Week Seven

The meals here in Ireland are not that much different than those at home. I have noticed a few differences in the food choices. As I am a picky eater at home, I’ve found it a little harder to find the same options at home as I do here. Being a poor cook doesn’t help much either.

            The food is very centered around meats. They love their pork and beef over here! There are certain things that I’ve noticed over the time I’ve been here. The dairy products are much different than at home. The cheese and milk are different because their cows are not fed on the same things ours are. They’re much more natural than ours taste. Their peanut butter is different, too! Many people don’t like it much. However, I am starting to enjoy it more than the peanut butter at home. There’s a lot less oil and it taste much more like peanuts.

            I eat most of my meals at home, in our accommodation. We have fully stocked kitchens that enable us to make whatever we need. We just need to head to the grocery store about once a week for shopping.  

            I haven’t had much of the local food. There are occasional stops to local “chip shops” on weekends. They’re quite popular over here. It’s just an in and out shop that has a lot of quick foods. It’s really interesting to see how hamburgers, pizza, and kebabs are all served at the same place.

            Overall, my diet has mainly consisted of quite a lot of frozen meals, as they keep better than the other foods do. I also eat a lot of pasta, chicken nuggets and pizza. It’s not that much different than college life at home, where you’re on a diet of whatever is fast and easy to cook. 

Week Six

            While abroad, we have Eric who acts as our academic advisor and oversees us as while we are here. He has worked with us to arrange our academic schedules. He has also created schedules for the deadlines of our essays and exams. When we arrived, he was there to pick us up from the airport and take us to our accommodation.

            We also have Sister Mary who works at the college. She was our instructor for the first few weeks of Irish Experience where we got a religious and cultural background to the Irish tradition. She is also the one that takes us on our field trips as part of our Irish Experience course.

            Overall, they have both done an amazing job at making our stay here as comfortable as possible. Sister Mary especially has been around to help us with everything we have needed. She has been here to check up on us to make sure we are happy with our stay here, and to ensure that we are all doing well.

            Our classes are starting to pick up now. We’re learning a lot in the single session classes we have per week. My favourite instructor thus far is my Christology professor. She is extremely knowledgeable in her subject and creates an amazing atmosphere to learn in. She was also previously in charge of the American students who were over here in Ireland. With that, she is very understanding to our situation as international students and takes time to explain things to us in a way that we would understand.

Week Five

Getting to and from classes is pretty easy. We are living in on-campus accommodation, so we don't have to rely on any form of public transportation from one place to another. It's a one minute walk from my front door to the front door of the college, so I don't have to worry much about being late.

As far as public transportation goes, we have not used any buses to get from one place to another like you do in many cities. We use busses similar to a greyhound or a megabus to travel from one city to another. It averages about €15 per trip, but that's with a student discount.

Week Four

Textbooks here are a bit different than at home. There are texts that are required just like we have, but a lot of them, mostly for our own sake, are located in the library where we can go read or run a copy off on what’s required for us to read. I think it’s actually a lot easier, as it gives you the ability to get your information from more than just one particular source. However, it’s sometimes a bit daunting to balance all of the different materials in an organized way!

School here in Ireland is very different than what I’ve experienced back at Carlow. I will admit that the first week of classes was more intimidating to me than the three times I transferred schools at home.

            Most of the people in the classes that I’m in have been in classes together since their first year, because they tend to stay together in their program. So you’re entering a class where people already know each other and sometimes have had the instructor in the past.

            The instructors here are kind of untouchable to an extent. Here, there is very little contact with the instructor. We don’t even turn our papers into them. All of them go to the Academic Office where they are stamped with the time and date they were turned in for someone to grade at some point in time.

            And the assignments! There is an essay, which is your large paper that you’re given the title for on the first day and have a due date a couple months later, and a test. That’s it.  

            With that being said, the schooling here is much more independent than in the United States. You are left to your own devices with a general directive lecture once a week. You’re given a reading list at the start of the term. They separate what books you are required to read for the course and which ones are suggested.  

            It’s very different. Not in a bad way at all! I actually think it’s teaching me a whole lot about who I am as a student with all of this free time for academic discovery. I think it’s a true eye-opener for students who come from a different environment. 

Week Three

            While abroad, we were responsible for getting our own mobile devices. I was lucky enough to have a friend who lent me hers from her trip over to Carlow last year. All I had to do was go to the local 3 store (that’s the provider the phone was made for) and “top up” or put some money on it. It’s actually really cheap! €20 a month for unlimited texting all over the country and free calling on weekends. It’s really handy to have to keep in contact with the other people in my group.

            As far as keeping in contact with everyone else, I put my iphone into airplane mode the minute I left the country and turned off all the means of using my data plan while I was gone. Doing this, I am able to use all of my apps and iMessage people so long as I have a good wifi connection! It’s really nice because there are apps that allow me to text anyone at home, so long as they have the app as well. What’sapp is what I use for texting and sending video and picture messages to people at home while I use Viber to make phone calls. It’s not always the most reliable as it is dependent on the connection of both you and the other person, but it’s been good so far!

            Technology is available to us here on campus. We have computers set up in the library like we do at home, where we are able to go on and print everything we need for our lectures. I haven’t gone down to check it out yet, but I don’t think that they have a prepaid amount of money to print on. I think we have to print on our own dime.

            Wifi here is not as bad as I would have assumed! We have wifi on every floor here at the dorms and the connection hasn’t been spotty at all. The same wifi is available in the main building, so I’m rarely “disconnected” throughout the day which is really convenient.

Until next time!

Megan