Locals

    Since being here in Ireland I have noticed the locals whether around in Spiddal, Galway, or even on some of our field trips have been nothing but kind to us since our journey here. That caught me off guard when we first came here, and we noticed everywhere we went people were nice to us even though we are American. My first preconceived thought when we got here was ‘what if the locals do not like us, or are not kind to us’ but I was pleasantly surprised that whenever we went somewhere the locals treated us with kindness, and did not see us as annoying Americans but saw us for who we were individually. I had that thought because I had assumed that other countries in the world were not a fan of Americans because of some of the things we are known for that give us a bad reputation, however I was glad that the locals kept an open mind, and accepted us. Once when I went to Spiddal, and went into a jewelers shop to buy a Claddagh ring one local man that worked at that shop he was absolutely friendly towards my friend and me. My friend, and I were buying bracelets, as well as my Claddagh ring, and he was striking a conversation with us, and being kind towards us he was just awesome I will definitely not forget him. When we bought our bracelets I had gotten 2, and my friend had about 12 but he let us have one more bracelet free of charge, and he was just amazing about it my friend, and I both tried to say no but he insisted, and so we did he was really nice, and we were glad that we met him. Some other locals that we have gotten to know is the Jane Marie, Geraldine, and John Paul and they actually all run the Park Lodge Hotel, and it has been an absolute delight to have gotten to know them! Jane Marie taught us Gaelic, as well as runs the hotel while John Paul does many things, but one of them is puts coins in our cottage twice a week for our electricity, and Geraldine she cooks for the hotel because other people stay here while we have been here. They are all so wonderful I will truly miss them so much!!

 Geraldine, and I

 Jane Marie, and I

John Paul, and I

    This week in general has been a week I have been dreading/gotten excited for I go home tomorrow, and it is very surreal to me. I have loved Ireland, and gotten to know about it, as well as seen so many remarkable places that I thought I’d never go to but on the other hand it is time for me to go home, and be with friends and family. However I do not want to leave all of the people I have gotten to know so well (which would be my group of students, and the workers of Park Lodge Hotel). I will most definitely miss so many things, such as the ocean, Irish scenery, the atmosphere, but the one thing that I will miss the most of Ireland will be the locals. Because, although some people in America are nice Irish people are more kind, and friendly than most Americans, and every part of Ireland I have been to I have had nothing but friendliness towards me in America you do not get that as much which saddens me, because everything would be better if people we more kind towards each other. This journey I have been on has been amazing, exhilarating, and much more all at the same time I definitely have a different outlook on life, and how people from other countries view Americans, but most importantly I feel like I have grown as a person, and I would not trade this opportunity for anything in the entire world! I know I plan to study abroad again, and I do not want to leave Europe, but I will be back to Ireland again in the future I know it!        

My study abroad group, and I. Love these guys so much!!!!!!

  

Áras Chois Fharraige

         Over the course of studying here in Ireland our instructor asked us to complete an ambassadorial service project in the community of Spiddal. The goal with this ambassadorial service project is to provide service to the community that surrounds us. However doing this is not to “give back” (or volunteering to say) to that community exactly, but the ultimate intent is to build bridges with the surrounding community for the future study abroad programs here in Ireland. A group of students, and I had chosen to do our ambassadorial service project at Áras Chois Fharraige, in which is an nursing home and what we do is we go once or twice a week (depending how much we can go) and make connections with the residents in the nursing home.

 

Áras Chois Fharraige: Nursing Home 

 

            What Áras Chois Fharraige provides to residents is 40 members of their “Caring Team” provides the highest standards of resident-centered care, in an environment where the needs and dignity of residents is cherished. I think that is wonderful that they make sure they have high standards for their facility, because that would make people feel better that their loved ones will have the best care, and feel loved/cared for. When we have gone to the nursing home I can always tell each of the staff members cares for the residents very much. The way I can tell that they always strike a conversation with every resident they see, and say hi to each person they see if they are walking down a hallway for instance. Especially the head nurse I always see when we visit, her name is Katie Folan she is the sweetest person I have met, and it is always so precious to see her interact with the residents because I can definitely tell that she loves her job, and the residents.

Katie, Nancy, Me, Sydney, Nora, Kendra, Pat, Marissa.

