Hailing From the Emerald Isle

When I Die, Dublin Shall Be Written Into My Heart

2009-12-20T14:24:00.000-08:00

(Sorry it's late - I wrote this on the plane ride home)

Dear Readers,
So my four month study abroad adventure has come to its end. What does that mean?

To be honest - I'm really not sure. I do want to point out that I said my study abroad adventure has ended, and not "my journey" or "my experience here", because I believe both of those have just begun...
What I mean to say is that my experience was.... how can you describe it in one word? Incredible? Fantastic? Life-Changing? Unbelievable? Unforgettable? Fun? All of the above.. It was a chance of a lifetime - I can't thank enough the people in my life who made it possible for me to go. It WAS life changing, but I can't tell you how yet. I don't know what about me has changed and I don't think I will know for a little while - or maybe even until I go back and see what my perception of Dublin, Ireland, and Europe is now. Maybe in a week, maybe in a month or a year, I can sit down and look at myself and explain how my study abroad experience made me a better person - I know that it has, I just don't know if I can put it in words yet. I guess I could try...
I know I'm more independent. I know now that living in a city is a struggle for me. I've learned my boundaries/barriers when it comes to being away from family and how much of that I can take. I've learned that I can take care of myself in foreign countries for four months and that I can interact and have fun with people of a foreign culture and enjoy both our similarities and our differences. I know that I have learned a deep respect for aspects of both the cultures I have visited, and for my own. I know that thanks to the school and our faculty, I have made connections with people in my career in the UK. I know that I did it - and a lot of people won't, or can't understand what I mean... but I know my fellow study-abroaders can.

The hardest part of leaving for me was the streets. I realize that sounds funny, but even if I didn't like living in Dublin and have realized that I'm not a city girl - I grew accustom to wandering its streets day and night. The city and the lifestyle had become a normal part of my routine life... and to think that I will never see those streets, at least in the way they are now, again is something I cannot quite fathom yet. I must say, I didn't take the architecture there for granted, even if seeing it became routine for me There were still some nights when I would stop and look up at the church spires framed against the Dublin sky and wonder how I could live any place where I couldn't see something as beautiful as that on my way home.
I will say also that I did struggle during my time there. It was difficult to juggle living in a foreign country, living in an apartment for the first time, taking classes, and traveling to other countries for four months. It was a struggle to manage the time difference to talk to my family and friends. It was a struggle to place myself out of my comfort zone. It was hard - probably the hardest thing *I've* ever had to do. But it was worth it.

So yes, Readers, I'm excited to get home. I'm excited to step on America soil once more, to see my family, to celebrate the holidays. But I do mourn the ending of my study abroad experience here. It is a semester that I will *never* forget.

If any students or parents of a student are reading this right now and have hesitations about studying abroad - I know what you're going through. I was there once. I remember the panic I felt when it came to finances, paperwork, security, and all the other concerns that fly through your head when you or your son or daughter is thinking about taking this step. I was there once, but I took that step, I began that journey, and I hope I have been able to show you how it has changed me. And now I urge you... no... I dare you to take the same step I did. I promise you you won't regret it.

I'll be making one last post sometime next week to talk about what it's like being home after being abroad for so long (it'll be as much of a surprise for me to see what I'll write as it will be for you!), but if you have >any< questions at all about my experiences - please don't hesitate to email me at heather.ryder@mymail.champlain.edu. (Just please make sure you include in the Subject something that tells me you have questions about my abroad experience such as "Questions about Studying Abroad" etc. so it doesn't get tossed in my spam folder!)

Happy Holidays every one - and I hope to hear from some of you after (or before =) ) all the celebrations

~Heather~

Stonehenge

2009-12-09T06:43:00.000-08:00

Dear Readers,
So I finally got back to Stonehenge! My Welsh friend from my last trip to Wales came with me and we had an absolute blast. Salisbury is an amazing city with so many old buildings and monuments to see. We actually got a tour through Salisbury and the surrounding plains up to Stonehenge and then back through Amesbury. It was an interesting tour, though I'm not a fan of bus tours since you can't stop and take pictures.
Was I thought it was going to be? No. Was it amazing? Yes. I wish I could have run around amongst the stones. It would have been cool to have gotten a closer look and imagined myself back in the neolithic times when the site was in use for whatever purpose it was created for. It was incredible to stand in front of a monument that took hundreds of thousands of man hours to create, with a purpose we can only fathom at.
I spent several days relaxing in Wales and immersing myself in the culture. I spent time with my Welsh friend and his family and getting to know some of the customs/sayings/culture of the Welsh, plus some Scottish and English that are in their backgrounds. It was nice to have one on one chat times with people for hours on end about differences in our cultures. Anyone who tells you there are no differences between American English and British English is insane - according to my Welsh friend and family, there are very distinct differences between the Welsh, English, and Scottish English languages, and American's speak a whole other "Strange" English. I would agree, though obviously in my opinion their language is the strange one. We spent hours laughing about how "funny" the other person says certain words.
I came to study abroad to learn about other cultures - its strange that I connected so well with a Welsh family rather than an Irish one, but it was interesting to sit down and have a conversation where half the time I had to say "what do you mean by.... (this word, phrase, etc.). Despite the language barriers though, I had an incredible time, and can't wait to go back for trip #3 at some point in my future!
Well the end of the year is wrapping up and I have a ton of stuff to do! Check in next week for a wrap-up blog on leaving Dublin and my experience here!

A City No Longer Divided

2009-12-09T06:10:00.000-08:00

The last place my companions and I visited on our ten day Thanksgiving break was Berlin, Germany. Wow. What more can you say?

What do you think of when you think of Germany? World War II, Hitler, Jews, the Holocaust, Gas Chambers, Berlin, the Berlin Wall, West Berlin, East Berlin, genocide... Am I on the right track? With Germany such a big part of the World history, it's hard not to think of these things when you think of Germany. So what is it like when you actually visit Germany?

In Berlin, it's very obvious that the history of the city shadows over the city and the people. The first thing I noticed that the only colors being worn by people on the street was black, black, and more black. In a bright sky blue raincoat, I stuck out like a sore thumb.

One of the first things my companions and I saw was the bombed out church shown to the right. As our tour guide the next later said to us "The people of the city has left it the way it is on purpose. For them it is a constant reminder of what happens when you steep the world in the worst war it has ever seen."

That sentence pretty much sums up the feeling of Berlin as a city.

