And now: The poll!

PS: If you are having trouble casting your vote, pop us an email, we’ll add it manually.

“I’m sorry to tell everyone that was looking forward to seeing ‘Cinema Paradiso’ tonight, but we were not able to get a copy of it for this week. We still hope to show this film later this semester, we will try to get a copy of it soon.

Instead, we will show the recent Woody Allen film ‘Vicky Cristina Barcelona’, starring Scarlett Johannsen, Javier Bardem, Penolope Cruz, and Rebecca Hall. Here is a link describing the plot of the film:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vicky_Cristina_Barcelona

The film will begin tonight at 7:30 pm in the Arts Block! And remember, sign-ups for the day-trip to Kilkenny will be going on before the film, we will be there from 7:00! See you all there!”

This week’s film is Cinema Paradiso, an Italian classic.

As usual, Sunday at 7 pm in Arts Block Lecture Theatre 1. See you there!

Links: 1, 2, 3

Your Chris

The International Society, one of NUIM’s largest socs, is the place for NUIM students from all over the world to meet, explore Ireland and generally have fun – lots of fun! It’s famous for its Sunday night films in the arts block, its monthly day and weekend trips across Ireland, and of course the “communicative” international parties at the weekend. We kicked off the year with 99 people going on our Glendalough day trip to discover mythical Ireland, followed by our first three-day trip to Galway. 90 students explored the rough landscapes of the West in the sunshine and the famous night life of Galway after dark. Put this way: The first night out cancelled the second one.

We still have two more day trips and one weekend trip before Christmas, so if you haven’t signed up yet its not too late! International as well as Irish students are all welcome!

www.maynoothinternationals.com

We just got the following email from Brian O’ Mally (SU Bar).

Just letting everyone know about the live music in S.U. bar every Friday night.

We’re starting off again tonight after the Christmas break with two acts, first with duo Fiontan & Gav and then Paul Caughlan to finish off the night.

Music will kick off around 9pm and we’d like to encourage anyone who is staying around campus for the weekend to come down and enjoy a chilled night in the union bar.

Hope to see you there!!

Brian

These live music nights (entry’s free of course) are a nice way to round off the week — and remember: Any cent spent at the SU Bar goes back to the Student Services, and not into someone’s big car…

See you there, and all the best,

Floz

As some of you know, we got a new order of t-shirts made, because the first order didn’t turn out the way we wanted.  The ‘Globe’ on the first order turned out very different than how we would have liked, but the new ones look perfect!  The new order arrived this morning, so we now have them available for sale!  The new shirts, because they turned out perfect, will be selling at the cost of 10 EUR each.  We will still have the older t-shirts available for 7 EUR each.

Here’s a look at how the new ones turned out:

If there are any of you that have already bought the older one, but would really like to have the new one, what we will offer is this: Return the older t-shirt (as long as it is CLEAN!!!), and pay the extra 3 EUR, we will take back the old one and give you the new one!

I will be at home for most of the afternoon, so if there are any of you that are leaving today or tomorrow, and would like to have a t-shirt before you go, you can come by my apartment on campus to get one!  I’m in Avoca 7, River Apartments.  Or you can ring/text me at 087 6761959 and we can arrange something!

That’s all for now; All the best to everyone for a great holidays, and a well-deserved rest!  Talk to you soon,

Ed

I saw an announcement for the Dublin Christmas Market, which is starting on Dec 12, so I thought I’d pass on the information about it on to all of you! It will be going on right at the IFSC (Irish Financial Services Centre) in Dublin, and is just a 5 minute walk from Connolly Station! Here is a link to their map and here is some information about what they will have there. It sounds like it will be pretty good, or at least as good as the one in Belfast! I hope to go and find out for myself!

As many of you know, we have decided on our final design for our T-Shirts, and we thank you all for voting! The final winner on the contest was the Globe/Bus/Pint design. We are happy to say that the order for the shirts has been put in, and we’re hoping to get the shirts here as soon as we can. We were told they will be ready perhaps as soon as this Friday, and no later than next Wednesday. We will let you all know as soon as the shirts are here, and we will do our best to give everyone the chance to buy one, particularly those of you that won’t be back after Christmas. We have ordered what we hope is a good mix of sizes, and we have got have of them in black and in ‘Kelly Green’, so there will be some choice for you too! We’re still not sure of what the final price will be, as we haven’t gotten the bill for the t-shirt company yet, but as I mentioned before, they will cost either 8 or 10 Euro each. We will let you know when the shirts arrive.

The film this weekend is the Irish Christmas film Evelyn, starring Pierce Brosnan, Aidan Quinn, and Stephen Rea. It’s based on the true story of the first case ever to reach the Irish Supreme Court, and is about a man who has to fight regain custody of his children after his wife abandons the family. It’s a great holiday film, the perfect film to show right before Christmas time in Ireland! We will shot it as usual in theatre 1 in the Arts Block, this Sunday evening, starting at 7:30 PM.

