Category: Ireland

Since I left Ireland almost two weeks ago, I have had so much time to reflect over the incredible month that I spent there. Leaving was difficult; the country and people felt like my home after only four weeks. I had to catch myself at the airport in Boston because I was so close to saying “thank you” or “excuse me” or a million other phrases in Irish. I came home and had to explain to my family all the Irish jokes and phrases that I am so accustomed to saying now. It was hard to get myself back into the rhythms of home. I had my first Irish class of the semester today and it really put into perspective how far I’ve come in my mastering of the language. I am so grateful that I had the time that I spent in Ireland because if I had taken 4 months off, my abilities would have suffered. Instead, I feel very confident in the coming school year. I understood my teacher completely and am feeling motivated for the rest of the semester. I feel as though I am right on track to make my learning more efficient and effective. I won’t have to waste time relearning grammar or basic conversation skills. I can focus on going into greater depth so that I can hold more complex conversations. Not only have I reflected on my improved Irish, but also on the experiences that I had over the course of the month. I feel so blessed to have had the opportunity to spend a month in the most beautiful country I have ever seen and to meet people from all over the world. It was such a unique experience to take all of these different people and immerse them in a culture that is foreign to all of them. We were all learning how to be true Irish locals together. I had so much fun learning about everyone else’s background and their interpretations of the study abroad experience. It was a small group of people and we were all experiencing a new culture for the first time together so we became close quickly. I love that I have friends all over the world. Being so far from home also made me reflect on what I really want to do and what’s important to have in my life. I want to be able to experience more cultures like I did in Ireland. I think it’s really important to meet a diverse group of people and to actually live with them. I definitely have a special place in my heart for Ireland; I would love to someday move there and raise my children with Irish. I recommend that everyone apply for the SLA grant because I know that the month I spent abroad will be with me forever. It is so important to expose yourself to new people, experiences, and traditions. I can’t wait to go back and explore more of Ireland!

Thank you again to everyone who helped me get to Ireland, especially my parents, Notre Dame, and the generous donors. I am incredibly grateful for everything you have done for me!

I would be remiss if I didn’t talk about all the amazing food I have had the opportunity to eat in Ireland! My bean an tí, Lucy, is an incredible cook. We have been treated to all kinds of food over the past few weeks but I have especially loved the meals that are authentically Irish. Within breakfast alone, I cannot express how much I love the brown bread. It sounds so simple but it is the most delicious toast I have ever had. I would eat it for every meal if I could! The delicious bread paired with the fresh butter is an unbeatable breakfast. I can’t go back to American butter! For dinner, Lucy has served the most delicious Irish lamb stew and there are always endless potatoes. I have eaten more potatoes in the last four weeks than in the last 19 years of my life! Oh, but they are so good! The stew has lamb, carrots, onion, parsnips, potatoes, and all kinds of spices. I am going to make her write it down before I leave! Tonight, Lucy made us some traditional blood sausage with potatoes. I am going to miss her and her food so much! At the very least, I will be bringing back tea culture to the United States. Having a “cupán tae” midmorning has become one of my favorite routines. Apparently, it is very important to let the tea brew for a while rather than just boiling water. I have been scolded (playfully) for making my tea too weak!

We also got the chance to visit the Cliffs of Moher this weekend! I have dreamed of going to the cliffs for years so I was very excited. They did not disappoint in the slightest. The color of the water when the waves crashed against the rocks was stunning. The green and brown of the cliffs next to the blue of the sky was unbelievable. I couldn’t get over the sheer size and scale of them. There was definitely an element of fear there though! It would’ve been so easy to go over the edge. Some people were very bold in their search for the perfect photo-I thought a father and son were going to fall off! The beauty of the scene far outweighed my fear. The weather wasn’t bad; there were only a few clouds. I have found that Ireland is beautiful whether it is raining or sunny. I hope I can make it back to the cliffs on a sunny day!

 

Going to places like the cliffs reminds me how incredibly blessed I am to be here. I have learned so much about this country and these people, gotten to see the most beautiful sights, and made friends that I will keep for the rest of my life. I can’t thank everyone enough for helping get here!

