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.

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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.