Austen in Ireland: St. Patrick’s Day and a Mid-semester Review

April 3, 2014

So once I returned back from France, I met up with my friends who were visiting Dublin for the weekend from Edinburgh. The airport was absolute mayhem for all the visitors coming into Dublin for St. Patrick’s Day weekend. I finally met up with them late afternoon and we went through the Temple Bar area, which was packed, and ate dinner. My friends had three hours of sleep the night before because of their early flight (they got to Dublin early and went sightseeing for the majority of the day before meeting up with me) so we went back to UCD early at night. The next day, we decided to take a day trip with a tour company to Glendalough and Kilkenny. Glendalough is a valley of two lakes, with essentially lakes in a valley right in between two mountains. The one lake in particular is breathtaking because of its beauty. For the afternoon, we went to the city of Kilkenny. It was a really neat city and was packed because of St. Patrick’s Day weekend. It had a castle that we explored that had some pretty regal rooms. All in all, it seemed like a quintessential large Irish town. I even got some shepherd’s pie in a pub while watching a rugby match.

Glendalough

Glenadalough

Once we got back to Dublin, we planned to go to some pubs but ran into a random carnival so we had to ride some ride there. We decided to go on this ride called the “Superbowl” (I have no idea why the name) that spun the cars that you are in really fast in a circle as well as going up and down at the same time. It was a pretty nauseating ride (and really long, close to 10 minutes) so I was glad to get off it when we did. We then went to a pub and had a couple pints of Guinness before heading back. Sunday, I showed my friends around the campus of UCD and they were amazed by its size but also its beauty. Then, my one friend and I went to the Guinness storehouse (my second time but I was a trooper because my friend really wanted to go) where we learned more about Guinness and the brewing process before pouring our own pints and drinking them. After this, we went to the National Museum of Ireland-Archaeology, and looked at artifacts from many different eras. We ran into another carnival and decided to go on the Ferris wheel at this one. There were great views of the city and it was great because I had never seen Dublin from up above before. Before my friends left, we had calzones for dinner at a calzone place. They left for their voyage back to Edinburgh and I went back to prepare for St. Patrick’s Day the next day.

St Patick's Day Temple Bar

St. Patrick’s Day crowds in Temple Bar

 

St. Patrick’s Day was insane to say the least. It turns out all the Europeans travel to Dublin so the streets are about four times as crowded as they usually are. I woke up at 8:00 in the morning to catch the 9:00 bus (the earliest one into the city) with my friends so we would be able to get to the parade early. We got to the city at around 10:00 and got a prime spot on O’Connell Street in the second row. There were a lot of weird floats and such but it was an overall good parade. There were many high school and college marching bands. There was even Clover Hill High School in it! (Richmond, Virginia shout out) University of Illinois and LSU also made an appearance in it. Once the parade ended, it took us about thirty minutes to finally move but we eventually found the pub we were looking for (after getting through Temple Bar unscathed somehow). I made a decision earlier in the day that I was only going to have Irish beer (as it is St. Patrick’s Day) and I succeeded. Over the course of the day, I had Smithwick’s, Guinness, and a “Galway Hooker”- the name of an Irish Pale Ale. We went to Tolteca (the Irish version of Chipotle, it literally looks just like it) because there’s just nothing like a burrito on St. Patrick’s Day in Ireland. We then continued our pub hopping and I met up with another friend who then came with us to another pub (our fifth pub of the day). At this point I began to get worn out so part of our group decided to get dinner (chicken shawarma, such Irish food on St. Patrick’s Day) and then head back to UCD. I was so tired that I feel asleep at around 11 p.m. but it was a fun day.

St. Patrick's Day Parade

My view of the St. Patrick’s Day parade

 

Green Building

Dublin ‘greens’ a lot of their buildings for the festivities

So it’s really hitting me that I’m halfway done with my semester abroad. I have less than two months abroad and I’m working on planning my last trips. It’s also hitting me because I’ve been doing housing for Richmond and scheduling is coming up soon too. I have been doing some assignments worth a large percentage of my grade (I had two essays due recently, one worth 50% of my final grade and the other 30%!) However, other than this I haven’t had any assignments due as my final couple of weeks are looking to be stressful with finals coming soon after that. I haven’t been spending as much time on my work as at Richmond, but I’m sure it will pick up in a week or so. I’m just sad to be leaving soon so I’m trying to cross off all off the sights I want to see before I leave! The semester has literally flown by and I’m sure the second half will fly by as fast as the first half did and I still have so much that I still want to do.

 

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Kimberlee in Mongolia: Excursion to Erdenet

March 28, 2014

Our group officially began our first long excursion outside of Ulaanbaatar to a small city called Erdenet. It’s the third largest city in Mongolia, and is located northwest of the capital. We mainly traveled here to study the copper mines, local factories, and the ecological issues facing the city.

