Students from 34 countries are in SEDA this year

Students from 34 different na-tions enrolled to study in SEDA this year. The college now has a truly multicultural student body and has proved popular with peo-ple from all over the world – from South Korea to South America and from Malawi in Africa to Croatia in Europe. Last month the school’s management compiled student statistics to see how many people enrolled for courses since January to end of October this year and where they were coming from.

The figures show that the larg-

est group of students came from the Spanish speaking world – countries like Spain, Venezuela and Mexico together accounted for nearly 50% of all students en-rolled in SEDA so far this year. An-other large group of students came from Brazil, which was the largest “sending country” this year, with 529 Brazilian students enrolled for courses in 2012 (34% of the total number). However, Spain lost out only slightly, with 525 Spanish stu-dents enrolled. SEDA also had 214 students from Venezuela (14% of

the total), 92 French students (6%) and 78 learners from Malawi (5%), a country known as “the warm heart of Africa”. You can see the statistics in full on the new SEDA News website www.news.sedacol-lege.com.

“It’s brilliant that our students come from so many different countries,” said SEDA’s director of studies Carol Cregg. “One of the greatest things about going abroad to study is that you meet people from other cultures – it makes the exchange experience so much

richer. Diversity in the classroom also helps the students to learn English because they are in a situa-tion where they have no choice but to speak the language with their classmates”.

SEDA continues to attract students from new countries. Re-cently the school’s first learners from Finland and Greece enrolled for English language courses. And this month SEDA’s marketing team will attend student fairs in South America, including Panama and Costa Rica.

Issue 12, November 2012. Copyright: Skills & Enterprise Development Academy

Students and teachers enjoy the SEDA Halloween party last month - for more pictures see pages 10 & 11.

SEDA has students from 34 countries – from South Korea to South America and from Malawi in Africa to Croatia in Europe.

DUBLIN MARATHONSEDA stu-dent Rubens Moreira ran the Dublin m a r a t h o n and was im-pressed by the support of Dublin people.

Page 2

WORK EXPERIENCE

Get work experience in Ireland with the new SEDA i n t e r n -ship pro-gramme. Page 4

YOUR STORY

Italian stu-dents Gabri-ele and Sal-vatore find Dublin a bit cold, but fall in love with the city’s warm peo-ple

Page 6

SEDA NEWS IS ONE!

SEDA News c e l e b r a t e s one year in print by go-ing online. This edition is the twelfth issue of the newspaper. Page 3

2 NEWS

Welcome to the November issue of SEDA News!

This edition is special because it marks the newspaper’s first year in print. To celebrate we’ve collected all the front pages from the past 12 months – see if you can find yourself or your friends in them!

Last month SEDA celebrated Halloween and we have all the most exciting photos from the college par-ty (including a balloon fight between teachers Emma and Rosa!) for you on pages 10 and 11.

This month a number of students also sent us their stories for SEDA News scary story competition. The best stories are published on page 7. Well done to the winners – Denise Agarioyada and Roseni Mariano!

If you want to win cool prizes too then I suggest you take part in this month’s competitions. We have two of them: the quiz (you can now cut it out and give it to your teacher instead of sending all the answers by e-mail) and a contest for two tickets to the Cliffs of Moher.

All you have to do to win the tickets is send us a photo of your-self hanging around one of Ireland’s tourist attractions. The best photo wins the tickets (but the tickets will only be given out if enough peo-ple sign up for the tour and it goes ahead). All the photos you send us will appear in SEDA News.

Nothing much seems to be hap-pening this month in Ireland as the country is catching its breath after Halloween and preparing for the Christmas season, but, as always, we’ve got reviews of nice pubs and restaurants for you to visit and we’ve also compiled a list of Dublin pubs where you can play pool – a great way to spend the cold November evenings!

In this issue we’ve also got a story about SEDA student Rubens who ran 42.2 kilometres during the Dublin City marathon last month (naturally he was wearing a SEDA T-Shirt!), teacher Emma, who has the sexiest accent in the school, students from Italy and Brazil and the usual low down on what’s going in SEDA and Dublin. Have a pleasant read!

As always, send us your photos, stories and ideas on news@seda.ie

SEDA News editorViktor Posudnevsky

A word from the editor

SEDA News, copyright: Skills & Enterprise Development Academy (SEDA). EDITOR AND LAYOUT: Viktor Posudnevsky. FINAL REVIEW: Carol Cregg. CIRCULATION: 1000 copies. ADVERTISING & EDITORIAL: news@seda.ie

“Go SEDA! Come on SEDA!” these kinds of shouts accompa-nied Rubens Moreira for most of the 42.2 kilometres that he ran along the streets of Dublin on October 29. The Brazilian stu-dent was wearing a T-Shirt with a SEDA logo and many supporters mistakenly assumed that Seda was his own name. “I love SEDA, but a lot of times I really wanted to tell people to stop calling me SEDA and call me by my real name,” said Rubens. “Next time I will make sure to have my name printed on the shirt”.

Rubens, who works for a mul-tinational company in Brazil, says he came to Ireland to “learn Eng-lish and run”. He runs a lot in his home country, but had never done

a marathon before coming to Dub-lin in August this year. “It was very difficult and after the race I was sore for days,” Rubens told SEDA News. “The last 12 kilometres was the hardest part. I was only able to finish the marathon because of the people of Dublin who cheered me on and kept me going. When I crossed the finish line I felt so emotional. I wanted to thank all the Dublin people who gave me the strength to finish my first mar-athon”.