However, it is not all doom and gloom. Berlin and its people were already celebrating Christmas when we arrived, and our first day there we got swept up in the Christmas celebration at one of the many Christmas markets throughout the city. We spent the day trying German eggnog, rum, cotton candy, and exploring the local crafts.

The second day, we got up early to go on the Famous Walk in English - done by a tour company who does 5 or 6 tours (including Cold War Spies, Concentration Camps, Pub Crawls etc.). Our tour guide, Kenny, was a Scottish man who had been living in Berlin for ten years, but still had the amazing Scottish accent! The tour costs 10 euro for students under the age of 26 plus a two euro travel card (it costs 12 euro for people over the age of 26) and lasts for 4 hours. It was the best money I've spent so far.

The tour was absolutely incredible. We started with Museum Island and the history of Berlin from 800 years ago and moved all the way up through the pulling down of the Berlin Wall. I stood at Checkpoint Charlie. I stood in the deathstrip. I stood in front of the remains of the Berlin Wall (seen below).

And even more powerful, I stood in the parking lot that is now the only marking for where Hitler's Bunker once stood. We heard the story of his suicide, the events that followed and the investigation that started years later to prove that he really was killed that day.
I heard the story of how the Bunker, 50ft below the surface, was dynamited twice and then the remaining room was filled in with soil and the entrance buried.... so that the location could never become a Shrine for Neo-Nazis.

I'm heart ached as we went by the huge monument of 2,411(?) concrete stones that stood in memory of the Jews killed during World War II (Seen above).

It was the most incredible experience of my life.

If you're planning on visiting Europe, go to Berlin, take the tour, learn our history. Remember, and teach your children to Remember, like the Berliners do, what happened in those terrible years. After that visit, I can -never- forget what happened that allowed us to enter those dark times.

Romans and Gelato

2009-12-07T01:29:00.000-08:00

Over Thanksgiving break, I was able to stand in ruins of the ancient Roman empire. Perhaps it was just my love for ancient cultures, but I cannot truly explain the feeling that came over me when I stood in the Colosseum and realized that I stood where tens of thousands had before me to watch men and animals to fight to the death. I cannot explain the feeling that came over me when I stood in the Roman Forums and looking at incredible buildings remaining intact from over one thousand years ago. Where do you think those people thought their culture would be two thousands years from now? Where do you think we will be two thousand years from now? What of our culture could survive the eons?
Our first day of exploring there we went to Vatican City. After hours of meandering through other ancient (and modern - bleh!) art, we finally made it to the Sistine Chapel. You're not allowed to take pictures or video in the room, but in this instance, it wasn't about the pictures. Throughout my travels in Europe, I've always been about taking pictures to take home for my family so that they can see what I have seen, but with the Sistine Chapel, it is just not the same. I've seen Da Vinci's Sistine Chapel before in books, but it is nothing compared to standing underneath it in its fully glory and wondering how on earth one man did this.
At one point, I was sitting there looking up with Pat and mentioned "Once you've seen this, what more is there? How can there be anything else?" and an American woman on the other side of Pat leaned forward and said "I was just thinking the same thing".
I'm a sucker for ancient history, so for me, Rome was absolutely incredible.

Think about our culture today. What, if anything, do you think will last from our century for thousands of years?

Watch in the next 24 hours for a blog on my experience in Berlin, Germany!

~Heather~

Hola de Madrid

2009-12-02T02:10:00.000-08:00

Hey There All!

So I've decided to do my vacation trip in a series of three blogs, one for each place I visited, because there is NO way all three could be covered in a single piece of writing.
My first adventure took me to Madrid, Spain. My companions and I arrived around 11a.m. local time (the rest of Europe is an hour ahead of the U.K. and Ireland) and caught a taxi to our hostel (you don't want to know how much that cost, normally we travel by train or underground). The first thing we quickly learned was that majority of Spanish either don't know English, or choose not to speak it, so my four years of Spanish in highschool was strongly tested.
Our hotel/hostel was on the fifth floor (without an elevator) but the owner and his housekeeper were ridiculously nice - though neither spoke English at all really and it was hard to communicate with them. However, the owner, an older gentleman, did manage to give me directions to the Tourist Centre where we could pick up maps, and also in great detail that I couldn't really translate, warned me about pickpocketers.
Our first day in Madrid we went to visit the Almudena Cathedral, which is right next to the Palacio Real (Royal Palace). The architecture of the Cathedral was absolutely amazing, and we were able to go up to the top dome and outside on balconies to look over the city. On our way up, the pathway led us out on a balcony that looked out at the Palacio Real, which we went into our next day in Madrid.
Both the cathedral and the palace were incredible works of art, though you couldn't take picture inside the Palace =( My favorite part, however, was the Royal Gardens out back. It looked just like the royal gardens you'd imagine from a fantasy novel.
Our first night in Madrid, I remembered the hard way that Madrid is a night city, and most of its residents are up until 3 or 4 in the morning. We were street side in our hostel, in the very center of the city. Oops!
On our second night, we ate at an absolutely horrible restaurant on the corner up from our hostel. The only reason I mention this is because while we were sitting outside at the "restaurant", a protest came through. It was nothing like the protests in the U.K. or in America. The majority of the marchers were made up of people around our ages (low to high 20's)), protesting facism in the country.
Spain has a pretty violent history on facism, so this protest didn't surprise me much. However, the black flag of Anarchy that they waved did. The protest was followed by six vans of riot police. I don't know if that's protocol in Spain for riots, or if they were concerned about something happening. We certainly were - after our meal we were actually traveling the same way as the protesters, towards the center of the city to see if all the decorations were lit up since it was around 8pm at this point. On the outskirts of the protesters were young Spanish men and women with black clothes and a silver armband on their left arm. Each and every one of them had black cloth over their face below their eyes, most likely to protect their identities should something happen, and many of them wore backpacks.
At one point during our walk, one of the young men in the attire (we guessed that these were probably the leaders of the march) met my eyes as I watched the crowd. He pulled down his mask, nodded at me, then put it back on and continued on.
I wish I knew what that meant. It was the strangest experience. To me, it felt like a symbol of trust and mutual understanding. I was his age and in a dark hoodie and, at least inside, I understand the history of Facism in the country and felt for those in the march today. Maybe he saw that, maybe he didn't. I'll never know, but that's not a memory I'll soon forget.

Our last day in Madrid we spent at the Madrid Zoo! I know, not a very culture-eqsue thing to do, but one of my traveling companions really wanted to go, and we had a blast. The zoo was actually outside of the main parts of the city and our map didn't go that far, so we actually kind of wandered around hoping we would find it - and we did! It was maybe an eight minute walk from the bus stop.