It feels like forever since I’ve written even though it’s only been a week! This week, we learned more about sentence structure and the genitive case. My vocabulary has definitely grown and I am getting used to the pronunciations. I feel very confident when reading and writing Irish because my foundation has gotten even stronger these past few weeks. I am also learning a lot about the Connemara dialect. My teacher, Dónall, is great because he offers such an interesting perspective. He was born in Canada, grew up in Ireland, but now lives in Germany and teaches Irish there. He told us that the difference between the Connemara dialect and the dialect in Dublin is like difference between listening to a grand piano and a cheap keyboard. I hope that I can get to the point where the differences are that obvious to me too! It’s so interesting to hear what sounds the dialect cuts out and adds and what words they use instead of the standard. Dónall makes a point of giving us our readings in the standard Irish and in Connemara Irish. We were speaking Irish with some locals in the pub this last week and they were correcting us and instructing us on how we can sound more like a native. I am going to miss this direct contact with natives so much! In addition to the natives, I’m learning so much from the other students in this program. There are people from all over the United States, Canada, the Netherlands, Cyprus, England, and Japan! I can’t believe the Irish language has reached as far as Asia. I love meeting people from other countries because they have such different experiences growing up and such fascinating opinions of the United States. The people from Japan find Irish to be easier to learn than English! Mostly, people can’t believe how large of a country the U.S. is and how divided everyone is politically.

This weekend, we went back to Galway and we were lucky enough to be able to stay with our friend Kelly’s mom. She has been staying in an apartment in Galway for the past month while Kelly is at the program with us in Carraroe. She has become a real local in the city-getting to know all the hotspots, volunteering at the Galway Arts Festival events, and meeting all kinds of people. She told us about the politics of Ireland over the last few years. Apparently, there was a big economic boom a while back that is referred to as the Celtic Tiger. However, the economy is now on a bit of a downturn and the people haven’t quite changed their spending habits. She referred to it as the “Paddy greed.” It was really cool to hear about what she had seen and heard because it’s not something someone could’ve picked up on on a normal vacation. I hope I get the chance to become a local in a city like that someday. Despite her warning of the abundance of “Paddy greed,” we had an amazing day. Everyone in Galway was very welcoming. There were lots of people in the city this past week because of the Galway races. A group of students in our program went to the races and had a great time. Those of us that stayed in the city also had a great day exploring. I don’t think I could ever get tired of Galway!

On Sunday, a group of us got up early and took a bus to Westport in County Mayo to take part in Reek Sunday. It is the annual pilgrimage up Croagh Pádraig, the hill that St. Patrick climbed barefoot in order to fast and pray for 40 days. The bus ride took about an hour and a half. I wish I could rent a car and spend a straight week driving through Ireland. Living in the middle of nowhere does not bother me at all because we have the most beautiful commutes. I am constantly in awe of what I see out of my window. We arrived around 10:30 and started the climb at around 11. A few people in the group were brave enough to try it barefoot. I wanted to try it but the rainy weather deterred me. I will definitely be returning and trying it barefoot at some point in my life. The climb itself started out wonderfully. I love the constant ascension of hiking and I was eager to get higher and higher. I kept having to turn back and wait to make sure I was still with my friends because I was getting so excited. The higher I got, the more beautiful the view became. While at first I was nervous that we would be climbing with approximately 20,000 other people, I was so thankful once I was up there to have everyone around me. It was so inspiring to see people of all ages and walks of life coming together and working through the same obstacles. The climb was fairly difficult but I was sure I could see the top in my sights. Little did I know that the place I thought was the summit was just a turning point. Beyond it, there was another smaller, but much steeper, incline to the top. We took a quick sandwich break so we could give our legs a rest and so we could enjoy the incredible view. I think it is the most beautiful view I have ever seen or will ever see. On one side, there was the incredibly blue water with islands scattered throughout. It looked like it belonged in the Caribbean. On the other side, there were other hills with as many shades of green as a paint sample book. I have never seen anything like it in my entire life. The following climb was much more difficult than what we had done thus far. With about a half hour left until the top, I realized that I had gone faster than everyone else and I was on my own. I was so focused on getting there. It got much steeper and rockier as we approached the top. I was struggling to not slip and start an avalanche. At one point, I looked back and had to catch my breath because I was so scared of how high I was. A kind man next to me gave me some words of encouragement and I continued to climb. While I had been saying some prayers and keeping St. Patrick in mind during the whole climb, the last 20 minutes were very reflective. It was amazing to think about how religion had moved people to come together and do this amazing thing to feel closer to God. There were people that looked as young as 7 and as old as 80 climbing. Only something truly spectacular could make these people able to accomplish this feat. I felt incredibly blessed to be a part of it.