Rubens says people offered him sweets and water along the course, while many children reached out with their hands to give him a “high five”. The Brazilian student was also impressed by people who dressed up in fancy costumes and

made big cheering signs to sup-port the runners. “I’ve never seen this kind of support anywhere,” he said. “The people were shouting like it was the final game of the World Cup! It was beautiful, just beauti-ful”.

Next year Rubens has set himself another challenge – to run the New York marathon and improve his fin-ishing time of 4 hours and 8 minutes. The SEDA student is also planning to run a half-marathon in Paris and, possibly, a few more races in Dublin. He

said he would be happy to run to-gether with other SEDA students.

Get in touch on: news@seda.ie

“Dublin people gave me the strength to

finish my first marathon,” says

SEDA’s own Rubens

Find out about volunteering in

Ireland!If you ever wondered

about volunteering in Ireland you can find out everything there is to know right here in SEDA! Caroline McClure, a placement officer with Volun-teer Ireland – Ireland’s nation-al volunteering network – will come to SEDA on Thursday, December 6, to do a talk about volunteering.

Caroline will explain how volunteering in Ireland works, talk about current volunteer-ing opportunities (such as carol singing in Grafton street, selling Christmas trees for

charity and many others!) and how to apply for these projects. You will be able to sign up to volunteer right after Caroline’s presentation. Volunteering is a good way to make friends, find out more about life in Ireland and, of course, improve your English, so don’t miss this op-portunity!

The talk on volunteering with Volunteer Ireland place-ment officer Caroline McClure will take place in SEDA on Thursday, December 7 at 2 pm.

SEDA student Rubens Moreira ran the Dublin Marathon last month

– his first ever marathon race. Rubens was very impressed by the

friendliness of Dublin people and, he says, it was their support and

constant cheering that made him finish the 42.2 kilometre distance.

3NEWS

SEDA News celebrates 1 year in print!

To celebrate SEDA News’ first an-niversary the college newspaper has gone online. From this month all the articles from SEDA News as well as more stories and information that didn’t get into the paper is available on http://news.sedacollege.ie The new website has sections on events in Dub-lin and a Going out page with infor-mation about pubs, restaurants, tour-ist attractions and other interesting places to visit in Dublin and around the country. The website will be up-dated with new material weekly, some of which will also be printed in the newspaper. So if you want to be always up to date on everything that is hap-

pening in SEDA and in Dublin, read SEDA News online (and don’t forget to

check mySEDA Facebook page too)!

SEDA News goes online from this month

SEDA’s monthly newspaper SEDA News has completed its first year in print – this month’s edition is the twelfth issue of the newspaper. The publication is actually older than a year as the first issue came out in Au-gust 2011 and on some months the paper did not come out. The news-paper was started by SEDA students Rodrigo Luiz Vianna and Andre Mar-tins Ressel and is now continued by

its present editor and designer Viktor Posudnevsky. Since the very first issue SEDA News covered Irish events that are of interest to international stu-dents, published stories about foreign students and their Irish teachers and did its best to keep the reader in the loop about all the interesting things going on in Dublin. We will keep do-ing that for the foreseeable future! Thank you for reading SEDA News!

A map of Dublin de-signed specifically for SEDA students was launched this month. The map will be avail-able free of charge in SEDA’s reception and in the school’s student accommodation. It shows Dublin city centre with all the main landmarks and tourist attractions and also gives students handy tel-ephone numbers and tips to improve their English.

A new video series about SEDA staff and students is taking YouTube by storm! Well, it’s not exactly up with Gangnam Style yet, but anyone who is curious to find out more about SEDA’s teachers can watch interviews with them on the school’s YouTube channel: SEDA Academy.

The interviews have been recorded and edited by SEDA students Hum-berto Rosa and Thairon Mendes who

own a successful film production com-pany in Brazil called Red Line Filmes. The pair are also making their mark on Irish cinema – they are busy shooting several independent films in Dublin. The SEDA YouTube channel also hosts a new series of videos by Guilherme Nassim. Guilherme interviews SEDA students about their experiences in Ireland and the results go online – check it out!

SEDA Map is launched

SEDA takes over YouTube

4 NEWS

Congratulations to our prize winners!

SEDA is organizing a free intern-ship programme which will allow stu-dents to learn English and gain work experience in an Irish company at the same time. The work placements will be unpaid and it is planned that they will last for up to 4 weeks. The students will be able to choose the company where they want to work from a list of Irish businesses. SEDA is currently setting up internship opportunities in IT, pharmaceutics, engineering, busi-ness administration, digital market-ing, accounting, media, customer ser-vice, law and other areas.

The key benefit of the programme for students is the opportunity to im-prove their English in a real work envi-ronment – something that no class can

offer! The programme is also a chance for students to get well-paying jobs in Ireland as internships sometimes lead to full-time employment.

In order to take part in SEDA in-ternship programme you need to be over 18 years of age and your course in SEDA has to be for at least 6 months. Only students with intermediate or higher level of English will be ac-cepted. Students will also need private medical insurance (at least for the du-ration of the internship).

