Watching it fly past and away we go…..

October 24, 2010

Watching it fly past and away we go…..

I cannot believe it has only been one week since I last posted a blog because I have so much to tell. I have so many great stories from my trip to the west of Ireland but also I have and exciting couple weeks coming up. Before I get too far ahead of myself let me tell you all about my trip to the west of Ireland.

                Let me just begin by saying it was absolutely wonderful, a great four days for sure! We left the campus of Dublin City University early last Wednesday morning and headed west. Let’s just say that it was harder for some of us to make it to the bus on time than for others; I was actually early for maybe the first time ever.  Our first stop was in Strokestown which is in County Roscommon. The reason for this fieldtrip was for us to be able to see firsthand what life was like and the effects of the famine period in Ireland. So, in Strokestown we toured the Strokestown House and Famine Museum. It was really cool to see the house and be able to walk through all the rooms which looked exactly like it did when people lived in the house. The house was very old but was also lived in until 1981. I loved being able to see the history from a long time ago all the way up to things that I recognized such as Mickey Mouse toys in the nursery.  Our tour guide mentioned how important it was to have a big house in the times when the house was built and the tricks that the family used to make their house look bigger. For example, making the kitchen and the stables look like wings of the house or having the windows on the house gradually get smaller on each floor giving the illusion the house is taller than it really is. As I walked through the house it made what we learned about Irish life during this time very real. I wish I would have learned all of my history this way. The museum that was part of the house was also very interesting and gave me a lot more knowledge about the famine period but it was not as cool as the house.  We ate lunch in the café there. We had homemade soup and homemade bread. Delicious!

                From there we moved into County Mayo and stopped again in Castlebar at the Museum of Country Life. This was a very quick stop, probably only a half hour and but still gave us a better insight of what it was like to live in the Irish countryside. After the museum we traveled the final stretch to our destination Westport which is also in County Mayo. We checked into the hotel around five and dinner was served at seven. Every night we had a three course meal at the hotel as part of the trip. I cannot remember when I have eaten that much. It was so delicious. That night we all went out to Matt Malloy’s Pub. This pub was so fun and had live music. Which I LOVED. What I loved most about the music was that the men who were playing simply came in the pub with their instruments and played. None of them new each other. I watched one of the men come in introduce himself to the other four, sit down and start playing. Each musician knew, without talking, which song they were playing and without error played perfectly together. It was wonderful. It also reminds me of how beautiful music is in the way that it brings people together, no matter whom they are or where they are coming from.

                Thursday we woke up and had a traditional Irish breakfast that consisted of eggs, bacon (not like bacon in the US, it actually looked like a slice of porkJ), sausage, tomatoes, scones and of course tea. Again, so tasty. Then we left the hotel and went to the Connemara Region. This region probably suffered the most from The Great Hunger. We first went to Croagh Patrick. This is a mountain which each year millions of people climb and pray at the different Stations of the Cross, do penance, or simply just climb. We did not climb to the top but just went up maybe a half mile. It was gorgeous, I would have liked to done the whole thing but it takes about three to four hours and we did not have time. We drove by Kylemore Abbey which is a beautiful and famous Abbey and I really would have liked to go see it up close but we couldn’t. After lunch we went to Connemara National Park and walked around the park. It was a beautiful day and a beautiful walk. It felt good to get out and walk around in the fresh air of the Irish countryside.

                Friday, we did not have as good of luck with the weather. It was very rainy and cold. A soft Irish day, if you will. I kind of enjoyed it because we have not had many days like this since I have been here. We started the day again with an Irish breakfast then went to Tom Hennigan’s Heritage Centre. This was probably the most interesting part of the trip. We went into a small house where the twenty of us barely fit. Tom Hennigan came in and told us that this was the house where he lived until the seventies. My words cannot describe this house well but it was three rooms, four beds, a fire place and a table. No electricity, no running water. He told us stories of what it was like to grow up in the house. The door was small, the windows were small because there were taxes on the size of doors and on light. He talked about how their animals used to live with them in the house, how he was born in the bed next to the fireplace. Next to where I was sitting. Wow. He spoke of how they used everything. I was amazed by the man standing there in sweatpants, smelling like he had not showered in a while and admired him beyond words. I could not help of think of what life was like in America in the early twentieth century and here was a man who lived with his three brothers and sisters his parents and his grandmother in what you could barely call a three room cottage. It was fascinating to learn the history of the time period from someone who experienced the effects of the famine.