I arrived at the top about ten minutes before the next mass. Even though being in the clouds obstructed any view of anything below, the climb still felt so worth it. The mass that was celebrated will live in my memory forever. It was incredible to stand among so many Catholics who had worked so hard to get to where we were. We listened and prayed together. In a perfect twist of events, the Gospel this week was the Sermon on the Mount. I feel like the Beatitudes perfectly encapsulate what it means to be a Catholic. During Communion, the fog cleared a bit and you could briefly see the beautiful view. After mass, the weather suddenly seemed to get a lot colder. It may have been that we weren’t exerting ourselves as much as before or that we did not have nearly enough layers on, but suddenly we were all freezing. We piled into a huge group hug to stay warm while we waited for some people to finish taking pictures by the sign and going to Confession. The line for Confession was inspiringly long. Before heading down, I had to get rid of the rock that I had carried. I had carried it from the very beginning and imagined putting all of the things I wanted to let go of inside of it. I had planned on throwing it off the top but once I got up there I realized that I wanted part of me to stay up there. I ended up leaving it on “Padráig’s Leaba,” or Patrick’s bed. I also grabbed a rock to take on the way down.

The climb down was easier physically but more difficult in that we were much more prone to slipping and falling. We finally got back down and relaxed for a bit before the bus came. We were all exhausted, but in the best way. I’m so proud of what we accomplished and what we experienced. I can’t wait to try it again!

Since I last wrote, the classes have gotten even better. We had some people move up and down so now we’re a much more manageable size. There are the perfect amount of people to do activities and to practice speaking. We’ve been working a lot on the direct and indirect clauses, as well as new vocabulary. Today, we reviewed the conditional tense, which is notoriously every Irish students’ least favorite topic. It wasn’t too bad though! I feel like everyone is getting more comfortable with the structure and the pronunciation. We have been practicing a lot of pronunciations. It’s really interesting how letters can be pronounced so differently between English and Irish. For example, it’s important in Irish to pronounce the ‘d’ and ‘t’ at the very front of your mouth. The sound ‘dh’ makes before a broad vowel is something close to a growl. My struggle with it has definitely made for some laughs in class!

On Saturday, we all piled into a bus and drove to a nearby town to take the ferry to Inis Oírr. The ferry was amazing. We stood at the top and could see everything. The water was so blue and you could see green cliffs in the distance. Inis Oírr is the smallest Aran island but the second most populated. I can’t imagine how few people live on Inis Meáin after seeing how uninhabited Inis Oírr was! Even though there wasn’t a bustling city, I still had so much fun. We arrived on the island and were immediately greeted by the town dolphin. Apparently, this dolphin frequently swims very close to the shore and is very playful with the people! The scene of the dolphin in the bright blue water was surprisingly tropical. We slowly made our way to one of the few pubs on the island for lunch. They served us soup, sandwiches, and tea. It perfectly warmed us up after a bit of a chilly ferry ride. After lunch, we started on a walking tour of the island. We started by visiting the most beautiful graveyard I have ever seen. It sat alone in a green field with sea grass blowing, overlooking the sea. In the distance, you could see the Cliffs of Moher. In the center of the graveyard were the ruins of a very old chapel, halfway underground. The inscriptions on the tombstones were written in Irish. I even found one with the name Delia on it! We continued walking after a while and made our way up the big hill that sits in the center of the island. The island is so small that you can see the ocean wherever you look. It simply has a large hill overlooking a Gaelic football field and a few dozen houses. On the top of the hill were the ruins of a castle. You could see absolutely everything. It was surreal. There was every shade of green in the grass and every shade of blue in the ocean and the sky. The houses were white and there were lots of gray stone structures. I can’t imagine living in such a simple and beautiful place. We came down from the hill and explored a bit on our own. We found the one craft shop on the island and admired all the sweaters they had. I can’t wait to bring mine back to the cold South Bend winter!

We continued to walk around for a while and then got on the ferry to return home. The ferry ride home was just as stunning as the way there. By that time, it had gotten chillier so I was glad to have my new sweater. Lucy, our bean an tí, had a delicious warm Irish stew ready for us when we walked in the door!

