Journals from Abroad – Page 13 – Linfield students studying around the world

March 14, 2022

Dublin Adventure

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.

ducks, seagulls, and other birds in water. trees around the shoreline — Dublin Park

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.

Outside architecture of the museum of archaeology in Dublin — Museum of Archaeology

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.

Red panda walking down a log in its enclosure — red panda at the zoo

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.

window overlooking a courtyard with art building viewed through it — Dublin art museum

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

Three drinks on a table with smiling girl on opposite side of the table — bday drinks

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.

library shelves and marble busts — Trinity College Library

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

March 9, 2022March 9, 2022

Carnaval Break

This last week was Carnaval break, and we had a whole week to relax and participate in various festivities. Carnaval happens in many countries around the world and each place has its unique traditions.

In Ecuador specifically, there are various cities that attract a ton of Ecuadorians due to their different ways of celebrating. In almost all the cities, people go out on the street and throw water and foam at their family, friends, and even strangers. I personally went to the Ecuadorian coast with another American girl and our Ecuadorian friends. We traveled 5 hours from Quito and finally arrived at the beach. The area we stayed at was full of college students or young adults from Quito. For the next few days, we spent our time swimming in the ocean, dancing, and drinking coconut smoothies. It was super relaxing and fun to be able to meet other students and forget about school for a bit. After this trip, I had exactly 24 hours to go home and wash my clothes and pack my bags for the trip I would be taking to Galapagos.

The trip to Galapagos was organized through a tour guide recommended from San Francisco who arranges trips to several locations solely for international students. We started the trip by flying to Baltra and taking a small boat to the biggest Island Puerto Ayora. While on this island, we went to the Charles Darwin Research station. Here we had the opportunity to learn about Darwin’s life, his theories and see a ton of tortoises. From here, we explored the island and went to Tortuga Bay which is considered the most beautiful beach in Galapagos. The next few days we spent time on several beaches where we snorkeled with sharks, turtles, sea lions, and several beautiful fish. It was amazing how close you could be to sea lions, iguanas, and birds wherever you went.

One of the most surprising things to me was how small and local the islands felt. Big companies aren’t allowed to go in so everything feels very authentic.

Overall, I loved spending my break on the beach, and although both locations were very different in terms of activities, both were unforgettable and amazing.

Un abrazo,

Salma Galvan

Photo of the gate at Galapagos airport — Arriving in Galapagos

Photo of the shore in Galapagos with boats in the background — Island shore

Photo of a giant tortoise with two girls posing behind it — Galapagos Tortoises

6 students hugging on a boat with a huge rock in the background — Amigos en Galapagos

Photo of an airbnb complex where the pool, palm trees and other buildings are visible — Ecuadorian Coast

March 9, 2022

International Student Life

One of the best parts of being an international student is that you not only meet people from your host country but from around the world. In Universidad San Francisco de Quito, the international programs are very well organized and there’s a lot of support that is offered to its students. One of the best parts of academic life is that you have the ability to choose between having classes with international students and local ones.

Sometimes it depends on your Spanish ability, but other times it varies based on what classes sound most interesting. In my case, I have 3 classes with local students and one class with international ones. I think this is a great mix because it allows you to improve your Spanish and meet people from different groups and origins. Other than the access to special cultural classes, there are also other trips and activities for international students to be a part of. There are smaller activities like clubs or outings around the city, but there are also larger trips that the international office organizes or recommends. Specifically, they organize a trip to Tiputini which is a biological base in the Amazon jungle. Through this trip, you have the opportunity to see the university’s biodiversity station and enjoy several activities in nature. In addition to this, they recommend a trip to Peru and Galapagos during the mid-semester break where you go on an organized trip with other international students.

One of the activities I’ve been able to participate in is making traditional Ecuadorian food with professional chefs from the Gastronomy faculty. Through this activity, I was able to join 10 other international students in watching a cooking demonstration and cooking various dishes. On this day, we arrived at the gastronomic part of the campus where we put on our aprons and were given instruction. After a brief introduction, we were able to cut up vegetables, meat, and fruit, in order to prepare the ingredients. In total , we made a warm fruit drink ( colada morada), empanadas de Morocho and a fish and shrimp ceviche. Everything was delicious and it was amazing how organized and quick we were able to make so many things.