All in all, Madrid was a beautiful city, though it is definitely a better place for night owls. Do I want to go back some day? Definitely. The people were nice, considering my [possibly] horribly broken Spanish.

And lastly - I just wanted to make a quick shout out to my incredible highschool spanish teacher, Amber. Without you, I wouldn't have survived my three days in Madrid! Thank you!

Come back in a day or two for my second Thanksgiving Break Blog - Rome!

~Heather~

Newgrange and Bru Na Boine

2009-11-19T07:28:00.000-08:00

This last Friday the Early Irish History Class traveled to Newgrange and Loughcrew. We were unable to visit Knowth, which is the coolest of the three sites (that is, Newgrange, Knowth, and Dowth, the three largest Neolithic cemetaries in Europe) as the excavation of the site has just recently been completed and the site has not yet gone through the same preservation techniques that Newgrange has. Because of this, Knowth is closed from Halloween weekend on to preserve it from the cold weather.

So what is Newgrange? Newgrange (what you see above) is a humongous man-made

mound that features a passage tomb inside (The passage ways inside make a "t" shape). It is built with hundreds, if not thousands of large stones placed on top of each other that are slowly moved inward to create a peaked roof (see picture below for the inside of a DIFFERENT passage tomb). The stone was then covered with layers of turf to protect the rocks from elements, and possibly to make it blend in with the landscape/hide it. As thousands of years went by, the soil layer got higher and many of these passage tombs/mounds were hidden. This one was stumbled upon by accident.

Inside, each of the dead end cubby-like areas in the "t" shape had a large bowl (one of these was still featured in the Newgrange site but no pictures are allowed inside) which, when excavated, was filled with the cremated remains of what they estimate was around 100 bodies.

(Most passage tombs don't have these grates on top. This is also a picture from the passage tomb at Loughcrew, not Newgrange, but it gives you an idea as to how they were built).

Loughcrew is a series of passage tombs, many of them collapsed. However, one of them still remains intact.

Many of these passage tombs are also covered in rock art, carvings that were handmade. Here are some examples of rock art from Loughcrew!

Off to Spain, Italy, and Berlin!!!

Ancient Crypts, Mummified Dead... and a Little Bit of Normalcy

2009-11-09T05:51:00.000-08:00

Yes, I do realize that the words featured in my title should not go together.

The question of the day is: Have you ever smelled eight hundred year old dead?

This weekend, eight of us traveled with Tom and his wife to St Michan's, a nearby church just across the liffey. The church was built on top of six 900 year old crypts, two of which are open to to the public. In the first crypt, we saw family "plots" piled high with coffins. Because the families could still be buried in these plots today, they are still considered sacred places and can neither be lit nor can the coffins be opened (and, of course, you can't take pictures).
However (there is ALWAYS a catch), over the 900 years that have passed, many of the sarcophagi located on the bottom of the piles have collapsed. This allowed the church to extract the mummified remains of the dead inside, and four of the least damaged corpses are now on display. Since the crypt is underground and built with limestone, the temperature stays constant, therefore preserving the bodies.

Also in the first crypt, there are two sarcophagi containing the bodies of two rebel brothers (a.ka. the Sheare Brothers) who tried to imitate the French Revolution here in Ireland to break from British rule, as well as the death mask of Wolfe Tone - who tried to do the same thing. The neat thing about these two rebels is that the church owns the original documentation from their execution note which was written after the brothers had been captured at a meeting of doomed rebel leaders who had a spy amongst their ranks.
The document is very legible, and visitors can clearly make out the death sentence for the rebels which went something like this:

*WARNING: The following is not suitable for children*

"...shall be hanged, not until they are dead, but rather, whilst they are still alive, they are to be eviscerated and, whilst still alive their insides are to be burned in front of their faces...."
They were hanged, eviscerated, had their entrails burned, and then their heads were chopped off and they were drawn and quartered before being thrown in their coffins....0.o wow

In the second crypt were the four mummies, three in the front and one in the back. The mummy in the back was the most special of the four as the way he was buried (with his thigh bones crossed) suggested he was a crusader, and the corpse dates back almost 800 years. Many people who read this may know that the burial symbol to mark you as a crusader would be to cross skeletons at their ankles. This is indeed the case, but because this man was so tall, his legs had been chopped off at the knees and placed underneath him. His broken pointer finger on his right hand was longer than my longest finger, and it had been broken off below the knuckle. The man had to have been at least six and a half feet tall - a giant in medieval times.
The big tourist attraction to St. Michan's is that you are allowed to touch the corpse of the dead Crusader - shaking the hand of a crusader was supposed to bring good luck, but today they suggest rubbing the crusaders finger to protect the skeleton from damage.

Did I do it? Yes
Did I wash my hands after? Heck yes!

Pictures were not allowed to be taken in the tombs, but they have been allowed in the past (or people snuck pictures) and you can view the crypts I entered here:
http://atlasobscura.com/places/st-michans-church-dt
Note: These are not my pictures and I have no rights to them.
These pictures show the crypt *exactly* how I saw it. Note: If you watch the videos available on the site, they're a little touristy, but the first man that speaks is the Caretaker - who acted as our tour guide. He was *absolutely* *incredible*. If you have time in Dublin, go to St. Michan's! It's only a E2.50 entrance fee, but I would easily pay three times that.

And lastly - a sense of Normalcy has returned to my life. For those of you who are writers you know (or perhaps, should know!) that November marks the beginning of NaNoWriMo - National Novel Writing Month, a self-challenge that pushes writers to set aside time for their long-forgotten novels and write 50,000 words in a month. I participate in the competition every year, and going back to my writing has reconnected me with the idea of home. On saturday, I met up with a bunch of local Dubliners who are also participating and had an incredible chat with them about novel ideas, plots, characters, twists, and other such crazy writer stuff.

For those of you who like statistics, in order to accomplish 50,000 words in the month of November, a writer must write 1,667 words a day. However, since I'm traveling for 9 days at the end of the month and probably won't have time to write, I must accomplish a minimum of 2,380 a day. It's going to be crazy, hectic, and chaotic - but that's normal - hence a sense of normality returning to me! This weekend, I broke 20,000 words!

For anyone who wants to participate (jumping in 9 days late just means nine days less of procrastinating)
NaNoWriMo

And for those who asked, here's an excerpt from my new novel - The Awakened:

On December 21st, 2012, Earth was not destroyed. And the human race breathed a sigh of relief.

