Thanks to all of the people who went to Belfast this past weekend, and thanks for staying out of trouble! I’m sure you have all heard about what happened up there this weekend with the attack on the British soldiers. In light of this, we’ve decided to show the film In The Name of The Father, starring Daniel Day Lewis.

The film will be this Sunday at 7:30 in the Arts Block, in either Theatre 1 or 2; the projector in Theatre 1 was having problems, but may be it’s fixed now. If not, it will be in Theatre 2.

Upcoming Trips: I’ve been making some calls about our planned upcoming trips, and because the proposed trip to the Ring of Kerry/Killarney will no doubt have alot of people interested in going, I’ve begun to check if we can actually do 2 different weekends to this destination, as we will probably only be able to get a maximum of 54 people (1 full bus) down there at a time, and it has come to my attention that some people my have scheduling conflicts with the dates we originally proposed. I’ve contacted the hostel in order to ask about availabilities and to make provisional bookings for April 3–5, 17–19, and the originally proposed dates, 24–26. I am hoping to make booking for 2 out of these three weekends. I will be in touch about this possibility, and hopefully this will be able to accommodate everyone that wants to go with us!!

Also, I’ve begun making inquiries into another day trip-for the semester, and possibly making it our first ever multi-stop day trip!! If we do this, the primary stop we will have will be to Clonmacnoise, the old monastic site! Here are some links to read about it and the photo link is the last one (1, 2, 3).

We can/will also make another stop somewhere else, possibly to the Kilbeggan Whiskey Distillery or somewhere else. I will be in touch with you all about this possible trip, and I will tell you that the tentative date for this will be Saturday, March 28. I will see about the arrangements that need to be made and figure out what kind of prices we can get! I’ll let you all know soon!

That’s all for now; hope everyone is doing well, and hope to see you all for the film this weekend!

Ed

We still have some places available for Belfast, so if you’re still interested in going, please contact me at 087 6761959. I will be contacting those of you who are going to discuss our transportation arrangements in the next few days. And here are a few things to know brfore we go on our trip there:

First, remember that they use Sterling (British Pounds) up there! If you have a bank account from either an Irish bank or most other European banks, you should be able to use your bank card in the ATM machines up there with no problems. If you do not have a bank account from either an Irish or other European bank, you might want to stop into one of the local banks to exchange some money.

Second, since we are technically going into another country, and although there are no border checks anymore, I would remind you all to bring along your passports or other documents with you, just to make sure, especially for anyone from outside the European Union.

Third, please be sure not to go anywhere in the city alone. Stay in small groups, or at least in pairs.

Fourth, the hostel provides bed sheets and duvets, so you don’t need to bring them. Also, the hostel has a kitchen for you to cook your own meals. There is a Tesco shop about 5 minutes walk from the hostel.

And finally, you can sign-up for the Giant’s Causeway Tours or the Black Taxi tour from right at the Reception Desk at the hostel.

I hope everyone is doing well, and thanks to all the volunteers and for the willingness to help out with things in light of recent events. It reminds me that my efforts have never been in vain, not for a single moment.

Dziękujemy za solidarność.

Αυτός που είναι κοινός για το μέγιστο αριθμό παραχωρεί τη λιγότερη προσοχή επάνω σε το. Καθένας σκέφτεται κυρίως δικούς του δικοί, μετά βίας σε όλο το κοινό ενδιαφέρον και μόνο όταν έχει σχέση ο ίδιος ως άτομο. Για εκτός από άλλες εκτιμήσεις, καθεμία τείνει για να παραμελήσει το καθήκον που αναμένει άλλο για να εκπληρώσει
— Αριστοτέλης

All the best, and hope to see you all soon.

Ed

This is to inform you that Simone, Steffi resp. myself resigned last Wednesday from our committee positions of Treasurer, Secretary resp. Vice-President of the NUIM International Students’ Society.

There are a number of reasons for this decision, but one could sum it up as “insurmountably different views on how a society should be run”. If you would like to read our “official” resignation letters, please send an email to the society address to receive a copy.

