Service Projects

This semester, we had to perform services projects with some people in the community of Spiddal in order to help strengthen ties in the town. I was lucky enough to spend some time talking with Jon Paul who runs the Park Lodge Hotel and Cabins, where we are staying.

What we did for JP was help him move around tables and chairs for the main event room in the Hotel, generally for banquets, parties and weddings. We usually spent around an hour moving things around and covering chairs. While the work was a little fun, the real experience came in talking to Jon Paul about all of his different experiences.

JP was a little hard for me to understand at first, admittedly, because of his thicker Irish accent, but once I got to the point where I knew what he was getting at whenever he talked, we had some really great conversations. The most memorable thing we had talked about was right after we had our spring break, and we talked about where all JP had traveled. Little known to myself at the time, Jon Paul is the most traveled person I have ever met. Hearing him talk about traveling to Japan and South Africa like it was nothing kind of rocked my world, and makes me a little envious of him honestly.

Looking back to my conversations of JP, it makes me realize just how small the world can be, and just how many connections people can make. Hearing about how Jon Paul would just make a call and make stuff happen all around Ireland makes me think a lot about the scenes from The Grand Budapest Hotel, where he makes calls all over the world to make just one thing happen. Jon Paul seems to be a man who knows exactly what he wants in life, and does not live beyond the means to achieve that. It does not seem to be about money to him, but the experiences. He seems to live just within the means to be comfortable, and I find that very respectable.

***************
As a note, this is my last graded blog. I may write more after this, but I am still undecided. I may start a new blog about all of my experiences and thought in the world, but that is also yet to remain undecided. Looking back at the trip, I am very glad to have met the people I have, had the conversations I did, and got the opportunities that presented themselves to me. It's weird to think that in less than two weeks I will be back in the States, something that should but won't be familiar to me.

Croagh Patrick and Westport

This past weekend I spent a lot of time doing a lot of physical activity, in the place of climbing a mountain and biking nearly 15 miles. Croagh Patrick nearly killed me while I was walking up it, just because it was such a hike. Walking up Croagh Patrick, you start at nearly sea level, right along the West Irish coast, and climb to an elevation of 764 meters, or roughly 2506.56 feet. The climb was rough for me, I was on the mountain for nearly 2 1/2 hours, and I didn't quite make it all the way to the top, about 90% from what the people in front of me said. The view though, was absolutely stunning.

This trip came at a weird time for me. It was right after spring break, and the week right before was rough on me for a few reasons which I will not divulge in this particular media. Walking up this mountain, and having the time and the physical work to myself really let me think things through, and feel better about everything. It also gave me a huge opportunity to think about life in general, and all the things that I have experienced. I honestly kind of wish this was our last field trip, in reality, because having the time to think and reflect about the entire trip right before we left off would have been really beneficial to myself.

In all, this trip had the most impact on how I saw the world, and gave me the most to think about. Part of that is being where we were, and part of it was what had happened to me the week before. Writing this now though, and realizing just how I have changed and how everyone here on this trip has affected me, though, amazes me. I knew studying abroad would affect me, and change me in unpredictable ways, but looking back makes it so much different.

Social Life

In Ireland, I have found myself a part of a different kind of social life. Just being in a foreign country in general will change the kind of social life you have, but there is more to it than that here.

Constantly, I find myself surrounded by sixteen people who are almost all living a very different life than I am. While these people are different than myself, in all different ways, I have come to find myself among some of the best of friends. Whether it is complaining about classes, playing monopoly, or going out to the pubs, we always seem to have a good time, even despite the sarcasm and sass.

I am surprised just how close I have come to these people in Ireland. I don't think I will ever forget the time I have spent with these people here. I have spent a lot of time talking and getting to know these people, and learning about the lives they lead. I have learned a lot about how they lead their life, and how they want to live their life in the future.

It almost blows my mind just how similar everyone is, even though we are all from different backgrounds. Talking to Michael, I realize that even though we have completely different backgrounds and lead different lives, we want a lot of the same things out of life. Michael may not be the only person, but his conversations with me seem to be the most distinct in my mind.

It actually gives me more faith in humanity, learning about all of the people that I am here with. They have become my social life, and I am really grateful for all of them. We have all become so close, and have learned so much from each other. I am really grateful, in light of everything that happened before and during this trip, for everyone that is here. They may be different from the normal spectrum of people that I hang out with, but I am still utterly grateful for each and everyone of them here with me on my journey's.

Daily Life in Ireland

During my time here in Ireland, I don't know that I have really gotten into much of a routine. It generally takes me a while to get into a comfortable routine, and that is with things that are much more scheduled than here. 

