Closing Time

As much as I've tried to fight it, the end of my study abroad experience finally came today. After a sad day of reminiscing, packing, goodbyes, and watching one last sunset over Galway Bay, our beloved cab driver, Rory, came to take me and Ali to the airport at 4 am. We had a tearful goodbye to our cottage mates and some of our friends who were kind enough to get up to say goodbye. Even JP was there to say goodbye and send us off. It was one of the saddest moments of my life when we pulled away from the Park Lodge with all of our friends waving goodbye. We have not been short of tears today. 

If saying goodbye at the Park Lodge was one of the saddest moments I've had, then saying goodbye to Rory was a close second. After he made sure we had all of our bags and our passports, Rory gave us hugs and a kiss on the cheek to send us on our way. We literally just stood there crying, while he urged "go on now, go on now," because I think he knew we wouldn't have left unless he made us. We then continued to cry as we walked through the Shannon airport, which caused a lot of stares and some concerned security workers to ask us if we were ok. No shame. But in our defense, even our beloved JP and Rory have been tearing up lately, and I think it shows the amazing bonds that are formed by this incredible program. Our hosts in Spiddal truly took us in as their family and it made my experience that much greater. 

I'm sure all if this may sound dramatic to someone who has not had this type of experience, but the ending of this trip seriously feels like we're mourning the death of something, for lack of a better way to explain it. While we can each go back and visit Ireland on our own someday, for most of us that will be far off in the future and we will never be back in the same situation with the same people. As sad as it is, this specific experience is over, and it's only natural that we all are struggling a little bit as we all part ways. 

The relationships we have made on this trip have been some of the best friendships I have ever had in my life. Our entire group experienced something so amazing together, and we bonded through every hot ride on a tiny bus, monastic site visit that drug out just a liiiittle too long, or one of our always entertaining cottage parties. Between all of our different excursions, and just the sheer fact that we were around each other constantly, we became a sort of dysfunctional family that I already miss so much. It's been less than a day since I left the group and I'm already missing them and I'm sad to know that I won't see everyone every day anymore. The people in this group made this trip even more special than it would have been on its own, and I cannot say thank you enough for all the amazing memories I have of this trip. 

Sitting in the New Jersey airport now, it honestly feels weird to be back in America. I remember the study abroad office telling us at our orientation meetings about the reverse culture shock we would experience coming home, and at the time that didn't make any sense to me. But here I sit feeling weird about being in America when I felt so at home in Ireland 12 hours ago. When I went to buy a drink when we got here, I was actually confused for a second when she told me the price in dollars instead of euros. I am very excited to go home and see my friends and family, but at the same time it is truly a bittersweet experience of knowing an experience that shaped me so much has come to a permanent end. 

While Ive talked plenty about how much I loved Ireland and all of the amazing people in it, which I really did, the experience of studying abroad as a whole really made me grow as a person and learn so much about myself. I would strongly recommend studying abroad to anyone who has the opportunity, because it is a unique and amazing experience that nothing else can really compare to. I think all of us can agree that it has given us a new perspective on life, and I am so grateful for the amazing experience I had during these past 3 months in Ireland. 

As I am writing this post, I am starting to realize that I'm never really going to be satisfied with it. An experience like my time in Ireland is something that you can't really do justice to in a blog post. Plus Ive gotten about 2 hours of sleep in the last 48 hours, so I'm not really at the top of my game. But in all seriousness, I really can't describe how much this trip, and the people on it with me, meant and continue to mean to me, and I want to thank each an every one of them for making this possible. Also, the Irish friends I made gave me the true exposure to the Irish people and culture that I could never have gotten on my own, and I am eternally grateful for that. While it's sad that this trip has come to an end, I couldn't have asked for a better program and I will smile every time I think of any person or part of our Irish adventure. I know that we will all take the things we've learned with us for the rest of our lives, and that is a unique and priceless gift that this trip has given to all of us. So for all of us Galway study abroaders that are struggling through these next few days, let's try to focus on all of our amazing memories and our new and improves knowledge of the world that we are so lucky to have gotten. Plus, even though we're sad to leave each other, I know we'll have plenty of Ireland reunions when we all get back to St. Joe. :) 

Thank you so much to everyone who has read my blog throughout my trip! It was an amazing experience beyond my highest expectations, and I'm glad I got to share it with at least a few other people! To end this blog I'd like to leave you with one of my favorite Irish Blessing I learned on our trip: 

May the road rise up to meet you. May the wind always be at your back. May the sun shine warm upon your face, and rains fall soft upon your fields. And until we meet again, May God hold you in the palm of His hand.

Plenty to be Thankful for...

​I don’t know how it happened, but today is Thanksgiving and in less than 48 hours I’ll be flying back home to America. After the months and months of preparation and anticipation that led up to this trip, it is a hard fact to accept that it is coming to an end. Most of us have been struggling to deal with all of the “last time” things we’ve had to do, and I’ve started to realize that no matter how many times I go into Galway or go down to Spiddal beach to watch the sunset, it’s never going to feel okay for it to be the last. I’ll always want one more time. Before I get into any more of the sad reminiscing stuff, I want to reflect back on our last week a little bit, as it is my last opportunity to do so in my blog.