But it was never meant to end.
It was meant... to change.
It came as a trickle at first. For the fifteen percent of the population that survived the weight of that day, at 2:47 pm Greenwich time, the dam in their minds broke and with it came an incredible sense of relief and freedom. They felt revitalized, refreshed, renewed, and different. Like flowers in the winter, their minds had felt closed and dark, cut off from some unknown knowledge, but now a light shone through and they blossomed with unrefined talent.
They had become the Awakened.

^---Copyrighted 2009 - Heather Ryder

Cheers!

Wales and Halloween

2009-11-07T05:09:00.000-08:00

So, this last weekend, I planned a trip to Stonehenge, Salisbury and the southern half of Wales. As is my usual, these plans got completely borked - and I had to throw Stonehenge and Salisbury out of the equation (Don't worry - I'm already in the process of making plans to head back there in December. I will stand in front of the awe that is Stonehenge before I leave Europe for the semester).
On Saturday, I traveled out to Cardiff and visited the castle (if you've read any of my previous blogs, I'm sure that you know by now that this is my ultimate obsession). Cardiff Castle houses a Norse tower in the center of its grounds, which we only got halfway up before having to run back down for the "exclusive" tour in the living quarters of the Castle.
If I remember correctly, the Castle was privately owned up until the late 19th century, whereas the Lord of the home gave the castle to the city of Cardiff (his family only lived there six weeks of the year anyway), so the house is completely maintained with all of its original furniture, books, etc.
Although my greatest pleasure it terms of castles is crawling around the ruins looking for buried treasure, the living quarters of Cardiff Castle was absolutely amazing. The family had the money to design their home any way they wanted (again, even though they only lived in it for six weeks of the year - four in the summer and two for Christmas) and some of the ceilings are literally worth more than I make in a year. One of my favorite rooms, other than the one featured above with the gold plated ceiling which was the Lord's wife's personal room, was the one featured below. It was the Lord's personal garden and thinking room on the very top of the Castle. The Lord believed you could only find God in Nature, so the fountain in the middle of the room is sculpted with dozens of animals, and the walls are painted with them. The room also featured a Madonna with child sculpture - it is one of the few in the world where the Madonna is smiling - and in the evenings, as the sun was setting, the light would shine through the back window to perfectly illuminate the statue.

To be honest, I spent more time relaxing in Wales than I did site-seeing. I did get a chance to see the outside of the Millenium Stadium, where all the World-Cup games are hosted, and go to the Cardiff Musuem, but all in all I spent more time just hanging out with a fiend of mine who lives in Southern Wales learning about the Welsh culture.
One of the reasons I chose to study abroad was to immerse myself in cultures that were different from my own, whether that be in social gatherings, language, history, or whatever. In Wales, I felt slightly uncomfortable because I had placed myself in a culture whose social gatherings most often occurred in bars, or where alcohol was located. It took me the better part of the weekend to realize that while the consumption of alcohol was almost a requirement for their social gatherings, being drunk was not. It was part of their daily lives simply because they had grown up with it as part of their daily lives.
While this seemed strange to me, as much of the drinking that I've seen and heard about in the States is revolved around getting completely plastered, it was also refreshing. Although I'm not an avid fan of alcohol, it was nice to see it used in a responsible way in social gatherings. Of course, this was made much more interesting considering I was out on Halloween night - and it seemed to be a pretty big deal out in Wales. About 85% of the people I saw were dressed up in costume!
All in all, it was an incredible trip, but mostly because I was able to do what I set out to do when I came to study abroad - immerse myself in another culture. If you're looking to visit Wales for a weekend, I would suggest doing a tour of Salisbury, Stonehenge, Bath, and Cardiff, if you're going to be in the area.

More soon!
~Heather~

London: A Learning Experience

2009-10-29T07:02:00.000-07:00

Since October 26th is a bank holiday in Ireland, myself and two friends decided to take a weekend trip. Actually, in all fairness, a friend of mine planned the weekend trip, and two of us decided to tag along. The plan was to hit London friday, York saturday, and Edinburough, Scotland on Sunday, then fly home Sunday night from Scotland.

Sometimes things don't go as planned.

If you're planning on studying abroad, or even just taking a vacation, and you're headed to London, or any where else for that matter, I can't stress enough planning ahead. We waited until Friday morning (After we had arrived) to book a hostel - bad idea! Apparently the weekend we visited happens to be students "spring break" there. D'oh!

We did manage to find a hotel though, and picked up our London Passes and Travel cards before venturing forth into the city.

Tips to Visiting London
---If you're planning on visiting London - plan to stay there for a couple of days.
---Take the first day you arrive to check into your hostel, get settled in, and visit sites that AREN'T covered in your London Pass.
---The London Pass is a card that allows you free admission to around 70-80 sites in London, but a "day" pass, only works from the first time you use it to the end of that night when attractions close - not for 24 hours. At about 35 british pounds for the first day, its a waste to start using it around 1pm in the afternoon (it's around 55 british pounds for a two day pass). It IS worth the money, if you leave yourself enough time in the day to see numerous sites.
---Get a travel card! A daily or multi-day travel card will save you money after TWO trips on the underground - and the underground saves you an incredible amount of time!! But - depending on where you're traveling, you'll only need areas 1 and 2 of the 6 sections that the underground covers. Look into this when you get to the city!!!

On our way to picking up our London Passes, we passed Buckingham Palace. We weren't lucky enough to catch the changing of the guards, but it was still an incredible sight.

After picking up our London Passes, we headed straight to Big Ben, the House of Parliament, and Westminster Abbey. Unfortunately, Westminster Abbey has slightly odd hours and it had closed 15 minutes earlier (as its still in use today). You can't take pictures inside of Westminster, so you'll just have to take my word that it has some of the most incredible sites in terms of tombs, graves, and statues I have ever seen (we managed to get in early saturday morning).

We also visited the Jewel Tower near by, which was originally designed as a private treasury to the king. The original roof is still intact today.

By far, my most favorite part of the trip was the Tower of London. Contrary to popular belief, the Tower of London is not, in fact, a Tower, but is rather an entire fort where the soveriegnty of England used to reside. From the number of towers, chapels, and stories housed in this famous fort, I could have spent all day there (we did spend about 3-4 hours there). It also holds the crown jewels - an entire building dedicated to highly guarded glass display cases of the the crowns, coronation rings, orbs, scepters, and other odd, assortments of items owned by the Crown (Example: an entire dining set made of gold used by previous Kings and Queens of England). Again, this (and the chapel) is a place where you can't take pictures, but you can pretty much everywhere else in the fort.