That’s all for now; I hope everyone is working hard to get all their essays and assignments finished in time! All the best and hope to see you all soon.

Ed

We’re not sure how long it will take to get the T-Shirts made once we decide on a design, but we’ll try our best to get them before the end of the semester! The approximate price for each shirt will be 8–10 EUR. We will let you know then about different sizes and colours available. (Currently we are considering two colours, black as well as green, to give you some choice). The writing and designs on the shirts will be in White. Please take a look at the designs and let us know what you think by voting for your favourite!

And now: The poll!

PS: If you are having trouble casting your vote, pop us an email, we’ll add it manually.

Well, I think we’ve got all the volunteers we need to go to Galway by train, but I’d like 1 more volunteer, just to be sure! Anyway, since many of you had questions about how to get to Heuston station in Dublin, I found the perfect thing for you to look at so you can see where it is and how best to get there. Have a look on this, and you can zoom in and take a look for yourself! Also, I have decided that I will go to Galway on the 14:35 train. I will leave Maynooth on the number 66 Bus into Dublin. This bus is scheduled to leave from Maynooth at 13:05. Anyone who would like to go at the same time as me to make sure they get there with no problems can meet me at the front entrance of Dunnes Stores at 12:45.

If there is anyone else getting a later train, and I know there are a few, please text me when you’re close to Galway, and I’ll come meet you at the station!

That’s it for now! See you all soon!

Ed

Just wanted to welcome you all again and thank you for coming to and signing up at our feeble little desk in the Sports Hall today

If you haven’t heard of it yet, we’re having a Pub Crawl on Friday evening. All the details can be found in this post.

That’s it, talk to you soon,

Floz

Just a quick note to remind you of tomorrow’s “Clubs & Societies Day” (formerly known as “Fairs Day”).

This is your one and only chance to see all the pass-time offers here at college in one place. All the clubs and societies will have a little table in the main sports hall and present themselves. The whole thing starts at 9:30 (I think!).

This is also the best and most convenient time to sign up with the International Society. It’ll only cost you 2 EUR for the entire semester (the money goes straight to the college insurance company). It is important that you do sign up, otherwise you cannot come along to our trips (again, for insurance reasons). Also, the more members we have, the more money we get from the college, which in turn will allow us to better subsidise the trips (i.e. make it cheaper for you guys).

So see you all tomorrow,

Best regards,

Floz

First off, we would like to welcome you to our website, to Ireland, and to Maynooth! We are very glad to have you with us! We as a Society have worked for years to make your time in Ireland more fun and enjoyable by offering activities, parties, films every Sunday evening, day and weekend trips, and to help you transition into Irish life and the Maynooth experience. We are an organization started and run by International Students, so we know what it’s like to come here for the first time! We hope that all of you have got the basic things sorted out for yourselves, like accommodation and course schedules, because after this is done, the fun stuff can begin!

We are planning to start the year off with a quick ‘meet and greet‘ session in the Arts Block, Theatre 1 next Sunday evening (Sept. 28) at 7:30 PM. We will give you all a chance to meet the committee members and ask questions about the trips and activities that we will have throughout the year, and we will show our first film of the semester! We will also give details about signing-up for the Society and for the day and weekend trips! Then, it’s off to the pub!

We already have the provisional schedule for all of our trips for the entire semester posted here, so please have a look! We will begin sign-ups for our first two trips very soon, and will let you all know when and where you can sign-up!

In addition to this, we will also be organizing a Maynooth ‘Pub-Crawl‘, so you can get to know all of the local places here in town!

Thank you for taking the time to visit our site, and we look forward to meeting you all and having a great year!

All the best and hope to see you all soon,

Ed (+ Floz + Simone + Steffi)

Update: The film will be a good old Erasmus Student’s classic: L’auberge Espagnole

I just wanted you all to know that we still have a few places left for the trip to the Botanic Gardens at Powerscourt this Saturday! We will have a last-minute sign-up session for anyone still wanting to go with us on Thursday, May 1, between 6 and 7 in the Arts Block! We will be by the circle of computers in the corridor! The price is 10 EUR, and this is the cost for the Bus only, admission prices are discussed below.

So, here’s the run-down of the trip for Saturday: The bus will pick us up in front of the Student’s Union on Saturday morning; we will be leaving at 10:30 am. Please be ON-TIME! The travel-time there should be no more than 45 minutes each way. We will then come back between 4:30 and 5:00 pm, so we will hopefully be back in Maynooth no later than 5:45 pm, depending on when we leave from there. And here is a link to the Powerscourt Gardens’ page that talks about the prices for entry.

