Author: Isabel Brown

Hello from Galway, Ireland! 

This month we have been focusing our time on our final essays for our classes, but since it is also our last full month in Ireland, we have been going out to explore as much as possible. County Galway is actually a really vast area to explore with lots of cool history and nature around us. Our classes this semester focused a lot of the archeological background and sites of medieval Ireland, and since we have been hearing about these places in our lectures, we wanted to go out and see them for ourselves. We recently visited Clifden and took a beautiful hike to Clifden castle.

One thing that turns people away from exploring around Ireland is the weather. It can be extremely windy, cold, and rainy even in the springtime. Whenever we have taken our trips, we have usually been given really nice weather, or we have planned for days when it was supposed to be nice out. When we took our trip to Clifden, it was misty, gray, and cold outside but we decided to go anyway. We found the experience with the weather to be even more delightful, and so incredibly Irish.

We took a bus to Clifden in the early afternoon and about an hour later we arrived. The castle was about a 40-minute walk away from where the bus dropped us off. When walking to the castle we saw lots of really cute cows, donkeys, and sheep.

The Irish landscapes looked beautiful in the gray mist, and the green hills reminded me a lot of Oregon. The castle itself was an amazing experience. Because we came on such a gray day, we were some of the only people at the site.

We were able to walk through the old structure and look at the stone walls, and rooms up close. The castle was taken over by vines and the earth around it which gave an amazing effect of man-made structures mixed with natural beauty.

After exploring the castle for a couple of hours, and taking lots of pictures, we headed back into town by the sea. The day was so perfect for a walk by the stormy ocean.

We grabbed dinner at an amazing restaurant and caught the bus back to our apartment. It felt really nice to be able to take a break from finals and look closer at the sites we were studying. 

Best,
Isabel Brown 

Hello from Galway, Ireland! 

April here has been focused on our finals since classes ended April 1st. One of the cool things about our classes here in Ireland is that you have a lot of time to prepare for finals after classes end, and for my classes specifically, I only have essay finals. Between writing our final papers we have been able to adventure more around Ireland in the last few weeks. We were able to start off the month with a beautiful hike pretty close to home. We went to Rosscahill woods about a 30-minute bus ride away from us.

The woods themselves were beautiful and we had a wonderful time exploring the forest full of mossy trees, cool rocks, butterflies, and amazing flowers.

Since it was a pretty secluded location, we ended up waiting for the bus back for hours in what felt like the middle of nowhere, but overall, it was still a beautiful hike that was worth the bus wait.

One of the cool things about studying abroad is that you get to volunteer in your new community. My roommates and I have been on the hunt for volunteering opportunities in Galway, and this month we were able to volunteer at two different places. At the first volunteering opportunity we helped to build a raft for terns in order for them to be studied on their migration paths.

The raft building was from a local conservation group, and it was wonderful to see the group gather to volunteer to help their environment. For our second volunteering opportunity this month Haley, Zell, and I signed up to help with the Cuirt International Festival of Literature here in Galway. The week of the festival we all had different time slots to help at a variety of really interesting events. I helped out venues holding chats with authors, poetry readings, meet and greats, and more.

We also helped to pass out flyers and spread the word about the festival to the people of Galway. This experience has been one of my favorite ways that I have been involved in Galway because it was such a fun week getting to come together with people who were passionate about literature and the arts to make something beautiful happen.

I met so many amazing people who were also volunteering for the festival and made lots of connections to people in the community. The coordinators of the festival also made sure that the volunteers got discounts at local places, free access to the events they were not helping with, and even hosted celebrations every night at a bar to say thanks for all the hard work.

I had a blast getting involved in the community more this month, and I can’t believe we are almost done with school now.  

Best, 

Isabel Brown 

Hello from Galway, Ireland! 

March here has been a whirlwind of activity from everything like assignments, celebrating St. Patrick’s Day, a dance showcase, and many local adventures. When it came to celebrating St. Patrick’s Day in Ireland, I was a bit lost on what to do for the holiday. We asked our roommates from Ireland what the day usually consisted of, and they filled us in on all things Paddy’s Day. We started the day out by donning our green clothing and set out for the parade through the city center.