​Last Friday our group went deep sea fishing, and it was one of the most amazing things I have done while being in Ireland. We were extraordinarily lucky to have an extremely rare andbeautiful sunny day the entire time we were out there, and it was such beautiful hour-long ride out to the spot where we would be fishing. Kevin was our expert fisherman who was showing us the ropes, and he may have been the funniest Irish person I’ve met on this trip. He made fun of me all throughout the day, as so many Irish people seem to do for some reason, but it made the trip all the more fun and I was smiling all day. Our group had great luck while fishing, and there was someone pulling in a fish pretty steadily throughout almost the entire time we were out there. I personally caught two fish, and I thought it was one of the most fun things in the world to reel those huge fish in. It takes a lot more time and strength than it would to reel in most of the average fish you’d catch in a lake in Minnesota, and my arms were actually kind of sore the next day from it. At the end of the day our group had tons of fish, which we are still trying to eat, and Kevin even cleaned and fileted them all up for us. Poor Sarah, who unfortunately didn’t even catch a fish that day, got completely splattered with fish guts and blood as he was doing it. When it was time to take our hour-long boat ride back to the mainland, our group got to watch the most breathtaking sunset over Galway Bay. It was one of those really cheesy moments where we all just stared in silence and really took in the beauty of this amazing country that we have been so blessed to live in. Then as we got closer to the pier, Kevin even let me drive the boat for a while, which I think I earned after all the jokes at my expense. It really was the perfect day, and it is something I will never forget.

​Sunday was very, very sadly our last day in Galway :( My cottage mates and I started it off with some cupcakes and tea at a classic Irish tea place, and I may or may not have started crying a couple times before it was over. The rest of the day was spent walking around the amazing city that has become our home-away-from- home, doing some last minute gift shopping,  and checking out the adorable Christmas fair they had going on in the city center. It’s incredibly sad to know that I won’t be going back there again, but I am so glad it is the city where I chose to study, because it truly is my favorite of all the cities we’ve seen.

​This week, for really the first time all semester, our group was busy studying for our final quizzes and writing all of our final papers. The biggest paper that had everyone a little rattled was our 12 page research paper for our theology class, and I seriously don’t think I’ve ever struggled so much writing a paper. It was due last night at seven, and we were all so happy when we turned that sucker in. Yet, it was the marking of the end of all of our Irish classes which did make me a little sad. I do laugh though when I think of how hard we struggled to get through this incredibly light load of finals work. If we were back at CSBSJU, we would have at least twice the amount of work to do, plus an actual finals week with tests afterwards. But for this semester we have all been incredibly spoiled with so little homework that we’re lucky it even counts as college, so actually having assignments due in each class was a daunting task for most of us. Wish us luck for next semester; we’re going to need it.

​That pretty much brings us to today, which to us is Thanksgiving, but to everyone else in Ireland it’s just a regular day of work and school. It’s a weird feeling to be celebrating a holiday that is so important to us at home in a country where it has absolutely no significance. This is also the first Thanksgiving that I will not spending with my family, which is strange and kind of sad, but I know I’ll be seeing them in a few days and hopefully there will still be some leftovers by the time I get home. My mom has been promising that she’ll save some for me, but with my two brothers in the house I won’t believe it until I see/eat it. I am very excited for our Irish Thanksgiving today though, as we have lots of fun things planned. In a little over an hour, our group will head to the Barna woods for a little nature walk and then a little game of some American football. Afterwards, we’ll head back home to the Park Lodge and get all dressed up for our Thanksgiving dinner that the Foyle family will be making for us. They have done this for the Bennies and Johnnies for years, and we have all heard great things about the meal. When we’ve all had our fill of the Thanksgiving food, it is apparently a tradition that each cottage puts on a skit, so that should be pretty entertaining. Then because it’s Ireland, JP will open up his pub for our group one last time. It’s going to be an amazing day I’m sure, and I’m so thankful to spending it with my amazing Park Lodge family of Bennies and Johnnies.

​As much as I don’t want it to be, this will probably be my last blog post from Ireland. I’m sure these next couple days will be a complete whirlwind, and I will most likely not have the time to write. Most likely I’ll write one more blog on the plane or in the New Jersey airport during our 3 hour layover when I’m bored, so that I can reflect a little bit and wrap up this series of blog posts. Thank you to anyone who has taken the time to read any of my posts, it means a lot to know people are interested in what I have been doing! Recently all of my friends and family keep asking if I’m excited to be coming home, and I think my fellow students on this trip would agree that it’s a hard question to answer. Of course I’m incredibly excited to come home and see all of my family and friends that I haven’t seen since August, to sleep in my bed, and to take a real hot shower. I’ve missed lots of things about home, and I’ve especially missed my family and friends. But at the same time, it is an incredibly sad feeling to be leaving Ireland. I have fallen in love with this country so much, and after all of my time here I feel at home here too. This trip has been a life-changing experience for me, and I don’t think there’s any other experience that can teach you or make you grow as a person more than studying abroad can. I have made so many amazing friends and memories here, and it will be very hard to get on that plane and say goodbye, knowing I can’t just come back for a visit anytime I like. Plus, we’ve all realized that even if or when we do come back to Ireland, we won’t be able to have the type of experience we were given by actually living here for so long. A trip like this really only comes around once in a lifetime, and I suppose at the end of the day how fast it went by is a testament to the amazing time we had.I’m incredibly blessed to have had this opportunity, and I want to thank my family, most especially my parents, for making this a possibility for me. I think the best approach to the end of my trip will just to be thankful for the time I’ve had and all the amazing things I’ve done, and to look forward to seeing my family and friends who I’ve missed so much since I’ve been away, because I know I’ll be happy to be home with them. To end this post I’d just like to leave you with a quote, from my dear friend Amanda who I’m so glad to have met on this trip, which pretty much sums up how we’re all feeling at this point: “Forget that quote that says ‘don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened,’ that’s stupid. What it should say is ‘it rocks that it happened, but it sucks that it’s over.’” Amen Amanda. Happy Thanksgiving to all of my American friends and family reading this, I’ll be seeing you soon! :)

