Gem and Jo's College Tips

So it's nearly that time again, back to college and we decided that since we are going into our final year we could give some of you college newbies a few tips on how to survive and make some friends!

It's never too late to go into third level education and whether you're 18 and just finished school or your 65 and ready to learn again, it's just as scary and daunting for everyone. We hope our tips will help you get through the college year without breaking down crying or being friendless and lonely.

1. Talk to people. Sounds easier than it is!

2.  Join a Society or Club. They have ones for absolutely everything. Pick one that strikes your interest and join. You'll meet loads of people!

3.  Take advantage of all the facilities on campus, academic and non academic! Fees are expensive enough, might as well get your money's worth! 

4. Do your own thing and be your own person. 

5. If you are a commuter, get a locker. It will save your life and your back. 

6.  Screen shot your timetable and send it to your friends. 

7. Enjoy yourself, but do the work. There's no point in paying a ton of money to come out the other end with a terrible degree, a little work goes a long way. "Due Tomorrow, Do Tomorrow" should not be your philosophy!

Remember, the person sitting beside you on that first day probably doesn't know anyone either, all it takes is one little hello!
Good Luck and we hope you enjoy college as much as we have!

Gem and Jo's College Essentials

As college veterans, we are here to help you put aside your college newbie worries and guide you through your first few weeks of getting your degree. Here is our video on what you are going to need when the time to start college comes around.

1.  Get yourself a diary or a date book for your first day where you can keep track of important dates.

2. A notebook and Pen is essential for your first day as you'll be given a load of information that should be written down. 

3. Get a map of campus and keep it! You may need it at exam time or even in the next few years of college.
4. Bring a plastic folder to keep all the important documents you'll receive on your first day in. (Keep everything you're given during those first days, they'll likely be important and needed at some point in the future!)
5. Have a memory key on you at all times for printing assignments and saving in class work.
6. Wait a while before buying text books for lectures to make sure that they will actually be used.
7. Get a good water bottle. Most colleges have drinking water taps on campus so you can fill up your water bottle and not have to spend a load on bottled water. 
8. Get a small lunch box that you can put snacks in. You won't always have time to run back to your dorm or to the cafeteria every time you're hungry. This will save you from disturbing a lecture with a loud rumbling stomach (we've been there. Not a lot of fun!). 

Stay tuned for our next video which is all about how to mentally survive those first few, terrifying days and has some handy general tips that may be helpful too! 

Gem and Jo Take On The Ice Bucket Challenge

Well the challenge was bestowed upon us and we feel we rose to the occasion. You may find the following video highly disturbing and young children should be ushered out of the room now.
 Joke! we're actually very proud of this video!

P.s. this video is also known as "Johannah and the Disappearing Wine Glass" Keep an eye out for it, we seriously can't find it...

Until Next Time.

Gem and Jo take on Strange Weather

As you might know Gemma is a huge weather freak (she's obsessed..... it's kinda scary!), when we heard that the science gallery in Dublin were having an exhibition about weather we had to check it (Gemma probably would have imploded if we didn't). So this past Thursday we headed into Dublin city to have a look at the exhibit, Strange Weather, (and to have bit of a frolic in general).

The science gallery doesn't open until midday so we decided to head into Dublin a bit earlier and do a bit of Shopping (let's face it, we're girls and given any chance to exchange money for goods and services, we're in there like swimwear).

After a little bit of retail therapy, we headed for lunch in Captain Americas on Grafton Street. This place does super yummy food and cocktails but seen as it was only 1 o'clock (which is before the acceptable time to start drinking) we got ourselves some pizza (which was delicious we might add). *Oh quick side note, if any of you guys are with o2 (The phone network) you can get yourself a 'buy one, get one free' on all main courses so check that out here.

One of the beautiful buildings on the grounds of trinity college.

After we were fed and watered, we went on our merry way towards the Science Gallery. The gallery itself is on the grounds of Trinity college so we got a chance to look at the beautiful architecture that covers the grounds.