                After that we went to Achill Island. It was very rainy at this point so we mostly drove around and looked. We did get out a few times to admire the beautiful green cliffs of Ireland. It was breathtaking. My pictures do not do it justice. Friday night we went out to the pubs again and enjoyed the music and we left and came back to Dublin on Saturday.  It was a wonderful relaxing and educational trip. I loved being able to hang out with everyone and just see the west of Ireland and all of its beauty.

                This week will be fairly quiet until Saturday. Saturday, Jackie and I are leaving for Oslo Norway for four days. I am so excited about the trip. I will have to do some research about Norway to see what we will do there but I know one thing, we will have a good time. I will be back in Dublin for one day after the trip to Norway then I am off to Milan for four days. I have a quite an exciting two weeks coming.

                I have more to tell but in the interest of the length of this blog, I will save it until later. I will post another blog later this week. Know that my words and the pictures do not do the West of Ireland justice. It was so beautiful and I am so grateful that I had the opportunity to see and experience it all!

                Thank you for reading this long of a blog. I hope you all have a great week.

Cheers,

Keely

So sorry I am having trouble uploading pictures. I will try to post some soon.

I think I like how the day sounds.....

October 17^th, 2010

I think I like how the day sounds…..

                So I am starting to find it progressively harder to start writing. I am going to chalk this up to the fact that it feels normal to be here now. What does that even mean? Well, I am finding day to day life to be just that day to day life. The things that seemed to be so different four weeks ago such as riding the bus to go places, buying all my own food,  new people, new city  and of course being in another country, it all seems to be normal. All of those things have just become what my life is like. What a bizarre thing. I feel like, for now, I belong here. I am not so sure that I look like I belong here but I definitely feel like it. I love the fact that I have places that I know what I want to order when I walk in or feel comfortable walking around the city by myself.  I guess it is good I feel so comfortable here now because starting this week I will be traveling a lot and exploring new places. It will be great to come back to a place where I feel comfortable. It is not home, but for now it is the next best thing.

                This week Jackie and I booked our flights to travel to Europe. Our first destination is Oslo Norway. Why Norway? It was a total impulse decision to fly there. Neither of us really know anything about Oslo or Norway for that matter. This may scare a few of you, but I am thrilled about it. I can say that this might be the only opportunity I have to go and I can’t wait to explore a new country. We will spend four days there, be in Dublin for a day then fly to…..Milan, Italy. We will spend another four days in Milan. I cannot tell you how excited I am to see Italy and eat their delicious food. I know that it seems like I should be in school and not frolicking about Europe but for the week I am in Norway and Italy it is reading week. This is a week the school takes off from lectures so students have the opportunity to catch up on reading. I plan to read on the plane rides. After reading week, I will take a week off from traveling and then we take a field trip to Belfast in Northern Ireland. The weekend after thanksgiving I will be spending in London England. And finally the weekend before I come home I will spend in Paris, France. I am thrilled to start seeing the rest of Europe, but like I said before it will be so nice to be able to come back to Dublin. 

                Besides booking flights this week was fairly uneventful. Classes went well. I had, I am

sorry; I got to make my first trip to the library. It really is a beautiful library. Once I figured out how it works I loved it. Needless to say I will for sure be making many more trips there. My internship also went well this week. I am starting to get into the heart of what I will be doing. I am getting ready to start analyzing information for the organization; which is far more exciting that imputing the information into the computer.

