Hello Dominican College Again. El Sábado 21 de Febrero un grupo de 25 alumnos/as de nuestro Instituto acompañados por los profesores Doña Encarna Dueñas, Don  Enrique Almanchel y Don Antonio Ruiz fuimos recibidos por nuestros amigos irlandeses.
El fin de semana lo pasamos en familia, haciendo alguna excursión y disfrutando el reencuentro con nuestros anfitriones.
El lunes fue un día de colegio, pasamos el día realizando actividades diversas y muy interesantes. Empezamos con clase de cocina, aprendimos a hacer y degustamos los famosos “pancakes”, hicimos pinitos como actores en la clase de teatro, demostramos nuestro talento como artistas enla clase de pintura, tuvimos una muy interesante clase de Geografía y asistimos, boquiabiertos, a un ensayo del coro  y del grupo de música popular del colegio.
El resto de la semana transcurrió de excursión en excursión, fuimos recibidos en el Ayuntamiento de Derry, donde Ana Veredas Toledo y Ana Isabel Martín nos sorprendieron con unas piezas musicales en el órgano que data de 1887 y reconstruido en 1997. En Belfast fuimos acompañados por un profesor de Historia del St. Mary’s Teacher’s training College que depende de la Universidad de Queens y pudimos ver los murales que son una de las estampas más famosas e impresionantes de la ciudad.
Las tardes también han estado llenas de actividades, fuimos una noche a la bolera en Coleraine, y un año más la familia Mac Alpin nos invitó a todo el grupo a cenar en su Restaurante Oriental.
El último fin de semana una gran parte del grupo, junto con sus amigos irlandeses hizo una excursión, con ferry incluido, a Donegal donde estuvieron jugando a “paintballing”, otros fueron a patinar sobre hielo en Belfast y otros aprovecharon para visitar la Calzada del Gigante.
Una vez más nos han recibido con enorme generosidad y nos han hecho sentir como en casa, por lo que la despedida, como siempre, fue muy triste y hasta el cielo lloró esa noche.

“On Tuesday 24th March, the Spanish pupils accompanied by their three teachers , Encarna Dueñas, Antonio Ruiz, Enrique Almanchel and our own Ms O’Connor went to Cultra to visit the Folk park.
Everyone had a lovely day in the February sunshine and the visit went extremely well.
The Folk park consists of “Ballycultra”, an Irish town made up of authentic old buildings taken from various places around Northern Ireland. Our visitors particularly enjoyed the sweet shop, where you could buy old fashioned sweets by the quarter and the photographer’s shop, where we learnt that the first photos took twenty minutes to take. Thank goodness for digital cameras!!
The Spaniards loved to see the typically Irish thatched cottages with turf fires and tasted some wheaten bread made on the fire.
In the evening we came right up to the 21st century again with bowling in the Jet Centre.
Although there was some doubt over which country won, we all had good fun!

Twenty five students arrived with their host Dominican families on Saturday 21st February with their three teachers , Encarna Duenas, Antonio Ruiz and Enrique Almanchel.
The weekend was spent helping the Spanish students adjust to their families with many having the opportunity to visit local attractions such as The Giant’s Causeway.

This is the seventh year that Dominican has be visited their exchange school, I.E.S. María Zambrano in the sea side town of Torre del Mar, about 30 minutes outside Málaga. The visit to Northern Ireland follows on from the Dominican Visit to Torre Del Mar last October.

On Monday the pupils spent the day in school in the creative and expressive area of the curriculum with lessons on the art of cooking the perfect pancake , a Drama session enabling the pupils to role play their English skills, a visit to the Art room to work on landscapes and watercolours. Pupils also took the time to learn about the Geography and culture of Northern Ireland . The final period of the day was dedicated to music with the students hearing specially chosen extracts from the forthcoming “ Around the World in 80 Minutes” Riverside Dominican concert.

On Tuesday the Spanish will travel to Cultra with Mrs Rosemary O’Connor with the evening being set aside for bowling in The Jet Centre.

On Wednesday they will visit Springhill National Trust property in Moneymore with Mrs Sally Andrew.

On Thursday Mr Barry Murphy will take the group to his native city Derry where they will visit the Guildhall,The Tower Museum and visit the historic Walls.On Thursday night the group will gather for the now traditional meal in The Ramore Wine bar courtesy of the McAlpin family.

The final cultural visit of the week will be to St Mary’s Teacher Training College in Belfast accompanied by Mrs O’ Hara and Mrs Cummings. In Belfast the Spanish pupils, accompanied by their Dominican counterparts will visit wall murals in both the Falls and Shankill and will attend a lecture on conflict and reconciliation in Northern Ireland. Lunch will be laid on by The International Fund for Ireland and the afternoon will provide that obligatory opportunity for some retail therapy Victoria Square style !
As part of their rehearsals for the forthcoming Riverside Concert " Around the World in Eighty Minutes" , Visiting staff and pupils from I.E.S. María Zambrano , Torre del Mar,were treated to exclusive previews of music from the concert.

Firstly the Chamber Choir performed, followed by Hannah McDonald's solo piece. Then GCSE student Kyle Monford played his own composition for electric guitar. "Samba Pati" by Carlos Santana was played by two Year 11 music students, Hector Laverty and Stephen Ramsay, whilst the traditional group stirred up passions with two pieces”.