The work placements are either part-time or full-time. Part-time in-ternships can be done in the student’s free time (for example, if you study in the morning you can work in the af-

ternoons) or during holidays. Full time internships are only available during holidays.

If you would like to take part in the programme send your CV and a cover letter in-dicating the professional area where you would like to work to internship@seda.ie. SEDA’s Internship programme coor-dinator will then get in touch with you and inform you about the positions that are currently on offer. After you choose the roles that interest you SEDA will arrange interviews with the re-spective companies. If the interview is successful then you can start your internship.

To apply for the programme just send your CV to:

internship@seda.ie!

Well done to everyone who took part in SEDA News’ competitions last month and throughout this past year! SANDRA PETRY got all the answers

right in last month’s quiz, while ROSE SAMPAIO became the over-all winner of SEDA News’ writing competition about the students’ first

impressions of Dublin.

They both got some nice prizes – an Irish-themed monopoly game and a picnic bag. Congratulations!

This month the competitions continue – you can test your knowledge of European cities in our Europe travel quiz and you can also win two tickets for a trip to the Cliffs of Mo-her if you send us a photo of yourself beside some Irish tourist attraction. Check out pages 9 and 12 for more in-formation!

Get work experience with SEDA internship programme

Weather forecasters say that white Christmas in Ireland is “more likely than usual”, Irish media report. According to one service, there is a 20% chance of snow falling on De-cember 25, with northern counties having a 30% chance. First snow was seen last month in the mountains of Donegal and Sligo as well as in county Limerick. Snow is unusual for Dublin, but sometimes it does fall in December and January. The year 2010 saw a particularly harsh winter as most of Ireland was covered with snow for several weeks and the tem-peratures dropped below freezing. Last year there was only very little snow which melted quickly and there was no snow at all at Christmas.

White Christ-mas is “likely”

this year

Ireland signs education agreement with BrazilIreland’s Minister for Trade and

Development Joe Costello signed an education and research agreement with Brazil that will see 4,000 under-graduate Brazilian students study in Ireland over the next four years. The agreement was secured during Enter-prise Ireland’s trade mission to Brazil last month led by Mr Costello. The agreement is part of Brazil’s Science Without Borders programme – a Bra-zilian Government scholarship pro-gramme which aims to send 100,000 Brazilian students on undergraduate courses and PhDs courses in science, technology, engineering, mathematics and creative industries at top universi-ties around the world.

Rose Sampaio getting her prizeSandra Pentry and SEDA’s deirector of studies Carol Cregg

G a r d a i will soon be patrolling the streets of Dub-lin on electric Segways – the two-wheeled self-balanc-ing vehicles that run on r e c h a r g e -able batteries. Two Segways

equipped with luminous Garda brand-ing and blue lights were donated to Ireland’s police force by the Dublin City Business Association (DCBA) last month. The vehicles will be used to pa-trol pedestrian areas of Dublin, such as Grafton Street. According to DCBA, Segways are already used for policing in over 300 cities worldwide and will boost the visibility of gardai in Dublin. If the pilot project is successful then Segways could be rolled out to other cities in Ireland.

Gardai try out Segways

5SEDA STAFF

Emma has the sexiest accent in SEDAEvery month SEDA News interviews a teacher so you could get to know them better. This month we

got hold of EMMA BRENNAN who has been recently promoted to course co-ordinator. Emma is also

the only staff member who is from county Donegal in the North West of Ireland. Donegal people are

known for their hospitality, warmth and... accent, which has been voted the sexiest accent in Ireland.Tell me a little bit about yourself.

I am from Donegal town. I did a degree in law and taxation in Leterk-enny IT and then I went travelling with a friend of mine. We taught Eng-lish in Thailand for nearly two years. I taught English to small children in two private schools there. We travelled all over Thailand and also went to Cam-bodia, Laos and Vietnam. On our holi-days we went to the South of Thailand where all the islands are. I even got to see the place where the film The Beach was made.

Later I went back to Ireland and got a job in Dublin. I’ve been teach-ing English to adults ever since. So I’ve been teaching for the last four years now. I haven’t used my law and taxa-tion degree, at least not yet!

You recently got a new role in SEDA as a course co-ordinator and director’s assistant. What do you do exactly?

It’s basically helping students. I help to put students in classes and on Fridays I give induction days. That involves getting students to know all there is to know about the school and about Dublin. I also help coordinate exams and give activities to students. There’s something different every Fri-day – conversation class, games class and so on. I also teach English, but only in the afternoons.

Do you miss your family in Don-egal and do you go home often?

I try to go once a month because my family miss me a lot. But my home town is four hours away from Dublin so it can be very tiring. Hopefully I will

be driving soon, but at the moment I get home by bus.

Is it difficult for students to under-stand your Donegal accent?

Yes, it can be a hard for them to get it sometimes. But do you know that, statistically, Donegal accent is the sexi-est accent in Ireland? You can google it if you don’t believe me! There was a survey and most people said that Don-egal accent is the sexiest accent in Ire-land. I don’t want to brag about it, but I can’t argue with statistics!

Speaking about classes, no student has ever said to me: I don’t understand you. After a couple of weeks they get used to it. Different accents are good to listen to because Ireland is not just one accent, it’s 32 different accents. Even in Dublin there are different accents!