                This weekend I had full intention to head south to Cork. So I looked up online when the train times were and what the fare would be; ten euro each way. So Jackie and set out to the train station. When we went to purchase our tickets they were 71 euro. As it turns out the tickets are only ten euro if you get them online. We decided that was a bit much for a day trip and bought tickets to Kilkenny instead. Kilkenny is south west of Dublin about an hour and a half. It was a beautiful train ride over and I discovered that I love riding trains. Neither of us knew anything of the town so we just started walking around. We ended up going to the Kilkenny Castle. It was beautiful; my favorite castle so far. It was also a beautiful day which made everything that much better. We ventured around the town, found a great lunch and spent time in music stores and book stores. It was a great and relaxing day trip and it was good to go see somewhere new. We are planning on going to Cork but we are going to wait and book our tickets online.

                I am really excited for this week because on Wednesday we (all the students in the same program as me) are going on our field trip to the west of Ireland. We will be staying in Westport and seeing things that we have learned about in our history of Ireland class. I am really excited about the trip. I will be sure to take lots of pictures to share with you guys.

                I miss you all very much. Thank you for reading my blog and sharing this with me.

Cheers,

Keely

Belief is a beautiful armor....

October 10, 2010

Belief is a beautiful armor…

                For some reason the weeks go by so fast but at the exact same time I feel like it has been forever since I have written a blog. I am not sure how that works but that is how it feels. Classes this week went well. I am finally starting to feel like I am in school. I actually have assignments and studying to do; which feels good. I really love the classes that am taking and think that I have a great opportunity to learn new material here that I would not have the opportunity to at home.

                As you all know I started my internship this week. I have the opportunity to do my internship wit on other girl from my program, Stacie. Stacie and I go in to Young Social Innovators Tuesday s and Thursday s. Even though we go in together we do very different things while we are there. My job this semester is to take all the evaluations from the organization’s training sessions and evaluate them. I am really excited to do this because I feel like I can help them and really give back information that they can use to improve their training. I can see how I am helping them and that is encouraging. Like I said before, YSI is in the city centre. It is a wonderful location. Stacie and I pack our lunches and take them to St. Stephens Greene and eat in the park. It is an absolutely gorgeous park and it almost feels like I am eating lunch in a scene from a movie. It is really brilliant. We also like to enjoy a nice cup of coffee or tea after work and just enjoy being in the city and meeting new people.

I am quickly learning that the way an organization is run in the states and the way an organization is run in Ireland is very different. The organization here is so much more relaxed. The people we work with are wonderful. Stacie and I are both from small towns and have found it a bit challenging to work out the buses and how to get to work on time. They are so understanding and do not even mind that we have been coming in a little late. I have also enjoyed that when we arrive to work we have tea for twenty minutes, after lunch we have tea for a few minutes, and maybe a couple more times throughout the day. Even with the laid back atmosphere and tea times, I do not feel any less productive than an average day at a let’s say more strict U. S. organization. In fact there are times when I feel way more productive and far less pressured and stressed. It is very interesting but I clearly love what I am doing.

This Saturday three of my friends and I decided it was time to see parts of Ireland outside of the city. So as per advice from my roommates, we went to Howth Ireland. It was incredible.  Howth is a thirty minute train ride away. It is a small fishing town just north of Dublin. We really knew nothing of where we were going or what we would do there but it was a fun adventure. We mostly just walked around and explored the town. If someone told me I could move there tomorrow; I would do it in a heartbeat. We found a small little restaurant for brunch. I had the most delicious pancakes with fresh fruit. They are arguably the best pancakes I have ever had. Yes, that good. One thing I love about eating out here is that it takes forever.  Everything is so relaxed and focused on the company and conversation rather than being focused on the food and seeing how quickly you can eat and get out. We wondered around Howth for most of the day. we went and saw the Howth castle which was beautiful and enjoyed the nice sea breeze. It was a great day filled with exploring, good company and fun.