The Final Excursion

I’ll start off this blog by saying hello from Spiddal, Ireland, mostly because I sadly will not be able to say that for much longer. Honestly, where does the time go? It feels like yesterday that I was stepping off the plane and moving into the Park Lodge, and now I’m ten days away from flying home. I think our whole group is starting to feel the sting of our trip coming to an end, so we are all trying to pack as much in as possible to the last week and a half of our amazing trip. I’m sure that I will have another mopey blog or two or three at the very end of the trip and when I get home, so I will save my sad sentiments for a later time, and for now I will focus on our final excursion that we went on last weekend to Cork and Kilkenny.

We set off on Thursday for our last long bus ride on our beloved tiny, yellow Lally bus to our first stop in Cobh to tour a museum that dealt with Irish emigration and the famous ships that have visited Cork and Queenstown harbors, one such ship being the Titanic. It was a very interesting and informative museum, and the town of Cobh was a gorgeous harbor city, so it was a great place to stop. After the museum we moved on to Cork, where an Irish poet gave us a nighttime walking tour of the city. Cork is surrounded by incredibly large hills, so at one point on the tour we climbed one of the largest and were able to see the beautiful skyline of Cork City. I absolutely loved the city of Cork, and I think my friends that will be studying there next semester are going to have an absolutely amazing time. It has a bustling city center with lots of shops and restaurants, which of course sucked me in and left me with a few less euros in my pocket, and there are a lot of beautiful monuments and architecture that are scattered throughout the city. Other parts of the city are more industrial, as Cork is a huge port city, and as we drove in and out of the further edges of the city we saw lots of shipyards and harbors, which was something cool and different than what we are used to seeing. There is also a river that runs through the center of the town, which looked beautiful at nighttime when everything was lit up, and it reminded me a lot of the River Liffy that runs through Dublin. We also had the pleasure of seeing the town decorated with Christmas lights and decorations all throughout the streets, shops, and pubs, which made us all excited for the upcoming holiday season. Thursday was also Molly’s 21^st birthday, so a large group of us took her out on a little pub crawl to celebrate, and I hope she had a fun time!

The next morning our group headed to the beautiful and infamous Blarney Castle. It is truly an amazing site and I am really going to miss being able to periodically stop at the beautiful remains of ancient castles. After a bit of an uncomfortable climb up the very narrow and winding stairs to the top, everyone in our group got the classic Irish experience of kissing the Blarney Stone. If you haven’t heard the legend, kissing the Blarney Stone is supposed to give you the gift of eloquence, so I’m sure many people will appreciate my ability to talk even more now. J I hadn’t exactly researched the Blarney Stone much, so in my head I was picturing a literal large stone on the ground that we could just casually walk up to and kiss. But in reality, the Blarney Stone is part of the castle wall and, with the assistance of an employee, I had to sit down with my back to the wall and then lean backwards and dangle half of my body down a large hole through the floor until I was far enough down to kiss the stone. I think the experience made all of us a little nervous, and it was definitely a unique experience, but thankfully there were some metal bars for me to hold onto and a nice old man holding on to me to make sure I didn’t fall to my death. The things we do in Ireland, right? The rest of our day just included free time in Cork in which we shopped and explored the city, and later on we ended the evening with a nice night checking out some of the pubs in Cork. And of course we were all very excited when we found a place with live music where Galway Girl was sung. I’m obsessed with that song, and I think I might just cry the last time I hear it sung live here in Ireland.

On Saturday we moved on to our final destination of our very last excursion, which was the town of Kilkenny. I found out after getting there that Kilkenny is known for its history of witches and witchcraft that supposedly took place in the city, and it is supposed to be one of the most haunted cities in Ireland. I absolutely loved this little town, which was actually not as little as many of us expected it to be. There were lots of good shops to look around in, lots of good candy stores and bakeries, and, of course, plenty of pubs. We got sucked into one of the amazing candy shops that Ireland is known for probably one too many times than we should have, but we all got a pretty good laugh at each of us trying the “Black Death” candy. I wouldn’t recommend it. There was also a beautiful little river running through the town, and I had a little bittersweet moment as we stood on the bridge around the time of the sunset looking at this classic Irish town. Towns like this have become such a big and common part of my life after these 3 months, that it is hard to imagine not living in or driving through one every weekend. Later that night we checked out the pub scene in Kilkenny, which we always do when we are in a new city, and I think we all had a lot of fun with the large variety of pubs that were available and all of the music and excitement that was so easily found around the city. The next day we were again given a free day, in which we spent even more time walking around the city again, but we also took time to go see the Kilkenny Castle. Once again, it was an absolutely gorgeous structure, and we took a long time to walk around the beautiful grounds that surround it, which was a great way to spend our morning. We were surprised to experience fall colors like we don’t really see in our area of Galway, Ireland, and it was just a nice time of walking along the river and in the woods and talking about anything and everything with my amazing friends that I have made on this trip.