 

Traveling to Erdenet was an adventure in itself. We took an overnight train from Ulaanbaatar to Erdenet, and I got to experience a sleeping cabin in a train for the first time. It was crazy that we were able to fit 4 people in that tiny cabin! I’d estimate that it was around 5-6 feet across. There were 4 cots and a top shelf for our backpacks. I slept on one of the top bunks, and I was terrified that I would roll off during a sharp turn. Thankfully, this didn’t happen.

 

We left Ulaanbaatar around 8pm, and arrived in Erdenet at 6:30am. After breakfast at the hotel, our program activities immediately started. It was difficult to not doze off with only a couple of solid hours of sleep, but somehow we managed. It was awesome to wake up in a whole new city. I noticed that there was a lot less pollution in Erdenet. Like Ulaanbaatar, I was struck by the dramatic contrast between the beautiful landscape and the rapid industrialization. Erdenet has a very interesting history because its existence is directly connected to the opening of its copper mine. Without the mine, there would be no Erdenet.

 

After a few lectures from local officials about the issues that Erdenet faces, we set off to the copper mine in the outskirts of the city. This mine is roughly the 10th largest producer of copper in the world, and has supported Erdenet’s (and even Mongolia’s) economy for decades. It was difficult to see the beautiful landscape destroyed, but in some ways the locals consider it a necessary evil. The existence of this mine supports the city’s economy, and gives many jobs to Mongolians. It’s a concept that I think I’ll grapple with for the entire semester. It’s even harder to have a solid opinion on it because many Mongolians we’ve met are also conflicted about the mining.

 

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The open pit copper mine in Erdenet.

 

Although learning about the copper mine was interesting, it was nice to have some other activities to get to know the city. Everyone talked about the mine, but the city had so much more to offer us! We hiked, visited a cashmere factory, and even met with local university students. We had our “drop-off” in Erdenet city, and were placed in the hands of the university students. My group had to research the theme of “transportation” for two hours, so we headed to the local train, bus, and taxi stations. It was awesome to explore the city with a few of its inhabitants! I can honestly say that Erdenet was both an interesting learning experience and a great opportunity to explore a different city.

 

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Our entire group of both SIT students and Mongolians after the drop-off.

 

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A horse skull that a student found looking over the city of Erdenet.

 

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Austen in Ireland: France for Spring Break

March 21, 2014

So here at UCD we get two whole weeks off for spring break (or mid-term as they call it)!  We got off the weeks of March 10 and 17.  So, the first week I traveled to see my parents in southern France, as they are renting an apartment for two months in the city of Aix-en-Provence.

On Friday, I flew from Dublin to Carcassonne (a town in central France) to meet my parents and we drove three hours to visit the city of Marseille.  Here, we walked around the port and saw some beautiful areas of the city, but our main reason being there was to see my first European soccer match, Marseille vs. Nice.  Marseille’s stadium was stunning with a capacity of around 60,000.  It was probably the largest stadium I have been in.  The match was an intense one but Marseille ended up losing 1-0 to a Nice free kick in the second half.  After a long day of traveling, I got back to my parents’ apartment around midnight.

Stade Velodrome

First European soccer match! Stade Velodrome, Marseille’s stadium

On Saturday, we explored the city where my parents are staying, Aix-en-Provence.  I had been there a couple of times, but it was neat to be there as a “local” instead of a tourist and going back to an apartment instead of a hotel.  We explored the many squares and an enormous market that was going on throughout the day.  We also walked down the Cours Mirabeau, the large street in the middle of the city lined by trees.  Another noteworthy site was the gardens in the Pavillon Vendome.  For dinner, we had great Vietnamese food.

Cours Mirabeau

Cours Mirabeau, Aix-en-Provence’s tree-lined promenade

We went to the Musee Granet, the main museum in the city, on Sunday.  It had paintings by famous painters such as Cezanne and Picasso.  It had a variety of historical objects too, from art to sculptures.  The museum is in a beautiful historic building.  We ended up visiting a different building across the city that is also associated with this museum that had even more pieces of art and a great deal of Picasso paintings.

On Monday, we went to Nice, a large city right on the Mediterranean Sea.  It is an absolutely beautiful city with breathtaking views.  We walked around in the historic part of Nice (Vieux Nice) and had a great lunch in a square overlooking a church.  After lunch, we walked up to a park above the city that had amazing views of the port of Nice, sea, and historic Nice.  It was great to be able to see the whole city.  After this, we walked along the sea and the famous Promenade des Anglais before going to the Cours Saleya (a humongous market with many things from food to paintings).  We left Nice and got back to Aix-en-Provence around dinnertime.  At that time, we went to get some falafel, as falafel is one of my favorite foods!  It was a great falafel sandwich.