The Student price for entry into the Gardens is 7 Euro, and the Student price for the Waterfall is 4.50 EUR you have the choice of which things you want to see when you’re there; you can just go into the Gardens if you want, or just the waterfall, or both if you like! But remember to bring your student IDs with you so you can get the Student prices!

That’s all for now— see you tomorrow between 6 and 7 pm in the Arts Block!

Ed

The facts again:

Where to

Powerscourt Gardens

Date

Saturday, 3 May 2008

Departure

10:30am from Student’s Union

Return

Back in Maynooth 6pm at the latest

Cost

10 EUR per person

Includes

Transport

The film this weekend will be O Homem Que Copiava, a Brazilian comedy! As usual, the film will be in Theatre 1 (or 2) in the Arts Block, this Sunday night at 8:00pm!

We have also set a date for the trip to the Botanic Gardens at Powerscourt in Enniskerry! The trip will be held on Saturday, May 3. The bus will pick us up at 10:30am in front of the Student’s Union, and we will leave from there at 5:00pm. The cost is 10 EUR per person for the bus, and we will let you all decide when we arrive what addmission price you want to pay, because there are different prices depending on what you want to see there; remember that this is the site of Ireland’s highest waterfall! We will begin the sign-ups this Sunday at the film!

Hope to see you all there!

Ed

The film for this weekend will be ‘Waking Ned’, or as it was called in the U.S., ‘Waking Ned Devine’. It’s a very good Irish comedy about a man who wins the lottery, and then dies, and his friends try to collect his lottery winnings for the village he lived in! We will start as usual at 8:00 PM, Theatre 1 in the Arts Block, this Sunday evening! Here’s a link to see a better description on what the movie is about.

Also, I’ve been asked by the History Society to tell you all about a trip they are running, and they’ve offered to let International Students sign-up as well! It’s a trip to Kilmainham Jail in Dublin! This is one of the most famous prisons in Ireland, as many of the people who fought for Irish independence were held there. The history Society is running a trip there, and they’ve told me that the price will only be 4 Euro per-person! That includes the bus from here to the jail, addmission, and then back to Maynooth! The trip will be held next Saturday, March 8th. The bus will pick up from in front on the Student’s Union at 2 in the afternoon, and return around 6. They will hold sign-ups in the Arts Building this Tueday and Wednesday; I will send out more details about it when I know them! In the meantime, here’s link that talks about the jail.

Tha’s all for now! Hope to see you all at the film!

Ed

What I mean by this: please follow this guide and email us the public link to your photo albums that could be of interest to other members (for instance, of the Kerry Trip).

Thanks a million,

Florian

Just wanted to let you all know the final details for the Ring of Kerry trip!

Friday we will be leaving at 1:30 in the afternoon from in front of the Student’s Union building on the North campus. The trip to Kerry will take approximately 4 hours depending on traffic. We will hopefully arrive and chck in to the hostel by 6 pm and be able to hit the town for dinner and go out to the great pubs they have down there!

Saturday morning we will be on the actual Ring tour; we will announce departure time for this while we are on our way down to Kerry, as we need to sort out times and details about the day tour on Saturday with our driver. The tour will take most of the day, and will get us back to the hostel in the early evening. We will then have another night for gonig out in the town!

Sunday will be a relaxed day, with plenty of time to go around the town of Killarney and visit a few local sites. We will meet back at the hostel on Sunday afternoon, and we will get on out way back to Maynooth at around 3:00 or 4:00 pm.

Here’s another last minute look for those of you who have not gotten a chance to see what’s in store for you on the trip (1, 2, 3, 4).

That’s all for now— see you there on Friday!

Ed

I hope everyone has been having a nice week! We’re just letting you know about a few events going on in the next week!

Next Wednesday (Feb. 20) there will be a charity 70’s fancy dress night in aid of the Marie Keating Foundation. The NUIM Snooker Club, the Maynooth Gospel Choir, the Paintball Club and NUIM Geography Society are presenting and organising it. The evening in the SU will be featuring (from what I’m told) a very good Elvis impersonator (he won Elvis Idol 2007 in Las Vegas!), as well as a Tina Turner Impersonator! And, our own Gospel Choir will be joining them for the show! We have a few of our own in the Choir, including Floz!

It’s sure to be a great night, so go on and get yourself some tickets for it! And the best part is, if you live on campus, the tickets only costs 2 EUR! You can buy your tickets at Maeve’s office (that’s the Student’s Reception office right at the River Apartments)! Get them quick! They’re selling fast! All proceeds from the show will be going to charity!

And, in honour of this event, our next film night (this Sunday 17 Feb.) we’ll be showing the recent musical Hairspray! The film will begin at 8:00 in the evening this Sunday, Theatre 1 in the Arts Block. Hope to see you all there!

Just so you know, we will send out final details about the Ring of Kerry trip (exact departure and return times) early next week.