I generally have classes Monday through Thursday or Wednesday, and you can see my last post about how those are going. Classes generally go until about 2pm, and then I have the rest of the day as a free day, if we aren't traveling. Most days I have taken the walk to Spiddal, and eaten there hung out and came back to the cabins, which usually takes about two hours of my time depending on what all I do in Spiddal. 

The major difference in my daily life in Ireland compared to the states, though, is that it is much more worry-free. I have a lot less on my plate here than I normally do, and being in a European country makes me feel a lot less rushed. This leads to a much more relaxing daily life for me, which I have grown quite fond of.

Not having a so much of a schedule here is really relaxing, but at the same time it throws me off. I will like going back to the States and having more of a schedule laid out before me, even if it is from work or school. One other thing I miss is being able to go out on my own and do my own thing. Everyone needs their alone time every once in awhile, and I have found it difficult to find here while I am in Ireland. Being centered around our cabins is nice, but finding time and a place to have your thoughts to yourself is more difficult because of the fact. It is hard to go anywhere without someone else joining you, which makes it difficult.

As I look back at my time here, and my last four weeks in Ireland, I think there will be some changes to my daily life back home that I learned from this trip. If I have learned anything in Ireland and abroad, it is about the benefits of not feeling a rushed life.

Classes in Ireland

Yes, I am actually taking classes while I'm in Ireland, believe it or not. I am not taking any classes that relate to my major, so unfortunately there are no tech classes here, but I am still enjoying what I am taking nonetheless. Four classes making up 12 credits for this semester, and it is keeping me busy reading and thinking about why I am here.

On Mondays I have an Irish Cultures class that includes a lot of different things. The major thing that we do in this class is learn a little bit of Irish, or Gaelic. So far we have learned basic phrases, greetings, numbers, hobbies, and the weather. The language is difficult because even though they use the same characters as us none of the sounds are the same. For instance Dia duit, which is their greeting meaning "God be with you" is actually pronounced something like "gee-ya which." The fact that the sounds from the language are completely different makes the language a lot harder for me. Because I have only taken a little bit of Spanish and even less French, I try putting my knowledge of those languages to work here, which helps even less. Needless to say, speaking Irish is not easy for me.

Along with Irish, our culture class also involves learning about the Irish culture and some things that are staples to them. We talked about how the Catholic faith affected Ireland and how it continues to. It struck me as weird how closely tied the Irish government and the Catholic faith are, and have been for many centuries. Along with that, we learned here this last week how to play a little on their tin Whistle, which looks like the photo below. It was a lot of fun to learn to play a couple of polka's on a tin whistle, and we didn't sound half bad!

Tuesday's we have our literature class. We are currently reading a lot of short stories from the late 1800's and early 1900's, but have gone over some plays and poems as well. It is interesting to get the insight that this professor has. He may drag on a little bit at times, but he has some interesting points that he has made more off-handed than anything. For instance, when he was talking about the Gaelic Literary Revival, he talked briefly about how in Gaelic there is no thoughts of ownership. You only say how something is with you, not that you own it. He has a lot of small insights like this that makes the class worth it to me.

Wednesday's are probably my favorite days because of the history class. We have mainly focused on Irish history since around the 1400's and have been working our way forward in time. Ireland and Britain have been so closely linked for hundreds of years, and I never realized how much it affects everything that happened. Getting this insight into their own history that I never even knew about before coming here is really helping me understand some of the things I see and hear.It is really refreshing to learn about historical moments in time from a perspective other than that of an American, as well. While we have mainly focused on Ireland and their history, we have also deviated a little to talk about certain aspects of American history and how it is very comparable. For instance, we had a fairly rousing discussion about Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and getting insight into how someone not from America views it is actually really eye opening.

Not only do I like it because of what I am learning and gaining from the class, but also because the professor is a pretty awesome guy. Not this week but a week ago we had class in the King's Head, which is a pub in Galway. What is interesting about the pub itself is that the person who supposedly beheaded King Charles I later owned and even lived in the building that has been preserved since. We got a chance to talk to one of our professors colleagues and hear the work she did to figure everything about the King's Head's history. That in and of itself would have been a cool enough experience for me, but there is more to it than that. To finish off the class we ended up having a debate about Oliver Cromwell in the Ruby Room in King's Head to finish off the day, which not only was fun but also very insightful.

Lastly we have a class that is about our study abroad experience. We don't actually meet at a regular time, it moves around depending on the trips we have planned and how our professor feels. The main focus of this class is about the blog I am keeping, as well as doing a small presentation on the places we will be going.

All in all, classes are fairly fun here in Ireland, and they keep me busy.