This is where our last excursion comes to a close. On Sunday afternoon we got back on our bus for our last ride back to the Park Lodge. While we were all pretty exhausted, I think everyone was feeling pretty nostalgic and there was a lot more talking, laughing, and joking around instead of the usual throwing in of our headphones and taking naps like we normally would. I honestly feel really sad as I sit here now and think that our days of traveling around Ireland are now over. We have been so blessed to be in a program that arranges for us to experience literally almost every part of Ireland, and I know that has added so much to my experience of this country. I really have fallen in love with Ireland, and I don’t even know how I’m going to make myself leave here in ten days. The family that we have created here is such a unique and amazing thing, and I think we all know that it will never be quite the same after leaving the Park Lodge. I’m not going to go into too much more of my sad, sentimental thoughts now, as I will have plenty of time to write about that in the coming days. For now, I’m just going to try to enjoy every minute that I have left here, because an experience like this isn’t going to come around again. I apologize for how poorly this blog is written, but I’ve been writing all of my final papers this past week and my brain is not functioning quite as well as it used to. Maybe having our first full 4 day week of classes in almost a month will help me get back on track and my next blog will be a little better. J We’re going deep sea fishing on Friday for one more fun, program-endorsed group activity, so I’m sure that will be a blast and I’ll have lots to say about that. Until next time then, thanks for reading!

An Excursion to the North!

Well it’s Wednesday night and all of us Cottage 3 girls are sitting around our small fireplace in our living room trying to stay warm, procrastinating our homework, and reminiscing about our amazing Northern Ireland excursion we had this past weekend. We’ve recently had a pretty drastic drop in temperature as we enter the Irish winter, and we are starting to get slightly concerned about how we are going to stay warm for the next month. If it’s any indication of how successful we are so far, we used two of our electricity coins today before 2 o’clock. We’re working on it. Along with the cold, we’ve also been experiencing the rain of the Irish winter. It feels like it rains for 20 of the 24 hours of each day, so we’ve gotten over the idea of being dry…. ever. Despite being in the throes of winter, we still continue to have amazing experiences here in Ireland, and our excursion to Northern Ireland this past weekend was one to remember.

We started off our excursion by going to Derry, which was an absolutely amazing experience. Derry is the birthplace of Halloween and hosts the largest Halloween festival in the world, so we had heard a lot of exciting things about it and we were all anxious to experience it for ourselves. Every time one of our profs, the people from the Park Lodge, or any Ireland native found out we were going to Derry for Halloween, they would get so excited about how amazing it was and all the fun we were going to have, so there had been a lot of hype about the evening. We arrived in time to change our currency to pounds, grab something to eat, and then change into our costumes and head to the large Halloween parade that kicks off the festivities. I was all dressed up in my pirate attire, and as Halloween has always been one of my favorite holidays, I was so excited to see my first Halloween parade. We had been told that there would be upwards of 50,000 people in the city for the festival, and we were not disappointed. People were lining the streets for the parade, and it was then that we started to see how big this festival was truly going to be. The parade was amazing with dancers, floats, marching bands, bag pipes, entertainers, and every costume you could imagine. We’re used to parades for the Fourth of July or homecoming in the United States, so this was something so unique and new and I absolutely loved it. I actually did okay with all of the masks surprisingly, and if anything, the masks that a couple guys from our trip were wearing scared me the most. After the parade, we headed down the street for some Halloween fireworks. These were amazing as well and accompanied with music, so again it was awesome to have so much hype over Halloween in a way that it is not celebrated in the US. When the fireworks were over, we hurried over to a pub called the Metro that we had been given a tip to go to by one of the girls working in our hostel. She told us that if you don’t get in a pub right away, there’s so many people in town for Halloween that you’ll never be able to get into one. We stayed there for the rest of the night and had a blast, as literally every single person, young and old, was in costume and it was a great bar with a fun, Halloween atmosphere. Being in Derry for Halloween was a once in a lifetime experience, and as such a big lover of Halloween, I am so glad I got to experience it. If you love Halloween as much as I do, it should definitely be on your bucket list.

The next day we had a more intellectual and informative day in Derry, but I absolutely loved it and I had such a memorable experience. We started our day by visiting the Apprentice Boys Museum, which was a very interesting experience. I won’t go into too much of the historical detail because it gets rather complicated, but our Northern Ireland trip was very much focused on The Troubles that Ireland has experienced. To very much over-simplify the situation, there has been division between the Protestant Unionists in the north who consider themselves a part of England, and the Catholic Nationalists in the south who want a free and united Republic of Ireland. This first museum we visited would be sympathetic with the first of these views, as they celebrate a historical event in which the Protestants in Derry held off the invasions of the Catholics. Because our program is based in southern Ireland and we have the closest relationships with people from the south, I think it was good for us to hear from an organization with opposing views, but it was also kind of uncomfortable for us, or at least for sure for me, because I was inclined to disagree with what they were saying. The man at this museum was very proud of the English presence that is in Northern Ireland, and he and his organization are all about promoting those views and encouraging loyalist attitudes. After visiting this museum, we did a complete 180 and visited the Museum of Free Derry. Even before we entered the museum, we could tell this area of Derry was very different from where we came, because there were nationalist murals and the large stone sign reading “You Are Now Entering Free Derry.”