All the best,

Ed

I want to start by saying thanks to all who signed-up for the Ring of Kerry trip, and sorry to those who didn’t get on the list; we’re limited because of the fact that we have our driver and bus booked for the entire weekend, something we don’t do for the other trips. But we can assure you that there are (generally) no limits on how many people can go on the other trips we will hold later this semester! For example, we had nearly 80 people go on each of our trips to Cork and Belfast last semester, and we’ll be able to do the same for the trips we do later in this semester as well.

The film this weekend, in honour of the recent tragic death of actor Heath Ledger, will be the film for which he will be best remembered, Brokeback Mountain. The film will begin as usual at 8:00 PM, this Sunday in the Arts Block, Theatre 1. You can always check what’s on over at the activities page.

And someone wanted me to mention it to our new members: A big number of our members are on Facebook, and networking through this has helped the process of meeting and connecting a little easier. So look out for others out there, join our group there or register yourself to help meet some of the cool people that are here in Maynooth! I of course am not cool, as I don’t have a Facebook page! Haha!

Anyway, hope to see you all soon, and I hope all the new people have enjoyed their first week of the semester!

All the best,

Ed

How is it going? Tired of studying / writing the 137th essay . . . ? Looking for some diversion ?

There is a concert (actually 3 concerts in 1) in the Aula Maxima tonight (Thursday 13 Dec). The Choral Society, Somebody Else (?) and the Gospel Choir are performing their end-of-year gigs. There are a number of international students performing too, so all the more reason to check it out and get a nice change from all the uni work. There are not too many cultural events happening here in Maynooth, so you shouldn’t miss this one!

Sorry for the late notice, but doors open (tonight!) at 7:00, the concerts start at 7:30 (I think), and goes for about 2 hours (maximum). Not sure how much it costs to get in, but it shouldn’t be too much, especially not for students.

For those who don’t know the Aula Maxima, it’s the free standing building on your left as you walk onto the South Campus coming from the footbridge, and across the small bridge over that little river. (That’s Building 3 on this map).

Hope to see you all there, good luck with the exams and essays,

best regards,

Floz

As mentioned in the last email, please come and support the NUI Maynooth Volleyball Club — it’s run by Matthieu, Simone and myself, and consists pretty much only of international students!

We will be playing two games tomorrow (Wednesday 28 Nov), in the main sports hall. First game starts at 11:00, the other at 12:30.

Please help us win these League games, I’m sure it’ll be fun to watch!

Thanks a million, and see you tomorrow hopefully,

Florian

UPDATE: Thank you all so much for coming, we had a great time and some cheering ladies really make a difference! Here are some photos from the event.

I want to sent out a very special thank you to all of you who went to Belfast, and made it one of the best Society trips we’ve ever had! This was the largest trip we’ve ever done; we had 85 people on the trip, including the 8 from the Volleyball Club! I had a really good time myself, and I hope that everyone one had a great and very memorable time as well! Between Giant’s Causeway, The Black Taxi Tour, and the Christmas Market, I’d say everyone had lots of fun!

And now, for the details about out next trip:

We will be holding our last (half) day trip of the semester on Saturday, 8th of December, and we will be going to Newgrange, which is an old passage tomb in County Louth. Older than the Pyramids in Egypt, as well as Stonehenge in the U.K., the site at Newgrange was also used as an ancient ‘calendar’, as the tomb was built so that the sun would light up the inner chamber on only one day of the year. It is one of the most important historic sites and (thus) one Ireland’s top tourist attraction! Here are some really good websites that will tell you all about Newgrange 1, 2, 3.

We have two group bookings for Newgrange on Saturday, December 8th: the first group begins the tour at 10:00, and the second group will begin at 11:00. Each tour will last about two hours, and Newgrange is only about 1 hour away from here, so we will all return to Maynooth by 2:00 or 3:00 in the afternoon. We know that many of you will have assignments and essays to finish, so we booked early times to give you the rest of the day to study! The final cost for Newgrange will be 15 EUR per person. This price includes the round-trip on the bus and the admission cost into Newgrange!

Sign-ups for Newgrange will begin tomorrow, Tuesday Nov 27th. We will be at the Arts Block 6 – 7 pm as usual in the corridor by the computers. We will also be there 6 – 7 pm on Wednesday as well for sign-ups!

That’s all for now! Thanks again so much to everyone that made the trip to Belfast such a success! And one more thing: We’d like to get some photos of the trip to post or link to on our site! If you are willing to share some or all of your photos with us, please send them to us so we can publish them on our web page. Let us know! We’d love to put up some great photos!

All the best and see you all soon,

Ed

The facts again:

Where to

Newgrange

Date

Saturday, 8 December 2007

Departure

8:30 and 9:30 am from Student’s Union

Return

About 2 and 3 pm

Cost

15 EUR per person

Includes

Transport & admission cost

But not for long