While I miss home and cannot wait to get a taco at Taco Bell when I get back, I’m going to miss a lot about both Ireland and our Champlain College Dublin campus. The classes have been interesting and exciting and I know I’m going to miss them when I go back. I will miss Cieran Buckley’s terrifying, yet stimulating Celtic Tiger class along with his dinners out on the town. I will miss the bodhran and tin whistle lessons in Caroline Elbay’s music class (even if the sound of our whistles could made dogs bark at times). I will miss Lucy Masterson’s positive get-it-done attitude in our Nonprofit Marketing class because it made me feel like I could change the world if I wanted to. And of course Stephen Robinson’s enthusiasm for rocks and peat bogs. The faculty and staff have been nothing but helpful to all of us and I will miss them greatly when I go back home. I plan to keep in touch whenever possible and maybe someday I can visit Ireland again. And to everyone planning to study abroad at Champlain College Dublin, I know you will have the time of your life, don’t waste it!
Time to Reflect
Well, just a few days left until I head back to the United States and I have begun the reflection process already. Between packing and finals work, I have found time to get a little nostalgic about leaving. I have learned so much through school, travel, and being in a new culture here. I’ve become more independent because we have to do a lot of things on our own. It has been strange being away from home and not having mom or dad to take care of everything. With traveling, we have had to plan our weekend trips and spring break by ourselves, which wasn’t always easy. I learned that you need to check and re-check all of your flight and hotel information before leaving (especially when you’re flying with RyanAir). You also have to figure out how to deal with a foreign language if you’re traveling in Europe because not everyone knows English. Travel has had its exciting and terrifying parts, but I have learned a lot about how to deal with the scarier ones.
I also learned that you can’t be afraid of something just because it’s new or different. Almost everything here is different from the way it is back home. The shopping for example, was hard to get used to because you can’t find everything in just one store (Wal-Mart doesn’t exist over here). You have to do a little bit of hunting and searching to find certain ingredients. Also, the food in the grocery store is very different here too which intimidated me at first, but I tried some new things and ended up really enjoying them. I realized you have to be flexible and throw away your expectations in some cases because they won’t be the same here as they are in the U.S.
Another form of change that you need to be ready for is personal change. Everyone will tell you that you’ll become a different person, and I realized that is definitely true in a lot of ways. I feel more confident in my ability to function without a parent or teacher helping me through hard times. Of course I email and Skype my family multiple times a week, but not because I feel lost without them, because I miss them. And talking to friends and family has helped with the transition process here. Rather than closing off all contact with them and throwing myself into this life 100%, I took some time every few days to send them an email and let them know how things were going. It helped me cope with the homesickness.
Cheers!
-Allyson