The Free Derry Museum was one of the most memorable places I have visited on this entire trip. Before arriving in Ireland, we were required to watch the movie Bloody Sunday, which I will very briefly describe for my American readers who may not be aware of this event. Bloody Sunday is referring to a day in 1972 in Derry in which a peaceful civil rights protest by Catholic nationalists turned into a tragedy where 13 participants were gunned down and killed by British soldiers even though they were not armed. Many of these people were very young, 17 or 19 years old, and this event is a very delicate subject for many Irish people to this day. The tour started out with the shocking introduction of our tour guide, who was actually the brother of the youngest person who was killed on Bloody Sunday. It was such a privilege and humbling moment to have someone telling us about this event who was actually there and who had even lost a family member in this tragic event. I found the museum so sad, somber, and also incredibly interesting. It outlined the history of the city of Derry and how the civil rights movement eventually escalated to the Troubles that Northern Ireland continues to experience today. The exhibit on Bloody Sunday truly had the biggest impact on me, as there were recordings playing of the shootings and aftermath, handwritten testimonies by the survivors, and even artifacts, clothing, and other objects that had actually been there on Bloody Sunday. We saw the large civil rights flag that had dried blood stains on it from when they draped it over the bodies of the dead. We saw actual pictures of the victims, as well as the clothes they were wearing with the blood stains and bullet holes. It was an outstanding experience that I could have never gotten by reading about it in a book or hearing a lecture about it in class. It really started to make me understand why some Irish people are so passionate about The Troubles and all of the division between the north and the south. One artifact that really took my breath away was a letter that was on display, which was written by a British soldier to the parents of the teenager he killed. I have posted a picture of it on Facebook, and it really is worth reading rather than me explaining it. The lack of empathy and the sheer hatred expressed in the letter shocked all of us, and it is something I will never forget. Even the location of the museum had significance, as it is placed right in the middle of where Bloody Sunday occurred. Afterwards we were given a map that showed where all 13 of the victims had died, and several of them were on the street directly in front of the museum. It was such an eerie feeling to be standing in the place where all of this occurred, but it was also the absolute best way to understand the conflict. We ended our tour of Derry by walking along the walls that have divided the city for hundreds of years, at which time we also walked along the Protestant side of Derry which is completely different from the other. Just by crossing over a wall, you experience completely different murals, curbs painted with the British colors, and British flags flying everywhere. It is hard to believe that such a divided people live in such close proximity, and this visit was truly one of those great cultural learning moments that you could only ever get by studying abroad and I am so grateful for it.

After our two amazing days in Derry, we headed to Belfast for the rest of our excursion. On our way there we made a stop at the Giant’s Causeway, which was an amazing sight to see. I’m sure my explanation won’t do it justice, so you’ll have to see my pictures, but it is an amazing, natural formation of rectangular and hexagonal rocks that formed by a volcano. Unfortunately for us, it was a very rainy and windy day, so we had to use extra caution when climbing these rock formations that were made up of very slippery rocks. I had a couple close calls where I feared I was going to fall to my death in the ocean, but in the end I kept my footing and was able to enjoy this amazing sight despite the wind and rain that we are getting so accustomed to in Ireland. The rest of our evening after arriving in Belfast was pretty relaxed, with a great dinner and a visit to one of my favorite pubs in Ireland; Filthy McNastys, the name of which I don’t think will ever get old to me.

Our next day in Belfast was another amazing first-hand educational experience similar to our second day in Derry. We started our morning with mass at a beautiful Catholic church on the west, or the Catholic, side of Belfast. Afterwards we were able to sit down with one of the priests at the church and talk with him about his personal efforts and efforts of the church to aid the peace mission in Northern Ireland. I very much enjoyed listening to him talk about the Troubles, and he was very passionate about the fact that all Christians should be ashamed of these happenings and that the people on both sides of this conflict should be working towards understanding and reconciliation. After our time at the church, we went on the “Black Taxi” tour of Belfast. We were split up into groups and literally put into black taxis, and then our driver took us around to significant sites on both the Protestant and Catholic sides of Belfast. There was one very interesting wall on the Catholic side of Belfast that held dozens of murals about current issues in Ireland and around the world, which is updated somewhat regularly as new issues come up. Then on the Protestant side, we were able to see and actually contribute to the graffiti and murals that cover the wall that separates the Catholics and Protestants. I was pretty excited when one of the cab drivers pulled out a bottle of spray paint and I was able to paint my initials on the wall. One of the things that had the biggest impact on me was not one of the actual stops. It was actually on our way to the wall, when we went to cross between the two sides and we had to turn around and go a different way, because our driver discovered that the gate had been closed early for some reason. This was when I really realized how divided the city is, and it was so weird to think that there are actual gates along the wall that prevent people from coming and going in-between during certain hours of the day. Division like that is something that we don’t deal with at all in St. Joe, Collegeville, or any of the hometowns we come from. It was a situation that I have read about in books, but until you actually experience it for yourself, you will never actually know how that kind of environment makes you feel.

After we were done with our taxi tour, a group of us decided to lighten up our evening a bit and head down to Titanic Belfast to visit the Titanic Museum. I am so glad we took the time to do this, because I thought it was one of the best museums I’ve ever been to and it was such an amazing experience. The museum was incredibly interactive, and it walked us through the very beginning of how the Titanic was made and what it was like in Belfast at that time, to the discovery of the ship at the bottom of the ocean. There was a “roller coaster” ride through what the shipyard would have looked like, a virtual tour through the inside of the Titanic, models of what the different cabins would have looked like, stories of both survivors and those who lost their lives, copies of the messages sent out while Titanic was sinking, and so much more. The actual museum itself is even built so that each of the four corners resembles the actual size that the Titanic was, so you can get a scale of how massive she was. It was just a very cool experience that is unique to Belfast, and it was amazing to be standing in the place that the Titanic was launched and built.