If you get the chance to go to the Tower of London, it is in your best interest to follow one of the tours. "But why, Heather? Tours are boring.. the tour guides just ramble...it's so long... if I go, I feel obligated to stay for the entirety..."
I hear you - I do. I thought the same thing, and we almost skipped the tour. I'm glad we didn't.

Firstly, the tour guides are part of the Queen's Army - In order to become a tour guide, they have to be part of the army for at least 20 years. The outfits may look funny, but it's their ceremonial garbs, and the metals on them are real. Our tour guide was incredible: fun, entertaining, spoke with and played off of members of the crowd, and he told stories about the towers and the chapel that gave me chills.

Not only was he incredibly good at his job, but the three of us stop to speak with him after the tour and got our pictures taken with him - and it was such an honor to be able to. I will go ahead and claim that the Tower of London is by far the most incredible historical site I've been able to see to date, but what I will never forget about it is him.

The plans for the rest of the weekend got a little jumbled, as the coach/trains we were planning to take up to York and Edinburough took longer than we thought and were more expensive then we expected. This wouldn't have been as big a deal as it turned out to be, except the cold that I had before leaving and the stress of running around a new city rapidly deteriorated my health, cause me to end my trip early and head home saturday evening instead of sunday evening.

Luckily, I'm almost fully recovered - and just in time for my trip to Wales this weekend!

Cheers!

Belfast - A City Sundered

2009-10-21T04:56:00.000-07:00

This weekend, my classmates and I traveled up to Northern Ireland. The first place we stopped was Belfast - the center of turmoil between the Catholics and Protestants, the location of the "Peace" Wall, and the home of the IRA.

What?!? The IRA?!?! Heather get out of there!

Before I left for Ireland, I had quite a few family members warn me to watch out for the IRA, but despite Americans strong influence in the peace negotiations in Northern Ireland - I don't think my family members understood the situation there. I know I didn't.

I can't remember every detail given by our tour guide, and I'm sure there will be slight inaccuracies in the following story, but I think it's important (especially if you're going to be traveling to Ireland) to understand its recent bloody history.

The fighting in Northern Ireland, and between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland is all based on the idea of "Home Rule". The Republic of Ireland is fighting for a united Ireland - where the British no longer hold rule over Northern Ireland and the entire island becomes one nation. Within Northern Ireland, the Catholics want a united Ireland and Home Rule as well, whereas the Protestants want to stay with England.

The fighting began with the Catholics protesting the inequality of Catholics and Protestants in the workforce - where Protestants gained all the management positions and Catholics made up the majority of the hard labor force. They began to march up and down the streets, followed closely by the media. But Britain made no attempt to make changes, and soon the media lost interest in the uprising.

This is where the IRA came in. In order to get attention back onto the plight of the Catholics, the IRA began to start small riots during the marches, which had to quickly be put down by the police force. But the entire police force in the North of Ireland were Protestants, and soon Catholics started looking out their window and seeing the Protestant police force beating down the Catholic protesters.

And that's how it started.

In the city of Belfast, the Catholics and Protestants lived on the opposite side of the same street. As a Catholic who watched one of their family members get taken down in a riot, it was a little too tempting to cross the street and get vengeance - a life of one of theirs for the life they took from you. Soon, both sides had this mentality and fatalities were occurring every day.

The Separation Wall, at 4.5 miles longer in its entirety than the Berlin Wall in its individual parts (each section that's maintained by different countries), was put up to separate the two sides of the streets in hopes of maintaining some form of peace between the Catholics of the Protestants.
From this, it became dubbed the "Peace" Wall.

In the 1960's-1970's, Ted Kennedy along with some other powerful political leaders traveled to Ireland to push for peace negotiations in Northern Ireland. After years of fighting, peace, if an uneasy one, was finally found.

During these peace negotiations, the IRA - the Irish Republican Army - agreed to turn away from terrorism and their terrorist ties to find peace through talk negotiations. Yes, they once had ties with the PLA (Palestine Liberation Army), because for the longest time they claimed that both terrorist groups were "fighting a holy war", but because of their affinity to America for the difference it has made in the negotations, the IRA has dropped these ties.

Today, they maintain and edit a wall of murals known as the International Wall, which represents descrimination and wrongdoings across the globe. The tour guides that take American tourists to see the wall actually work with the IRA to maintain murals that are not upsetting or offensive to Americans in any way because they respect the American opinion.

Houses on the Catholic side of the peace wall still have cages covering them to protect from molotov cocktails thrown over the wall when it was at its shortest height (it was added to over the years). Memorial sights litter the Catholic side of the wall from when that entire street - over 180 houses - were burned to the ground in one single night. And there are grounds on the Protestant side that are still leveled - having not been restored before the recession hit.

But now, with help from foreign influences, Northern Ireland and the Republic are on the road to recovery. Murals cover the city, cries of hope for the future, and the new generations and being taught that they can live side by side without violence.

It's inspiring to see in a world filled with so much war and violence and bloodshed.

And it's refreshing as an American whose country is steeped in a pointless, seemingly endless war. We can make a difference in the lives of others and we have to remember that at a time when it's easy to forget.
(This mural depicts Protestant children drawing pictures on the Peace Wall of what they want to be when they grow up and chatting with Catholic children who are greeting them from on top of and around the wall. On the right hand side, you'll notice two spires, which represent the Catholic church you can see if you turn your back to this mural. This mural represents the hope that wall will be breachable by the coming generation.)

The First Inside Look at Classes

2009-10-13T09:36:00.000-07:00

"My friend says to me, 'Rotimi, why do you not let your son work? He is 16. He is of age. He can work part time around his studies.'
'He does not need to work,' I tell my friend. 'This way he can concentrate on his studies'
'Well what if he wants to buy...' our professor pauses and points to one of my classmates. 'What do you call that....cap? A baseball cap! - 'Well what if he wants to go to the store and buy a baseball cap?' my friend says to me.
'Then I will buy it for him,' I told my friend.
'But if he has a job he can buy it for himself,' my friend says.
'No, no, I am his father and it is my job to provide for him until he is out of university. He does not need to work until he has graduated'."

There was a pause as Professor Adebari finished his story.
"Can you be my parent?" one of my classamtes asked, grinning. "I don't want to have to work til after college!"

The class broke out in laughter, many of us all too familiar with working and going to high school/college at the same time, but our professor had made his point about cultural differences.

