Elf, Young Scientist and Work Experience

On the 17th of December TY went to see Elf the Musical in the Bord Gais Theatre in Dublin. I was so excited as I love musicals and haven't been to that many. I was also interested in finding out how the musical would translate to the stage, as I don't really like the movie version.
We arrived at the Bord Gais and stocked up on sweets and drinks. 

 

The place was packed. . As the curtain was raised you could cut the anticipation with a knife. As they rolled the first set into place I knew that it would be a great show. I absolutely loved it- the sets, costumes, singing and acting were all amazing. The lead actor Ben Forster who played Buddy was incredible. I had a brilliant time with my friends and can't wait to go to another musical!

On January 7th Eimear, Amy and I went to the RDS in Dublin to set up our Young Scientist Project. The project, called 'Ideal Conditions for Learning', had been months in the making. We got up at half six in the morning and drove to the Young Scientist for nine. The place was just being set up as we arrived. We were given our student passes at the door, and were handed manuals and bags as we walked in. We then found our stall number and made our way to our stall number 1538. Our poster was set up and we organised our display, then walked around to look at the other projects. There were some really good ones. In the afternoon, we went to the opening ceremony. An irish band called Street Lights were playing, a dance group performed and a gymnast did tricks on a rope.Afterwards, we had our first round of judging. That went really well and the judge was thorough and asked us loads of questions. 
On the second day we arrived at nine again. Our school was coming in to see the projects, and I had lots of fun showing my friends around and going to the shows. We also had our second round of judging in the afternoon. Friday was the closing ceremony. We got a highly commended, which we were really proud of, and we went to a karaoke night in the evening which was hilarious. We packed up our project on Saturday, and Aimee and I went to the farewell disco. Overall it was an amazing experience, and I can't wait to apply for it again next year.

Wednesday was my second day at JamMedia. I took the bus at half nine into Dublin, not wearing a uniform as there was none specified. My work experience started at half ten, so I walked around Grafton Street for a bit before heading to Kevin St. When I got in, I told the receptionist my name and she introduced me to my supervisor Kieron. He gave me a basic outline of what I would be doing, took me upstairs to the offices and gave me a computer and a tablet for drawing on. He told me that today would be about learning how to use Photoshop and getting used to drawing on a screen with an interactive pen. I spent the morning experimenting with Photoshop and drawing with the tablet. It was really interesting, as I could hear the other people in the office animating different sections of programs I was familiar, and I got to know the different jobs in the office-Art Director etc. I had lunch at one and got back at two. During the afternoon I learnt how to 'mask' objects in Photoshop- removed the background from the image. This was great fun and I was able to mess around with that for the afternoon.  I'm really excited about going back next week.

:)