Are there any special words or expressions in Donegal which are not used in other parts of Ireland?

Yes, there are plenty of them. So many that I wouldn’t be able to name them all! There’s even a whole diction-ary of “Donegal English”. I’ll e-mail it to you if you want.

Please do! And do you teach these Donegal expressions to your stu-dents?

I do sometimes, but not too much. I want them to speak proper English, not Donegal English!

This year Donegal won the All Ireland Gaelic football champion-ship. How did you celebrate?

The celebrations in Donegal were huge! In our town you can only fit about 2000 people on the Main Street, but there were about 30 000 people that night! Daniel O’Donnell, a famous singer from Donegal, was singing. But unfortunately I didn’t go home be-cause I was working on the Monday.

I didn’t really celebrate, but I went out for a few drinks with some Don-egal people after the game.

Did you watch the game in Croke Park?

I watched the final from my house in Dublin. It was very difficult to get tickets to Croke Park, they were like gold dust.

What do you like to do when you’re not teaching?

I like playing tennis. There is a tennis court near where I live in Ring-send. I also like going to the cinema, pubs, socializing, reading, going for walks. I also go to the gym three times a week. Once you do all that there’s no time for anything else!

What sort of music are you into?I like all kinds of music except for

Westlife! My favourite band would be Snow Patrol. I never miss their gigs, I think I went to see them four times this year!

What kind of food do you like?

I like Italian food, pizza would be

my favourite. I like to make my own pizza as well, that’s my speciality in cooking. My recipe would be: puff pastry, tomato puree on top, pieces of chicken, peppers, onions, mozza-rella and a little bit of cheddar cheese – voila!

What places would you recom-mend students to see in Donegal?

In my town there’s a castle which is interesting. You also have the Slieve League – it’s the third highest cliff in Europe! It’s breathtaking especially on a nice day. You just have to be very careful because you can go off the edge of the cliff... There are loads of other places to see in Donegal: you can go walking on the beach, horse riding, surfing in a town called Bundoran. There are also golf courses if you like playing golf. Donegal is a huge place with loads of things to explore! But summer is the best time to visit. In winter it’s too windy and cold.

You can learn some “Donegal English” in our Craic-tionary on

page 12.

Emma: sexy and she knows it!

Breathtaking: Slieve League cliffs in Donegal

6

Italian friends Salvatore Abbate and Gabriele Palma came to Dub-lin from Naples last month to learn English in SEDA. They both say they liked the country and Gabri-ele now wishes to go back here one day in order to do an internship in economics or business – his area of studies at university. “I think Ireland is a much better place to learn English than Britain,” the Italian student told SEDA News. “The people here don’t speak so fast and the accent is more under-standable”.

The friends were also im-pressed by what they call the “gen-uine warmth” of the Irish people: “Irish people are also friendlier than English,” Salvatore Abbate

added. “Everyone is happy to help in the street. They are really warm hearted and kind. Irish people say what they have on their mind – same as the people of Naples!”

The Italians made many friends during their short stay – both among Irish people and for-eigners. They also picked up a bit of Spanish and Portuguese as they met many Spanish and Brazilian students in the hostel where they were staying.

Probably the most difficult thing to get used to in Ireland was the weather. “When we stepped off the plane we felt very cold, it was like Christmas in Italy,” said Gabriele. “But after a few days we got used to it and, as you can see,

I now wear only a T-shirt when I go out!”

The pair found the time to visit Ireland’s tourist attractions, including the Cliffs of Moher and the Giant’s Causeway and they say they really enjoyed their time here. “The moment was right for us to go to Ireland,” said Gabriele Palma. “We had just finished the univer-sity and English is very important to get a job in Italy now. I think it’s much better to learn English in and English-speaking country because here we don’t have anyone to speak Italian with. In SEDA our English improved a lot. We really like the teachers and the style of teaching, it was really fun!”

Italian students find Dublin a bit cold, but fall in love with the city’s warm peopleItalian friends SALVATORE ABBATE and GABRIELE PALMA fell in love with Ireland during their one-month stay in SEDA and want to go back here some day.

YOUR STORY

Marcelo leaves SEDA to see the birth of his son, but hopes to be back soon

Popular student MARCELO ADRIANO had to interrupt his course in SEDA because of some great news: he is going to be a father! The Brazilian student has flown home to see the birth of his first son.

Salvatore and Gabriele got used to the Dublin weather!

31-year-old Marcelo Adriano hails from Campinas in the state of Sao Paulo, Brazil. He says when growing up he was always a big fan of heavy metal music and all his favourite bands sang in Eng-lish. “I grew up listening to these songs and I’ve always wanted to understand them,” he told SEDA News. “My favourite band is Blind Guardian, but I also like Hallow-een, Stratovarius, Iron Maiden, Hammerfall, Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Whitesnake and many others. I always wanted to under-stand the lyrics, but when I was growing up there was no internet and so I had to translate the songs with a dictionary”.

Coming to Ireland was Mar-celo’s first trip to Europe. He origi-nally wanted to study English in the US, but decided to come to Ire-land instead after meeting SEDA marketing team at a student fair in Belo Horizonte. He booked a one-year course in SEDA, but just two days before he was due to fly to Ireland he got some unexpected

news: his ex-girlfriend was preg-nant with his son! Marcelo had to cut his course short and he flew back home in the end of October to be there when his first child is born.

