You can view my bus route here. I struggled a bit while getting onto the bus, so I started recording my path once I had been on the bus for a couple of minutes. It’s really not that much of a distance, but because traffic in Dublin can get pretty bad, it takes forever. Plus, the bus has to let people off and pick people up, so that slows the commute down as well. Riding the bus gives me time to listen to music, read, or talk with friends, so it’s not completely awful.

I get off the bus at Merrion Square, a beautiful park that I cut through on my way to work. On Friday, I took some pictures of Merrion Square, though I only had my iPod with me so the picture quality isn’t great.

One of the paths through Merrion Square

Not really sure what was going on with this tree – a gigantic sheet was stuck in its branches.

I have to take the bus since I’m living in a suburb of Dublin, but if I were living in the downtown area, I would definitely make use of the public bike system. The city of Dublin has this system where you can pay to ride a bike from one bike station to another. It’s a great idea! A lot of people actually ride bicycles to work.

Walking to work, school, or the store is also common in the city, though being a pedestrian can be a little scary. Dubliners like to dart across the street whenever there’s a break in traffic, no matter how small. People pretty much cross the street whenever they want even if cars are speeding towards them. I must admit that I have adapted this dangerous lifestyle, but when I first came to the city I was reluctant to cross the street without a crossing sign.

Ah, the joys of traveling through a city.

I’ve been noticing a lot of the differences between Irish and American culture. So far, I haven’t suffered from any major culture shock, but I’ve still noticed a lot of minor differences. This isn’t a bad thing, but sometimes it can get a little weird. Take today, for instance. I was at work, typing an email, and I typed the word color. I was momentarily surprised when the red squiggly line appeared beneath color. Then I realized — it’s colour in Ireland. Wow. I felt pretty stupid since I had known this fact for many years.

The Irish use this one word, craic, which means fun/enjoyment/good times. But the first time I heard people saying this, I thought they were saying crack. It sounded like they were saying “That was some good crack last night!” I thought everyone was on drugs. It was immensely relieving to discover that people were just talking about having a good time.

Another thing I’ve noticed is that food comes in smaller packages/containers. I’m used to buying gigantic bags of chips and gallons of milk; here, the chips come in much smaller bags, and the biggest container of milk is 2 liters. We go through food so much faster here, which means I have to go shopping more frequently. It’s actually a good thing food comes this way because you’re less likely to waste anything; it’s just something I’m not used to yet.

Yep, this 2 liter container of milk is the biggest I’ve seen at any grocery store.

Honestly, I feel like I should be getting culture shock, but I haven’t felt angry or extremely frustrated at the culture at all. Maybe it’s because I’m living with other Ball State students; our apartment is like an American bubble in the middle of Ireland. I might be feeling more culture shock if all my roommates were Irish. Whatever the case may be, I have to say that I love Ireland. The people are fantastic, the landscape is beautiful, and the culture is both familiar and unfamiliar. Even the rain doesn’t bother me, but that will probably change after it has been rainy for weeks on end.

Coming to Ireland to study abroad was probably one of the best decisions of my life.

On that note, be on the lookout for another update within the next few days! It’ll be about my journey to and from work — some earthshattering stuff

Since my last post, I’ve traveled out of Dublin and started my internship! I can’t believe I’ve been here for two weeks already.

On Monday, I went to Howth, a town outside of Dublin, with some of the other students in the program. We accidentally hiked down a trail that was overgrown with bushes even though there was a much wider, cleaner trail available. Oops. Anyway, as we were hiking along this trail, we saw a beach far below us at the bottom of the cliffs. So, much to my horror, the group decided to walk down to the beach. I’m afraid of heights, so I was nervous the entire way down. We made it, though, and it was beautiful! After our hiking adventure, we walked along the ocean. My whole body was exhausted at the end of the day, but I had a blast. I used the Traveler app for this trip, but I accidentally deleted the record of the path I traveled that day! Luckily the pictures didn’t get deleted along with it.

This is the beach we went to in Howth. It looked like most of the beach is actually underwater during high tide, but we caught it at the right time.

I started my internship on Tuesday. It was really intimidating because I was a solitary, inexperienced student among dozens of professionals. But the people I work with are really nice and helpful, and I’ve learned a lot since Tuesday. I’ve been to official meetings with other employees, and I’ve been able to look at traffic statistics for the organization’s website. It was a good first week, definitely. The only hard part about it is my commute – it takes an hour, so I have to get up pretty early to make it to work on time. I’ve definitely been spoiled by my college schedule.

Yesterday, some of the EUSA students took a day trip to Newgrange; it was great to travel outside of the city after a busy week at work. Newgrange is a structure that was built around 5000 years ago; it’s basically a small chamber that people used for some purpose during the Neolithic period. The cool thing is that the chamber was built to align with the winter solstice. Around the first day of winter, the rising sun lights up the chamber, and this doesn’t happen at any other time of the year. It was amazing to actually go inside such an old structure.

Newgrange from the outside. The exterior had to be reconstructed because it had deteriorated, but the interior remained completely intact.

I’d say this was another successful week! I’m starting to feel a little more comfortable with my surroundings, though a lot of things are still new and unfamiliar.

Our internships begin on Tuesday, so this week we went to a lot of tourist spots. I actually had an interview with the organization I’ll be working at, and it was cool to see the place and learn a little about what this summer will hold. I can’t wait to start on Tuesday!

These pictures show some of the places I’ve visited.

This is the River Liffey in Dublin. 

All the people in the EUSA program went to a welcome dinner at the Merry Ploughboy Pub. The food was delicious, and we saw Irish dancers and a band that played traditional Irish music. It was fantastic.