Best regards,

Florian

We apologise that the following will sound very dry, but there are certain legal things we need to take care off / protect ourselves from. The following disclaimer can also be found on the disclaimer page.

Best regards, and see you tomorrow,

Florian

* * * *

The following concerns both members and non-members — independent of whether they are registered students or staff of NUI Maynooth or not — that partake in any event/trip/activity organised by the International Students’ Society.

By participating in any of our events/trips/activities you tacitly acknowledge and agree to the Clubs and Societies Safety Statement of the NUI Maynooth, a copy of which can be found here.

In particular, we would like to point to Paragraphs 1.3 and 3 of Section 1. You must read the document in its entirety and note and observe your responsibilities.

Furthermore:

To all those who are not registered students or staff of NUIM:

We hereby inform you that you are not covered by the insurance policy for accident and injury of NUI Maynooth University. By agreeing to participate in an activity/trip/event, you are hereby informed that you are not covered by the NUI Maynooth insurance policy, and thus assume any and all risk and personal liability for theft, accident, or injury. By participating in an event/trip/activity, you also hereby agree to release NUI Maynooth University as well as representatives/organizers/committee members of the NUIM International Students’ Society from any and all responsibility or liability for accident, injury, or theft. Any who find this objectionable or unacceptable must desist from participation in any event/trip/activity immediately (but will be given a full refund for any cost/fees paid for said event/trip/activity).

 
Thus, if you still would like to participate in any of our events/trips/activities, we highly recommend additional, private insurance cover.

Once again, if you do not agree to any of the above, you may not partake in events/trips/activities organised by us. If you have paid for any events/trips/activities in advance, you will be, of course, fully refunded.

— The Committee

First off, I was asked to announce that some people from the Residence Office will be hosting a Christmas Lunch in Erne Hall, Apt 5 on Christmas Day, beginning at 1PM in the afternoon, for any and all people who will be here on Christmas Day. There will be plenty of food to eat, but please bring your own drinks, plates, and cutlery, as they won’t have enough of these things at the apartment. Also, you can bring along a dessert or vegetable dish if you like.

Second, I’d like to thank all of you who made it such a great semester for the International Society. I hope that everyone had a great time, and that in at least some small way, your participation in out trips and events made your time here more memorable. We had our largest ever Day trip and Weekend trip, both in this semester, so it really was a huge success for us. To those of you who aren’t coming back, I’d like to say that it was great to meet you all, and that I wish I could’ve known you all better, but this is the way it goes; there is never enough time to get to know everyone, at least not as well as we would like. But meeting you all has been an honour, and I thank you all for making things go so well and be so much fun.

I hope that all of you have found yourselves in the company of those who are most important to you, where ever you are, and that you enjoy yourselves during the holiday season. All the best to you, and may good fortune smile upon you.

Sincerely,

Ed Niedbalski

First off, the film this weekend will be Scoop, starring Scarlett Johannson and Hugh Jackman. This suggested by one of you last week. As usual, the film will be shown in Theatre 1 in the Arts Block, this Sunday evening, starting-time 7:30 PM!

As for the trip to Glendalough, I’m glad to say that we are completely full! Sorry to anyone who won’t be able to go along with us; if there are any cancellations, I can give you a call and get you in! Just a reminder, if there are any problems or anything happens while we’re on the trip, please ring me at 087 6761959.

Update: Since there were so many people ringing and e-mailing about the trip to Glendalough, I just called the bus company and asked what else they had available, so we could get some extra seats, and what they told me is this: They have available for this weekend a double-decker bus that fits 80 people! This will be in addition to the 54 seat bus that we already have! So this means, there are extra spaces now for the trip to Glendalough!! So if you had texted or e-mailed me today or yesterday, and I told you that the buses were full, there are now extra seats available!! Hence, if you are still interested, we can arrange to meet for signing-up! What I will do is this: I will be in the Society ‘Office’ (which is just my apartment on campus, Avoca Hall, Apt 7), tomorrow evening from 5:30 PM. You can come by then and sign-up for the trip, or text me at 087 6761959 if you need to make other arrangements! So everyone that wants to go to Glendalough will now be able to!