After the birth of his son Mar-celo hopes to come back to Dublin and continue his studies in SEDA. “I need English for my job,” he ex-plains. “In Brazil if you speak Eng-lish now you have a lot of oppor-tunities. There’s the World Cup in 2014 and the Summer Olympics in 2016. If you speak English you can find a job fast”. He says he worked in Oi, a telecoms company, for 3 years, but left the job to come to Dublin.

“I’m very happy that I made the decision to come to Ireland instead of the USA,” the Brazilian student told SEDA News. “Ireland is a great place to learn English and you can easily travel all around Eu-rope from here. And it’s cheap too – thank you Ryanair!”

Marcelo has already been to London, Cardiff, Liverpool, Paris

and Edinburgh. And he travelled all over Ireland: Wicklow, Belfast, Cork, Galway and many other places. The student made plenty of European friends in Ireland and he enjoys keeping in touch with them. “I met most of my European friends in SEDA. It’s really good to keep in contact with them. For ex-ample, when I travelled to Paris I

met a few ex-SEDA students there whom I know from Dublin. I have a friend in Nice and he wants to come and visit me in Brazil. I also have friends in Murcia, Spain and next year they will visit me in my house. It’s a cultural exchange and it’s good!”

Marcelo after a trip to Scotland Marcelo Adriano in Paris with friends he made in SEDA

7SEDA NEWS WRITING COMPETITION

I was at his funeral. I touched his pale and cold face while I was pretending to cry. And as his best friend, I helped to close his coffin and to carry it. I watched when they put earth above his coffin. Yes, definitely, he is dead. He must be.

But in my dreams, so real dreams, he is alive. And I have had the same dream day after day since his death. He looks at me with his yellow putrid eyes, points his fleshless finger at me and ac-cuses me of killing him. And from his fetid body I can smell death. And when I wake up, sweating and shouting, my bedroom has the same smell: death. As if he was there, watching me sleep and appreciating my desperate misery.

Today it was one month of nightmares. I can’t stand it any-more, I need to do something. I know, maybe that is my punish-ment for killing him and making him suffer. But apart from that, I don’t regret anything: he deserved it and I did the right thing. God knows my reasons, and the Devil knows what I need to do to be at peace again.

If he is already dead, I need to kill him one more time. Burn his coffin and be sure he won’t come back to accuse me again. With Devil as my witness, I went

to the graveyard, willing to finish those mad dreams. It was mid-night when I started digging up his grave. It was not hard work as the earth was soft because it had been raining all day. I spent less than two hours digging until I could see the whole coffin. It was pouring and the clouds covered the moonlight, so I only had my lantern for light.

It was only when I finished my work that I realized what I had done. I was inside the hole, stand-ing on the coffin, and I couldn’t get out from there because the earth was too wet. And my plan to burn the coffin was postponed.

In the silence of the graveyard broken by the rain I could hear moaning, and I recognized the voice from my dreams. Imme-diately and desperately I tried to climb the mud, in vain. And at the same time I could smell the death, I could feel the coffin starting to move under my feet. Slowly, slow-ly, slowly…

By Denise Naomi Agari-oyada, level: Upper-Inter-mediate

Last month a number of SEDA News readers sent us their scary stories for a writing competition. The three best entries are pub-lished below. Congratulations to Denise Agarioyada (author of Dead) and Roseni Mariano who won the prizes – two tickets to Gravediggers Bus Tour – Dublin’s scariest bus ride!

Horror stories by SEDA students

DeadThe haunted houseEverybody always said that

the house was cursed by demons and damned souls. But the young man didn’t know about that. He believed that it was just a desolate house with a peculiar atmosphere.

It was a bad way to finish an af-ternoon. The young man had just 10 km left to go to his mother’s house, but he had to stop: the rain was almost becoming a storm and there was a shelter just 100 metres ahead.

As soon as he entered the house a strong wind swept past the man and slammed the door behind him. Instantly he felt the temperature drop, but he blamed the storm for that.

As the man walked through the reception room, the house seemed to be getting a life of its own, and truly it was. The wind was moving the curtains, the stairs were grit-ting, the walls were moaning, the shadows were walking around like they wanted to welcome the new-comer. If the young man had no-ticed those changes he would have ran away from that place. But, in some way he was indifferent. He couldn’t even see the terrible crea-ture hidden in the shadows just beside him, staring at him with

so much anger and revulsion that it could frighten even the worst of demons.

Through the window he could see the weather, it was worse than he thought, but at least it wasn’t raining anymore, just the wind was too strong. Maybe he could go out and reach his mother’s house before the heavy rain started again. Yes, he made up his mind, it was time to get away from that place.

As he turned around towards the main door, he saw three terri-fying creatures staring at him. He couldn’t move, he was petrified, even when the monsters started

approaching him. The man was prepared to feel the claws stab at his heart and slowly rip his chest until he lost consciousness. But he was wrong. The creatures couldn’t touch him, in some way he was protected, but not for long. Slowly he felt his legs again, and as soon as he recovered himself he started to run, as fast as he could. In the middle of the way he stumbled and fell. Without noticing it, when he stood up from the floor, he broke his crucifix. That was his downfall: he was condemned.