I think this is finally the place where I can wrap up this very lengthy blog post. I am very much aware of how long this has gotten, but this was one of those excursions that was much more focused on what it could teach us, than the random, fun touristy things that we could do. I know that I still didn’t do some of these places or events justice, but I wanted to at least try to give a sense of how big of an impression this trip left on me. I hope it was at least interesting for my American readers, and that you got a little more insight to the history of the area I’ve been living in and experiencing for the past two months.

The Final Month

It is absolutely impossible to believe that a month from today I will be back home in Minnesota. “Time flies” is such an overused cliché, but I can’t think of a more accurate statement to describe my time in Ireland. I have enjoyed absolutely every minute of being here, and even though I can’t wait to see my friends and family back home, I already know how much I’m going to miss this amazing country. The girls in my cottage and I always try to remind each other that even though there are people and little things we miss back home, we will have those things for years when we are back, while we will only have Ireland for these three short months of our lives. Right now I’m just trying to soak up every little thing I can as the time ticks away. Tonight we’re going to go into Galway just to hang out in the pubs and listen to some live music, because our opportunities for nights like these are running low, and I know how much I am going to miss it.

Speaking of things I’m really going to miss, I just wanted to take a little time to talk about my amazing Cottage 3 ladies. I fully admit that I’m being a bit of a copycat, as Sarah wrote an amazing blog the other day about our cottage, but I just have to take a little time to speak about this great group of girls as well. It honestly amazes me how well matched we all were to live together, and I feel so blessed to be living with these crazy, funny, and super sweet ladies. While our cottage is the butt of pretty much all jokes, I absolutely wouldn’t want to be living with anyone else. Our cottage is mainly known for how we always have a nice supply of food and how we’re always snacking, as well as how much electricity we waste. First I’ll talk about the food… Ok so we have a decent supply of food, yes. But when we are already roughing with our heat and electricity, we don’t want to add starvation on top of everything else. Also in reality it’s really not that much food. Colleen and Ali are good little cooks so they buy a lot of specific things for their meals, but it’s mostly all really healthy. As for Sarah and I, well we eat a lot of eggs, pasta, and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Cooking isn’t really our thing. Secondly we’ll take a look at our electricity usage… In reality, we actually don’t do that badly. We can make it through the week with our 6, two euro coins just fine. It’s when JP doesn’t get us our next round of coins on time that we struggle. I may or may not have been making deals with our intense energy-conserving neighbors for some of their extra coins last week when our electricity went out and we literally didn’t have a 2 euro coin to our names. No shame. But really, I’ve never regretted putting a coin in so that I could take a hot shower. Normally we never even have hot water in our sinks, so a hot shower is a very big deal for us. The cottage of boys next to us actually hasn’t taken a hot shower for this whole trip and they very rarely have lights on. They can make fun of us all they want, because their cottage is like a cave and I couldn’t do it. Although they may have a point about the fact that we often leave all of our lights on when no one is in there, just so we don’t have to come to a dark cottage. Oops J

Besides our food and slight waste of electricity, I will be the first to say that Cottage 3 is a blast. We are always laughing, joking, or making fun of someone about something, and these girls have been one of the things that have made this trip so great. If you walk past our cottage you will almost always hear us laughing, or often times screaming, about something. We also have a really bad tendency to scream every time someone knocks on the door. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that we don’t have visitors very often… Just kidding. We have friends. But really, some of my favorite times are when all 5 of us Cottage 3 girls are sitting around in our cottage, joking and laughing and just enjoying our amazing trip. Apart from Ali who I was already good friends with before coming here, I did not know any of these girls before this trip, which seems absolutely crazy to me. These girls are now some of my best friends, and I can’t imagine my life without them. I know I’m always going to miss the crazy moments when all of our power shuts off in the middle of the night, our freak out over the hole in our roof in the middle of a downpour, or our massive “slumbies” when we drag our mattresses into the living room and rearrange our whole cottage. Cottage 3 ladies I love you and God Bless. ;)

I know this post is getting a little long, but I’m just going to continue the theme of people I’ll miss and talk a little bit about all the other people on this trip. I talk about my cottage ladies a lot, because I obviously spend the most time around them, but I absolutely love so many of the people on my trip as well. It is so crazy to me that I didn’t even know that some of these people existed at my school before coming on this trip. I have made friends that I know will continue when I’m back at school, and I have so much fun when we all hang out, go on excursions together, or throw one of our infamous cottage parties. For instance, I’m so glad I met Amanda Tate, who is one of the funniest people I have ever met, has an amazing knack for sarcasm, and can tell a story better than anyone I know. Molly and Katie are also incredibly sweet people who are also very funny and sarcastic, which I can always appreciate. Then there’s Kelly who is also incredibly funny and sweet, but also capable to kick some ass if ever necessary. Danny Heck is kind of like the little brother I already have, but he’s incredibly nice, always looking out for us cottage 3 girls, and he’s great at eating all of our leftovers. Tom is always good for a laugh and once of the nicest guys I’ve ever met. Garrett, well I hate him. Just kidding. Garrett is a great guy as well, super fun to be around, and also has a great sense of humor. I already feel creepy writing about people who probably don’t even read this, so this is where I’ll stop. But I have not written about all the people on this trip I would like to, because then this post would be more excessive than it already is, but there so many more people that I have so enjoyed spending time with that I could go on and on about. Maybe I’ll finish those in the next post J But the point I’m trying to make is that I’m so glad that I’ve gotten to know all of these amazing people. I have so much fun with our whole group, and I will truly miss being neighbors with all these people when we leave. I better be seeing a lot of my Park Lodge family back in St. Joe.

