13th of December 1981(Sunday) in Poland the communistic Council of State had announced "the state of war". Thousands of members of "Solidarnosc" ("Solidarity" Independent Self-governing Trade Union) had been internment. 9 of striking miners in the coal mine "Wujek" in Katowice had been shot and 21 wounded as the government tried to deal with the strike sending in ZOMO (Motorized Reserves of the Citizens' Militia).
The official reason was that if it was not for "the state of war" the Soviet army would have entered the country where de facto the Soviet army had resided in Poland since the end of WWII and had not left till 1991.
The actual point was to strengthen the power of the communistic government, break up "Solidarnosc" and destroy the new the nation of Polish spirit of freedom, independence and democracy.
Sunday, December 13, 2009
Friday, November 27, 2009
Week 11
I honestly have not got the slightest clue what to write about. It is not that my life is boring, but this week is not anything I want to write about so I will just bring up some random facts.
I am sitting by the fire in my boyfriend's parents' house in Co. Kilkenny. trying to come up with some Christmas presents. I can not really say I am doing well on that. But oh well, they have running water in their taps so I am a bit distracted by that wonderful thing that I have not seen in a week now.
Tomorrow we are going to Dublin to visit some friends. It seems like Saturday is going to be a good night. Good few of our friends are coming over and most of them we have not seen in ages. But again, the main attraction is that the hotel we are staying in has running water as well (I presume).
Next week is the final week of college so a lot of assessments are waiting for us. If I have not lost my count we have 4 assessments so busy, busy.
We at last got the final date for our exams so I had a look at the calendar to try to arrange some holidays and try to squeeze a visit to Poland in as well maybe. Seems like we are going to leave Poland in the miserable month of January for later in the year and go to Lanzarote instead. We will probably go to Poland for Easter break. I still have to break the news to my parents, I hope they will understand especially that we are not coming for Christmas this year. We were over in Poland last year and for the past 3 years we have been distributing the holidays between the 2 families evenly so this year is Killian's parents' turn.
I suppose this is enough for one night now.
I am sitting by the fire in my boyfriend's parents' house in Co. Kilkenny. trying to come up with some Christmas presents. I can not really say I am doing well on that. But oh well, they have running water in their taps so I am a bit distracted by that wonderful thing that I have not seen in a week now.
Tomorrow we are going to Dublin to visit some friends. It seems like Saturday is going to be a good night. Good few of our friends are coming over and most of them we have not seen in ages. But again, the main attraction is that the hotel we are staying in has running water as well (I presume).
Next week is the final week of college so a lot of assessments are waiting for us. If I have not lost my count we have 4 assessments so busy, busy.
We at last got the final date for our exams so I had a look at the calendar to try to arrange some holidays and try to squeeze a visit to Poland in as well maybe. Seems like we are going to leave Poland in the miserable month of January for later in the year and go to Lanzarote instead. We will probably go to Poland for Easter break. I still have to break the news to my parents, I hope they will understand especially that we are not coming for Christmas this year. We were over in Poland last year and for the past 3 years we have been distributing the holidays between the 2 families evenly so this year is Killian's parents' turn.
I suppose this is enough for one night now.
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Thursday classes
No water in my part of Cork City. I'm not in the mood for blogging but for what it is worth I will say what I think about last week.
Last Thursday I was very disappointed with our CIT module lecturer. I spent 35 minutes at the bus stop on Washington Street in the rain looking at several of buses number 5 drive past me. Eventually had to take bus number 8 to somewhere in Bishopstown just so that I can walk in the rain to the campus to find out that I could have stayed dry in my bed for the morning because the class never took place. However, the attendance had been taken before I managed to get to the class and now I am loosing a chance to get marks for attendance even though, unlike some people, I had showed up for the class. If I decided to skip the class due to the weather and only showed up for the useful classes I would have not gotten so wet waiting for the bus because after 9:00am catching bus number 5 on Washington is not a problem. I was naive enough to think that it would still be worth getting wet. You can imagine my disappointment now that I got nothing out of it but a dreadful cold.
Thank you very much!!!