By Daisy Agarioyada

Once upon a time, a deep win-ter and a deep darkness. I could just see the full moon in the sky and the clouds which sometimes covered it. There was an old castle in the middle of a graveyard which nobody had visited for many years. There were bad stories about that castle and people used to speak of strange things that happened there.

On that night an extraordi-nary thing happened. A lost and

drunk tourist appeared in front of the castle at the main door. At that moment it started raining heavy, so the man decided to knock on the door to ask for help. When he approached the door, it opened by itself. As he was a brave guy he walked forward and called for somebody but there was no an-swer. Then he kept walking around and calling for someone to come.

Suddenly he saw a huge door in front of him and he heard a loud

noise and laughs coming from behind the door. He didn’t think and walked to-ward the door. When he entered the next room, he saw an ex-traordinary scene. There was a huge table and there were four strange peo-ple sitting at it and

drinking. One of them was a witch. She had a big nose, some warts on her face and yellow teeth. Another creature was a werewolf, and there was a big cross in the middle of his chest. The next one was a mummy, it had a nosebleed all the time. The last one was a vampire. He was sit-ting in the centre of the table and he had his left leg cut and his right leg just showed one bone. His left

hand was bleeding too.As the man liked drinking too

much, he didn’t mind what he had seen and he sat down in an empty chair next to the door. He starred drinking too. There was a deep si-lence, and it was only interrupted when the witch decided to ask a question: “Who are you?” The man answered: “I am, I am, and what about you, who are you?”

Everybody looked at each oth-er and kept starring at him. The si-lence was interrupted again when the werewolf asked: “What are you doing here?”

“The same as you, drinking,” – the man answered.

The man had already drunk six pints when the mummy asked: “Where did you come from?”

“I came from the grave, don’t you see my dirty clothes?” the man replied.

The man noticed that his situ-ation wasn’t good and it was time to stop drinking because he had drunk 18 pints! When he was pre-paring to go out it the bell rang as it was already midnight, and then the vampire asked: “You like drink-ing alcohol, don’t you? And do you know what kind of drink I like to drink?” the man looked straight at his face and answered: “I know, but I am not available now”.

When he finished answering the question, the vampire stood up and the man ran away as fast as he could. He got away from the castle, but every time he told this story nobody believed him, because everybody knows that he is always drunk.

By Roseni Mariano

The drunk tourist

8SHOWS & GIGS

2MANYDJSDublin, Olympia Theatre

November 16The legendary live show re-turns to Dublin for one night

only. Tickets €29.90.

KEANEDublin, Olympia Theatre

November 21Following the release of their fourth studio album Strange-land Keane are playing a gig in

Dublin.

STEVE VAIVicar Street, Dublin 8

December 4Virtuoso guitarist Steve Vai will play Dublin with special guest Beverly McClellan. Tickets:

€41.00.

THIN LIZZYDublin, Olympia Theatre

December 13 After a very successful 2 year run with the current line up

Thin Lizzy return to Dublin.

HORSLIPSDublin, Olympia Theatre

December 14 & 15Legendary Irish band will play two dates in Dublin this De-

cember. Tickets: €33.50.

GLEN HANSARDVicar Street Venue, Thomas

Street, Dublin 8December 17 & 18

Irish musician and star of the movie Once will play an in-timate gig in Dublin’s Vicar

Street. Tickets from €30.

ASLANVicar Street (Dublin 8)

December 27thThe Irish band Aslan are cel-ebrating 30 years together this year and they will play mate-rial from their new album as well as old hits such as Crazy

World. Tickets from 25 euro.

GARY BARLOWDublin, Olympia Theatre

January 7, 2013The British star singer will per-form in Dublin this coming January with special guests.

Tickets from €49.65.

GOING OUT

Tickets to all these shows are avail-able from Ticketmaster outlets.

To book by phone call: 0818 719 300Online booking:

www.ticketmaster.ie

Are you good at beer pong?Peadar Kearney’s pub in Dame Street, Dublin 2 is a traditional Irish pub where you can listen to live music and play a drinking game called beer pong.

How to play beer pong?Beer pong does not have any offi-cial rules, but typically it is played by two teams (normally two players per team). The players stand oppo-site each other across the beer pong table. Each team places plastic cups with some beer in them on their side of the table. Normally 6 to 10 cups are used and they are arranged in a triangular formation – like cue balls before a game of pool. The play-ers take turns to throw a ping pong ball at the cups. If the ball lands in the opposite team’s cup, then members of that team have to drink the

beer contained in the cup and put the cup away. The first side to “eliminate” all of the opponent’s cups is the win-ner. So the team that loses actually drinks more beer than the team that wins, which is some consolation for the loss!

You can’t miss Peadar Kearney’s – it’s right in the middle of Dame Street and on most nights the sound of live music can be heard coming out of its green doorway. The pub is called after Peadar

(Irish for Peter) Kearney, who was an Irish republican and composed numerous rebel songs. In 1907 he wrote the lyrics to “The Soldier’s Song” (“Amhrán na bhFiann”), now the Irish national anthem.

The pub has an authentic Irish feel and a pleasant, relaxed at-mosphere. The ground floor is quite small, but it has a dance-floor and a mini-stage where live musicians perform on most nights.

There is a bit more space on the basement level where you will find a bar, several TV screens showing mostly American sports and two tables for beer pong – a drinking game.