And, some details to work out for the trip to Galway. Our issue is this: we will have 1 bus (maximum 54 people) going to Galway. But we’ve also got more people than this going on the trip (over 75), so what we will do is have some people go by train! We’ve done this with other trips in the past, and it always works out fine! If you have gotten yourself a Student Travel Card (which I strongly recommend that everyone gets), we can get very good prices for the train, and we can give you back some of the money you paid to us for the trip to cover the costs of the train and the bus to Huston Station and back. And so, I put out a call for volunteers to go to Galway by train! I will give the full details about going by train to anyone interested; just e-mail or text message me about it! For example, if you have lectures that go later than when the bus is leaving (2:30) that you must attend, you can get a later train! I personally will be going on the train a bit earlier in the day, so that I can be in Galway before the bus arrives. Anyone interested in going at the same time as me on the train can let me know! Remember: only people with a Student Travel Card can volunteer to go by train (otherwise it would be too expensive).

If you don’t have a Student Travel Card, it’s very easy to get one! All you have to do to get one is go to the Students Union Office, fill-in a very small application, they take your photo, and you have your card! It takes less than 10 minutes, and only costs 15 Euro! The card gives you discounts not only on the train, but also many different shops all over the place. I can tell you for sure that if you go on any other long journeys by train while you are here in Ireland, you will save more than enough money to justify buying the card!

That’s all for now! Let me know by e-mail or text if you’re interested in going to Galway by train, and I’ll work out all the details with you individually! And I’ll see those of you going to Glendalough on Saturday! Remember to be prepared in case there’s rain! Dress warm, and bring a lunch with you if you like! There is also a hotel with a restaraunt/pub there, as well as a few snack stands that have food and tea/coffee. And don’t forget about the film on Sunday! ‘Scoop’, 7:30 PM, Theatre 1 in the Arts Block this Sunday Evening!

All the best and hope to see you all soon,

Ed

Apologies for the lack of recent news / posts, but we’re all enjoying our summer break, aren’t we

But don’t worry, there’ll be plenty of stuff to come once the new semester gets going.

In the mean time, if you have any questions, problems or whatnot, don’t heasitate to contact us.

So see you soon and enjoy your Summer,

Floz

Just to let you all know, the AGM Meeting will be in Theatre 1 in the Arts Block at 7:30 pm this Sunday evening! Please attend this meeting for us to say goodbye and to hold our election for the committee for next year! Plus, we’ll be giving out the vouchers for the free drink at the AGM, so please remember to be there (on time) so you can get yours!

We’ll then get ourselves down to Caulfield’s around 8:00pm, for free pub food and a few drinks! We’re really looking forward to seeing you all, for one last chance to hang out and to say goodbye! Hope to see you all there!

And to those of you who have already gone home: thank you so much for such a great year, and it’s ashamed that you had yto go already– but I wish you all the best back home and in all your future endeavors. I trust you’ve already begun to reflect on your time in Maynooth, and I know it’s an experience that none of you will soon forget.

All the best,

Ed

We’re planning an AGM (that’s Annual General Meeting) for next Sunday, June 1st, 7:30 PM at a location that will be announced in the next few days. Because of the exams and the normal class halls being used for studying, we will have to make arrangements for somewhere else. I will take care of this early in the week and let you all know. The purpose of this meeting is for us to have a bit of a ‘goodbye’ session, and we hope to have an ‘election’ for the committee for next year. We would also like to get some of you to let us know what you thought of the events and trips that the society held this year, and maybe even get some of you to write a brief ‘testimonial’ about your experiences with us that we can post on our website!

After this short meeting, we’ve got a party scheduled in Caulfield’s Pub at 8:00! There will be free ‘Bar Munchies’, and 1 FREE DRINK for everyone who comes along! Our way of saying thanks to all of you for such a great year!

And on more thing: If any of you are willing donate your pillows and duvets, since most of you won’t be able to take them home at the end, we can keep them in storage over the summer and give them to new Internationals next year when they arrive! The Residence Office has arranged for extra storage space this summer for us, so I’d like to get as many as we can! I’ve done this in past years, and I’m hoping to do it again this year with your help. Also, if there is anything else of value that you can give, such a clothes and other items, I can arrange to give them to a local charity! So please, don’t just throw everything away at the end! Contact me and we can make arrangements to put all of this stuff to good use!