So today I decided to again be adventurous and find a church to o to. So I looked up churches in Dublin online, which how much can you really tell about a church from a website? Regardless I picked one that is close to where I do my internship. Yet again, I was late because I cannot seem to figure out how to take a bus and be on time. It was so fun to see what church is like in Ireland and to listen to a preacher with an Irish accent is also very cool. It was also a great reminder that God is the same everywhere; His message is the same no matter where you are in the world. Not that I did not know that but it seems so much more real to experience it. It was incredibly refreshing to go to church. After I waited for one of my friends, Jackie, to come meet me in the city and just walked around. I was exploring and surprisingly found that I knew where places were. I knew where to go for a good cup of coffee or where the places were to walk around for good shopping. It was great to get to spend some time alone walking about the streets of Dublin doing whatever I wanted.

Jackie and I decided today to go to the Dublin Castle. This is also a bit of a tourist thing to do; I try to avoid doing touristy things, but I also feel like it would be silly not to see these places while I am here. Jackie and I had time to enjoy a nice cup of tea before the tour. Today was an beautiful overcast day so tea was a perfect thing to have. The tour was very cool and the castle was beautiful. In all honesty though, who doesn’t like castles? I was encouraged to find that as the guide was telling the history of Dublin and of the castle I knew a lot of what she was saying. I knew who the people were she was talking about and I knew the events. I know way more about Dublin than I thought.  

As I have said several times before, I love it here and I love the city of Dublin. I have been here three weeks now. It seems like the “vacation” feeling has worn off and it is becoming very real that I LIVE here. I am not visiting Dublin I live in Dublin. That also brings up the topic of really becoming a citizen of the city and not being the person who anyone on the street can look at and tell I am from the U. S.  I know that I still look very “American”. I am hoping that gradually I will begin to look less and less “American” and more and more like I belong in Dublin.

                I feel like I have talked a lot about what I do and just given you guys more or less and itinerary of my time here. I know this is already long but I would love to share what I am learning so far, beyond what I have seen and discovered.  If I have realized on big thing it is how small the world is; and it’s shrinking. I have felt small bits of culture shock, but nothing huge. I chalk this up to how connected I am to home, how much Irish people know about America, and how similar the countries are.  I am not saying it is not different here, it is very different. However, they speak English, they listen to American music, they watch American TV, and they know far more about American politics than I do. When I say “American” I mean from the United States, I realize this term is not accurate because the US is not the only place in America but it is also how they refer to the states. I may contradict what I just said but I have also learned that despite how small the world is, it’s people are so different. I am seeing cultural differences in my American friends almost just as much as I am with the Irish people. It is just such a great reminder that we are all individuals who have different experiences and different backgrounds. It is your experiences and you background that help make up who you are. Despite the fact that the world is shrinking, you can travel all over and never find a person who is just like you, who has the same morals, values or beliefs because it is your experience, background and other things that form those parts of who you are. When you find a person who shares similar values or beliefs as you do you, or I, often cling to that person because it tends to be comfortable. While I am here I would like to try to challenge myself to surround myself with people different than me. I think when you force yourself to move outside of people who are like you; you really learn what is important to you what things make up who you are. Having said that, I will probably spend most my time with my new friend, Jackie. Jackie and I are similar but not completely. I think her and I will be good together because we can feel comfortable around each other but I also see that we can both challenge each other to experience new things.  A lot of what I have learned is how important it is to learn to who you are and how to maintain your beliefs wherever you are. Also to realize that wherever you are and whatever happens to you is shaping who you will become. Any moment can change your life you just have to be there. My goal while I am here is to seize every opportunity I have for a moment to change my life.

I miss you all very much and hope that you are well. Thank you for allowing me to share my experiences with you!