            I will share some experiences of mine from when we had went to the home the last couple of times. If you read in one of my blogs (my 4^th blog: ‘making connections’) I had described my first experience going to the nursing home, which that was such a fun time for the first time being there. But another time when we went what they did on that particular day was they asked every resident if they wanted to go to a big room upstairs, and do some chair exercises to get them up and moving. A lot of residents turned out, and we watched as Katie got residents doing easy exercises, such as lifting their leg up and down or have them circling their arms around (amongst other exercises she had demonstrated for the residents to follow along). The residents seemed to enjoy that, then Katie moved on to have us help her with having all three of us throwing around a ball around to each resident to make sure they all feel included (started out with a small beach ball then got up to a big exercise ball). The residents, especially enjoyed that exercise the most because everyone felt involved and not left out, by the end we all were laughing and having fun (because some of the residents knew how to throw and they threw fast/hard which was unexpected. Patty, and Nora had a very good throw and each time I threw to them I dropped the ball a few times because they threw so well) but in the end we were all very amused with each other’s company, and it is so nice when we leave all the residents say goodbye to us and thank us for coming which is so amazing! Another time we came in Katie had a woman come in and she would sing to the residents, as well as have them singing too if they knew the song that she was playing. At that time we sang with the residents or at least tried to interact with them before the singing commenced. That day was a lot of fun as well. Having gone to Áras Chois Fharraige it has been really great to interact with the residents, and try to bring brightness and laughter into their day. I have also met some nice residents since we have been going (like Patty for example he is a nice gentleman). I am very glad I had the opportunity to be around such awesome residents for such a short period of time we have been here, I will definitely remember them and whenever I will think of Ireland I will think of those residents, as well as Katie. Getting to know the residents, and Katie has been especially great, my time here would have been different if not going to Áras Chois Fharraige I will truly miss them all.

Me, Sydney, Nora, Marissa, Kendra

Goats that are outside of the nursing home, so adorable!

 

Westport

This past week was a very exciting week we had an amazing short two day field trip to Westport. We started the trip off by stopping at various places on the way to Westport, so we could get out of the bus to take amazing photos. Although, I wished we had gotten to Westport faster but the time we took to stop to take extraordinary pictures was great, and I am definitely glad that we took those extra stops because I definitely did take advantage of the opportunity to take astonishing pictures, and I could not beat the views that came with each stop we took. Then after a while we made it into Westport, and as soon as we got there we went to Croagh Patrick, and what we did there was climb a mountain. Just let that sink in I attempted to climb a MOUNTAIN with no experience whatsoever, however it was fun trying to climb the mountain. It was certainly very hard to climb it because there was no real set path to climb up, instead I had to walk over little rocks that moved around when I tried walking (and was really hard on my feet, as well as almost rolled my ankle a couple of times but thank goodness I did not), and when I was climbing up I used muscles that I have not used in a long time (like my legs and calves they were burning!) but nonetheless I was very sore on my lower extremity afterwards. I also did not make it to the top of the mountain that would have taken such a long time, and we did not have a lot of time for the pace I was going at (which was slow). In addition I did not even make it halfway up the mountain that is where I stopped, and thought I could not make it to the top at the pace I was going at. I was a little disappointed that I did not try to push myself to try harder, however I was proud for the progress that I did make considering this was my first time climbing up a mountain (and was not mentally and physically prepared for it, but maybe I will attempt this again in the future). After our adventure on the mountain we headed to our hostel then to dinner, and had a relaxing evening since we had such a hard, tiring workout. The next day was a free day, and we went to the Westport house, but we did not go into the house instead we just walked around the outside of it, and took in the beautiful view.

 One of the pictures I took when we were stopping before getting into Westport.

 View looking up at Croagh Patrick.

 Croagh Patrick. Where I stopped climbing up..

 Westport house

         Later that day when we headed back to our cottages we had stopped in a town called Cong, and I went saw a castle it was absolutely breathtaking, like not exactly the castle itself but the water that was behind the castle that view was without a doubt the best part about the castle. Overall Westport was a fun place it was exciting to have had a field trip I felt like it had been a long time since we had one. Having a field trip like this always makes me grateful that I am here in Ireland, and how lucky I am to experience everything so far.

 Castle in Cong

Beautiful view from behind the castle in Cong.

