What I Learned From Month One

Hello from Galway, Ireland!

With a little under a month of my study abroad experience tucked under my belt, I feel like I have already learned so much. This exchange has been a whirlwind of crazy and amazing adventures that I am excited to share with you. To anyone considering a study abroad trip, or even just an adventure to a country you have not been to before, I have a brief list of some of the experiences I have had so far that could help you out with your own adventures.  

1. Be able to advocate for yourself: Study abroad has proven to have its fair share of challenges as well as all the super fun things. These challenges often put you into situations you have not been in before, and being able to advocate for yourself and use the resources available to you will make life so much easier. Some things that my group has experienced include flight delays/ changes, cards being frozen, not having service, figuring out how to work the showers, etc. We were able to solve all these problems ourselves with help from those around us, and now we have shared experiences to look back on and laugh at.

   

2. Get involved with the people around you: I was so fortunate to come to this exchange with a group of great people from Linfield, and even more fortunate to live with two of my close friends in our accommodation. While these people have been an amazing part of my experience so far, I was even luckier to be paired up with three other amazing roommates. The three of us from Linfield also live with a girl on exchange from Canada, and two girls from different parts of Ireland.

   

   These people have quickly become my friends, and through them we are able to get an entirely unique experience than we would have if we were just living with Linfield students. The girls from Ireland are able to tell us insider information on the best restaurants, cheapest grocery stores, what classes are fun to take, and so much more. We meet more people through our other roommates and broaden our social circles. I have so much fun living with them and getting close to people from around the world.

   

3. Manage your time: Being in a new place is so exciting, and it can be hard not to do everything all at once. Something that my group has had to learn to get better at is time management. It is hard because you want to be able to explore across the whole country, try every cool restaurant, go into every pretty store, go to all the interesting classes, and have fun with your friends at the same time.
4. While you can accomplish all those things at once, we have learned that spreading things out and planning adventures makes it to where we have more energy and overall, more fun. Even though we are only here for one semester, there is a lot of time to spread exciting things out while still getting a great education.

   

So far this semester abroad has been wonderful, and I cannot believe we are just getting started. You really do get a plethora of new perspectives while abroad from things like conversations with roommates and new acquaintances, to having a class schedule jam packed with Irish history, philosophy, archaeology, music, and folklore. I know this adventure, even with its difficulties, has contributed greatly to my life and education experience.  

Best,
Isabel Brown