Four Days In Dublin

This past Tuesday through Friday I spent in Dublin. While I was there, I pretty much walked around a lot, walking into different shops and buildings and talking to different people. I even managed to get myself lost, which was an experience in and of itself.

To put things in perspective for those of you keeping tabs at home, Dublin is a little bigger than Omaha, with just over 90,000 more people in its population. While Dublin is a larger city population-wise, it is more compact than Omaha. This is partially because it is a city in Europe, but also partially because it is an island city.

I really enjoyed my time in Dublin. I liked the city and felt it was fairly easy to get around in. Maybe it was the fact that I had to take my time and think about where all I was walking around, but I was really comfortable in Dublin, much more than I have been in Lincoln and Omaha even.

While in Dublin, there was a lot of attention paid to the Easter Rising in 1916. This revolution that happened a century ago this April seemed to be on everyone's mind, even those outside of the museums and tour curators. Just a hundred years ago, there were battles fought within this city over freedom and independence. This was shockingly different from everything else that I have seen and learned about here in Ireland simply because it was so recent. The more I keep learning about Ireland, the richer it's history seems to become to me.

One of the more stunning things that I wanted to touch on as well was the little bit of time I had spent at Trinity College. Just being on the campus was stunning, and thinking about actually attending lectures there kind of stunned me. Along with that, though, I toured the building where the Book of Kells is now held. The first bit of the building was interesting enough. It talked about the book's history, and how it would have been made and who it was made by. I even got in to see the Book of Kells itself, unfortunately it was turned to a page that was mostly text without a whole lot of illumination.

What was really stunning to me, though, was the Library they had on the top floor. You can see above just how jaw dropping the library was. The shelves were completely full of old texts, from all over the world, and from any number of authors and sources. The entire room even had the delightful smell of an old book, which was really the cherry on top of everything for me.

You could see in between the aisles of books that some had been pulled off the shelf for someone to read and work with. The busts alongside that you see were all rather important figures in scholarly work. The first three on the right as you walked in were none other than Plato, Aristotle and Socrates. Shakespeare made an appearance, as well as Newton. I had heard the phrase "Ireland is the land of Saints and Scholars" here a few times since I got in Ireland, but walking into this room solidified just how dedicated the Irish have been over the centuries to scholarly work. I was astounded.

While I didn't talk about all of the places I visited in Dublin, Dublin was still a lot of fun for me. I do want to go back again at some point in my life and see some of the other things that I didn't while I was there. It was a town unlike any other that I have ever been to, but in the best of ways. I feel like I saw another side of the Irish country and its people, one full of history much more recent than what is in America, and one that I did not expect to see.

The Aran Islands

This past weekend I took my first trip with the rest of the group to the Aran Islands. The Aran Islands are three small Islands off the West Coast of Ireland, consisting of Inish Maan, Inish More, and Inish Eer. We spent our time on the largest of the three islands Inish More, and spent most of the time there walking and touring the island. The best part of touring the Island, in my opinion, was being able to walk along the cliffs that are there. 

I had never seen the sea or cliffs like this, and they were absolutely stunning. There are few things that make you feel as small as seeing the sea rush up, hit the cliffs, and then a second later feeling the ground under you vibrate ever so slightly from the pounding of the sea. 

We spent around a half hour on the edges of cliffs, admiring the view and watching as waves crashed against them hundreds of feet below ourselves before moving on. We were all fairly well speechless. It was terrifying and beautiful all at the same time. The sea was not calm, and somehow I am thankful for that. If the sea was calm, I would not have been in awe as I was, or realize just how dangerous it can be.

After we had spent some time at the cliffs near some old grounds, our guide moved on to show us a natural formation that seemed completely unnatural. If you have ever seen video's of Redbull Cliff Diving competition, this is where it was done. There is a link here is you want it. This formation is called the Serpent's Lair in English, and I cannot remember what the Irish name was for it.

The picture above shows part of the formation. The square you see there is completely natural, even though it looks like a man made Olympic swimming pool. The water rushes over the top and down into it, creating a pool that is nearly 70 feet deep, if memory serves correctly. The other odd thing about this is that it has a hole out to the sea that water can drain from and is normally hidden from view under the water. This lets the water be circulated, and animal life to come and go as they please. Seals are even found playing around the hole when the sea is calmer, our guide said.

Other than the amazing view of the land that I got there, I got insight into what it would be like to live on an island like this. We talked to our guides for quite awhile through our trip about how it was different from living on the much larger island of Ireland. Everything they have there is shipped in, minus most of the stone they use to build up their fences. This makes like much more difficult and expensive while they are there. Their power, most of their food, and even the materials used to build their houses come in on a ferry from the main land. It made me think about how easy we have it in America at times, and how much people like to complain about certain things. It made me realize just how much we take for granted.