We got to the science gallery at a nice time and there wasn't a huge crowd there. By this stage Jo thought Gemma was going to explode with excitement and she wasn't let down.

 The exhibit had loads on offer for both children and adults interested in weather. From weather charts to people making clouds with helium, from  models of the earth and predicted weather cycles to a screen that let you interact with cloud patterns. There was even a place where you see what it's like to be a weather person and read off a teleprompter in front of a green screen. They even film it and put it up on Youtube so you can watch it later. We had so much fun with this and it's way harder than you may think. If you want to see us making complete messes of ourselves you can watch the videos below. 

Gem's Future Forecast

Skip to 0:49 to see Gem utterly confused by words...

Jo's Future Forecast

Unfortunately Youtube hates us and refuses to let us put Jo's video on the blog, so if you want to see Jo's forecast video you're gonna have to do the ole fashioned copy and paste of this link:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJZBNo7i-PY

Over all it was a great day and the gallery was well worth it. The exhibit runs until the 5th of October and entry to the science gallery is free so there's no reason not to check it out if you're around Dublin. Check out the Science Gallery's website here for more information. 

Thanks for reading. Hope you enjoyed. 

Until next time

XO Gem and Jo 

Gem and Jo take on Spraoi

If you saw our 'Gem and Jo take Waterford' post you'll know that we had such a great time frolicking around the county. So when we had the chance to head back down for their annual Spraoi festival it was a no brainer. Spraoi is Waterford's annual street arts festival which takes place over the august bank holiday, and we couldn't wait to soak up the atmosphere with all the free street acts and live music.

We headed down to Waterford on Saturday, however the weather wasn't really on our side. If you live in Ireland you'll know that we had torrential downpours on Saturday which wasn't the best weather for an ourdoor festival (unless you're a duck..... which we aren't).  Luckily, the rain cleared up by evening, which meant that we were still able to check out some of the street acts before we headed in for the night. 

On Sunday the weather took a complete turn around and it was a scorcher. This meant that we were able to hang around the town all day and check out some awesome acts including the drum band Torann, The Correspondents, Gypsi Swing  and Propeller Palms. Even got to see the Hot sprockets in Geoffs cafe bar. 

Gypsi Swing 

Torann

The festival finishes every year with a parade and fireworks. This year the theme was 'to the waters and to the wild' and it definitely did not disappoint. The floats were amazing and the performers in the parade were incredible and had loads of energy

After the parade, the fireworks were the icing on top of the already amazing cake. Jo has been to going to Spraoi for many years now and she thought that it was one of the best fireworks displays they've ever had. 

It was incredible and the whole crowd was wowed. 

The whole festival was brilliant. The atmosphere was unbelievable and we had an absolute blast. If you ever get the chance to go to Spraoi definitely do. You won't regret it. Check out their website here.

Thanks for reading!

Until next time, 

XO Gem and Jo 

Gem and Jo's Outfits of the Day

So here are our next Outfits of the Day, we wore these while visiting county Waterford, again, for the Spraoi Festival (Spraoi means fun in Irish and is pronounced sp-ree). Take a look: 

Gem's Outfit: 

Top: Primark €6.00 

Jeans: Vila Clothing €34.50 

Necklace: New Look €8.00 

Shoes: Dunnes Stores €20.00

 Jo's Outfit:

 

Top: Primark €4.00

Jeans: Primark €11.00

Necklace: Next €7.00

Shoes: Heatons €16.00

Jacket: Dorethy Perkins €40.00

Thanks for checking in guys and we hope you liked this post, tell us what you think in the comments and let us know what your favourite piece was! 

Until Next Time, 

XO Gem and Jo

Gem and Jo Take on Camping

So this weekend we went camping! We apologise for the lack of updates but we had zero signal where we were! 3 whole days without internet or phone, it was truly shocking stuff!

We went to a place in Athlone, County Westmeath, called Lough Ree (East) Caravan and Camping Park, where Gem's parents have a caravan and boats to use during the summer. You can check out the park Here. It's a really pretty little place with direct access to the lake, which leads onto the River Shannon and isn't too far from Athlone town. 