Un abrazo,

Salma Galvan

Pictured are students in aprons cutting up veggies in a kitchen — Cooking Class

Photo of the several pots cooking both fish and fruits — Cooking Class

Pictured is a bowl of fish and shrimp ceviche — Ceviche Ecuatoriano

Pictured is the gastronomy classroom with students sitting at desks being instructed — Learning from the Chefs

Pictured are empanadas being fried in oil — Empanadas

Pictured is one of the most beautiful buildings on campus, it's white and has a dragon on the top of it — Dragon Building

February 28, 2022

Visit to Limerick

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.

Graveyard and old church — st. Mary’s cathedral

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.

Archway and turret of King John's castle with girl standing in the archway — Zell in the castle

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.

girl using blocks to build the archway of a castle — Haley being a stonemason

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.

two girls wearing a helmet and chainmail from the norman armory in King John's castle — armory dress up

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.

two girls playing on a see saw in the castle courtyard — see saw in the courtyard

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.

rainbow stretched out over city and river — rainbow from the top of King John’s castle

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

February 28, 2022

Weekend Getaways

Bonjour et Hello!

Alex Burkeen and I standing on a grass field in front of the Eiffel Tower, clear blue skies. — Alex and I happy to finally make it and see the wonderful Eiffel Tower on a windy but sunny afternoon.

This past month of February consisted of so many adventures I’m not even sure where to begin! First, I went with my friend Alex Burkeen to Paris for a weekend and absolutely adored it. During this weekend trip, we were able to see the Eiffel Tower, the Catacombs and the Notre Dame (albeit only the outside because it is still closed to the public after the fire in April of 2019.)

Hundreds of colored glass windows of red, blue, green, yellow and purple in an arched church. In front is an ornate worship box for prayers. — Each window in this picture depicts a scene from the bible and each scene is completely different on each pane. So much beauty you can’t get enough.

So, to cover up missing the inside of that Cathedral we ended up visiting a gorgeous one not too far from the Notre Dame, Chateau Sainte Chapelle. We ended our weekend of fun with the Louvre Museum. The sights inside were grand and magnificent as we strolled through the current greek exhibit and snuck a small peak at the Mona Lisa. So much to see in so little time!

A cross tombstone surrounded by bits of human skulls and bones in arch shapes in the cave of the catacombs. — This haunting photo and framework of the cross tombstone gave me chills.

After a week back at school it was time for yet another weekend trip with Alex, this time to the U.K! When we arrived the Stansted airport was in a sort of panic, as there was a big wind and rain storm headed directly our way. We couldn’t board a train to our airbnb so we found an Uber, who mistakenly dropped us off at the wrong address in the middle of the storm. Luckily our airbnb hosts were parents themselves and picked us up, only for us to find out they had lost power! So, whats the next thing we do? We go get dinner with our hosts of course!

Wet Westminster Abbey Cathedral with blue cloudy skies. — Despite the rainy windy weather the westminster abbey was beautiful!

The power soon came back on and we traveled to downtown London the next day to see all the wonderful sights….in the pouring down rain! We were able to see Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, and Big Ben (also sadly under construction.) The views were wonderful but the rain and wind started to get a bit chilly so we found another attraction to visit, The London Dungeons. We partook on a small dark and damp journey learning about the plague, Jack the Ripper and Sweeney Todd. All in theatrical fun encounters with some jump scares to boot! Afterwards the rain had stopped and a beautiful sunset overtook the London skyline.

Stormy sunset, highlighting Big Ben clock across the river from Alex and I on the bridge. — The afterstorm sunset was too gorgeous to pass up. Do you spot Big Ben?

Different dwarf magical characters from the harry potter movies. Pointy ears and all. — Lifesize figures of promenant characters in the Harry Potter films!

The following day was the highlight of the entire trip, a tour of Warner Brothers Harry Potter Studios! My inner child was crying the entire day, as we saw the main set and props where all 8 movies were filmed. We ended the day by buying some wands of our own (obviously I chose Sirius Blacks wand).

Dark blue small scale image of Hogwarts from Harry potter. — Smaller scale version of the entire Hogwarts School of Witchcraft.