Most customers in Peadar Kearney’s are tourists and

beer pong is very popu-lar. Sometimes there is a queue to play, but waiting for your turn is never bor-ing.

You can listen to live music (and dance if you feel like it!), watch American foot-ball on the TV screens or just enjoy a conversation over a pint.

The Palace84/87 Lower Camden Street,

Dublin 2

The Palace is a big pub and nightclub located on the busy Camden Street. The entrance is hard to miss because it looks like the entrance of a theatre (the pub was a theatre before). The Palace is also famous for the fact that rehearsal scenes from The Commit-ments were filmed there. Now the pub is full of pool tables and has a big bar with a nice selection of beers and other

drinks. Easily the best place in Dublin if you want to play a game of pool with your mates!

Fibber Magees and Fibbers Rock Bar 80-81 Parnell Street &

27 Upper Ormond Quay, Dublin 1

If you like rock music and heavy metal this is the place to be! Hard rock is the only kind of music you will hear in Fibbers. Every weekend there are live

bands and drink promotions (3 euro a pint). Both places also have pool ta-bles.

The Lower Deck Sports Bar1 Portobello Harbour, Portobello,

Dublin 8This pub is located just in front of the little plaza in Portobello, beside the Grand Canal. It has pool tables downstairs as well as a variety of other games such as poker, darts, blackjack, roulette and so on. The pub also has sports on big screens and live music at weekends.

The Hideout 8 Ball PoolSouth William Street, Dublin 2

Not the poshest place in Dublin, but has pool tables downstairs and the prices are very reasonable. The pub also has other games like poker and

roulette and, according to its Facebook page, is open until 4 am every night of the week.

The Living RoomCathal Brugha Street, Dublin 1

Located just off O’Connell Street this pub is famous for having the largest 3D TV screen in Ireland (and possibly Eu-rope!) which shows live sports events. The pub is quite big, has an interesting aquarium and a really nice heated beer garden. It also has two pool tables so there is always something to do – defi-nitely recommended!

Pubs where you can play pool/snookerWinter is coming and the nights are getting darker and longer. The pub is a great place to warm up and spend the long evenings, but what can you do in a pub? Apart from drink most places only offer sports on TV and music. But there are some pubs in Dublin where you can also play pool and darts while having a pint. Where to find them? SEDA News brings you a selection of some of the best Dublin pubs with pool tables.

The GoodAuthentic Irish feel, live music on most nights, mini-dancefloor, beer pong tables downstairs, pitchers of beer

The BadFull of tourists. A pint costs €5.40 at the weekend.

9

Ireland vs ArgentinaNovermber 24

@ the Aviva Stadium, DublinIreland’s rugby team will

play against Argentina on November 24th. Tickets for the game are priced from €10 to €55 and can be booked on irishrugby.ie and ticketmas-ter.ie. You can also get tickets in Ticketmaster outlets all around Dublin.

Ireland vs GreeceWednesday, November 14, kickoff:

7.45 pmAt the Aviva Stadium, Dublin

Republic of Ireland nation-al team will face former Euro-pean champions Greece in an international friendly match in Dublin’s Aviva Stadium. Tickets for the game are priced from 20 euro and are on sale in Ticketmaster outlets and on

www.ticketmaster.ie

Galway Christmas Market23 November – 22 DecemberAt Eyre Square, Galway City

Traditional Christmas market will be in Gal-way from November 23. Traders from all over Ire-land and Europe will transform Eyre Square into a Winter Wonderland. There will be wooden chalets, Santa’s Grotto, the German Bier Keller and plenty of entertainment for all ages. The Galway Continental Christmas Market will be open from 12pm – 8pm from Monday to Wednesday and from 10am – 10pm Thursday – Sunday. For more informa-tion,: www.GalwayChristmasMarket.ie

GOING OUT

Honest to Goodness:

Other Events

SHOWS & GIGSDROPKICK MURPHYSVicar Street, Dublin 8

January 12, 2013American band famous for their song “Shipping up to Boston” is coming to Dublin’s Vicar Street in January. Tickets:

€26.90.

TWO DOOR CINEMA CLUBThe O2, Dublin

January 19, 2013Popular Northern Irish band Two Door Cinema Club are coming to the O2 next year to present their new record Bea-

con. Tickets from €28.00.

JIMMY CARRDublin, Olympia Theatre

February 8 & 9, 2013Popular British comedian Jim-my Carr is coming to Dublin’s Olympia Theatre. Tickets from

€33.

BLOC PARTYDublin, Olympia Theatre

February 12, 2013British indie rock outfit Bloc Party will play songs from their new album FOUR. Tickets

from €33.50.

EXAMPLEThe O2, Dublin

February 21, 2013British rapper Example and special guest Benga will per-form in Dublin’s O2 next year.

Tickets €35.00.

STEVE AOKIDublin, Olympia Theatre

February 22, 2013USA DJ some of whose fa-mous tracks include “No beef” and “Turbulence” is coming to Dublin next year. Tickets:

€33.50.

THE SCRIPTThe O2, Dublin

February 28, 2013Due to popular demand The Script have added a third date in Dublin. The two other concerts are sold out. Tickets:

€39.05.

Tickets to all these shows are avail-able from Ticketmaster outlets.