Professor Rotimi Adebari teaches the Intercultural Communications class at the Academic Center and like the rest of our teachers, is highly qualified for the position. Our professor immigrated from Nigeria back in the 1990's and has been working towards better intercultural communications both in business and communities since he arrived. He's also the first African American to hold the office of mayor in the Republic of Ireland - Seriously, I don't care who you are, that's pretty cool.

In this specific class, Prof. Adebari was discussing with us the importance of education across cultures. Here in Ireland, it's common for 15 year olds to get part time jobs and to work throughout the rest of their education. While this is similar to American students, many of whom HAVE to work during high school and college to support themselves, education is a bit different here in Ireland and the U.K. In Wales, students leave highschool at 16 and graduate college in 3 years in order to get out into the workforce as soon as possible. Where education back in the States is held in such high regard students stay in school for 18 years, here it is important for adolescents to become part of their communities more quickly. And this is different too in Nigeria. He holds education is such high regard that he asked his son not to take the "transition year" (a year off after highschool before entering college) that many students partake in because statistically, many student's don't return to college.

We've also spoken about stereotypes, misunderstandings, and the importance of non-verbal communication. In my last post, I discussed how great it is that non-verbal communications are universal.... but are they?

Fun Facts About Signs We Use Commonly in the States

Shaking ones head side to side is considered an affirmative response in India
The Thumbs-up symbol is considered the equivalent of the American's middle finger in Bangladesh, Iran, Iraq, and Thailand. Meanwhile, it's used to symbolize "1" in Germany. (Remember that if you try to hitch a ride in any of these countries)
The Peace Sign is considered an obscenity in the U.K. when the palm faces inward, as well as in South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand (it often signifies defiance)
The combination of I L and Y in American sign language that symbolizes "I Love You" in the States is the symbol used to curse someone in the Italian culture
The "Okay" symbol in the States is the symbol/request for coins in the Japanese symbol. In Brazil, it represents vulgar expressions and in some European countries, its a negative symbol that suggests the meaning "you are a zero".

In previous entries, I have stressed the importance of remembering how similar we are to others outside of our own culture, but it's important to remember that the similarities we think we share may not actually be as universal as we thought.

If you're planning on studying abroad in another culture, especially one where you don't speak the language, make sure you research the use of gestures in that culture!

All in all, this class is pretty sweet and is definitely one of my favorite classes here on campus. I truly wish our Professor could teach more classes back on our main campus. His stories are funny and keep you interested throughout class, and it's crazy to think that even he learns new things with each semester of American students he teaches (after working with this stuff for over a decade). Need SWK425 to finish your major, or got a general elective space open? Take this class - it has the potential to be incredible (remember - the experience is only equal to the effort you put into it!).

Cheers!
~Heather~

Plugged In: To Be or Not To Be?

2009-10-10T06:12:00.000-07:00

I growled in frustration as I tromped up the street, shoving my lifeless iPod back in its pocket. I had forgotten to charge it. Again.

When I made the decision to bring my iPod with me while I studied abroad, it was meant to be used to entertain me during long traveling times, which, when I was in a music mood, would include the 25 minute walk to the Academic Center. Really, sometimes you just need music, for whatever the reason. I get it. I'm a product of the 21st century too.
But you never know what you'll miss when you're plugged in.

" 'ahts arhllie noice cawh," commented the older gentleman who fell back to walk beside me on my way to school.
"Sorry.... what was that?" I asked, completely lost. What language was this guy speaking?
"T-at's a really nice car," he said again, this time with a thick Irish accent, pointing to a shiny black jaguar parking on the side of the road in front of us. "T-at's tha t-ird one I've seen..... different colors." I smiled and nodded, understanding only two-thirds of what he was saying. Whoever told you they speak the same language in Ireland, Scotland, and Wales as they do back home lied to you.
Thank God for body language - the universal language. I smiled and nodded.
"All the cars here are so well maintained," I replied, somehow concerned he wouldn't understand me. "Back in the States, people don't keep them this nice."
The mans eyes lit up. "You're from the States, are yah?"
It's true what they say about the Irish. They all have family members in the states - and they're happy to tell you all about them. Boy, did I open up a can of worms.
"I've got a cousin, and two sisters, and a brother over there. My brother lives... "
I smiled at the man, listening to him talk about his family, about how they were coming to visit, about how he used to live in Canada, and how he hated the snow so much that he refuses to even watch t.v. shows with them. In the corner of my mind, I was concerned about being late for class, as I had slowed my pace to match his gait, but we parted ways shortly after meeting.
"I'm stopping here Miss, to stop and look at some paintings."
"It was nice meeting you!" I called over my shoulder as I hurried on towards the Academic Center.

Was it direly important that I stopped to talk to that man? Would the world have ended if I had been listening to my iPod? Surely not. But did it make a difference in my life? Yes, I would say it did.
I am fairly certain I will never meet that man again, or that I wouldn't even recognize him if I did, but I'll remember him, for his friendliness, and his stories, and how talking to a complete stranger lit up his face. And I can only hope that I brought a moment of joy or company to his life for that brief period of time. And maybe this weekend, when his sister and cousin comes to visit him from the States and they're eating the cakes he made them, he'll tell them about this nice American girl he met on the street, who he talked to about cars, and Canada, and snow.
What would have happened, say, had I ignored him, or been really rude and stormed off? What would he have remembered then? I could tell you stories about people who used to come into the grocery store I worked in during highschool who either made or ruined my day.
I remember this one young couple who had relocated to Maine after Hurricane Katrina that came through my line a dozen times or so over the course of several months. In those few brief meetings, I learned they had relocated to Maine two years ago, that they were finally starting to feel at home, and, during their last few trips into the store, that they had to return to Lousiana for extrenuating circumstances.
But two days before they headed back to Louisiana, they came in just to see me, not only to say goodbye, but to give me the good news - they had just gotten engaged. The woman couldn't wait to tell me - I was one of the first people she told. I remember her reaching her shaking hand across the register and putting it in mine, the diamond gleaming despite the horrible flourescent lights.
I don't know why I was the first person to know. Maybe they had a hard time finding friends here in Maine. Maybe after the disaster, they had grown away from their family down in the South. And I don't know why the woman confided in me when she came through my line, telling me about how hard it was to have relocated. Maybe she just needed a stranger who wouldn't judge her to listen for a few minutes. Maybe me listening for a few minutes every few weeks made her life a little bit easier. I don't know, and I never will. I can hope so though.
Today, I can't remember their names, but I will always remember them, the kindness they always showed to me, what they looked like, and most importantly, the happy glow on her face that shown through the constant sadness in her eyes as she celebrated her life with a complete stranger.