Overall, it has been a great adventure filled month with surprises everyday. I’ve gotten the hang of the cultural life here in Aix en Provence and love each day more than the last. I’m so excited to tell you all about my next journey!

À Bientôt,
Emma Libby

February 24, 2022

Mini month adventures

After a big adjustment period in January, I’m happy to report that I’m feeling much more at peace and at home here in Ireland. I owe this all to February, even though it’s been a whirlwind of a month.

February has been filled with plenty of events and new experiences, both big and small. Everything from more school work and a trip to Paris, to lots of soccer matches and local excursions. Let’s recap some of these adventures!

McCall and I both play soccer at Linfield and while it’s technically our off season, we couldn’t be stopped from seeking out a way to get touches on the ball. We joined the NUIG Ladies Club team and so far we have played in four matches. Our team is even set to play in the league final next week! It has been such a fun experience to play with and against local girls here, and it’s also been a great way to meet new people. Fingers crossed we can continue performing well and come out on top next week.

One of my favorite experiences so far this spring was showing my friend Jakob from Linfield all around Galway. He’s currently studying abroad at the University of Nottingham in England, but the Irish hills were calling his name so he booked a trip for the weekend. I had the pleasure of showing him around the NUIG campus, city centre and even Salthill Beach.

On Saturday we made our way to the Cliffs of Moher. We lucked out with dry weather and even a brief appearance of sun! It was crazy beautiful and definitely a destination worth exploring if you ever find yourself in Ireland.

We had booked our bus tickets to give us a three hour window at the cliffs. At the end of it, I did wish we had a bit more time as we could have easily kept hiking and also spent more time looking at the indoor exhibit about the cliffs. That being said, as soon as our bus pulled up to take us back to Galway it started to rain, so the timing worked out well in the end.

I’m glad to see short, but sweet February coming to a close- but not because it wasn’t good! Really, I’m just excited to see what March will bring.

Best,

Laney Green

February 23, 2022

Cafes and Storms

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.

Girl standing on rocks with the ocean in the background — beach days

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.

lots of plants in front of a window in a cafe — cafe window

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).

laptop open on table in cafe — jungle cafe

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.

two different plates of avocado toast to showcase the selection — two of the best avo toasts

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.

beached ship on the rocky shore — shipwreck

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.

window with gray skies and ice — storm eunice from the window

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.

rainbow through clouds over top of buildings and trees — rainbow after the storm

Best,

Isabel Brown

February 23, 2022

Weekend in Paris

Last week’s adventure consisted of a quick trip to Paris with two of my roommates! We planned this trip about a month ago and after much anticipation it was finally time to head over.

We left our apartment at one a.m. on a Thursday and made our way to the Galway bus station. From there we had a three hour bus ride to the Dublin Airport and then a short flight before we landed in France. Even with the lack of sleep we were ready to take on everything Paris had to offer; especially some chocolate croissants and coffee.

We had three full days to spend in the city which we split up by dedicating two days to be complete tourists and go exploring, and saved the third day for museum visits. Our exploring consisted of trekking through the streets that led to major landmarks of Paris. This of course included the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, the Arc De Triomphe, and an impressive lookout point on the roof of a ritzy shopping center.

We did a lot of walking to get from landmark to landmark, which ultimately led to a lot of good eating along the way too. I had some of the best pizza and pasta of my life on this trip!

As for museums, we all visited the Louvre and it actually exceeded my expectations. It was just as big and beautiful on the inside as the outside architecture is. My favorite part of the museum were all the sculptures, but we also stopped to take a selfie with the ever famous Mona Lisa.

My roommates went on to visit the Musee d’Orsay while I wandered the gardens and trails around the Louvre.

On our last night we got caught up in riots which was a stressful way to end our trip. However, once we made it back safely to our hotel it only added to an overall memorable experience!

More adventures coming soon.

Best,

Laney Green

February 11, 2022

Our Last Day in Sicily

Today’s post was written by Senior Daisy Tapia-Gonzalez, a Management major minoring in Wine Studies.