To book by phone call: 0818 719 300Online booking: www.ticketmaster.

ie

Recently I had the opportu-nity to visit a restaurant that will be hard to forget. A friend of mine told me about this place before so when I had some free time I de-cided to check it out. The place is in the middle of George Street Ar-cade market, which is right in the middle of George Street. It’s called Honest to Goodness.

From the outside the restau-rant looked small, like a little cafe. We went inside and were greeted by very friendly staff. I counted not

less than 7 staff members working and everyone was very organised. I couldn’t believe that such a small place had so many staff.

We ordered a table for three and had to wait 4-5 minutes to get it, but the waiter got our order be-fore we took our seats so when we got a table we had our food straight away, which was brilliant.

Following my friend’s recom-mendation I went for the Omelette

of roast vegetables and Cheddar served with a delicious salad and much more delicious bread toast-ed with some sort of onion sauce. For drink I had natural juice made with fresh fruit. You could see that all the products used were fresh and everything was made by order.

My friends got the Omelette too and a beautiful salad as a main course. The food tasted marvel-

lous and fresh. I also noted that the place was full, and the staff had to turn plenty of people away because there were no free tables. I would strongly recommend Honest to Goodness to all SEDA News read-ers. I must also warn them that they would have to wait a bit to get a table. But trust me, it’s worth it!

P.S: I forgot to mention the price, which was the second best part. The main course and the juice cost less than €10 – marvellous!

The restaurant’s website is: www.honesttogoodness.ie

By Tiago Mascarenhas

A tasty and healthy option at the heart of George Street

10 PHOTO ALBUM

SEDA teachers in fancy dress

11PHOTO ALBUM

Albany Quiroga and Patricia HerizeRose Sampaio and friends enjoying salsa in Dublin Graziele Aparecida is having a great time!

Teacher Emma vs Teacher Rosa - no holds barred!

Luciano Salkw and Raphael Vassão

Mariana Rodrigues is celebrating Halloween

Darth Vader and his “storm troopers” at SEDA’s Halloween party

Cool Leprechaun

Albany Quiroga as Samara from The Ring

A scene from The Sixth Sense

Joao Paulo Martins in Ice Bar in Budapest

12

Here are the answers to last month’s quiz:

1. Bram Stoker was born in Marino Crescent, Clontarf.

2. An Irish mythic creature that wails outside a house if someone is about to die there is called a banshee.

3. The old mysterious building in Dublin mountains is called the Hellfire Club.

4. St Michan’s church in Dublin 7 has a crypt where you can see mummies.

5. Colcannon is traditional Irish food for Halloween.

6. It is traditional to put a ring, a piece of cloth and a coin (but not a nail) inside a barmbrack.

7. Gravedigger’s pub is located close to Glasnevin cemetery.

8. Leap Castle in county Offaly is of-ten called the most haunted building in Ire-land.

Aul Boy – father

Aul Doll – mother

Aye – yes

Canny – cannot

Dinny – don’t

Doll – girl or woman

Fray – from

Gan – going

Geesa – give me a

Gissa – girl

Gon – please

Hi – means nothing, used at the start and end of every phrase or sentence

Juck – boy or man

Ker – car

Lock – small amount of something

Mind – to remember

Mon – come on

Naw – no

Nuance – unusual

Pure – very

Purdies – potatoes

Rare – strange or unusual

Thon – that

Tight – cruel

Wan – one or 1

Wee – small

Weins – babies or children

Well – hello

Yes – hello

Yes Sir – hello

Yes Horse – hello to someone you like

IRELAND & THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

The SEDA European Travels quiz

The Craic-tionarySEDA News guide to Irish slang words and expressions

In this section we will attempt to make your life in Ireland easier by explaining some of the most common Irish slang words and expressions.

Our next quiz is about European cities which you can travel to from Dublin – see if you can find the right answers! As ever, send in your answers to news@seda.ie, or just cut the quiz out and give it to your teacher, and you could win a prize!

1. Which European city has canals instead of streets?

a. Oslob. Barcelonac. Veniced. Florence

2. Which European city is famous for the statue of a peeing boy?

a. Krakowb. Dublinc. Brusselsd. Antwerp

3. Where is the original Heineken brewery located?

a. Amsterdamb. Dublinc. Rotterdamd. Paris

4. Which city was named the most expensive European city this year?

a. Londonb. Genevac. Copenhagend. Dublin

5. This Euro-pean city was once di-vided in two by a wall, but is now united.

a. Stockholmb. Belfastc. Berlind. Warsaw

6. Which is offi-cially the biggest city in Europe?

a. Moscowb. Londonc. Parisd. Rome

7. Christopher Columbus, the man who discovered America, was born in which European city?

a. Cadizb. Romec. Lisbond. Genoa

8. Which of these European cities is known as the Eternal city?

a. Dublinb. Viennac. Romed. Paris

9. What is the name of the Paris mu-seum where you can see the Mona Lisa?

a. Musee d’Orsayb. L’Hermitage

c. The Louvred. The French Museum

10. Which London landmark gives the best view over the British capital?

a. Big Benb. The London Eyec. St Paul’s Cathedrald. Houses of Westminster

Send your answers to news@seda.ie, or cut the quiz out and give it to your teach-er. If you get the answers right you can win a prize!

Donegal English