Galway Girl

Another week has passed and it's been a good one. I am still trying to get used too life at a big school which is a bit of an adjustment. I'm so nervous about being too distracted with all the excitement here and not being able to focus on classes.

This week was a lot of fun! On Thursday UCD, sponsored this Irish house party for the study abroad students to go too. We were able to sit and just listen to live traditional Irish music, there were even some chances that we were able to get up and get some dance lessons and I took advantage of every single one! To all of those who saw the Titanic they played the music that they were dancing too in that scene with the party, so I got to swing around to that music just like Jack and Rose. Overall the night was just so much fun, I love traditional music.

Then on Saturday I got my first chance to venture outside of Dublin county, I took the bus to Galway city. It was such a cute little city, had much more of the quaint Irish feel then Dublin. Although the scenery was not quite as beautiful of Howth it was still really pretty. I got to walk along the water. The bus ride out there was also really pretty, I got to see some of the Irish country side. I just can't wait to see more of the country in my four months here. For the most of the day I just walked around Galway city, got to eat lunch at a really authentic Irish place.....SUBWAY, nothing like being in a foreign country with wallpaper of your home cities subway system. Though we went to a traditional Irish pub for dinner.

Anyway I've posted my address in the last entry but please send my addresses I've been sending lots of postcards!

2nd Week in Ireland

Howth









dun laoghaire




Well I've completed another week in Ireland, this week was really good. For one the classes started which is a little scary. The classes are all in giant lecture halls which is completly foreign to me coming from a small school like Lesley. Registering for the classes was a complete nightmare since we all had to come in and meet with one advisor. One Monday I was waiting to register from about 9 till 4, it was awful. So now that I am finally registering I am taking a bunch of sociology classes, some history and one Irish social policy class. I think the social policy class is the class that I am most excited about since I have such an interest in social policy, it will be really interesting to be able to compare American Social Policy to Irish social policy. When I was in a book store the other day I saw this book on Irish social policy which seemed really interesting, the only problem was that is was about 39 euro, maybe I'll invest in it at the end of the trip, right now I'm saving all my money for traveling. Any way back to classes I'm really nervous about having a hard time being able to focus in these classes with all the excitement of being here, as well as the format being so different to American and Lesley format. Hopefully many other international students are in that same boat.

I've been able to do a lot of exploring this week. On Tuesday I finished up with class early so I took the bus into downtown Dublin and walked around for a while, I walked by this city park called St Stephens Green, it was so gorgeous it sort of reminded me of the Boston Public gardens a little bit. Then I hoped on a light rail train to see more, it took me to this suburban town and I ended up getting really lost. On Friday me and my friend Cora took the bus too Dun Laoghaire this town on the coast, it was really pretty. Then Saturday me and a few other people took the train to Howth, this town about six miles North of Dublin. It was unbelievably gorgeous, it was right on the Irish Sea, so all walked along the coast as well as hiked up this mountain with unbelievable views. I'm posting both photos of Dun Laoghaire and Howth. Seeing Howth made me really feel like I was in Ireland. I can't wait to get more of a chance to explore this country. I was sitting on the top of this mountain in Howth just staring into the sea and it was so serene, it didn't feel real. I was freezing and starving at the moment but that barely phased me because I was enjoying the scenery so much.

Then today I went on a historic walking tour of Dublin which was a really interesting way to get to know the city a little bit better. After the walking tour Cora and I along with these two girls from Germany and this one girl from to the Netherlands went to this really traditional Irish restaurant and the food was amazing! I love the french fries here, their so thick. Living in NY has made me a pizza snob, will these four months in Dublin make me a french fry snob? It was interesting being able to talk to the girls from Germany and the Netherlands, they asked Cora and I a lot of questions about America like our school system, then we asked them about their schools system. Then of course me being me started asking questions about their health care system. (Jen, Courtney and Rachel does this bring back memories of London?) Later tonight I was having dinner with a couple with other American students in my friend Katie's room and her apartmentmate Rich who is Irish was in the living room and overhearing us talk about the Gosslins, when we tried to explain them to him lets just say we did not give America a good name.

It's so weird to think that the semester at Lesley will be starting tomorrow and that I'm not going to be there. I think about it all the time and despite how much fun I'm having here I miss it so much. I sent out some postcards this week hopefully people got them. My parents got theirs by Friday which I was shocked about since I sent them on Wed! Anyway please send me addresses I want to send out lots of postcards, you can either email it to me at lmvh47@gmail.com or facebook message me. Thats one of the best ways to contact me, as well my mailing address in Ireland is

Laura Hickey

Belgrove House 5 Apartment 1

University College Dublin

Belfield, Dublin 4

Ireland,

Greetings From Ireland!

Well I made it out here! My flight did take off, the snow storm only delayed it an hour because they had to de-ice the wings, though we ended up landing in Dublin only about 20 minutes later then scheduled. The past few days have been so mind blowing, I still can't completely believe that I'm here. The jet lag hit me HARD which surprised me since I got over it quickly when I went to London in May. The first few days that I was here I was at orientation for both API study abraod as well as study abroad students for the University College Dublin where I am living at and studying at. University College Dublin is about a 20 minute bus ride away from the main city center. On a couple of occasions when I've been taking the bus I've made a huge fool of my self trying to pay the bus fare searching around my purse for all the different euros.