Nice port

The beautiful port of the city of Nice

Tuesday, we stayed in Aix-en-Provence and explored some other attractions.  In the morning, we visited the Atelier Cezanne, the gallery where painter Paul Cezzane painted many of his paintings.  It was amazing seeing how similar this gallery looked to how it was when Cezanne was alive.  The old building must require a fair amount of maintenance.  After this, we had a great picnic lunch in the garden near his gallery, where Cezanne painted some of his famous paintings of Mount St. Victoire.  It was surreal being able to enjoy a traditional French picnic of a baguette and goat cheese while being able to take the serene landscape and the same mountains that Cezanne painted.  After this, we had a relaxing afternoon and had a Turkish dinner; I had lamb.

We traveled to other cities and towns in Provence (a region of southern France) on Wednesday.  First, we saw the hospital where Vincent Van Gogh spent some of his later years when he was experiencing emotional and mental duress.  After this, we went to the town of Saint Remy de Provence.  It is a classical French town with beautiful buildings, squares, and fountains all around the older part of the town.  There was a large market going on, where I had a fantastic sausage sandwich.  I also learned of a great drink known as a “Tango,” which is beer with grenadine syrup, quite a refreshing and delicious beverage.  After Saint Remy, we traveled to the larger city of Arles.  Arles is a very Roman city with a famous Arena and Antique Theater.  There were so many police officers around and we soon found out why; there was some sort of protest by farmers on a major street in Arles.  There were no less than 300 sheep in the streets!  After seeing this, it become a challenge getting around the streets of Arles, as the cops had many streets blocked off because of the protest going on.  Thankfully we got out of the city without encountering too much traffic and got back to Aix en Provence around dinnertime.  I had an amazing pizza (French pizzas are so tasty) with chorizo.

Thursday was my last full day in France.  We traveled to Cassis, a town on the Mediterranean that gets jammed with tourists in the summer, but was quite peaceful the day we went.  It was a beautiful town with a port and breathtaking scenery all around.  We went on a boat tour of the calanques (inlets near Cassis with amazing rocky structures; they are steep-sided valleys).  These were great to see and the boat tour went all the way into the outlets for us to see the beauty of these rocky structures.  After this, we walked around the port and headed back to my parent’s apartment.  For my last meal, I had a crepe dinner, which was a crepe with beef, crème fraiche, and onions, which was really delicious, as well as a dessert crepe which had apple and sugar.  We walked around the city of Aix en Provence for our last night to admire the beauty one last time.

Calanques

A calanque, an inlet with towering rocky cliffs

Friday, I left to go back to Dublin and got back around 3:00 pm to meet up with my friends who were visiting from Edinburgh.  The next blog post will cover the fun St. Patrick’s Day Weekend!

Overall, it was a great week seeing my parents after not being able to see them for two months.  The awesome weather of highs in the mid 60s (I wore short sleeves every day) combined with the destinations that we visited and tasty food that I was able to eat contributed to one of the best weeks of my study abroad semester yet.

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Austen in Ireland: Amsterdam

March 6, 2014

This past weekend I went to Amsterdam!  It was one of the best weekends so far.  I left Thursday afternoon taking Aer Lingus and arriving into Schiphol, the main airport in Amsterdam.  I met my Richmond friends studying in Edinburgh at the airport and we took a train to the central station downtown.  Our hotel, the Crowne Plaza was a really short walk from the train station.  Once we arrived, we mentioned to the person checking us in that we planned on going to the Anne Frank House (where she lived a part of her life).  Luckily, he recommended that we go late during the day and since it was around 5, we headed out there (this was a good decision because there was no line!).  It was a pretty small attraction but it was a really interesting historical site to see.  We then had dinner, where I tried bitterballen (a Dutch snack that is fried dough with meat inside) and then walked around afterwards, looking at the many scenic canals as well as the infamous Red Light District.

On Friday, we saw so many pieces of art.  First, we went to the Rijksmuseum, a humongous art museum (and the most popular in the Netherlands) dedicated to many different types of art.  The collection of the museum includes more than 2,000 paintings from the Dutch Golden Age from famous painters such as Rembrandt (The Night Watch is a famous painting at the museum) and Johannes Vermeer.  Afterwards, we went to the Van Gogh Museum, right across a beautiful green from the Rijksmuseum.  The Van Gogh Museum contained a variety of his paintings, such as The Yellow House, Bedroom in Arles, and Almond Blossoms.  Both of these museums are great and highly recommended for anyone even remotely interested in art.  The rest of the day was spent exploring more of Amsterdam and admiring its most unique sights, the canals.  That night, we went out to a square and enjoyed the atmosphere of night-time Amsterdam.