We started off the day with a visit to Tenuta Rapitalà, a winery located in Eastern Sicily and (to our surprise) run by a Count named Laurent Bernard de la Getanais! We learned that the qualities of the area, the landscape, the weather conditions, and other natural elements are significant in producing high- quality wines. We also learned the appreciation and importance of increasing organic farming techniques at both the vineyard and the cellar.

We began our visit with a tour of the vineyard and learning a few viticulture facts shared by Professor Antonino Pisciotta from the University of Palermo Department of Agriculture, Forestry, and Food Science. The winery had approximately 544 acres of land, of which 396 was dedicated for grape growing and the rest for olive trees and uncultivated land. We learned that thevineyards were characterized by having two prominent types of soils: clay and sand. These soils help both red and white varietals thrive in Mediterranean climate conditions and in the uniquelandscape where the vineyards are located. As we were walking, Professor Pisciotta also explained the double cordon as a vine training system and the use of manual and machine labor for harvest.

Trellised grapevines with a tip of a mountain in the background in Sicily. — The double-cordon trellising system.

After we visited the vineyard, we moved to the cellar to learn more about the winemaking process at Tenuta Rapitalà. Prof. Professor Antonino Pisciotta explained that the winery not only uses grapes collected from the vineyard (60% red and 40% white), but also buys grapes from other local vineyards. The wine is fermented in stainless steel tanks where the must (grape skins)is left for 46 hours. After, the wine is either stored in those tanks or aged in French oak barrels.

Inside a winery lined with steel storage tanks for wine fermentation. — Wine fermentation and storage tanks at Rapitala, in eastern Sicily

Winery in Sicily lined with French oak barrels. — Professor Antonino Pisciotta explains the role of French oak barrels

The process of making wine requires hard-work, effort, and analysis. We visited the wine lab located inside the cellar, where we observed technicians’ examples of their experiments and blending samples. This part was emphasized as essential in order to explore the different needs ofthe consumers and choose the kind of wine to create.

A lab lined with tables of various wine bottles, use for experimentation. — A current wine blending experiment.

After the tour of the different facilities of Tenuta Rapitalà, we were welcomed to the tasting room by Count Laurent, to taste some wines! We tasted eight wines, all with their unique smell and taste characteristics. As we were tasting, Count Laurent guided us with a few historical facts and tasting notes, making the experience pleasant and complete. He even surprised us all by gifting everyone a bottle of red wine. What an experience!

A table line with glasses of red, white and rose wines for tasting. — Our tasting of red, white, and rose wines

February 11, 2022

Propagating Vines and Fortifying Wines

Ciao and good morning! This post was written by Megan Stanek, a junior majoring in Wine Studies

We started the day with an early wake up call to get on our bus and head to Marsala. Marsala is a region known for their production of the Marsala fortified wine, as well as a multitude of different foods and other indigenous products such as olive oil and seafood dishes. Our first stop of the day was to the Vivaio Manonne vine nursery. The nursery specializes in crafting rootstock to young vines to prevent against phylloxera outbreaks as well as several other pests and diseases that the vines can be exposed to. Vivaio Manonne has been working with vines since 1895 in the same location it is now, even with some of the original buildings from the beginning. They started cultivating vines in 1990 with around 20,000 hectares of workspace, to now having between 95,000 and 100,000 hectares. They work with every kind of varietal they can, using 15 international varietals and 54 varieties traditional to the area, furthering the information around the varietals they use, 70% of the vines are white wine and the remaining 30% are red. While touring we were taken along the journey of the vine to being cultivated for root stock. Starting with the cuttings being brought it, we were shown how they are trimmed and cleaned through an automatic machine to make sure they are in the best condition for production. After they are cleaned the vine gets cut into small pieces, cut so that they have one bud on each of them.

Workers at a nursery trim grapevines cuttings. — Skilled workers at the nursery trim grapevine cuttings that will become the trunk of a new grapevine after being grafted onto a rootstock

We got to see the method in which they cleaned the vines and cut them. After they are all set and properly taken care of the vines are grafted together using a machine that creates a puzzle-piece-type cut in the vine and the rootstock to ensure the best outcome. After they are grafted the vines are cultivated in a regulated room to start growing, after about 10 days they are moved into the vineyard where they establish roots. Once the roots are establishing the vines are analyzed for their growth then dipped in a specific color of paraffin to be sold. We as a group were also welcomed to try and graft our own vines with the machine they use!

