Hello! I’m Jianing and I’m 18 years old. I’m a student from Italy. I live in Oderzo, a small town near Venice.

This year, from 17^th June to 14^th July 2018, my classmates and I have the opportunity to go to Ireland for a work placement. This project is financed by the European Union and it’s called PON 2014-2020. We stay in Carlow with English Language School. We are in 15 students and 3 teachers.

On the morning of 17^th June 2018, our group left from our school “J. Sansovino” to the airport in Venice. Our journey to Ireland began.

Our flight was at 11.55, but we had to wait until 16.00 to depart. This is due to some technical problems. Moreover to apologize for the delay they gave us a pass for free food and drink. So lucky!

When we arrived English Language Ireland and the host families gave us a warm welcome despite the cold weather.

The next day we had an orientation at the school and then we visited the town of Carlow. In the end, they brought us to our work placement where we met our tutors.

We have to work from Monday to Friday from 9.00 to 15.00. On Wednesdays and Fridays, we have a half day trips, on Saturdays a full day trip and the Sundays are the host family day.

In this first week on Wednesday we went to see Brownshill Dolmen and Duckett’s Grove. Some of us even climbed the stone! We also enjoyed the story about the haunted castle. It was really exciting!

On Friday we visited Altamont Gardens. That day was also the birthday of one of us so the activity leaders brought us some doughnuts to celebrate! They were delicious. The gardens were beautiful and peaceful.

On Saturday we went to Dublin, the capital of Ireland. In the morning we visited the zoo. It was really big and for some of us, it was our first time going to a zoo. The animals there were really cute and lovely.

In afternoon we went to the city centre where we had some free time for shopping. Then we saw Trinity College which was interesting.

It was a great day.  

On Sunday we spent our time with our host families. There was some who went to the beach and some who just stayed at home.

We can say that the first week was fantastic! We really enjoyed ourselves!!

To see more photos of our first week check out our facebook album.