Rijksmuseum

An Amsterdam sign with Rijksmuseum behind it

square

Leidseplin: a popular square during the daytime and nighttime

The next day, we decided to rent bikes.  This was such a great idea because Amsterdam is probably the most bike-friendly city in the world and everyone uses them.  There are basically bike paths alongside every street.  We decided to discover the whole Amsterdam area.  At first, we went up near the zoo area on the northeast side of the city, and went through some parks as well.  We then went south towards the museum district area.  We had a great lunch (my goat cheese sandwich was awesome) and then went through the old town area, where canals dominate the landscape.  After this, we went up to the northwest area called Jordaan, which was very scenic.  Also, we biked up to the riverfront north of the city near the train station on the Amstel River, another very scenic body of water.  After going through some more parks and squares, we finally returned our bikes after a tough five hours of biking.  We decided to then get souvenirs and rest in the hotel room after our long day (it was really nice having a much more comfortable bed than at UCD).  We decided to go out for dinner with really no idea of what we wanted so naturally we got Mexican food while in Amsterdam.  The fajitas were surprisingly tasty.  For this last night, we just decided to walk around the city again and experience the great atmosphere of Amsterdam one last time.

bikes Amsterdam

These canals are an iconic sight in Amsterdam

Sunday, we woke up early to get catch our planes back to our host countries.  I had a pretty uneventful plane ride and arrived in Dublin around 1:30 in the afternoon.  I already miss Amsterdam because it was such a beautiful city but I look forward to future trips to other great European cities!

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Kim in Mongolia: Orientation Week

March 6, 2014

So I’ve finally landed in Mongolia, and am settling down in a hotel in Ulaanbaatar. My first impression of the city is that it’s very…gray. From what I’ve seen, there doesn’t seem to be large buildings in the city. But there are definitely a lot of Soviet-style apartments, not unlike the ones I saw in East Germany.

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View of Mongolia from the airplane

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View from our hotel!

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The welcome dinner on our first night

I’ve actually been a bit surprised by the weather. It’s been overcast and cold, but not to the extent that we’d been warned. It was around 15 degrees Fahrenheit for most of the day today. Our program director told us that this season is projected to be warmer than usual, which I’m pretty thankful for. I’m hoping that I can enjoy my commutes around the city, instead of rushing to my destinations because of the cold.

For our first day, we were taken to SIT headquarters to begin our orientation. It took about 30 minutes to walk there, and it was great to see the city for the first time. I didn’t take any pictures on the way over, just because I wasn’t sure what the picture-taking policy was in Mongolia. However, we’ll be exploring the city more tomorrow, so I’ll try to take a lot then.

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On our way to SIT orientation

During our orientation, we learned about safety, basic Mongolian, and even had an American talk to us about cultural differences. These are all topics that we’ll be discussing in greater detail, but it was nice to have some brief introductions. As our program director Ulzii Bagsch said today: “the whole semester will be your orientation”. This could not be more accurate.

Here are some things I learned about Mongolians today:

–       Giving/receiving things with your left hand is considered very impolite.

–       Mongolians are extremely superstitious, and also consult shamans before making important decisions. For example, they decide when to begin long journeys or have surgeries after consulting with their shamans. This is apparently so important that Mongolian shamans now give chants and advice via phone and Skype to Mongolians overseas.

–       Going off of the point above, Mongolians believe that Tuesdays are unlucky, so nothing big happens on this day (including haircuts).

–       Although hard liquor like vodka has only been in society for the past century, alcoholism is a big issue in society. The program leaders told us that in the cold months, the city has to pick up dead bodies of people who passed out in the streets and froze to death.

–       Mongolians apparently don’t help strangers because they believe that it’s none of their business. If you’re being harassed/abused/hurt in the streets, the likelihood that people will be indifferent to your situation is high.

–       Touching the heads of older people is considered extremely scandalous. Anything associated with heads is seen as almost sacred. For example, you can’t wear another person’s hat, because it touched their heads. Additionally, putting things like hats or even books (because they give knowledge to your head) on the floor is considered impolite.

–       Mongolia men hate it when Mongolian women date foreigners. The American told us that he has foreign friends who are married to Mongolians, but they have to pretend like they aren’t affiliated in public. This obviously means no PDA, but then also having to walk a few steps behind their wives in public. If they don’t do this: “the women will have their heads shaven, and the men will be beaten up by Mongolian men”.

Besides learning these small facts about Mongolian culture, we also had a session on Mongolian. All I can say is that it’s going to be much more challenging than Uganda. I’m finding it extremely difficult to keep up with learning meanings and pronunciations when I can barely read the words! Our teachers told us that Mongolian is related to Turkish, but to me it kind of sounds like a very rugged version of Korean.