  
  

Language Barrier

         The Irish language is a very difficult language to learn if you have never seen, or heard it before. When the language is spoken the sounds of the words are very different than English, and you also have to use your throat to be able to say certain words that require that. In addition how the words are spelled are COMPLETELY different from what they sound like it is crazy! For example Dia Dhuit that is how you would say ‘hello’ in Gaelic, another easier kind of word that we first learned is Agus which means ‘and’. Those are some examples of easier words that we learned from our first week of being here, but as time has gone on now we have learned about saying other things like the weather, counting, and more however the more we learn the harder the words are to pronounce and remember. Some examples of this are; Tá sé grianmhar inniu- can you imagine what this says?? It is hard isn’t it? Well what this says is ‘it is sunny today’ it’s kind of difficult isn’t it? Here’s another hard word/phrase; Tá mē naoi mbliana deag d’aois- this one is long as well, you think you can guess what it means? This says ‘I am 19 years old’ so this is how to say my age, see what I mean when I say what the word/phrase looks like it is difficult oh and it is harder to actually say it too (I always have difficulty remembering how to speak Gaelic). Alright I am going to give you one more word/phrase for you to guess, are you ready? Go Raibh Mo Leithscéal- you think you got this? It is kind of difficult, alright this phrase means ‘excuse me’ now I know what you must be wondering all of those words to have to say in order for it to translate to these two words? Yeah this language is definitely something else. Now of course we have been learning how to say other things, however I did not want to keep going on, and on because I am sure that would get boring, but these were just some examples from much of what I have been learning since I have been here.

 This sign means 'Yield'

 Like in the picture this means 'Slow'

 Like in the picture this means 'Public Defibrillator'

This sign translates to saying 'Children are Crossing Over'

         Even though, I talked about how Gaelic is a hard, and difficult language it really is a unique language it is definitely something I have never heard before coming to Ireland. Although, it has been a while since I have learned a new language I am glad that this is a language that I am being taught because it is interesting, and new to me. I certainly am excited to learn more about this language, and hope that I can retain what I am learning because it would be awesome to somewhat know another language besides Spanish I cannot wait to learn much more about the Irish language.  

Cultural Differences

              Coming to Ireland I did not know what to expect. I did not know if it was going to be different compared to the States. Turns out there is a lot of things that Ireland does differently than back home. One difference I noticed very quickly was the fact that vehicles are driven on the wrong side of the road (left side of street) compared to back at home we drive on the right side of the road. Over my time here I have finally adapted to that difference, it took me a little while to get into the habit of looking both ways before crossing the street (so I don’t get hit by a car or anything).

Here is a picture of a road in Ireland. Cars drive on the left side going to somewhere and coming back they drive on the right side.

 

          When my cottage-mates and I first went to a grocery store our professors had advised us to bring reusable bags to carry our groceries in, because Ireland doesn’t use plastic bags, or paper bags to sack your groceries in. But we did not listen to the advice, and instead we brought our backpacks not thinking how much groceries we would need (but we were able to stuff it all in our bags). We all learned after that experience that we should always bring our reusable bags with us for groceries, however you can also buy reusable bags at the check-out for a small price if we had forgotten our bags, or needed more but we don’t want to do that so we will just remember our bags unless we absolutely needed more.

Here is a reusable bag that was given to us when we first got here.

       Another thing that is different from the States is it’s relatively budget friendly to eat better here in Ireland, because they have amazing deals that you could definitely not find in stores back at home. Just to list a few examples: we can get three packages of meat of choice for ten euros, so that is a really good deal we always get some kind of meat every time we go to the grocery store. We also can get two bags of certain fruit of choice (like apples for example) for three euros, three!! That’s amazing because we go through a lot of fruit, so it is great that it is cheap for how much we can get. Lastly we can get two half gallon milks for four euros, which is great for all the milk lovers here.

Here is an example of meat that we can get 3 for 10 euros. This picture has chicken, beef, and salmon.

            Over time I have had to get used to different sayings that Irish people say that I would not usually hear back in America. For instance, when I would say ‘thank you’ instead of them saying ‘you’re welcome’ they say ‘cheers’, or it can also mean ‘thank you’ when they say it to you first. Another thing they say is ‘good on you’ which I assume is supposed to mean ‘good for you’ or something like that. Along with getting used to different sayings I also had to get used to different vocab that Irish people use. For example, ‘take away’ is the same thing as ‘to go’, ‘crisps’ is really chips, and ‘chips’ is another word for fries, so I easily confuse those two all the time. I could go on, and on about different sayings/vocab possibly write a whole book I’m sure but I won’t bore you.