Last Thursday I was very disappointed with our CIT module lecturer. I spent 35 minutes at the bus stop on Washington Street in the rain looking at several of buses number 5 drive past me. Eventually had to take bus number 8 to somewhere in Bishopstown just so that I can walk in the rain to the campus to find out that I could have stayed dry in my bed for the morning because the class never took place. However, the attendance had been taken before I managed to get to the class and now I am loosing a chance to get marks for attendance even though, unlike some people, I had showed up for the class. If I decided to skip the class due to the weather and only showed up for the useful classes I would have not gotten so wet waiting for the bus because after 9:00am catching bus number 5 on Washington is not a problem. I was naive enough to think that it would still be worth getting wet. You can imagine my disappointment now that I got nothing out of it but a dreadful cold.
Thank you very much!!!
Friday, November 13, 2009
End of week 9
Nothing better on a dreadful rainy Friday evening like today than to finally sit in by the fire with a yankee candle scent in the background, a glass of mojito in one hand and the sound of himself doing the dishes after the dinner. Nothing left to do but enjoy and try to forget the events of last week.
Fortunately the week was not eventful enough to cause any difficulties forgetting. We managed to submit the assignment pretty much on time, not without difficulties. I talked about this before and I am not in a habit of repeating myself so let us leave it at that today. Apart from the assignment deadline not much happened in college.
We had a class party on Thursday. The attendance was probably higher than it has ever been at the morning class of the CIT module. I suppose it was mostly due to a 1 litre beer mug of Bavaria costing €6. It was an interesting night from my point of view. I was in college when I was as young as most of my class mates are at the moment. I did my share of pouring drink down my throat and what followed was a fair share of drunken conversations, but who did not? Those days are gone for me now and, oh how different do drunk 19 year olds seem when you are on the other side of the fence. You notice the disgusted glances from the nearby tables that you would normally have not been even aware of. And for the first time the strange feeling of embarrassment appears.
I wanted to attend the classes the next day, so my boyfriend and I had only 2 bottles and I think fortunately for us we were not there to see how loud the party got and actually enjoyed the night out. The morning after was OK as well. Which I probably can not say about the rest of the party. Only one other person of those who attended showed up for the classes the next day, which lead to a whole 5 people in total for the day.
I am heading off to make another mojito now so, till next week
Fortunately the week was not eventful enough to cause any difficulties forgetting. We managed to submit the assignment pretty much on time, not without difficulties. I talked about this before and I am not in a habit of repeating myself so let us leave it at that today. Apart from the assignment deadline not much happened in college.
We had a class party on Thursday. The attendance was probably higher than it has ever been at the morning class of the CIT module. I suppose it was mostly due to a 1 litre beer mug of Bavaria costing €6. It was an interesting night from my point of view. I was in college when I was as young as most of my class mates are at the moment. I did my share of pouring drink down my throat and what followed was a fair share of drunken conversations, but who did not? Those days are gone for me now and, oh how different do drunk 19 year olds seem when you are on the other side of the fence. You notice the disgusted glances from the nearby tables that you would normally have not been even aware of. And for the first time the strange feeling of embarrassment appears.
I wanted to attend the classes the next day, so my boyfriend and I had only 2 bottles and I think fortunately for us we were not there to see how loud the party got and actually enjoyed the night out. The morning after was OK as well. Which I probably can not say about the rest of the party. Only one other person of those who attended showed up for the classes the next day, which lead to a whole 5 people in total for the day.
I am heading off to make another mojito now so, till next week
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Forgetful...ageing?
Another late post. God I am terrible. Is it the college responsibilities? (the end of semester approaching and suddenly everyone remembers it is time to give us assignments and deadlines as if criteria could not have been given a week or 2 beforehand, plus catching up on assessments) Or is it the home responsibilities? (cook the dinner for meself and the boyfriend, tidy up the house, feed the cat, sort out the back garden for the winter, build a shed, put up the shelves, paint the utility room, do not let the college get in the way of the relationship or the relationship in the way of college, keep in touch with the family far far away, deal with scummers climbing into our back garden or breaking windows) I can go on for ages like that but I think I put my point across. By the way enough with the excuses as it only takes a few moments to put up a post so I think I must put a recurrent reminder on my phone to make sure I am updating the post once a week and not making up for the omitted posts every 2 weeks.
I am a bit annoyed with the team's attitude but I will not be pointing fingers as some work had actually been done, mostly by me with main participation from the rest of the team members in form of approval or disapproval of my ideas (have to admit that it was somewhat helpful but that is not any form of teamwork whatsoever but liberal leadership of some sort, or a democratic/despotic regime, which I did not think existed simply by the 2 terms being mutually exclusive, and yet my team managed to prove me wrong). Any form of encouragement meets resistance of the highest level. I fully understand teacher's frustration with the young, or should I rather say, immature crowd. There is a slight difference here though, the teachers are getting paid and that can buy some patience.