The SIT building itself is very cozy and warm. It’s more of a house, with two floors, a kitchen, dining room, and small classrooms. It feels very welcoming, and the SIT staff is super friendly. There are 7 of them and 9 of us, so we’re basically equal in number!

Another cool thing about SIT Mongolia is that they have 2 cooks that prepare lunch for us! SIT Uganda definitely didn’t have that. So instead of always venturing outside for lunch, we have home-cooked meals that we eat together.

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The SIT office is very cozy!

This is the living room- we ate lunch on the floor around the low table. The map on the wall is of Ulaanbaatar. Ulzii Bagsch explained to us that the shaded areas of each district indicate the communities in the city!

Overall, it’s been a great first day. I can hardly believe that I’m here, and am trying to take in as much as I can. I’m trying to focus on not comparing everything to Uganda, but I’ll admit that it’s been difficult. I realize that it’s human nature to compare what you see to what you already know, but I can already tell that Mongolia is a whole different animal from Uganda. I’m excited to see what’s in store for me this semester!

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Austen in Ireland: Weekends in Galway and Edinburgh

February 17, 2014

So the past two weekends I went on two different trips: one to Galway, Ireland with the International Student Society at UCD and the other to Edinburgh, Scotland to see friends from UR studying abroad at the University of Edinburgh.

My trip to Galway started early on a Friday morning with a bus ride heading to the west coast of Ireland, where Galway is.  Our first stop on Friday was Clonmacnoise, a famous monastery on the way to Galway.  It was in a beautiful setting on the water.  We then arrived in Galway late afternoon and took a walking tour of the city.  The city is great and looked like a more cultural and less tourist-y version of Dublin.  It also has a great amount of history as explained by our awesome tour guide.  For dinner, some of us from the group had dinner at a very Irish place, where most of us had fish and chips.  It was delicious!  We then went on a pub crawl, where we went to four pubs and one nightclub.  There were some great pubs.  On Saturday, the amount of flooding caused a detour from our planned sites so we went to a small Irish town, which was nice but didn’t have much to see.  We then got back to Galway, where we went out to dinner on Saturday at an American diner and got American food- my first American food in Ireland!  On Sunday, we went to the Cliffs of Moher, probably my favorite place that I have been to so far this semester.  The cliffs were absolutely breathtaking and definitely a must-see when in Ireland.  Our next stop was the city of Limerick, which was quite nice with a river in the middle- similar to Dublin- and had a lot to see.  I definitely could have spent a lot more time than our hour allotted.  We then went to Moneygall, a small town where President Obama’s ancestors are from.  The town is all decked out with Obama memorabilia (there’s even an Obama café) and we went to the pub where Obama had a pint when he visited (which had even more Obama items on the walls).  I was exhausted when we got back on Sunday night but I still went to downtown Dublin to see the Super Bowl that night with a couple friends.

Cliffs of Moher

Cliffs of Moher

The trip to Edinburgh was even more memorable.  I left early Friday morning to catch my 12:30 Ryanair flight from Dublin to Edinburgh.  It was probably the shortest flight I’ve ever been since we were in the air for only 45 minutes.  Luckily my Ryanair experience was pretty unforgettable.  Once I arrived in Edinburgh, I met up with my friends studying abroad there (I know 4 UR students there).  We immediately climbed up a hill to catch views of Edinburgh.  I realized Edinburgh is very different from Dublin because Edinburgh is much more hilly compared to the flat Dublin and Edinburgh was much more a historic city.  I got a mini tour of the campus of the University of Edinburgh and was especially amazed by their eight floor library.  For dinner, I had some haggis (a Scottish specialty) as well as Irn Bru (a famous Scottish soft drink).  Both items were so great; I wish Ireland had these.  We went to a pub near the University popular with students, which had a live band with pretty good music.  On Saturday, we went to Edinburgh Castle (where there were some sieges during the Wars of Scottish Independence), which was beautiful and had some great history museums, where I learned quite a lot about the history of Scotland.