The University College Dublin is a huge campus, which will be something for me to get used to since my school Lesley is so small.

Besides going to different orientation meetings I've been going around and seeing Dublin a lot. On Saturday I went to Kilmainham Gaol prison which is located on the outskirts of Dublin. It's an old shut down prison, I got to take a tour of the museum which was a really nice way for me to get a sense of some of Ireland's history. There are many other Dublin museums that I want to go such as the Leprechaun Museum and the Dublin Museum of Modern Art, which is free!

I got to do a lot of exploring both on Saturday and Sunday, I walked all around the city, mainly in the touristy parts such as by Trinity College, Grafton Street, the River Lifey and by the Dublin sphere. When I was in one book store I found this book with about 100 recipes for cooking potatoes, it definitely made me feel like I'm in the right place with my love of potatoes. Then today me and two other people actually took a bus just to a random place to allow us to get lost a little bit, we ended up in this suburban areas. The houses were so pretty. I really like the architecture here.

So far I'm really liking the city of Dublin, I can't wait to explore it even more as well as other parts of Ireland. I don't know if it's the often cloudy and rainy weather but Dublin really reminds me of Seattle. It's much warmer here then it is back home which is really nice. It's sort of too warm for a winter coat, but to cold to be without one. I invested in a rain jacket yesterday.

Leaving today! (Hopefully)

So as nerve racking as the idea of getting on a plane and leaving for four months today is, a possible snow storm coming and messing up my flight just adds to the stress. It's been almost a year that I have been planning this, it never felt like it was actually coming, it still does not feel real. I'm finally pretty much packed, packing the bare minimum was so difficult for me, I'm the biggest over packer! I've got two suitcases and a back pack, I'm still worried that I packed too much but I think I left enough room for stuff to bring home.

I've been trying to think about all of the different ways that I want to be able to make the most of this amazing opportunity and different goals of mine. It was hard to come up with goals since I have no idea what this experience is going to be like. I suppose overall my goals are too come back with as much of a grasp for the culture and history and Ireland, to travel around the country and other parts of Europe as much as possible. To get a different perspective on different issues by seeing how another country views them. To make the most out of everyday. I think something that I am afraid of is not being able to make the most of it, I have to think of the way that I've gotten to know Boston and Cambridge by just taking all the walks around the city as I can, I'll try to do the same thing in Dublin. I do love exploring cities.

Anyway my flight is supposed to leave JFK airport at 9 tonight if all goes well, I will be updating soon and be posting lots of photos. I'm going to want to keep in touch, so for those of you on facebook I'll be checking that often, the best email address to reach me at is lmvh47@gmail.com, as well I'll be on skype so if you've got skype my username is lmvh47. Please facebook message me or email me skype names! As well I want to send out postcards so email or message me addresses!

I don't think I could ask for better people in my life, I'm going to miss you all so much!

9 Days Till Departure!

So..... I come back from Albany yesterday and it hits me that I only have about a week until I leave for Ireland, which is just insane. Studying abroad is always something that I had pictured myself doing in college, though when my spring semester started last year I finally decided to take action into this. Originally the place that I wanted to go to was London England, though over the summer I took an amazing trip to London and realized that all though I loved it and would like to visit there many times I really wanted to go somewhere a little bit different than what I'm used to. Since I'm a native New Yorker I wanted to see something outside of a big cosmo city. So Ireland began to attract me, especially because I have became a lot more interested in my strong Irish heritage recently. So after a long summer of mulling over whether or not I'm going to study abroad and a stressful semester of paperwork both with Lesley and API (the study abroad organization that I am going with) It has finally came to be only a little over a week till I leave the United States for four months and four days.

Leaving the United States for so long is absolutely mind boggling to me, up until May of last year I had never been outside of the United States, now I will be out for such a long time and hopefully go to many other different countries because when I'm there I want to be able to go all over Europe. There are so many things that I hope to gain from this experience, overall I hope that it will make me a better person, I want to get a perspective of the world outside of the United States, especially on issues such as the Middle East and many different social issues.

Though leaving for this long is extremely scary for me. I know that all this fear is worth the amazing experience that I'm going to have. Though one as silly as this sounds is one of my fears is that I make no friends during the trip and I just sit around waiting to come home, though I have a feeling that won't happen and I can control whether or not it does happen. Also I am so sad about not being at Lesley next semester, it seems like every semester that I'm there I love it more and I feel even closer with my friends. I feel so much at home in Cambridge and that means so much to me because I went through high school not exactly enjoying living in Lynbrook NY so I love being able to love where I live. Leaving everything I know for four months makes me realize how blessed I am in so many ways, I just hope that I won't be forgotten about while I'm across the pond.

So I will probably update this a few more times before I go, and while I'm there I can promise that I will be taking lots of pictures since I'm well, me. So please be in touch. I attached some photo's of my time with my cousins John. A and Julia for new years, too people who I'm going to miss so much while I'm in Ireland.