Stepping Outside of Dublin: Meath and Westmeath

As I prepare for my third trip to Ireland this coming March, I've spent a lot of time researching things to do during the week of my stay. What I came to realize is that I had experienced a lot of the "popular" tourist attractions that Ireland has to offer, and what I missed most about being there were things that are actually quite mundane, not extraordinary things, which is really why I love them. 

On my first trip I was 18 and we worked our way around the country with Dublin as our starting and ending destination. We traveled south to Kinsale and Cork, west to Kerry and the Dingle Peninsula, north into Belfast and finished back in Dublin after a scenic drive through Wicklow. I had properly poured a pint, blind tasted whiskey, received the gift of gab, looked out for Fungi, and explored the Giant's Causeway all in ten days time.

My second journey to the Emerald Isle was two years later. I was 20 and on my own to embark on four months of studying abroad. This is a time when the farthest I traveled in Ireland was just a few hours outside of Dublin. This is when I truly fell in love with the city. 

As a study abroad student, I had some really great experiences thanks to two different programs. First, I took a class called "Exploring Ireland", which was a course that required you to attend three of four available trips to different places in or just outside of Dublin . You also had to keep a journal including pictures, and that was it. Free trips to different places, write about them, turn it in to Tadgh (the head of Archaeology who was our tour guide/professor). The second program was one that was done through the international office and was only open to study abroad students. It was a program where you put down a deposit of 5 euro to go on a trip on a certain day and when you showed up to the bus, you got the fiver back and went off. Another free trip. They allowed me to see things that I normally wouldn't have. I'm going to try to make this a sort of series and I'll start today with Meath and Westmeath...

Kells

I'm sure that if you've ever been to or heard about Trinity College Dublin, you've heard about the Book of Kells. An ancient illuminated manuscript done on calf vellum by monasteries and took over three centuries to produce, the Book of Kells (also known as the Book of Columba), now housed and displayed in the Library of Trinity, gets it's name from it's previous home in the Abbey of Kells. 

While Kells is no longer the home to the Book, it is still interested to tread the ground where it lived for many centuries and survived through countless Viking plunderings thanks to it's round tower. *I just want you guys to know that I was OBSESSED with seeing a round tower on the first trip and I didn't.* **It's not that cool, just sayin'.**

Additionally, Kells is home to five high crosses; four in the yard of the Church of St. Columba (see above where I mentioned Book of Kells = Book of Columba) and one in front of the town hall. Basically they are intricately carved crosses and, like the Book of Kells, are interesting in that they combine Celtic knot work with Christian iconography. 

This is my favorite image from Kells of the round tower and a high cross.

Loughcrew

Alright, so first let me explain this one. As this was an archaeology class, this trip was quite normal, but if you're creeped out by ancient burial grounds, you'll want to skip this one. Loughcrew is one of four main passage tombs in Ireland (Newgrange is one of these as well, I'll get to that in another post).

Loughcrew is a megalithic passage tomb that is aligned with the sunrise of the Equinox, meaning on the mornings of the two days of the year that the Equinox happens, the entire passage will be filled with light. This is an amazing feat that in 3500 BC, without modern day technologies, builders could calculate such a thing. 

If that isn't enough to get you there, then the views might be. On our journey uphill, I quite frankly thought I would never make it; the hill was steep and muddy from the rains (and I was not in shape). But the views of County Meath were amazing, and really show that patchwork Ireland that I love. 

Fore

Fobhar, the Irish for Fore, means "the town of the water-springs". Fore Abbey was founded in 630 by St. Feichin, who was said to have induced the water to flow from the ground and thus Fore is named for the saint. Today, the abbey stands in ruins, but at it's height was home to 300 Benedictine monks. Having been burned 12 times in 400 years, it still stands and is still a beautiful site to encounter with it's intricately carved arches and humbling vastness. 

On the long way out from the Abbey back to the road there is a Fairy, or Wishing Tree. What appears to be a tree with discarded clothing, ribbons and litter-like items, is actually a very sweet tradition of giving thanks to the spirits for fulfilling a wish. A sock tied on a branch may be thanks for healing a broken foot, a bib could be thanks from a parent for a spirit's help. I've seen other that are perhaps prettier, but the sentiment is beautiful here in Fore as well as in other places.

Somehow this turned into a history lesson, but I guess if you're into that sort of thing then you'll have enjoyed this. My next post for this series will be more...entertaining, you'll see what I mean. 

Until next time, 

-J

Why Studying Abroad Will Be The Best Choice You Ever Make

I can wholeheartedly tell you all that in my 23 years of existence, the best decision that I have ever made, was to go abroad. Whenever I reflect on my life, the memory of studying abroad brings me the most light and happiness and just general comfort, enough to the point that whenever I'm given the opportunity to talk about studying abroad, I jump at the chance.

A friend of mine's sister is in Japan currently. She's been studying Japanese for two+ years as a second major, and it's been her goal from the beginning of her freshman year to spend a semester there. Like me, she had every intention of calling another university her own while attending her US based one. But quite often I forget that that is not how everyone falls into studying abroad. And in fact, for some, jumping into a new program at a new university, in a new city in a new country, with new friends and possibly a new language isn't something that everyone jumps at to be a part of. 