It's amazing the effect we can have on the randomest people.
And I urge you to remember that, especially when you're traveling to a foreign country.

How do you want to be remembered?

Just Follow the Zombies...

2009-09-30T12:23:00.000-07:00

"Just keep following this path for another couple of minutes or so and stay to the right. You can't miss it. If you see zombies, you're in the right place," replied the Irish couple we stopped to ask directions from as we tromped up the Dublin Mountains. We all got a good laugh from the Irish couples' joke about zombies being at the ruined "occult" lodge we were checking out. Imagine our surprised as we crested the hill to the lodge and realized they weren't joking...

Last weekend, 17 of us headed up to Dublin Mountains for a day of hiking and exploration. One of the main attractions on the mountains is an old stone building known as the Hellfire Lodge. The legend behind the building was that a bunch of rebellious youth from Dublin got kicked out of their favorite pub for their rowdiness and so they decided to use this cabin (whether it was owned by a family members, we're unsure) for their get-togethers. Eventually, the cabin was supposed to have been used for occult meetings and rituals. More than likely, the true story behind the building was that it was a location for a bunch of Dublin men to gather together, drink a few pints and rant about the government. Nevertheless, the site does claim to have had the Devil himself back an appearance at one of the rituals, and I just couldn't help myself.

After knowing all the history behind the two-story hunting lodge, you can guess at how surprised we were when stumbled right into over a dozen men and women done-up as zombies chasing people around the building and shouting down at us "Ahhh, fresh meat".
Weirder things have happened?

What we had actually stumbled upon was the shooting of a music video for a local band called "The Riptide Movement". The members of the band weren't actually present (as far as I know), but the actors were extremely friendly and didn't seem to mind taking a break (and drinking some pints) while we took some time to explore the ruins. They even posed for a group picture with all of us.

I know that when I first arrived in Ireland, I had plans to travel over the rest of Europe every weekend, but as time passed, I realized that Ireland all by itself has more amazing sights than I could possibly see in my four months even if I never stepped off the island. Ireland is an incredible country with a rich history and, most importantly, incredible people. Every time I have stopped to ask for directions, I've always received them (about three times, just to make sure I got it), and I always got where I needed to be. Disclaimer: I will say, however, that sometimes the Irish's descriptions can be a little off. Example: "Roads" may well mean "scraggly paths of rocks" and "10 minutes" may actually be more like "25-30 minutes"

I guess what I want to say is, if you have plans to visit Europe, I wouldn't discourage you from visiting all the famous sights in the places like England, France, Germany, Italy etc., but I would urge you to take the time to see the little, less known sites. You never know who will be there or what will happen. This trip up to the Hellfire Lodge, though not educational in the least, is one of my most favorite memories from Ireland. Thanks to Ben and all the other actors there who made the trip the experience that it was!

I know I promised to talk about Arthur Guinness day and some of my other trips, but you can find information on my counterparts websites:
Check out http://frogwind.blogspot.com/ to read about Maddy's experience here in Dublin
Or http://jessicasinireland.blogspot.com/ to read Jess's Blog (and see her amazing pictures!)

(I have one more counterpart, Brett, but I don't currently have his website link!)

Check in in a few days for insider information on some of the classes here in Dublin!

Cheers
~Heather~

Western Ireland and Misconceptions

2009-09-17T10:23:00.000-07:00

Dear Readers,
I have returned 'home' safe and sound from our incredible trip to the West Coast of Ireland and with me comes an entirely new perspective on Ireland, its people, and its history.

Words cannot describe the beauty of this country. As a child, I always imagined Ireland to be a majestic place with castles and warriors and leprechauns. This weekend tore down all my perceptions and misconceptions of Ireland and rebuilt the country in my mind to a height far behind what I ever expected. Words cannot do justice to the beauty of this country, its people, and its history.

I arrived in the town of Galway on friday afternoon and split my day between wandering the city and exploring the local museum. Museums in Ireland are free to the public, and I highly suggest taking advantage of these opportunities if you visit the country. Ireland is a picture-perfect country and so a perfect tourist spot, but this makes it is so easy to forget about Ireland's disastrous history and the poverty that still exists here today. The Museum was my first true glimpse into how bad it used to be for citizens here, and left me with this quote:

To look at bodies abandoned on this rubbish tip, to
write details of torture, are experiences that cannot ever again be obliterated.
To risk a gaze at such wounds of humanity is to choose to be changed forever.
The conservative can exist in comfort only by averting his gaze. To choose to
know is to risk being presented with a dilemma. That dilemma, put simply, is that.
once one knows, you can, from that moment, live only in bad faith of guilty
silence, or act.

Our saturday was adventure-packed as we stopped at the Corcomroe Abbey (a ruined church with graves that date from the 17th century to as recently as 2007), a Faerie Fort that marks the location of a 11th century hut that has long disappeared, the Burrens, the Kilfenora Monastary and the Cliffs of Moher before ending our night in Doolin.

The Burrens is a section of the country that is made up of miles upon miles of limestone. Over the last few millennium, the limestone has slowly been corroded by rain water, creating extensive networks of underground caves that will eventually cave in upon themselves (some already have). The area is as dangerous as it sounds, and while I can assure you there are parts that can be safely traversed, it was an eye-opener to realize that Ireland is not just the green fields and grassy knolls topped with castles that we perceive it to be.

The Cliffs of Moher is a well-known tourist attraction and although it wasn't my personal favorite location on the trip, I would highly suggest visiting it - the view is incredible. Located on the Cliffs of Moher is known as O'Brien's Tower and was built in 1835 by Cornelius O'Brien specifically for visitors to stand upon to view the cliffs. Visitors can get some amazing pictures standing on top of the tower - unfortunately during our trip, hundreds of little flying midgies that wanted to eat us =(

A lot of our traveling has taken us to ruined churches and massive graveyards, but no matter where in Ireland I travel to, I am continually surprised by the care put into the conservation of grave sites. Many of the centuries old gravestones are no longer readable, but those that have been broken have been placed aside and remarked or labeled in some way. Fresh pebbles, stones, flowers, or random knickknacks adorn almost every grave we have visited. I mourn the lack of this type of extensive care back in the States, and I hold a great deal of respect for the Irish for spending so much of their time honoring their dead.

Before I continue my tale, I want to point out and break down another common misconception of Ireland. On Saturday night, we ate at a local pub in Doolin, and as I sat there for a little over three hours, having my meal, chatting with friends, and listening to local Irish music, I noticed that not a single Irish person around me was intoxicated. It made me realize that the only intoxicated people I had seen in Dublin were tourists, especially Americans.