Workers at the nursery use a machine to punch shapes out of the vine cutting. — The nursery team shows us how to use the machine that punches puzzle-piece shapes out of the vine cutting and rootstock so they can slip together to form a new vine customized for the vineyard for which its ordered

The next stop on our day was to Florio Marsala Winery. While at Florio Marsala we got to hear to history of Marsala wine. Our guide shared with us the story of an English man who came to Marsala in 1773 to try the wine, while he was there, he wanted to bring some wine back with him to England, but he had to add alcohol to the barrels to preserve the wine for the duration of the trip, thus the first fortified wine was created! Our tour of Florio took us though their barrel rooms, one of the first of many incredible sights was the second biggest barrel in the world, placing second in a contest held in San Francisco during 1915, This barrel could hold 62,000 liters of wine! After that we there was a part of their cellar called the Garibaldi room. Which if the name didn’t spoil it was dedicated to Giuseppe Garibaldi who just so happened to be close to the Florio family. So close that he donated some of the arms used in the unification of Italy to Florio, which are on displayed in the cellar. Hearing and seeing the history of the family and of the region really opened my mind to how historic this winery is to the region, and the story continued to grow when we got to the barrel room. Here they store more than 3,000 barrels of wine with varying vintages. The oldest being from 1939 and 1941 which are not only valuable because of their age but also because they survived the bombing from the second world war.

An enormous wine blending tank. — The enormous blending tank at the historic Florio winey in Marsala

After the tour, we were able to taste three of their wines: Marsala Fini, Superiore Reserve from 2006, and Superiore. Each of the Marsala was unique in taste and flavor profile. The different types of wine are based on their time aging and the amount of boiled and concentrated grape must (unfermented juice) added to the blend.

Glasses of 3 premium Marsala wines paired with food. — Our tasting of three premium Marsala paired with a food at Florio

Next, we headed out to our last destination of the day Alagna Marsala Winery for a tour of the winery, lunch, and a tasting. Our tour of the grounds started with us meeting owner, who told us about the history and genral information of the winery. Alagna was founded 75 years ago in 1946, and has been a family business ever since, in its third generation now. The winery itself is around 3400 hectoliters producing 1,400,000 liters of wine. Something interesting I learned is that the temperature in the natural caves under the winery stays the same all year. One of the most fascinating parts of the winery tour was when they took us down to a 1,000-year-old“cave” were they blend Merlot, Nero D’avola, and Syrah for 6 months in oak wood. They use this “cave area because it keeps cool all year and the humidity levels are perfect for the aging barrels.

After tour we had a three-course meal all paired with wine. The appetizer consisted of olive oil with bread, pizza, salami, cheese with orange blossom honey, olives, and toast with olive spread all paired with the wines from the winery. After the appetizer we had arancino, which is a Sicilian delicacy made with rice, vegetables, and a tomato and meat sauce traditionally. Lastly, we had a baked pasta to finish the main course. Dessert was oranges with one of the sweetest Alagna Marsalas poured on top, cannoli, sesame biscuit, candy biscuits and a 1,000-year-old Sicilian dessert of traditional bread soaked in Marsala. The wines that we were paired with the meals were threetypes of Marsala, Grillo, Syrah, Lanni, Vermouth, Zibbibo, Mascato, and a variety of Marsala-based cremes.

A table set with multiple styles of Marsala wine paired with food from the region. — Our lunch of multiple styles of Marsala paired with traditional dishes of the region

After a full day of exploring the wine region and getting to taste some of the best wines in the world, we decided to see a salt farm on the coast. Sadly, the facility was closed, but we did get to explore the area and see the areas where the cultivate the salt and how they produce it. Our guide told us that they harvest the salt through evaporation over time. The saltwater gets pushed in from the sea into the calderas where the water gets trapped and slowly evaporates leaving behind fresh crystals of salt to be harvested and sold. Fun fact about the evaporation process: you can tell how much evaporation has occurred based on the color of the water- the pinker it gets the more it has evaporated.

A large stream used for salt production, which slowly evaporates leaving the salt; blue skies above. — Salt production in Trapani