 

Edinburgh Street

A street in historic Edinburgh

We then went to the Holyrood Palace, which is where the Kings and Queens of Scots have lived since the 16th century.  For dinner that night, I had fish and chips with the Scottish rugby game on the TV in the restaurant, so a very Scottish night to say the least.  Sunday, I climbed up Arthur’s Seat (a hill with excellent views of the city) with my Richmond friend and his Scottish roommate.  They are experienced climbers so they wanted to go up the more difficult route where, given my lack of fitness, I almost fell down the cliff about four times.  I made it up somehow though and the winds were some of the strongest I’ve ever experienced, but the views were so worth it.  Going down was easier but it was so muddy and I didn’t have boots, so with my clumsiness, I fell not once, but twice right in the mud so my clothes got really muddy.  Our last stop of Sunday was at the National Museum of Scotland, which was a magnificent building; that had collections on pretty much everything, including animals, clothing, cars, and almost anything related to Scotland.  We only had about an hour because it closed pretty early but I could have definitely spent a whole day there.  Monday morning, waking up at 5:00, I caught my 8:00 am flight with an hour delay (I had a window seat without a window) and got back to Dublin in one piece.

Richmond Edinburgh

Richmond takes over Edinburgh

I look forward to what my future travels have in store for me!

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Austen in Ireland: My Classes so Far

February 10, 2014

I’ve been really busy recently and haven’t even been able to post about my classes!  I am taking six modules (which are what they call classes here in Ireland).  I am taking three psychology modules: Lifespan Development, Counseling Psychology, and Visual and Social Cognition.  These are all relatively large classes of between 50-100 students (two are in lecture theatres) so it’s a lot different than Richmond.   Visual and Social Cognition seems like the most interesting to me of these classes as it’s topics are the closest to my interests in psychology.  For these classes, there are not too many assignments over the course of the semester so the few assignments count for a large portion of the grade, a significant difference from the US.

For my other three modules, I am taking a variety of topics.  For one, I am taking Health Economics, which will count as an elective class for my economics minor.  It seems like an interesting class because it incorporates economics, political science, and psychology topics.  I am also taking Irish for beginners.  This is my smallest class of about 20 students with all international students, which is a nice change from my other classes.  Irish is a difficult language so far and I’m not the best at foreign languages to begin with.  I find the class really interesting though so it should be a fun experience.  The last module I have is called Discovering Ireland: Landscape and it consists of just two field trips.  There are no lectures, we just go on the two trips and make journal entries about our observations from the landscape, buildings, etc. since it is an archaeology class.  I’m really looking forward to class because it seems like it will be a great excuse to see new areas of Ireland!

Overall, I’m looking forward to my classes and seeing what else I will be learning.  It is interesting to see the different teaching styles in Ireland, as there is virtually all lecturing and no class participation because of the much larger class size.  There are, however, smaller tutorial sections that meet a few times a semester for a couple of my classes that go over the topics in a smaller group.

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The UCD campus!

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Austen in Ireland: Orientation Week

January 27, 2014

So I’ve been here a week now and gone through orientation but it feels like I’ve been here so much longer with all that I’ve done!  Classes start tomorrow.

On Monday, I arrived in Dublin and took a bus to the UCD campus (luckily there were other study abroad students with me on the flight so I wasn’t completely lost).  I then checked in and unpacked all my stuff (two suitcases worth) for basically the rest of the day.  I also took a walking tour of campus to help me get adjusted to the campus, it’s a lot different from the brick buildings of Richmond because most of UCD’s buildings are concrete.  I then feel asleep at about 8 from the jetlag and slept for 12 hours!

On Tuesday, I went to IKEA (my first experience in an IKEA- it was possibly the biggest store I’ve ever been in) and purchased a bunch of things for my bathroom, bed, and kitchen.  I then went out into Dublin for the first time with some other students to eat dinner and go to a pub.  We went to a burger place and then went to a pub, where I knew I had to order a pint of Guinness, which was actually better than Guinness in the USA.  It was nice being able to see Grafton Street, the main pedestrian-only street with many shops in downtown Dublin.

Grafton Street

Top of Grafton street, a pedestrian-only street with mostly shops

On Wednesday, the actual orientation events began and they had an international student welcome.  It was in their biggest lecture hall of over 500 students so it was pretty intimidating compared to our small Richmond classrooms!  There then was an international student fair where they had some organizations with tables displaying their services to international students.  There was, for example, the career development centre as well as the library.  Also, there were the two main organizations that coordinate events and trips for internationals, the International Students’ Society (ISS) and Erasmus Student Network (ESN), which I joined for two euros each.  Both of these have trips and other events throughout the semester; I am hoping to go to Galway with ISS in a couple of weeks!

On Thursday, there were more orientation events.  There was one talk in the morning that was catered to study abroad students and laid out some tips about living on campus, safety, and how to register with immigration.  Then, in the afternoon there was an academic advisory for arts students (I’m technically an arts student).  This was centered more around academics and adding/dropping classes.  There was an Irish professor and he cracked joke after joke!  He went on about how they don’t allow guns on campus like in America or iPhones in class.  His jokes were sometimes borderline offensive but hilarious!  I then went to the on-campus pub after dinner, which was pretty nice and modern for an on-campus place.