I fell in love with the idea of Ireland through a movie. I threw the idea out there to my aunt that "wouldn't it be cool if we went to Ireland for my graduation present?" and it happened. At 18, I fell in love with Dublin and Guinness, with Howth and potato leek soup, with County Kerry and gaelic football, with the Dingle Peninsula and Aran sweaters. I went home singing Galway Girl and the praises of a country I had never thought I could love so much. And as a soon-to-be college freshman at a school that boasted being "the number one school for study abroad in the country", I vowed to go back.

And that is how I ended up at University College Dublin.

I studied general courses at UCD that did not really contribute to my Communication degree. I took an archaeology class about the island of Crete, and another that was a class based on four field trips to counties around Dublin and in the city itself. I took a course called the Sociology of Work, which I quite often did not attend and actually skipped once in order to go lay in St. Stephen's Green for a morning. I learned about the architecture of Europe, which only contributed slightly to my Art History minor. And I also took Irish Language, which helped me to translate "An Coláiste Ollscoile, Baile Átha Cliath"  and where I learned to write the language beautifully, but conversationally I believe I received a "C+". But academics at an internationally renowned university in the land of scholars and saints were not what made this experience the best choice I would ever make. It was the experience outside of it.

Studying abroad made me better at communicating. I know a lot of people don't consider studying abroad in an English speaking country as "really studying abroad". And to them I say this: "Have you ever tried to understand a drunk, thickly accented Irish lad name Caomhin who is trying to tell you his name by spelling it?" Probably not. And if you have, bravo to you, you understand how much of a language barrier there can be even in an English speaking country. (Also, I was eventually told it was pronounce "Qwee-ven", but I'm still not 100%). On my first day in Ireland I had an extremely difficult time understanding how much the bus driver said it was to ride into city centre, and for months the slang that a friend of mine used while texting me would leave me baffled. I became very good at being clear that I didn't understand and acclimating to the culture I was in through verbal communication. Ah, you're grand - I tried to bring that one home with me.

Studying abroad made me more financially savvy. I was abroad for a total of 16 weeks and had brought limited funds with me from home. While many of my friends blew through euros and called home for more cash to be put into their accounts, I counted every note and planned every week's worth of cash that I could spend in order to afford the things I wanted to do. I budgeted how much I could spend for groceries, how much I could afford to blow on Jaggerbombs on a night out at Copper's, and how much I would be able to spend on one of my trips out of the country. It made me think and learn and I often have to remind myself of that when I look at my bank account now.

Studying abroad made me confident, vulnerable and independent. I already believed myself to be independent, but it wasn't until I was on the bus headed to UCD, alone, that I grasped how independent I must be. I remember thinking to myself that I was actually doing this, I was by myself, I knew no one and that this would either be the most lonely, miserable four months of my life, or the greatest, but there was no turning back. I learned the streets and the bus routes so well that I still navigate them in my head sometimes. I did a lot alone, and that was okay for me. I learned to trust new friends and even strangers, to walk with confidence held by locals in their own city. And I tried to bring that home with me.

Studying abroad is a weird experience, embrace it. Some people travel with a lot of people from home universities. While I was at UCD, 40 students from the University of Notre Dame were studying abroad, more than 10 times that of all of my core group of friends' programs at home. I went abroad with two other girls who I had met once prior to leaving for our trip. These girls became two of my closest friends. And that was within a few days. You learn that you're in this weird kind of situation where friendship is essential to survive and enjoy your experience. You grow close to people quickly, I'd say that my friends from study abroad know as much about me and are as close to me as my best friends at home. You're in this new place, learning and exploring it together, and that's a bond that's something really special. Once you make your first RyanAir trip together or they agree to climb to the top of Arthur's Seat on an extremely windy day for you just because you saw it in "One Day", you'll know that.

Arthur's Seat, Edinburgh, Scotland

Prime example of the windy day.

Studying abroad made me patient. A major difference between American and Irish living is the concept of time. When my aunt came for Christmas, I set up a time for her to meet one of my closest Irish friends and when he arrived around 7-ish, I told him "I meant American half six, not Irish half six", because as long as it's close, what does it matter? While punctuality is great, I learned that patience isn't just about waiting for other people, it's learning to take time to enjoy life without restrictions. Especially when you miss your train from Paris to London, think you've missed the only bus that will get you to the airport in time to catch your flight, or when your travelling companion decides heels were the best footwear from cobblestone streets.

Almost missing the last possible bus

And finally, studying abroad changes you. I remember coming home and feeling like everyone there would be different. But I saw my friends from home, saw my family, and realized that while I was on this exciting adventure thousands of miles away, they were living their everyday lives. Not to say that their four months had been boring or that nothing had happened with them, but it was different. Studying abroad can really make you into a different person. You've learned to adapt, to be independent, to thrive in a new setting where no one knows you. I felt that my truest self was who I was while in Dublin, I got to be true to myself and not be put into any category by people who had known me for years and years. It's freeing and enlightening on your journey to knowing who you really are as a person.

The main reason why study abroad changed me, however, is that it made me over the moon happy. The happiest I had ever been in my entire life. It was, by far, the best choice I ever made and my only regret from it was not going for longer. 

I want to apologize for a ridiculously long post, but I won't because I love thinking about that time in my life. If you're thinking about studying abroad, do it. What's there to lose?

-J