We constantly hear of the Irishman's fondness for drink back in the States, but the truth is, while people may spend a lot of time in pubs, very little of it is spent drinking. Often a group of people will enter a pub and have one drink each over several hours of conversation. There is no binge-drinking, no constant drunkenness, or people falling all over themselves in the streets.

Sunday morning we set out on the ferry for the largest of the three islands that make up the Aran Islands, Inis Mor. We were lucky enough to have the sun shining for the fourth day straight and with only four hours to explore, our group immediately scattered to hike or bike across the island. Inis Mor was covered in an impossible number of fort ruins, churches, and natural phenomenons (The Wurmhole, a incredibly large hole in the ground caused by water pressure in an underground cave), and I was only able to make the 2mile hike over rough limestone and crumbling rock walls to a local ruin known as "The Black Fort".

(Previewed above: Pat (one of my roommates) posing on a set of stairs along the wall of the Black Fort)

All that remains of the fort is a very thick rock wall and smaller connecting walls on the cliff edge. On either side of the cliff were amazing coves that looked like they should have come out of "The Pirates and Caribbean" movie. This was, by far, my most favorite spot on the trip.

One of the final misconceptions I would like to break down in this post is the belief that you cannot get sunburned in Ireland. After 4 days of incredible sunshine and a final day of 70 degree weather, I came out looking slightly like a Maine lobster as did many of my companions. Nevertheless, this weekend was definitely worth the sunburn (especially since that means we didn't have any rain!).

Next week: Visiting immigration, the 250th celebration of Guinness, and more!

Cheers,
~Heather~

Pre-Departure Questions and Concerns

2009-09-08T05:54:00.000-07:00

Hey all!
As my bio states, my name is Heather and I'm majoring in Computer and Digital Forensics at Champlain College. For the fall semester of 2009, I'm studying abroad in Dublin, Ireland, and will be keeping a blog of advice, tips, stories, and experiences to give all of you out there a good idea of what its like being a Champlain student here in Ireland.

Both before my departure for Ireland, and during the last few weeks I've spent here in Dublin, my parents and I struggled with questions and concerns that commonly pop up when going through this process. I've decided to make my first post some advice and tips on common concerns to hopefully a) convince you to study abroad if you're still on the fence and b) ease some of your worries/stress (so my first blog mostly goes out to students and parents of students who are thinking of studying abroad - sorry!)

Customs:

One of my biggest concerns during the pre-departure phase was getting all the paperwork together that I would need to get through customs. My best advice for you - Don't panic! Pack your paperwork in an easy-to-reach place so you're not scrambling for it when you go through customs, and always have an extra copy on your person or in your luggage and at home. Be respectful - the customs officer wants it to run as smoothly as you do - and if there are any problems, the staff we have here on campus is incredible and will assist you in getting things straightened out.

Jet Lag:

Whether you've traveled outside of your time zone before or not, you will experience jet lag. For those like me who have never experienced before, the real trick is that you won't even realize that it's affecting you. Exhaustion and grogginess will hit you at the strangest times, which you'll want to attest to the crazy amount of exploring you'll be doing the first few days. Be aware that it can affect you for several weeks, especially if you have a hard time getting to sleep at regular times.

The best way to beat jet lag is to get your sleep schedule on track as soon as possible. This can be difficult because most students arrive pretty tired out from the flight.

Safety:

As a first-time city goer, I feel extremely safe here in Dublin. Just as in any big city, none of us travel alone at night, but Dublin is a walking city so there are always people on the street. This includes a good number of Garda (police officers) on foot, who are very approachable/friendly (very different than back in the States and the police officers you experience on Church Street in Burlington).

Academic Center and Classes:

When you first arrive in Dublin, the mile walk to the Academic Center will seem long. It's not! Dublin is a walking city, and on any trips you take for sight-seeing purposes, you will very likely walk 3x-5x this amount, and not even notice! The first couple of days, my feet protested in agony, but after the first week, I barely notice the distance when I got any where.

DON'T let the idea of walking long distances deter you from studying abroad! I was concerned about this before I left the states, but I don't notice the distance anymore. Studying Abroad is too good of an opportunity to pass up.

As for classes - your professors will be incredible. They are masters in their field, and will bring up challenging topics that will make you reevaluate the way you look at things. They are also great resources when it comes to finding things in the city and the surrounding areas! Just be prepared to attend every and class and show up on time (which of course we all do anyway... ^_~)

Culture Shock / Home Sickness:

For some of us, we may know that traveling away from our homes, family, and comfort zone will be difficult for us. For others, it may seem easy to travel away, and it might be easy. For those like me, it will seem easy to travel away from home, but you will find it more difficult than you originally thought.

I left home prepared to enter a country that was very different from my own, with different cultural norms, accents, hobbies, and food. I left home arrogant in thinking I could adapt very easily.

In my Intercultural Communications course, we discussed how entering a new culture presents us with both challenges and opportunities. One of the lessons I hope everyone can learn when studying abroad anywhere in the world is an appreciation for your home.

After my first week in Ireland, I was amazed by the "simple" food that was difficult or impossible to find. I was stressed by the different teaching styles and expectations of our professors. I was simply shocked at the smallest differences that you notice when you are taken out of your comfort zone.

The differences you couldn't have possibly fathomed will be there, and some will be harder to handle than others. But they are opportunities - not challenges.

The inability to find my regular foods/ingredients have taught me to improvise and experiment. I know that I'll be leaving Ireland a way better cook than I was when I left the States. Our teachers are incredible people and work with our administrators, classes as a whole, and individual students to mold their classes into a curriculum that works for everyone. It can be difficult at times, but if life was easy, college wouldn't be nearly as much fun =)

If you find yourself homesick or struggling with culture shock, talk to someone: your roommate, classmate, people you know who have been abroad before, or one of our administrators, and know that everyone is going through the same stuff you are, albeit in different stages. As Americans studying abroad in a foreign country, we're in this together and people will be more willing to listen and help than you may think.

Most importantly - No matter how difficult any challenge that I face here is, our main staff, Tom, Lilly, and Stephen, are the most incredible and capable people for their jobs. They go out of their way on a regular basis to make life and the transition process more comfortable for us, they provide us with incredible opportunities, and they have a never-ending supply of energy that certainly gets tested by the number of ridiculous questions we ask on an hourly basis.

If you're still uncertain about studying abroad, keep checking back in to hear about some of my experiences and challenges here in Ireland.

Check back in next week for pictures and stories about our trip to Western Ireland!

~Heather~