Cheers,

Keely

This is St. Stephens Greene...or as I like to call it my lunchroom

more of my lunchroom

Howth

Jack, Jackie, and myself

Typical Irish door

A beautiful cemetery in Howth

Howth Castle

Dublin Castle

October 4^th, 2010

Happiness is just outside my window…

                Last time I left you was the day before classes started, I feel like that was so long ago. Being the person I am I was so excited to start class. Not only because I love going to school but also because it was a new kind of school. I only have one lecture on Mondays and it is only for one hour. Classes are very different from anything I have experienced. The lectures are huge and I was intimidated by this at first. I have found that I do much better in large lectures than I thought I would. I also have one seminar class and two other classes. I am only in class three days a week; yet again something that is totally new to me. I have to say that I do love having small classes where I know the students and professors on a more personal level but I am enjoying going to a “big” school much more than I thought that I would. I am in Irish History, The Languages of Ireland, and Language, Culture and International Communication. All the classes so far have been very interesting. It is fun to take classes outside my major, I am really enjoying school so far.               

                In addition to my three classes I will also be working with a nonprofit organization while I am here. I had an interview last Tuesday with a organization called Young Social Innovators. The organization works with students in secondary school (which is kind of like high school) and helping them realize their potential to influence their community and the world. They help get students involved in the community through projects and events. I do not know a ton of details about how it all works or what exactly they do with the students but hopefully I will learn when I start working with them. The interview went very well and was so encouraging. I will be working with YSI the two days a week that I am not in class. YSI is located in the city centre, which is about a 15-20 minute bus ride from school. I am so excited to be working in the city centre because I feel like I will get a better feel for day to day life for a person who lives in Dublin. I have found that a lot of aspects of college life in Ireland are the same as at home, there are a lot of differences too. So I am really excited to get out of the college bubble, if you will, and get involved in the community of Dublin.  My first day is tomorrow, Tuesday, and I am really looking forward to the work I will be doing.

                One thing that is very different about college here is that close to all of the students go home on the weekend. So from Friday afternoon until Sunday night campus is like a ghost town. It is so bizarre. I was the only one in my apartment all weekend. It is backwards from home. Here, everyone goes out on week nights and leaves on the weekends. Whereas at home people for the most part stay in on the weeknights and go out on weekends. It was a relaxing weekend.               

                On Saturday three of my American friends and I went to the Guinness Storehouse. This was one of the things that I felt like I just had to do while I was here. We got a little lost on our way there, which is not surprising at all. It was a great tour all about how Guinness is made and about Arthur Guinness. I really enjoyed the tour. We then ate in the restaurant there, which happened to be delicious. As we were on our way back we found a milkshake shop (there are several in Dublin) that served 150 different kinds of milkshakes. It was truly overwhelming trying to decide what to get. One of the girls I was with is a vegan, but luckily for here they had vegan milkshakes. It was the first one she had in over two years. Overall it was a fantastic day.

                One of my favorite moments so far happened this past week. I was enjoying my favorite snack, an apple with peanut butter, while talking with my roommates and their friends.  They thought that the combination of apple and peanut butter was absolutely bizarre.  They do not eat peanut butter very often here. Two people in the room had never tried peanut butter ever. What I thought was a perfectly normal and delicious snack turned into quite an interesting discussion of peanut butter.  It was very entertaining.

                Yesterday was a nice relaxing day filled with laundry and I also locked myself out of my room for the first time. I am sure this will happen again. I also had the great joy of skyping with my family. It was so exciting and good to talk with them. I was able to talk to Adam and Lisa in Charleston and my parents and Chad in Buena Vista. It made my day to get to catch up with all of them. I miss them very much.

                I look forward to another exciting week. Dublin continues to amaze me and I cannot wait to only explore more. My friends and I are starting to plan all of the traveling we are going to do. Yeah!

Hope all is well back in the U.S.! Miss you all!

Cheers,

Keely

my friend and I found this rememberance garden....so beautiful!

At the Guinness Storehouse

View of Dublin from the Gravity Bar at the Guinness Storehouse