This past Saturday, the other students and I piled into a bus to Kylemore Abbey. It took about an hour to get there but I wouldn’t have minded if it were ten hours; the scenery was incredible. There were endless green hills with sheep, cows, and horses. The weather was absolutely beautiful and walking up to the abbey was something I will never forget. I can’t imagine living there and waking up to the view of the lake with the hills behind it. The house itself was gorgeous and told the story of all the people that lived there. It started out as a wedding gift and eventually ended up as a school. One of our instructors at school actually attended secondary school there! There was also a chapel further back in the property where daily mass was said. It was small and simple and beautiful. It featured marble from all the regions in Ireland. On the way back from Kylemore, we stopped in Clifden. We walked around and enjoyed the shops and the sun before heading home. I was so glad to be outside all day on such a nice day.

The next morning, a few of us got up to go to Galway city for the day. The uncharacteristically good weather continued and it was sunny all day. Galway is currently having their festival of the arts so there were people and colors everywhere. We visited the Galway Cathedral, which had gorgeous stained glass windows. Poetically enough, the building used to be a prison. After a whirlwind of a first week, it was nice to sit down and reflect on everything that I’ve been lucky enough to do so far on this trip. We walked around for the rest of the day, just getting to know our way around the city. I especially liked the center square; there were tons of different people and families out on the grass enjoying the day. As part of the arts festival, there was a giant castle made of cardboard boxes in the square built by the people in the city. Although we didn’t do anything super touristy, I really enjoyed just getting to know the city. I would definitely come back to Galway and explore more. We came home for our cúpan tae before going to bed after a busy weekend!

We had a new teacher start this week and he has been good at reinforcing our knowledge of sentence structure and grammar, as well as adding new vocabulary. After class on Monday, we had an instructor come in and show us traditional séan nós dancing. It was so difficult! I was stomping around while the instructor’s model student tapped and kicked as gracefully and effortlessly as anything. I’m not too good at it myself but it was lovely to watch and to hear the music.

Tomorrow is our first test so I have to go review for a bit! Wish me luck!!

Dia duit! I arrived at the Shannon airport only a week ago! It feels as though I have been in Connemara for months! I’m so happy to be here. Ireland is absolutely beautiful and has welcomed me with open arms. I already know that saying goodbye will be difficult!

The other students and I were taken from the university in Galway to Connemara last Friday and introduced to our host families. I feel incredibly blessed to have Lucy as my bean an tí (woman of the house) because she has made me feel so at home. She is also an amazing cook! We had our first classes on Saturday; we did a bit of reviewing and assessed the range of fluency in the class. I moved up to a higher class on Tuesday and I’ve already learned so much. Our class day starts at 9:30 every morning and we have a break at 11 for tea (of course!) and at 1 for lunch, before finishing at 4. We have already reviewed a few of the verb tenses and practiced lots of conversation. I want to work especially on my vocabulary while I’m here so I can hold a real conversation instead of just doing conjugations! Luckily, there is Irish everywhere I turn. From the people in the tiny grocery store to the broadcasters on the radio to my host family, I am constantly surrounded by native speakers. The environment has been very effective in getting me to think in Irish and call words to mind while I am speaking. I know that this knowledge will only grow as the weeks pass!

Although we are in class for most of the day, the other students and I have been making the most of every moment outside of the classroom. I am lucky enough to be in the same house as 2 other Notre Dame students whom I had not met before. We have become fast friends! We have also befriended people from Canada, England, and even Japan! This past week, we have explored most of Carraroe by foot. The scenery is stunning with greenery and flowers everywhere, as well as the coast nearby. The walk to the beach is my favorite-there are so many green fields bursting with flowers, horses running freely, and little stone walls crisscrossing. On Tuesday night, a local sean nós singer came to sing with us and teach us some traditional songs. He had a voice that made the Irish language flow so beautifully in the music-something that I have not quite mastered yet! Last night, we attended a céilí, a traditional Irish dance. The different dances were so fun and made you feel like such a community with the people around you. I am already excited for the céilí next week! After the céilí, we had a class field trip to a pub, or teach tabhairne, about 15 minutes away. There were some local sean nós musicians playing. Their instruments and voices were spectacular. A few others in the pub came over and sang some of their own songs without having even prepared anything. The whole room joined in on a few of the songs and created an atmosphere that was so warm and welcoming. I know that I will have to go back!

I cannot believe I only arrived a week ago. It has been so packed with exploring, an Ghaeilge, and making friends! I am so excited to immerse myself more in Carraroe and talk more with the locals in their language. We are visiting Kylemore Abbey tomorrow so hopefully I can practice my conversation!

Thank you so much to everyone who helped me to get here! I miss you!