Studying abroad in Ireland was one of the greatest experiences of my life.  I decided to go to Ireland to satisfy my Quest III requirements.  The courses we took while in Ireland were two English classes titled Literary Landscapes and Literary Global Perspective. Travelling to Ireland was my very first time on a plane, and the start to hopefully a long life of world travels.  There are so many places I want to see in the world, and Ireland was always on my bucket list.  We spent eight days in the countryside in a small town called Ballyvaughn for the first half of our trip.  There we got to learn about the effects that tourism has had on the land and how the people have been working to preserve the land through the practice of sustainability. 

 

We had two volunteer projects while staying in rural Ireland.  The first was stone-walling which is a practice used by traditional Irish farmers that use the limestone rocks that they cleared from their land in creating a space for growing crops and keeping livestock.  Over time, these walls had collapsed and needed to be rebuilt.  In this project, we learned and helped the farmers to rebuild the walls.  What was fascinating, was the inherent resourcefulness of traditional Irish farmers because instead of destroying a forest to build fences they used the resources at hand.   This could also be said for the traditional Irish method of heating their homes and providing heat for cooking.  Instead of chopping down trees or mining coal, they carved peat (a kind of moss grass) out of the ground.  As we look toward creating a more sustainable world, looking toward these traditional methods may provide inspiration. 

 

For the second project, we traveled to Galway where we helped transcribe gravestones so the information could be uploaded online for people all over the world to find where their Irish ancestors are buried.  It was a great experience and I especially liked transcribing the gravestones because I too have Irish ancestry.  In the United States, it is easy for us to forget that we are a country built on immigration.  This and other experiences like transcribing gravestones and seeing the results of the transcriptions may help people maintain a connection with their ancestry and their original immigrant status.  

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For the second half of our trip, we resided at Trinity College in Dublin.  While in Dublin, we got to learn about the history of the country--especially the Easter Rising when the Irish fought for Independence from the British.  We also got to see historical landmarks and museums.  We had an assignment to write a poem about our experience in Ireland, or about something we saw while we were there.  There was a day where our instructors took us to a local park, and we were to find specific landmarks and then find our way back to Trinity College.  My group took our time and really explored Dublin.  During our assignment, we went to St. Stephen's Green where I saw the famine memorial (pictured above on the left), which is what I chose to write my poem about. 

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Reflecting back on my time in Ireland, I've come to realize that this experience is what really sold me on becoming an International Studies major and a Global Scholar.  I want to see the world, and I want to learn about and immerse myself into different cultures for the rest of my life.  The world is a magical place, and it is important as humans to understand that we all come from different backgrounds.  I want to experience the world and I would love to educate others about these cultural differences.   I have wanted to travel to Japan and South Korea because Asian studies has always been my area of interest, but European studies has just as rich of a history.  I would love to also see Greece, France, and Germany, and many other countries around the world.