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