Well I suppose it’s about time I wrap this up. We are getting ready to leave tomorrow morning for our big excursion to Belfast and Derry. We are all very excited to be spending Halloween in Derry tomorrow night, as it is the birthplace of Halloween and the biggest Halloween festival in the world. Personally, I am super excited because I love Halloween, but also very concerned for myself because I have an incredibly intense phobia of masks. We’ll see how this goes… But still, I cannot wait for all the fun adventures we will be having this weekend, and for the rest of the time on our trip. Thanks for sticking with me again, and I’ll try to get my next update as soon as I can after we are back from our big Northern Ireland excursion! Happy Halloween! J

Just Checking In

For the first time in what feels like ages, I’m able to sit down at an actual computer and write a blog post in real-time from the Park Lodge. It’s been a relaxing and much needed week in Spiddal now that we’re all back from our worldly travels. I think we all had absolutely amazing trips, but, at least for me, it was extremely nice to be back in Ireland and back home at our cottage. I’ve never been so happy to throw a coin in our electricity box, take an almost hot shower, and sit by the small gas fireplace that is our only source of heat. While amazing and such a blessing, traveling the world is exhausting, expensive, and often times stressful, so there was a sense of relief to be back at “home.”

It was actually really exciting to have everyone get back from their separate adventures, and I have been so happy to have us all back together. I think now that we are, sadly, halfway through our trip, we are all starting to really get to know each other and come together as a group. I couldn’t wait to get back and hear about everyone’s trips and for all of us to be able to hang out again. Jenna and I were the first ones back to our cottage, and we were so excited when Mike and Amanda came over, since they were the first people we’d seen from our group in about 10 days. Later we got extremely excited when the cab unexpectedly pulled up outside our cottage that night around 1 AM with Tom and Danny inside. We went from being excited about the Trevi Fountain or the Vatican, to running to the window every time we heard a car pull up. Different sorts of excitement but both are good memories. After that, people continued to periodically show up, and each time it was exciting to say hi, hug, and swap some stories from our trips. I think we are all getting so used to living together and traveling together, that it felt weird to all be apart for over a week. To me, it feels like we are our own little family here at the Park Lodge, and I know I’m making some great friendships here that will without a doubt continue when we’re all back at CSBSJU.

As for me this week, I’m just taking it easy. I’ll be sleeping as much as I can, catching up on some school work, and spending some much loved quality time with my Bennie/Johnnie family. Two nights ago, JP opened his pub for us here at the Park Lodge, so we all could have a place to hang out, catch up, and maybe have a drink or two or twelve….  Just kidding mom, don’t worry J I think we all had a great time, and we even ended the night by playing Piano Man with everyone gathered in a circle and the Johhnies dropping their pants. Nothing like a little taste of St. Joe and Sal’s right here in Ireland J Well, that’s all for now! Sorry this post wasn’t too witty or about anything too exciting, but I just thought I’d give a little update while I had some time! Until next time….

When in Rome...

This may come as a shock to you, but once again I'm writing my post on a plane. This time we are winding down our unbelievable fall break and heading back to Dublin from Milan, Italy. At this point Colleen, Jenna, and I are just happy we made it on the plane. It's been quite the day. I'll give you a quick rundown of our transportation for the day: we walked from our hotel to the train station in Florence which took us to Milan where we hopped on a bus to the airport which puts us on the plane we are currently on to Dublin where we will catch a bus to Belfast where Colleen's friend Patrick will pick us up and bring us to his home by car. I feel like I'm in the movie Planes, Trains, and automobiles, which is actually pretty accurate considering the little bumps in the road we experienced today. One of those little hiccups was when I lost my 50 euro train ticket right before our train was leaving the station. I was forced to just get on without it and pray they wouldn't check our tickets for some reason, because it was the last train to get us on time to our flight. By some absolute miracle, no one ever came to check our tickets and I was not fined or kicked off the train! Although it was THE longest hour and 40 minutes of my life. Then later at the airport, we got caught up in so many long lines for security and passport checks that we nearly missed our plane. And when I say nearly I mean our gate closed at 1 and we got there at about 12:59 and 30 seconds.... But we must be carrying some of that Irish luck with us, because here we are on the plane and everything has ended up working out. 

Not having much of a plan and just "seeing where the wind takes us" was kind of theme of our time in Italy. Which I just have to say right now was one of the absolute best experiences of my whole life and a dream come true. I'll also warn you now that I'm sure this post will become very lengthy, because the trip was unimaginable and in my opinion it's more than worth sharing. Anyway, we started our Italian adventure in Rome where we showed up at the airport with the idea that we would just walk the mile to our hotel. This is when "the wind" took us to a cab because a 4 lane interstate was the only way there and walking on it isn't exactly encouraged. By the time we got there it was late and we were exhausted so we did our best to get some shut eye with all of our excitement and prepare for our big day in Rome!