A few nights in Kilkenny

This past weekend I went with a few people to Kilkenny, I spent Thursday and Friday night there, and came back to Spiddal somewhat early on Saturday. The trip was full of adventure and a few mishaps, as any should be.

To start off, me being the fool I can be, I took the wrong train by accident. Getting on the first train was simple, and much less hassle than I imagined it would ever be. We had a stop in Kildare and had to get on another train on another platform.

While the rest of my group, there were four of us altogether, went to the bathroom, I was waiting out on the platform, and a train came by and stopped. I was thinking that trains generally stay a bit longer at stops, and that this would be our train, albeit five or ten minutes early. I got on, and about 30 seconds after I sat down, the train took off.

I ended up getting off right away at the next stop, and talked to a nice gal around my age originally from Boston about what I should do. Everything ended up working out alright, I got back to Kildare and met with the rest of my group, and we got on a train to Kilkenny shortly after that. There was about an hours delay or so, but everything ended up alright in the end.

Friday we got up a little early, around 7:30, and started our day fairly early. To put things in perspective, we were up on the Northwest edge of this map, over on Dean street in our Hostel.

We ended up walking down what they like to call Medieval Mile, which is both St. Kieran's Street and High Street. We walked down to Kilkenny Castle, stopping in a few shops that were open at the time along the way, and got to their Rose Garden just as one of the caretakers, I will call him, He talked to us for a little while about the castle and about America, but I will talk about that along with other conversations and interactions I have had here in Ireland at another time.

We spent some time in the Rose Garden, and walked around the castle grounds. It was stunningly beautiful. I wish I had a much better camera, and could capture it all. I did take some pictures, but they couldn't capture what I saw accurately. It was amazing, there are not many words for it other than that.

We took a tour of the castle, which was really cool as well. It was a self guided tour, so we took our time walking around and admiring the art that was there. Unfortunately, we could not take pictures inside of the castle, but the thing that amazed me most was all of the tapestries they had there, and just how old they were, and how much detail they had there.

We continued our tour of Kilkenny, checking out there different old Churches and Cathedrals. I wasn't as excited about them, but they were really cool to look at and see, because they were so old and kept well on the outside, but on the inside they felt new, like churches that have been built recently, but still keeping to the old styles somehow.

We eventually hit all of the places and were just walking around when I went to clean my glasses from the very light rain, and they broke. I went to an optometrist that was nearby, and saw if he could fix the. Unfortunately, I had to take some time and head back to the Hostel on my own and fix them with a bit of superglue. Thankfully my mom is sending me new frames here soon!

We spent some time walking around and shopping, though that is pretty much my trip in Kilkenny, for we were quite tired at that point in the day. Kilkenny was a great place, full of really friendly people to talk with and a lot of sights to see. Some day I will come back there and visit those castle grounds again, it would definitely be worth it, and I will definitely recommend the town to whoever comes to Ireland.

Today's walk to Spiddal

I woke up around 11:30, and the cabin was in quite disarray, thanks to my cabin-mates. (Thanks guys!) I decided that I would go to Spiddal, and ended up going on my own, and I am quite glad I did. The weather was beautiful on the walk there, even a little warm. In just jeans and a t-shirt I was sweating by the end of the walk to Spiddal, which is about 30 minutes at the leisurely pace I took.

I walked over to the beach, which was actually showing because it was near low tide, I think, and ended up falling, but all was well. I walked a bit more around Spiddal, and around the docks to the other beach.

Unfortunately, by the time I was all the way over by the other side of the docks, it started sprinkling just lightly and getting colder. I stopped in a cafe and ate a sandwich and some hot chocolate to warm myself up.

I stopped at the Texaco on the way back and grabbed a few necessary food items, and headed back. It's weird how quickly the weather can change, because my arms were pretty damn cold in just a t-shirt on the way back.

On the way back I was thinking that Ireland reminds me of Nebraska, a little bit. A warmer island version of Nebraska. There is a lot of country side, and that became really clear to me on my train ride to Kilkenny, but more about that in another post.

I can't help but think about how great it would be to spend a year or two here working. The land is beautiful, the weather much more mild, and the people just as if not nicer than back home. That being said, though, there are small moments of homesickness. They may come in short bursts, but there come and go every so often. This walk today helped a lot with that, however.

Experiences in Galway

So it has been a little while since I have posted here yet. I have been Ireland for over a week now, and have been loving every day of it so far.