The Parade was packed with people celebrating and displayed a beautiful blend of cultures who had Irish pride. We got to see some traditional Irish musicians play on floats, folk dancing, and all of the cool clubs and businesses that participated in the parade as well. After the parade we headed to a place to grab a bite to eat before the night got busy and exciting.

Later that night we went out to a couple of different pubs to celebrate the holiday with drinks and dancing. This exciting day had everyone in a festive mood and allowed us to feel closer to Irish culture by getting in on the celebration.

Another fun thing that happened in March was the dance showcase. My roommates and I dance back at Linfield in the showcases that are put on every year, and this semester we were missing the feeling of being a part of something like that. Zell found that open classes were offered through NUIG, and we signed up right away. When we went to the classes, we found out that they were holding a showcase at the end of the four weeks. This month worked hard on learning our routines and participating in dance at NUIG.

I unfortunately was not able to perform due to an old injury acting up, but I was able to watch Zell and Haley perform in the showcase and have a wonderful time working with the other dance students. It was very cool to still be able to do something we love from Linfield while we were abroad.

Lately the weather around Galway has been wonderful, and we have been filling the days with walks to the beach and studying outdoors.

Finals are in our near future now, but we have had the best time this month in Galway.  

Best, 

Isabel Brown 

 

Hello from Galway, Ireland! 

This month we have been doing a lot more exploring around Ireland including a trip we took to Dublin for Zell’s 21st birthday. We were able to get a hotel room in Dublin and train tickets there to have a fun long weekend celebration. The first thing we did when we arrived in Dublin was check into our hotel.

After the hotel we headed straight to the museum of archaeology. We were delighted to find that the museums in Dublin are completely free, and we spent all the time we could exploring and learning about Ireland’s diverse archaeological background. It was cool to see the things we have been learning about in our Irish, medieval, and Viking archeology classes in person. We got to look at the famed bog bodies, Viking age materials, and many intricate pieces of jewelry among other artifacts.

We found a wonderful place to eat that night and then crashed at the hotel. The next day was Zell’s birthday, so we headed out to Dublin Zoo! The zoo was amazing, and it was well worth the hour walk to get there. There were many really cool animals, and we were blessed with great weather for our entire trip.

 After the zoo we headed to the art museum and wandered around until it closed for the day looking at artwork, furniture, and clothing from all around Europe.

We found a perfect place for birthday drinks, dinner, and dessert that night to end Zell’s 21st.

The next morning, we checked out of the hotel and visited Trinity college to see the book of Kells in all its glory. The library was stunning and seeing the book of Kells up close was a surreal experience.

After the library we took a long walk back to the train station where we read our books until it was time to board out train back to Galway. We had an amazing adventure packed weekend in Dublin, and we are already planning our next visit there for a concert we are seeing in April.  

Best, 

Isabel Brown 

 

Hello from Galway, Ireland! 

Yesterday my roommates and I traveled to Limerick, Ireland which was about an hour and a half on bus. We had decided to do some more exploring around Ireland because we have been spending a lot of time in Galway lately.

When we arrived in Limerick, we started by wandering around and seeing the adorable Saturday markets they had set up on some streets. Then we made our way to King John’s castle which was about a 30-minute walk from the bus station. We paid for student tickets to enter the castle and museum where we learned a lot about the history surrounding its building and life in the castle afterwards. We were also able to learn about Limerick’s history and the different occupants of the city.

The castle was extremely interactive and supplied many opportunities to get involved in learning about its history. There were areas where you could pretend to be one of the workers in Limerick and help to build the castle, games where you matched up shipping exports to their respective towns, and drawers you could pull out to look at recovered artifacts from excavation on the site.

The self-guided tour also allowed you to travel down under the museum to see the actual foundations of the castle. The tour then led up to areas where you could explore the turrets and main courtyard of the building, and this area had many fun games to play with your group.

There was horseshoe, tug of war, archery, see saws, and a part where you could go into an armory and dress in chainmail and helmets. We had lots of fun messing around with the games, and even got laughed at by a security guard watching us on the see saw.