Friday was finally a relatively down day for me.  I went to throw the Frisbee around with a friend for a little in the afternoon.  At night, the Erasmus Student Network held a pub crawl, so I decided to take that.  There were over 200 students on it, so we had a large group but we were divided into three groups.  We went to four pubs over the course of the night and it was really fun.  Some pubs were better than others but I would definitely return to a couple of them.

Temple Bar

Temple Bar is a world famous!

On Saturday, they held a “Discover Dublin” day trip so I decided to go on that.  In the morning, we went to the Guinness storehouse, a must-see when in Dublin.  It went over the process of brewing Guinness, which was really interesting.  There was a room at the top of the building at the 7th floor which had a 360 degree view of the city which was awesome to look at!  I had  delicious Guinness stew for lunch which and then we went to the “Guinness academy” where we learned how to pour Guinness, learning it is a two pour process.  We got certificates after we learned how to “pour the perfect pint of Guinness.”  For the second part of our day, we went to Croke Park, the fourth largest stadium in the world with over an 80,000 person capacity.  The all-Irish games are held here where all the counties of Ireland fight for the trophy in the sports of Gaelic football and hurling.  It was really neat learning about these two sports because I’ve never seen them before.

Croke Park

Croke Park: home of gaelic football and hurling; all Ireland games

For Sunday, I went on a Dublin walking tour of the city.  We saw St. Stephen’s Green, Trinity College, and many other sights in the city.  It was nice to finally be able to get my bearings somewhat.  I then finally got an Irish phone so I can now communicate with other students at UCD.

I’m looking forward to classes in one way but in another way I wish I could just discover Dublin, Ireland, and Europe for the next four months!

1 Comment | Austen in Ireland, Spring 2014 | Tagged: , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by austeninireland

Mel in Chile: Everything you want is right outside your comfort zone.

December 15, 2013

This is the post we have all been waiting for!!! THE END OF STUDY ABROAD YAYYY! That is in fact true. Some days ago I finished my study abroad semester with an SIT program in Santiago, Chile. I imagine the following text will be suspiciously similar to other testimonies of study abroadlings but I’ll do my best to make it a bit different. I will be honest.

In my last entry I talked about how the topic I chose for my independent study project was outside of what I have chose to study at UR. I was a bit nervous about writing so much on something incredibly new but I thought, “ Well this is one of the best opportunities I will have. The grades don’t count as long as I don’t completely blow it. Might as well!” The project was one of the most enjoyable activities I have overtaken. It was refreshing to read things outside of what I am usually exposed to but I was also lucky because I had the opportunity to link traveling for my personal pleasure to my research. It was sort of a multitasking situation.

It was only when I came home that I saw an article circulating around the Facebook community addressing college students who study abroad. It was an article from The Onion hinting, through their infamous satire, the message that study abroad was an excuse to party in Europe or meet cute Latinos in South America. Even more off putting than the article were the responses from fellow study abroaders affirming the overall message of the article! Now I will not make myself the “responsible” student who studied abroad only for the educational opportunities and the broadening of my perspective by living in another culture. I will be honest in saying some of the comments were funny but true. Like all articles form The Onion, it was genius.

On the other hand, I couldn’t help but remember all the times I had Skyped with friends and family and talked to them about how much I was learning during my study abroad semester. So when I read the article from The Onion I of course laughed but I also couldn’t stop this strange feeling of “Well that isn’t entirely true. Maybe not even the slightest bit true!” As I said before, I will not deny the Shenanigans, the traveling, the going out with other travelers that were passing by on their way to Patagonia, making new friends with my group, the salsa classes, enjoying the fiestas patrias…and well everything else that comes with study abroad. But…is that so bad? In my opinion, study abroad works best when students take complete advantage of what your city has to offer. We are used to learning only coming from academic spheres, everything from lectures, articles, classes, and books. If you are willing to accept it, an opportunity to study abroad is an opportunity to learn. To learn from people, the culture, other foreign exchange students, the host family, street performers, and everyone around you.  I would highly recommend taking an opportunity to study abroad. But it does not end there. Learning takes initiative and requires a person to be proactive and to be open to new concepts. You will be uncomfortable; you will miss UR, your friends, your professors and the resources offered at our university. The point is to see beyond your previous accommodations, stop comparing between your home and host institution and simply allow yourself to grow from the experience.

“Everything you want is right outside your comfort zone.”

– Robert Allen

The following are images of Chile:

gran torre

This is an image of the Gran Torre de Santiago- the tallest building in Latin America.

indomita vineyard

Old wine bottles at Indomita

isla negra

View from Pablo Neruda’s house in Isla Negra.

valledelaluna

We watched the sunset at Valle de la Luna. One of the most beautiful places on Earth.