Here are some delicious chips! Very good with salt and vinegar with it!

 

                  One last difference I wanted to touch on that I thought was interesting was when I talked to some students from a high school, and I had asked them about how their schooling system works. Basically how it works is when kids start going to school what we consider elementary school is what they call primary school, and during this stage in a child’s life it was fascinating to find out that children must talk to their teachers in Irish (Gaelic) only they cannot speak English to their teachers, but I think they can speak English to their peers. Primary schools are very strict on having students speak only in Irish because their trying to preserve the language because from what I understand a majority of people in Ireland like to speak English rather than Irish, so because of that primary schools are forcing students to speak the language to preserve their culture. After primary school then there’s secondary school, and from what I understand secondary school is like a middle school and high school I believe compared to us. Then after secondary school people can choose to go to college kind of like in America after high school people normally go to college. Also when I talked the students they told me about practicing religion in schools, like in primary school students had to do communion in school every day which I thought that was very intriguing since in America we don’t do that in schools.          

            Even though I have experienced so many differences it’s made me appreciate this country even more for how long I’ve been here so far. And it’s also made me appreciate for what I have back at home in the U.S. This experience has been nothing but amazing, and has really opened my eyes to see how different everything is compared to America, and has made me look at things from a different perspective.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gettin Down to Study

This past month I have been learning a lot from my classes about Ireland, such as history, culture, and other topics. The classes I have been taking so far I think are challenging in their own ways. Classes start at 10 am, and they last to 2 pm usually (sometimes we get out early depending on the day). Mondays are my Irish language and culture class. Jane Marie who happens to run the Park Lodge Hotel teaches us Irish (just beginner’s things like greetings, weather and much more). After our language portion is done Janie Marie’s sister teaches us the culture of Ireland, such as different folklores (which folklore is just another word for a tale), she also has talked about St. Patrick (history about him), as well as many other topics. This past Monday we had an exciting class, because someone came in to teach us how to play an Irish penny whistle (or what looks like a recorder). We learned simple songs, like ‘Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star’ and ‘Mary had a Little Lamb’ before we were taught some complex songs that are polka style music like ‘Rattling Bog’ and ‘Britches Full of Stitches’. Learning the penny whistle reminded so much of when I used to play the Clarinet, because the fingering of the notes is very similar to a Clarinet’s, so the penny whistle wasn’t too hard for me to learn since I have previously played an instrument (though that was ages ago). After our penny whistle session we had our usual Irish language class, but the penny whistle instructor is going to come next Monday as well (which I can’t wait for!).

 My own Irish penny whistle out of the box.

Irish penny whistle in the box.

 

Tuesdays is my Irish literature class, so far what we have done in the class is read poems, short stories, as well as plays and talk about what ever our assigned reading was (like what did we think of the reading, answer some questions our professor asks us about the reading and so on). I have enjoyed the poems and plays that we’ve read so far. For this class we also have to read two books by our eighth week of being here (we have to choose a books from a pile that are his books), and so far I’m working on my first book, however I am almost done with it (but the book has been very interesting, so I think I’ll get it done soon then start on my second book).

 

 This is my first book that I am reading for literature. It's very interesting!

This is one of my favorite poems from literature so far.

 

 

 Wednesdays is my Irish history class and that class is usually entertaining. Because our class loves to debate each other and express their opinions. Just last week we went to The King’s Head pub for class we went there to learn about the history of the pub, and how it got its name. After we acquired knowledge about the pub our class moved upstairs to the highest point of the pub called the Ruby Room. While up there our class had a debate about Oliver Cromwell and that was very interesting to watch, because everyone really got into the debate and trying to get their view across. That was a fun class since we were able to get out of the classroom and do something different to actively learn about Irish history. There’s so much history in Ireland everywhere you go. I can’t wait to gain more knowledge about Ireland with the help of these classes.

Here's the fireplace in The King's Head. This is a shield representing a husband (left hand side) and wife (right hand side) in marriage.