Here's views of the lake from the park:

There's a beautiful, unique sunset there every night! It really is a gorgeous lake!

And there's always some ducks hanging around! 

When we arrived we set up our tent, which we bought from Halfords for an absolute steal, it included 2 airbeds and 4 sleeping bags and even torches!! If you're thinking of going camping you should check out their selection of tents and camping equipment Here.

We spent all of Saturday swimming and kayaking, occasionally getting rained on but we didn't care as long as the thunder and lightening stayed away!!
Saturday night we took a trip to the local pub called The Dog and Duck! This place is an absolute gem! It is great craic and serves AMAZING pizza! (Pizza and a pint for €10, you wouldn't get that anywhere else!) Check them out here.
The awesome thing about this pub? It is literally right outside the campsite, no need to pay for a taxi!

Sunday, of course we went swimming again but we also took a trip into Athlone town via the River Shannon!
Here's the course we took:

We followed the red line seen on this map!

And here's Jo driving us to Athlone:

The route from the campsite to the town is beautiful, full of scenery and there are plenty of ports to stop in before you get there if you wanted to and there are almost always people water-skiing so you get to watch that too! 

In Athlone we stopped for some lunch from a local take away called Genoa Cafe, which has been in Athlone since the 1940's!

The food was delicious and there was plenty of it so we decided to share some with a few ducks that were hanging around! We ended up having about fifty seagulls, ducks and swans surrounding the boat! We figure ducks must have some sort of telepathy because they were arriving from all over the place, it was kinda nuts!

This is only some of them, there were so many!!

Before we left the town centre we had a bit of fun, pretending to be part of the Titanic! 

And because it had finally become sunny, we took some pretty pictures of the town!

It was a brilliant weekend full of laughter, rain, swimming and brilliant people! If you're looking for a campsite to pitch a tent or park a caravan in, you should take a look at Lough Ree (East) Caravan Park. The manager's name is John! Pack some wetsuits and you're guaranteed to have a great time!

Or if you prefer to stay in town, the Radisson Blu hotel is right on the River Shannon (Gem stayed there before and says it is gorgeous!) and there are plenty of different river cruises you can take to see the area:

River Run Cruise

Viking Tours Ireland

You can also rent a cruise boat for a weekend and travel the Shannon yourself, there are plenty of companies to choose from: take a look here!

P.s. we're pretty sure we weren't camping, we think we were 'glamping' (glamorous camping'). 

Thanks for reading! Until Next Time!!

Gem and Jo take on the 'Get to Know Me' Tag.

So we decided to do the 'Get to Know Me' tag. Here's the video. Hope you enjoy!

Gem And Jo Take Dublin Zoo

We recently visited Dublin Zoo and let us tell you, it was awesome. It has recently been refurbished and there are way more animals than ever.
Everything from lions...

...to Giraffes... 

...And even this weird looking guy... (Who may or may not be a little depressed)

And if you get there early, you can see the keepers feed the animals, they even give you a five minute gap between feeds so you can run from one enclosure to the other. Literally, you have to run. the zoo is a big place.

Robin the Giraffe, her calf and Keeper. 

We got seriously up close and personal with some gorillas and their keeper told us that they love banana biscuits.

Baby Gorilla 

Sleepy mama gorilla. 

There is also wild peacocks running all over the place, and they're cheeky feckers who like to steal your chips.

Cool fact about peacocks, female ones are called peahens. Bet you didn't know that one.
Apart from the animals there are other cool things to do in the Zoo, there are plenty of playgrounds and there are strange wooden statues of the animals dotted all over the place. We had a bucket load of fun taking pictures with them.

Gemma chilling with some baby piggys and their mama

Johannah reckoned she could take on a gorilla!

This is probably the most fun you could have with a wooden Zebra!

All in All, Dublin Zoo is a great day out. We recommend going early enough on cloudy days if you want to avoid the crowds, also they give discounts to groups and students, which is always a plus!
check them out at: Dublin Zoo.