Leave a Comment » | Fall 2013, Mel in Chile | Tagged: , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by melinchile

Alyssa in New Zealand: The end

November 12, 2013

It seems that I’m constantly on the move. I never run out of things to do no matter where I am. And it’s saddening to think that this will all come to an end very soon. The day I fly out from New Zealand is going to approach quickly and I won’t realize this until the actual moment comes.

The past couple of weeks have progressed much quicker than I thought. It felt liberating to finally finish my last exam because from that point on, I did not have to worry about schoolwork anymore. All I had to think about was what I was going to do with my remaining time in the country. I took advantage of my free time right away. I had made plans to leave after my exam to travel the north part of the South island, which was a 900 kilometer trip from Dunedin.

As my three friends and I drove in the northern direction, we made stops along the way. After five hours of driving, we ventured out to Castle Hill, which had been named the “Spiritual Center of the Universe” by the Dalai Lama. The location seemed to be at absolute peace and serenity. As we walked towards the entrance, we were greeted with vast green land which was completely occupied by several limestone boulders. Each stone varied in size, for they ranged from 8 to 40 feet. The area was the epitome of New Zealand’s climbing scene. Every corner we turned, there was a new bouldering opportunity that we were drawn to. It became our glorified playground and my favorite place that I’ve visited in New Zealand.

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Castle Hill

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The ideal location for climbing and bouldering

As we proceeded north, we drove through Arthur’s Pass National Park, a scenic highway route. The further we immersed ourselves into the valleys, the more impressive and vast the mountains became that surrounded us. Just when you thought you couldn’t imagine anything bigger, something even more immense came along. Such remarkable scenery reminded me of how much I haven’t seen, and I became more than grateful to find myself venturing out to places that I had never thought about encountering.

Abel Tasman National Park was our final destination, for we wanted to tramp one of the Great Walks, the coastal track. It is located in the northwestern part of the island. The weather was noticeably different from the weather in Dunedin. The temperature was warmer and the sun wasn’t constantly hiding behind the clouds. The track as a whole was fairly easy mostly because there was very little elevation. As we hiked the track, we came across several different accesses to beaches, which made it even more enjoyable. One could almost say that it was more relaxing than a strenuous activity for us.

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As we drove through Arthur’s pass, I captured this shot when we were crossing over a bridge

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Arthur’s pass

Once we finished the track, we traveled east to Picton so that we could start another tramp, the Queen Charlotte track. Since we didn’t have the time or stamina to do the entire track, we decided to start in the middle where we would get the best views of the Marlborough Sounds. As we reached to an elevation of just over 400 meters, we concluded that we could have not picked a better spot to be on the track. Out of 71 kilometers, we chose the perfect place.

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Marlborough Sounds

After six days, we made our way back to Dunedin. The thought of leaving has finally become a reality now that my packing has begun. My flight to return to home is November 21st and I leave Dunedin with my flatmates on the 10th. For those remaining 11 days, we will be traveling the entire North island. It will be our last and final stretch of traveling in New Zealand. The Auckland airport will be where we depart back to our home countries.

Tonight is my last night in Dunedin. The town has become not only the place where I reside, but it has also become my home. Traveling around in New Zealand would not have been the same if I had not been with the people that I have met here. As I’ve gotten to know them, they have become an important aspect in my life as we have all supported each other regardless of the fact that we are all from extremely different places and cultures. We all came to New Zealand for our own yet similar reasons, all of which have naturally forced us to make the experience much more meaningful in a way we never imagined.

Expectations are never met. We can never be absolutely certain about anything until we have experienced it for ourselves. Thus, it is best to go in without any expectations or set plans. Keep an open mind. You never know what changes and occurrences will present themselves, for it could potentially be for the better in the end. If you knew everything that was about to happen to come, to what degree would you actually enjoy it?

Seeing that this is my last blog post for the semester tells me that the journey is finally coming to an end. I highly enjoyed writing about my study abroad experience. It has been recorded and now I have something to always look back on to reflect the entire semester. Thank you for providing me with this opportunity, Richmond; you have helped me make my memories and experience permanent.

With my last words, I will say that if you have any desire to study abroad, do it. Some inconveniences may present themselves, but they can be solved. As cliché as it sounds, the experience as a whole is unlike anything you could ever imagine and there is no reason for anyone to miss out on that. No one should be deprived from seeing the world.

To consider myself lucky is an understatement. Thank you to everyone who has made my time more than enjoyable over here in New Zealand. As for all the other study abroaders, it will soon be time for us to go back home and return reality back at school.

“Not all those who wander are lost.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

2 Comments | Alyssa in New Zealand, Fall 2013 | Tagged: , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by gunvillealyssa

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