The next morning we got up and wandered around until we came across the train station where we could hop on and head to the city's center. We didn't really have a definite plan for Rome either, but we had a goal to see the Colosseum, the Vatican, and the Trevi Fountain.  While Rome wasn't built in a day, we decided that we could walk it in 4 hours before we had to catch our train to Florence. Well we did succeed, and I have feet that look like a war zone to prove it. By the end of the day my feet were literally bleeding and covered in blisters. The cobblestone streets, while beautiful, are not so pleasant to walk on. But all of that pain was more than worth it, as I am still in awe of everything I saw. Rome is an absolutely beautiful city and there is so much history and character there. I still can't believe I threw a coin in the Trevi Fountain or stood outside the Vatican. These are all things I've always dreamed about doing, but never imagined I'd be doing so soon. Even though our time in Rome was short, it was hands down one of the most amazing things I've ever seen/done. 

So that evening we headed on to Florence, which was where we decided to spend most of our stay in Italy. We were more amused with the train than most probably, as we were in coaches that very much resembled what you see in Harry Potter movies. Our tickets put each of us girls in our own cabins where we were the only passengers, and Colleen and I both came out with train selfies because we felt like we were on our way to Hogwarts. It's the little things I suppose.  But more importantly Florence....Words can't even describe how amazing this city is. We spent all of Tuesday exploring the city, seeing the sites, and doing a bit of shopping of course. I splurged a bit on some Italian goods and souvenirs because I lack self control, but I actually employed some pretty impressive bartering skills and didn't end up too badly. When in Rome...   We also started to get a taste of the Italians, who are incredibly friendly but also very forward. We definitely got our fair share of flattery, but I think we can all admit hearing "ciao bella" never really gets old. :) We also enjoyed speaking the little Italian we could, which was mainly just grazie, because the Italian language is beautiful but it was also a bit of a barrier for us. 

Back to the actual city of Florence: Everything was breathtaking. The Renaissance statues and art, the absolutely astounding Cathedrals that were nothing like anything I'd ever seen, and the outstanding view of the city and river that we  were able to climb  a bit to see. It was literally something out of a movie, and I'm still waiting for it to sink in. Later that evening to top off the perfect day, we found an amazing authentic Italian restaurant where we all got pasta and some Italian wine and it was absolutely to die for. 

This brings me to a very necessary paragraph about Italian food. There are no words. The pizza and pasta is everything we hoped for and there's a reason it gets so much hype. We had plenty of pizza and pasta whenever we could. I also tried an amazing cannoli that was one of the best things I've ever eaten. But I think our real obsession came when we tried Gelato. We first got it in Rome, and after that we were hooked and made it a point of getting it at least once, sometimes twice, each day. It is seriously the best ice cream you will ever eat and there is no ice cream that can even come close. I swear you would have to try a new flavor everyday of your life to try all they offer there, and we never had one we didn't like. Put it on your bucket list. 

Ok enough about food... So we wrapped up our amazing Tuesday night by heading into the night life area of Florence, and we had an amazing time meeting some of the local people and checking out the bars and clubs. 

Wednesday morning started with us sleeping in a bit, which was greatly needed, and then we jumped on the train and traveled about an hour to an absolutely gorgeous beach on the coast.  We actually had no clue where the beach was from the train station, no surprise there, but we walked in the direction that "felt right" and we actually came across it fairly easily. It was a beautiful day; sunny and 75 degrees with blue skies. We spent the afternoon lying on the beach, swimming in the ocean, and just taking in the beautiful area which included the ocean in front of us and the mountains behind. It was such a surreal day, as I'm not sure the next time I'll be able to sunbath on the beach in the middle of October. It was the absolute perfect way to spend the day, and I am beyond blessed to have days like that. Wednesday evening we out for one last pizza dinner, which was delicious of course, and then we checked out the Florence night life one more time. 

This, sadly, brings us to today where it was time for us to leave Italy. While I'm sad to to because it was such a gorgeous place, I'm also still so grateful for the amazing time I'm having in Ireland, and I'm excited to go back "home". We are going to end this last weekend of fall break by visiting some friends in Belfast. I'm sure we are going to have an amazing time, and I think it will be the perfect way to end an unbelievably perfect fall break. 

One last thing I thought Id mention is more for just reflective and sentimental purposes for myself, because this blog also kind of serves as a journal for me. So if you've stuck with me this far, feel free to dip out now if you'd like. It's about a thought I had so many times during this break, about how lucky I am to have met my world traveling companions, Jenna and Colleen. I truly could not have asked for better girls to travel with, and they are such a big part of what made this trip so amazing. While at times we were tired, hungry, frustrated, and lost, we ,for the most part, kept good spirits and were always able to crack a joke. They are truly amazing girls who are caring, funny, and smart, and I'm so glad that this trip has allowed me to gain two more of my closest friends. It is absolutely crazy to think that a month and a half ago I didn't even know them, and now we traveled the world together and I can't imagine not having them in my life. So if either of you decided to read this, thanks so much for making my fall break so incredible :)

Well I think that finally sums up my Italian experience. I apologize for the lengthy post again, but experiences like these are hard to just brush over. I know Ive said it several times, but I am truly so blessed to be doing the things I am, and that fact is never lost on me. Now I'm looking forward to the second half of my study abroad semester, and I can't believe how fast it is going by. :( Here's to a great weekend in Belfast now and an amazing fall break! Thanks for taking the time to read my novel! :)