After we tired ourselves out with the castle, we headed to some food carts and got some great food from local places. Then we were able to explore Limerick on foot and checked out some local shops, and I was able to buy an Irish tarot deck which is something I was looking to buy while visiting. After checking out the shops we headed back to the bus station to return to Galway.

We had a wonderful time checking out more of Ireland, and we hope to visit Limerick again to do more in the area.  

Best,
Isabel Brown 

 

Hello from Galway, Ireland! 

The month of February seems to be flying by here in Ireland. My group and I are settling in nicely in our second month of study abroad, and the work has definitely started to pick up. While we are currently planning for a few bigger trips and events, we have been having a wonderful time surrounding ourselves with all the fun things to do in our local area.

 Galway is a wonderful spot for all sorts of different restaurants, pubs, and bars so we have been exploring new places to eat and drink every week. We have found some delicious places that have become favorites of ours, and other places to check off the list in the future.

I was told by lots of people that it may be difficult to find good food options here since I am a vegetarian, but I have been delightfully surprised at the number of options I have around this city. We frequent a café with wonderful coffee and pastries where we like to read and work on our schoolwork (where I am currently writing this blog from).

My roommates and I have made it a mission to find the best avocado toast in Ireland, and so far, we have had lots of good ones to pick from, and when we need to save money, we make our own at home.

While we have been kept pretty busy lately with schoolwork and other events, we have also found ourselves diving deeper into local places and the beautiful outdoors.

The recent storms that have hit the coast of Ireland and the UK have made it a bit difficult to participate in outdoor activities because of the intense winds and constant rainy conditions.

Once these storms are gone, we hope to go back to exploring Ireland, but for now we are pretty content on reading in cute cafes.

Best, 

Isabel Brown 

Hello from Galway, Ireland! 

One of the best things about studying abroad is being in a completely new environment from the one that you are used to. My friends and I are very adventurous people that love to get out and explore our surroundings. So far, we have had a variety of different adventures that range from local to a couple of hours away. 

One of our very first adventures in Ireland was to visit a castle. Ireland’s countryside is known for the sprawling green hills, and amazing architecture from centuries old buildings, abbeys, and castles. We decided to go and walk to one that seemed like it was fairly close to us called Menlo castle.

A group of us from Linfield headed out earlier in the day to “hike” the one hour to the castle. The first thing we learned is that you can’t actually walk to the castle, and most of the way we were walking along the side of the road. When we arrived at our destination, we found out that it was closed to the public (always check online first, guys) and we ended up not even being able to see it. We walked to the entrance of the grounds for some cool photos and ended up walking even farther to visit the castle’s cemetery which actually gave us a view of the real castle from a distance.

This adventure ended with a long walk back and into town to get Italian food and ponder over our journey, even though we didn’t do what we set out to do in the first place.

One of my favorite experiences so far has been visiting the Cliffs of Moher. The Cliffs are an attraction that most people visiting the West coast of Ireland set out to see, and our group was no different.

We found a bus that would take us to see them earlier in the day and bring us back in the late afternoon for a fairly decent price. After we got off the bus, we purchased day passes and entered to see one of the most beautiful sights in Ireland. The Cliffs left us all speechless and we walked up and down the trails along them to get in every view. We took lots and lots of pictures and even went inside O’brien’s tower at the top of one of the cliffs.

We were all happy to look at the view of the ocean and natural beauty that surrounded us for hours, but we eventually checked out the visitor’s center to learn even more about the cliffs around us. We were able to get a hot lunch after the chill of the sea air, get some awesome things from the gift shop, and warm up before the journey home. The cliffs are a must see for anyone visiting Ireland, and we all hope to adventure out there again before the semester is over.

Aside from our bigger adventures we have also been checking out the natural beauty surrounding us every day. We have beautiful beaches close to our school, parks, and my roommates and I have a reading spot down by the water that we like to go to after class sometimes.

Ireland is a beautiful country full of places to explore, and we have lots more exciting adventures in our future here.  

Best,
Isabel Brown 

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