The main thing this post will be about is Galway, a beautiful and old town, full of old buildings and a ton of history every step of the way. I first went to Galway last Tuesday, over a week ago, on a trip with the rest of the group. 

We had a walking tour through the old town in Galway, starting at the Hall of the Red Earl. We visited that, the oldest church in Galway, shown below, stopped outside of the King's Head, which is now a bar shown above, and finally ended up in the mall that is in the old part of the town to see the old city walls and fortifications that are preserved and part of the mall still today. 

It was very weird to see all of these things, and hear about all of the history, and then just across the walkway there is a Subway, or McDonald's even. It is also very strange to me that you see some of these old buildings, and then right next to them a more modern building, obviously built in the space between two older buildings. It is fairly disconcerting to me to see this, the old and the new side by side, because I haven't ever experienced it before.

The same can easily be said of the picture above. This is the oldest church in Galway, the Church of St. Nicholas. (Yes, one and the same, Santa Claus!) What I caught above is the space between two of the three peaks at the front of the church. It is weird to me that you can see a divide in the stone they used, the upper left is quite different from the lower right. This is because the church was added on to at multiple times by different wealthy families in Galway at the time, and they wanted to kind of show off to the rest of the city, so they added on an entire other section to the church. 

When I think about if I have seen anything like this in America, I personally cannot think of that many examples. It may have to do with how little I have traveled in America itself, or it could even be that the buildings in America are all much younger than this church, but I cannot think there would be too many places that we would add on to a building like this, rather than tear it down and build anew. It is really cool to see this, and to see that they did this multiple times over the many years that this church has been standing. 

I really loved walking around the old parts of Galway, and seeing buildings older than America that are being used as a bank, or a pub, or something so modern as that. It makes me want to explore other, even older parts of the world and see if there are changes such as this as well.

I am looking forward even more to exploring the rest of Ireland, and seeing all that there will be to see. There is a lot more to talk about, but that will come in future posts!

First Day

These first days have been quite the experience for me. I am finally in a new country, and I am very excited to be here.

The flights over here were not quite what I had expected. I had never flown before, and so it was weird that my first experience were two flights that were a little bit longer. The first plane was a very small plane, but the flight was good, very little turbulence and no problems at all when we came to land.

The weirdest thing about that flight, however, was in the conversation that I had with the women who sat next to me. Some of the other people who were coming along to Ireland with me for the same thing from UNK were talking about ancestry, and tracking it. They got to talking about how in generations past, there would be families with eleven or more kids, and how crazy that was. Overhearing this, the woman sitting next to me asked if I had any siblings. Bless her, when I told her about what had happened she was very kind and respectful of everything. It was good to hear from someone else other than my family and those close to me about how good it was for me to still come out to Ireland and make the great memories that I am about to embark on.

Many people asked me about how my first flight was, and how I liked it. I thought that, other than landing and taking off, the flight was just a smoother version of a school bus on a longer trip, so I didn't really have any problems with the flight. The descent into Ireland was a little rough, but other than that I was perfectly fine. I didn't really expect the plane rides to be bad, but they were much better than I had anticipated, honestly, though I don't know quite what I was thinking about them. Security and Customs was not even a problem for me, which I am thankful for.

Finally, to Ireland itself! My very first reaction, and one I am still getting, is just how green it is here! We left the airport at around 6:50am, and because of some lighting and stuff we could see the grass and the trees around, and I think there was more green there than Nebraska gets in the middle of spring when everything is flourishing. It is beautiful!

When we got to the cabins, which is shown above, we took a bit of time to unpack and relax. Shortly after, a few of us took off and walked to Spiddal, which is the closest town to where we are staying. It was about a half hour's walk there, and it was a really surprising experience.While we walked there, I was kind of surprised at the lack of definition between town and what could be called country side. In Nebraska, at least, there always seems to be a fairly clear difference between where the city is and isn't, whereas on the walk to Spiddal, there were houses and shops along the road most all of the way to the town from the bed and breakfast. It seemed weird to me how there was not a definite "This is for sure the town of Spiddal" that you get when you are in America.

The town itself, and even the walk there, though, was stunning, Even though I was cold from the rain and the wind, I admired just how green everything was, and this time in actual light! It's January still, and it's greener than Nebraska usually gets! 

There is much more to talk about, but these were some of my first thoughts and reactions. I really like Ireland so far, even though I haven't really met any of the local people. I am too tired and exhausted, however, to keep up and show the excitement that I had when I landed in Ireland, although it is still there. I am very excited to spend the next two days exploring Spiddal and Galway!

I'm fleeing the country!

It doesn't even feel real right now. I'll be out of the country for three months, starting here in a few hours.

Guys. I'M GOING TO IRELAND!