 

 

 

Experiences on an Island and a New City

Hello, hello everyone who are you all doing? How has your week been for you guys? It is that time of the week where you get to find out new adventures of mine!! I’m very excited about the topic I will talking about in this blog, so let us get started!

So about a week and a half ago we had our first field trip which was to the Aran Islands! We traveled there by bus from where we are staying at, then we took a ferry ride (or otherwise known as a boat ride) to the island itself. It was my first time traveling by a ferry, and boy was it kind of rough (but a very interesting experience). But when we actually got onto the island we took a bus to a little grocery shop to purchase anything to eat, drink, or go to the bathroom etc. Afterwards we went to our hostel to drop off our bags before our tour around the island. The tour was very interesting such as, going into a graveyard (which was actually pretty neat to be able to walk around that, and see all the different kinds of tombstones). We also learned about how people on the island built their houses (which the foundation is made from limestone) and their fences (which is made from stone), and the people would build their fences their selves, which is intriguing because if they had to lift and build their fence that would be a lot of hard work to get done. After our bus tour we got off the bus, and hiked about 7 (or so) miles on a rocky, muddy path to get up to Dun Aonghasa, and the long, slippery hike was worth it by the time we got up to the top. When I reached the top I went over to the edge of the cliff to take a gander of the ocean below us. The view was absolutely breathtakingly beautiful! The way the waves violently crashed against the rocks was amazing! Every time the waves would crash it would be like listening to thunder like back at home, I have never seen the ocean like that before, and I honestly loved it so much! Then we hiked back down where we were at (it was more slippery going down!), and went down to the village. Fun fact about the Aran Islands there are three islands that make up the entire Aran Islands, but the one we had gone to was the largest island out of the three of them, and I did not know that until we were informed before our trip. Anyway when we left the island we used the same transportation back as we used when we came (so ferry ride and bus ride).

After that excursion we had one day to rest and had class then we had to pack up and leave again for another field trip, in which we went to Dublin! The capital city of Ireland. When we traveled to Dublin before we got into the city we had stopped at a Monastery museum, and that was really cool to see all of the crosses (and the meaning on them, like there were symbols on a cross that described death of Christ and other symbols) around in the graveyard, and to be able to explore the grounds that was fun. But when we finally reached the city of Dublin we first went to Kilmainham Gaol (jail) museum. Kilmainham was an old Irish jail, and its structure was different from jails back in the day in the jail they believed in silence and separation. Back then they had everyone in a cell by themselves, and it was always quiet. The jail had a lot of people that were Irish revolutionaries that were involved in the 1916 Easter Rising. When those people were taken to the jail many of them were executed. After being killed their bodies were taken away to be thrown somewhere and decompose, which made people angry back then. This jail was one of the most striking things that I had seen in Dublin, because it had so much history within it and the story of the jail was so compelling it never got boring. On the day we were leaving Dublin our class was able to visit the Parliament which was empty (because it was voting day for Ireland), but we got to learn about how Ireland’s government works and toured around the building which was interesting to see. It is also fascinating that Ireland’s government structure is almost like America’s but they do a lot of things differently (for example voting). Before we got back to Galway we stopped in Trim and went to trim’s castle. That castle was so awesome to look at, and we also got to tour inside of it (while listening to the history of it). I found that castle to be very historical (it also looked kind of old which I love old places) it has not been used in a very long time but it still had a medieval look to it which looked pretty cool. I have to say the view from the top was quite amazing how it overlooked the city of Trim definitely loved that part of the tour.

In the end looking back at both field trips I loved both of them so much! They both were a lot of fun (though I think I liked Dublin a little more because of the big city feel) as well as had a lot to learn from, I love how much I am learning so far. It is crazy to think that I have been here for a little over a month! That is so mind-boggling because it feels like we have done/seen so much in a short amount of time. Soon enough (like in a couple of weeks) will be spring break, and that’s crazy but I’m excited for the break. Thank you all for reading my blog! Until next time slán! (Goodbye!)            

 Graveyard on the Aran Islands

 These waves on the Aran Island are so crazy! I love them!

  Kilmainham Gaol. Loved it!

 Outside look of Trim castle.

 Some of the inside of Trim castle from above. (we were going to the top, so many stairs we had to climb)

The overlook of Trim city.