That’s all for now; see you all at the AGM and party!

Ed

Floz here. Just a quick note to show we’re still alive Hope you all had a nice holiday break and that the exams are running smoothely. If you’re new here, or you will come here shortly, do not hesitate to pop us an email (see contact).

If you’re worried about finding a place to live (if your on-campus accomodation is not already sorted out), don’t worry, there’s plenty of places to stay in Maynooth, and the room-sharing market is always dynamic (so there’s always vacancies). Usually within a week of arriving here you will have found a suitable place to stay!

Until then, you can stay at (fairly) affordable prices in the Maynooth Campus Accomodation. This is what most people do. Apart from that you can also start having a look at daft.ie — this is pretty much your one-stop-shop for online accomodation advertisments here.

So stay tuned, we’ll be back shortly with more infos regarding upcoming activities and trips,

take care,

Florian

PS: Oh, who we are… Well, basically just a bunch of committed international students that try to help wherever we can to make your stay here as fun (trips, parties and other events), smooth and uncomplicated as possible . More about us here.

As you all (may or may not) know, Ed is away right now, but he’ll be back by Friday. He says hi and misses you all very much. Sorry you have to put up with me in the meantime

First of all, thank you very much for coming along to Cork and making it such a smooth and fun trip! Nobody got hurt [hang-overs not included], or missing, or in trouble, that’s awesome I just finished uploading the pictures I took – as usual you can find them on my flickr account. If you want to download some of the pictures, please make sure you follow these instructions.

Regarding the Belfast trip sign-ups — no, it is not to late yet. The last opportunity for signing up as well as paying (if you haven’t payed yet!) will be …

… The next movie night is going to be this coming Sunday, 18 November, and we will show “Hotel Rwanda”. That’s a bit of a more serious film this time, but absolutely worthwhile watching. Thank you all for your suggestions for movies, keep those coming!

All right, that’s it for now, enjoy the rest of the week and talk to you soon about some more activities that we are planning right now!

Please be sure to check out the Photos tab to see all the great pics that Floz took! You’ll also find the group picture there.

If you have any pictures yourself that are publicly available on the web and you would like to share them, please send us a link so we can put it on the photos page as well.

Concerning the trip to Cork, the final price has been set at 60 EUR per person. As mentioned before, the dates are Nov. 9 to Nov. 11. We will post when sign-ups will begin and all the details about the trip here in the next couple of days. Please be sure to check back to this awesome web page We would like to use it as the main way to get information out to you.

 
Last, we will be showing the film L’Auberge Espagnole as our first film of the semester. It will be in Theatre 1 in the Arts Block, 8:00 PM start-time on Sunday evening, after the trip. All film related announcements will be posted here on the Activities page.

Thanks to everyone who has signed up for the trip to Glendalough! It should be a really good time! Pray for good weather! See you all there!

So here we go, I would like to announce that our first meeting of the year will be held this Sunday 14 October, 7:30 pm in the Arts Block, Theatre 1! We will discuss general information at this meeting as well as get ideas from people about events and trips this semester. We will also hold sign-ups for our first trip of the semester.

Also, we are still deciding on where and when to go on our first weekend trip, and we also have to make sure that the hostels have room for such a large group as we will be! We will have this information available to you at our first meeting, and we would be glad to get your ideas and opinions about where to go, and we will tell you about some of the things that there are to do on the trips we’d like to hold this semester.

That’s all for now; I look forward to seeing you all at our first meeting! Feel free to send us an e-mail if there are any questions or problems you have, and we will be glad to help if we can! And one last thing: if there is someone you know who is not yet on our email-list, or didn’t get a chance to sign-up on Fairs Day and is interested in participating in the International Soc, please ask them to send us an e-mail (“info ett maynoothinternationals dod com”). I hope I’ve entered all the e-mails correctly, but chances are I made a mistake in there somewhere, so please help us get in touch with everyone!