heart of Dub-

lin, is coming soon. The festival will feature lots of events includ-ing an entertainment area tak-ing place on the event platform in George’s Dock. There will also be a Victorian Carnival, a fantas-tic artisan food and craft market and Santa’s grotto. Don’t miss out!Here are just some of the tasty

food and dishes that you’ll find at the fair: Irish steak burgers, Ger-man Ham sausages, Freshly made crepes based on original French recipe, BBQ pork, bratwurst sau-sage & potato, African grilled food, artisan chocolate bars, chocolate swirlers and chocolate hampers. If you’re looking for interest-ing present ideas the fair is also a great place to be. You will be able to find such items as: Christmas

decorations & gifts, handmade clothing and accessories, jewellery, small toys, pottery, stained glass, candles, cosmetics, lotions and creams, wool socks, hats, scarves, gloves and sweaters, health prod-ucts and even sound activated LED X-Mas t-shirts!

More info: www.dublindocklandschristmasfestival.ie

Christmas Wonderland at the RDS

NYe Dublin Festival Santa Hats World Record attempt Christmas Carols

X-Mas Festival at the Docklands

There will be lots of events to mark Christmas and the New Year in Dublin – here are some of the most interesting ones.

Where: RDS, Ballsbridge, Dublin 4When: 6 December – 12 January

Where: Dublin City CentreWhen: 29 December – 1 January

Where: Harbour Plaza, Dun Laoghaire, co DublinWhen: December 21, 2 pm

Where: Pepper Canister Church, Merrion Square,

Dublin 2When: Monday, 16 at 6 pm.

Where: George’s Dock, IFSC, Dublin 1When: 12-23 December

10

Photo Album

Carolina Bernal with classmates and teacher Stephen visiting Dublin Castle

Free Italian Class at SEDA delivered by teacher Eva Gammino

SEDA’s jobs seminar organised by Alicia Petit

Jessica Veneravel and her classmates with teachers Dennis and Holly in Dublin Castle

Leaving party for Carmen from Spanish marketing team. We will miss you Carmen!

SEDA meet-up last month. Pic by Alicia Petit

SEDA’s trip to Butler’s Chocolate experience

11

Photo Album

12

Christmas Crossword

Top games to play over ChristmasA Bit of Fun

vCongratulations to DANIELA YVIMAS who won last month’s puzzle! She can pick up her prize in the Marketing office on 2nd floor.

Send your answers to news@seda.ie, or cut this page out and give it to your teacher. If you get the answers right you can win a prize!Your name:________________________________

___________________________________

Your e-mail: _______________________________

___________________________________

For more crosswords log on to: www.abcteach.com

Here are the answers to last month’s crossword puzzle:

By Yuri GALIZA

Have some time to kill during the Christmas holidays? These three PC/console games will keep you occupied – very occupied!

This is a strategy game MOBA (Massive Online Battle Arena) in which you can choose over 100 heroes to play with. It’s multiplayer and you have to work in cooperative mode or play against other people. Each hero has a different role in

the game, and to make them more effective you must collect gold by killing the other players or creeps. With gold you can buy items and get stronger and support your team. This is a very hard game at the beginning but once you get the hang of it, you’ll get addicted and keep playing forever!

A brilliant FPS (First-person shooter) which takes place in the same universe as Bioshock and Bioshock 2. You’re a detective who is looking for a girl, but to find her you’re sent off to an island in the sky and so you witness another

utopia. The music is very deep, the landscape and the story is mind-blowing! You don’t need to have played the two previ-ous games to understand the story or get the gameplay. A really outstanding game, utterly recommended!

This is a FPS in which you’ll again be afraid of the dark. You’re a guy who receives a call to go to a castle, but when you get there you start to discover the story about everything and everyone in the place... and then all hell breaks loose!

The game makes you pay attention to your sanity because the less sanity you have, the harder it is to play the game and it might even kill you! This game can cause you a heart attack or two, but it’s also utterly recommended.

DOTa 2

Bioshock Infinite

amnesia: The Dark Descent

You can find all these games on Steam!

aCROSS

2. Fruit4. Soup5. Plates7. Knives9. Glasses12. Potatoes14. Cups16. Bread17. Eggs18. Meat

DOWN

1. Butter2. Forks3. Apples6. Salt8. Vegetables10. Saucers11. Spoons13. Tea15. Sugar

1. Another word for present.4. Santa’s door?6. Animals that pull Santa’s sleigh.9. What people put on their Christmas tree.11. Something on Santa’s face.15. The day after Christmas.17. Santa’s helpers.18. The day before Christmas.20. A piece of snow.25. What Santa gives to bad girls and boys.26. A sock that hangs by the chimney.28. People put these bright things on their house.30. A reindeer with a red nose.31. A jolly man in a red suit with a beard.

DOWN2. Something people decorate.3. What people give each other.5. Where Santa’s workshop is located.7. A striped Christmas treat.8. Drink and food left for Santa.10. Something people send to each other to say ‘Merry Christmas’.12. The presents are usually _______ the tree.13. The month of Christmas.14. Look at a present before you should.16. The color of Santa’s suit.19. A common decoration for the top of the tree.21. A famous snowman.22. The place where Santa makes toys.23. Santa’s car?24. A common decoration for the top of the tree.27. A Christmas song.29. What Santa gives to good girls and boys.

aCROSS