Aaanyway, the standards have slipped over the last 2 weeks so I do not think it is time to say anything to anyone yet. I admit I went behind their backs here, and it might be considered unfair on my side, but I need to let some steam somewhere before I get to the point that writing is not enough and I decide to say something. Then it will be the time to ask the teacher if there is any way I could be given an assignment of my own
That should be enough. More revelations on Friday (reminder already set)
P.S. Did not think my posts are going to reach that length. Hardly any achievement but still, wow!
I am a bit annoyed with the team's attitude but I will not be pointing fingers as some work had actually been done, mostly by me with main participation from the rest of the team members in form of approval or disapproval of my ideas (have to admit that it was somewhat helpful but that is not any form of teamwork whatsoever but liberal leadership of some sort, or a democratic/despotic regime, which I did not think existed simply by the 2 terms being mutually exclusive, and yet my team managed to prove me wrong). Any form of encouragement meets resistance of the highest level. I fully understand teacher's frustration with the young, or should I rather say, immature crowd. There is a slight difference here though, the teachers are getting paid and that can buy some patience.
Aaanyway, the standards have slipped over the last 2 weeks so I do not think it is time to say anything to anyone yet. I admit I went behind their backs here, and it might be considered unfair on my side, but I need to let some steam somewhere before I get to the point that writing is not enough and I decide to say something. Then it will be the time to ask the teacher if there is any way I could be given an assignment of my own
That should be enough. More revelations on Friday (reminder already set)
P.S. Did not think my posts are going to reach that length. Hardly any achievement but still, wow!
Friday, October 30, 2009
Reflection, week 7
Another week gone by, a short one this time. Had a few things planned to do this week. So happened that the week was so short, bank holiday made me so lazy, and all the time had gone by and I hardly did anything. Disgusted with myself for that, but I suppose at least I can be proud of my results of the midterm exams and the continuous assessments with 95% overall score so far. Must keep it up though so a working weekend ahead of me to make up for the lost time during the week. No fun, just work. As the Irish say 'that'll learn ya'.
A bit more news on the RPL. Handed my portfolio to Phil O'Leary on Wednesday. I do not know if it is enough but most certainly I will fight to the end. My work experience, even though I have only few years in total, had surely taught me more than a semester of this course could
A bit more news on the RPL. Handed my portfolio to Phil O'Leary on Wednesday. I do not know if it is enough but most certainly I will fight to the end. My work experience, even though I have only few years in total, had surely taught me more than a semester of this course could
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Update on RPL
I have gathered all my relevant experience and skills and assigned to corresponding learning outcomes of the module. I have contacted the manager of an O2 store to notify them that CIT might be contacting them in regards to my experience I have gained during my time working for them. I have also found and dusted all my old letters of reference going back as far as 2002. Unfortunately I can not find a way of contacting one place I worked in but I will figure out something.
As per agreement with Mr Tim Horgan I have sent him an email with all the information and he promised to pass it on to HoD Mr Jim O'Dwyre some time next week.
I am almost finished with filling out the RPL template I have received form Phil O'Leary and I arranged to meet with her tomorrow (yes I know it is a day off but she is actually working).
Going ahead with the project was actually fun, it helped me realise where I am standing and what my expectations for the future are. I really hope I can get credit for my work. I am 25, I attended college before, I lived on my own for past 6 years 3 of which in a foreign country and now am attending a college course in a language that is not native to me. I believe I would not have been here now if I did not have enough creativity and problem solving skills or if I lacked communication skills, ability to work in a team or did not have plans for future figured out to at least a certain extent for that matter.
As per agreement with Mr Tim Horgan I have sent him an email with all the information and he promised to pass it on to HoD Mr Jim O'Dwyre some time next week.
I am almost finished with filling out the RPL template I have received form Phil O'Leary and I arranged to meet with her tomorrow (yes I know it is a day off but she is actually working).
Going ahead with the project was actually fun, it helped me realise where I am standing and what my expectations for the future are. I really hope I can get credit for my work. I am 25, I attended college before, I lived on my own for past 6 years 3 of which in a foreign country and now am attending a college course in a language that is not native to me. I believe I would not have been here now if I did not have enough creativity and problem solving skills or if I lacked communication skills, ability to work in a team or did not have plans for future figured out to at least a certain extent for that matter.
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