Dublin School of English

In my view St. Patrick’s Day was the most exciting event during my week in Ireland.
Above all, I found it really fascinating that this festival is so famous in Ireland. Moreover, plenty of people from all over the world, most of them dressed in emerald green party gear, took part in the parades. So, the atmosphere impressed me very much. Unfortunately, the weather was very bad. It was extremely cold and there was heavy rain. Nonetheless, we had great fun on that day and the whole crowd of spectators was in a really good mood.
To me, the parade looked a little bit like our Austrian carnival parades, because everyone was dressed up. It was especially nice to see so many international participants. Some of them were wearing their traditional clothes. Of course, the Austrian participants were wearing “leather trousers” and “dirndl skirts”.

Saint Patrick’s Parade Dublin

However, I was particularly impressed by the people from Brazil, because they were wearing hardly anything apart from tiny bikinis, which were decorated with lots of sequins, and some sort of enormous, colourful headgear. Some of them had wrapped themselves up in the Brazilian flag, maybe to protect themselves from the rain. In addition, their high heels were magnificent, as they did not only look beautiful, but were also exceptionally high.

All in all, I extremely enjoyed taking part in this year’s Saint Patrick’s Day celebrations. However, the whole week in Ireland was really great. We visited many interesting sights like the Guinness Storehouse, Old Jameson Whiskey Distillery, Trinity College, Dublinia and could gain a first impression of the Irish capital city. If you have the chance to fly to Ireland, seize the opportunity, because it is a lovely country with plenty of fantastic sights, great shopping possibilities and nice people.
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How do you celebrate Easter?

Spring-time, when new life begins after the long winter is celebrated all over the world. In Ireland, like most Christian countries, Easter marks this new beginning. Although this year it seems a lot more like Christmas outside!

The Irish celebrate Easter by exchanging gifts, usually chocolate eggs, candies & sweets. The Easter Bunny delivers these presents to excited children all over the country.
Easter traditions are very old, (the chocolate egg part may be new) but no matter where you go, you will find people celebrating in similar ways.
Most countries do have their own individual and unique slants on these traditions.
In Greece they dye eggs red and decorate them.
The Easter Bunny is originally a Germany tradition and they have Easter egg hunts.
In Colombia they eat iguanas and turtles for Easter dinner and in Hungary they splash women with water.  By Brian Ronan

Check out how DSE is working with Sonett and the EU to integrate social media into the classroom. We have been using Google Hangouts as a platform. Read all about it here. Click here if you want to learn more about Sonett. You’ll find interesting blogs and videos posted by students involved in the project. They have a lot to say about DSE, Dublin and the recent conference here. A delegation made up of students and teachers will be visiting CCT Murcia, Spain in May for the next conference.

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