We tried to visit Dublin Castle, but it was closed. We went to the gardens and library that are located behind the actual castle; this grassy area is part of the gardens.

We went to St. Patrick’s Cathedral one day, and it was absolutely gorgeous inside.

More of the cathedral.

The sights have been beautiful so far. I’ve been taking pictures of a lot of buildings because we don’t have old, ornate buildings in the US. It’s so cool to see these old buildings next to modern ones.

I’m so happy that I chose to do this program. While I was doing laundry today, it really hit me that I’ll be here for 7 weeks and that I’m going to learn so many things and meet so many people. It’s really going to be an unforgettable experience. 

It has only been 2 weeks since I left Muncie for the summer, but it feels a lot longer than that. During this break time, I’ve been doing a lot of TV show-watching and novel-reading. But I’m also in the midst of preparing for my trip to Ireland, which is happening on SUNDAY!! That’s right… this Sunday, I’ll be hanging out at O’Hare, waiting for my overnight flight to Dublin. I’m getting more and more excited every day! But I’ve had to do a lot in order to get ready for my departure.

Here’s a breakdown of the various preparation activities I have undertaken in recent weeks. It’s all a bunch of little stuff, but that little stuff is rather important.

• Exchanged dollars for euros – at an awful exchange rate, by the way
• Made copies of all my important documents, credit cards, and IDs in case I lose them
• Read lots of news articles about the happenings in Ireland

Here is my suitcase, empty except for an umbrella. What can I say? I’m a last-minute packer.

I haven’t gotten around to packing yet. My suitcase looks so sad being empty, but I really can’t pack until Friday or Saturday. The next time you hear from me, I’ll be thousands of miles away from home. That’s kinda weird to think about. I can’t wait to arrive in Ireland and to start my internship!

P.S. I forgot to mention this, but while I’m in Ireland, I’ll be trying out the Traveler app on an Android tablet. This app uses the GPS in the tablet to record the route of your travels. If I take a picture somewhere, the app records the exact location of the picture. The really neat thing is that the app was developed by people at Ball State. I did a test run of the app when I drove home from Ball State, and it worked well, so I’m ready to put it to good use in Ireland.

First: East Side Bash! I had a lot of fun attending and volunteering at the event. There were all sorts of inflatables and games, food, and music. It was a great way to relax before finals week. Here are some pictures from that evening!

While waiting in line for the baseball pitch game, I took this picture of East Side Bash.

On the Sunday before finals (April 28), there was a banquet for the student staff of Housing and Residence Life. It was a nice event to celebrate the end of the year. And this leads me into what I really want to talk about: my time in Shively as an RA.

After two years of being in the same residence hall, RAs must transfer to a new hall; I’ve been in Shively for two years, so next year I’ll be living in DeHority. I came to Shively my sophomore year as a brand-new RA; at that time, it was the International Living-Learning Community, and that’s pretty much all I knew about it. Little did I know that the next two years would be full of memorable experiences that I would never trade for anything.

There were difficult times, of course. The elevators would stop working; the printer wouldn’t print; and people would get into all sorts of shenanigans. But for every jammed piece of paper, for every long night dealing with a situation, there were so many good times. There was the Shively choir, which sang beautiful renditions of “Happy Birthday.” There were late night orders of bread bites. We read bad fanfiction, watched bad movies, and created badly Photoshopped pictures. We played Mario Party and ate tons of pizza and cake.

I’m so happy I got to meet so many people in the last two years, RAs and residents alike. It’s been a blessing to get to know everyone who has called Shively their home. I will never forget the amazing times I’ve had over the past two years with so many fantastic people!

Don’t get me wrong – I’m very excited to be an RA in DeHority next year. I can’t wait to make new memories with a new community. I’m just sad to leave the place that has been my home for two years.

This picture of Shively’s RA staff was taken at the end of the year banquet in April.

This may be the last post of the spring semester, but be on the lookout for more! I will be blogging about my experiences in Ireland this summer. Check out my blog later this month and throughout June and July!

• The weather is beautiful
• It’s the last week of classes
• I won a Starbucks gift card for taking a survey

I was feeling so energized and happy today that I went around and took some pictures of the nature on campus.

I found this pretty tree over by DeHority.

Here are some colorful flowers!

And here are two geese just chilling in the grass. I actually took this picture from far away because I’m slightly afraid of geese.

My weekend was, unsurprisingly, busy; I was on duty every night and I worked on a big project for my management class. But after Wednesday, all of my projects will be done and the only thing I’ll have to worry about is finals! And moving out, of course.

Not too much has happened in the last few days. Carnival, Late Nite’s biggest event of the year, was on Friday. I couldn’t go because I was on duty, but the weather ended up being awful that night, so I didn’t feel too bad about missing it.

I totally forgot to post about this earlier, but I really want to talk about it. Student Honors Council hosted its annual Honors Week on April 8 – April 12. Honors Week is a week of events just for honors students, ending with a formal dance on Friday night. In past years, each night had a different theme, but this year we went with one theme for the entire week: film. Each day was a different genre of film, and we planned activities related to the genre. Honors Week happens every year, so if you’re in the Honors College (or planning to apply), make sure to keep an eye out for it next year!

It’s pretty exhausting planning for Honors Week, but it’s definitely worth it to see so many people having a great time.

This Friday, I’m going to East Side Bash, so expect a post about my time there in the coming days.

Have a great week!

When I applied for the program, I had to fill out some basic information, provide a CV, and write a short essay. It was a straightforward process, and once everything had been submitted, all I had to do was wait. And once I was accepted, the real fun began.

After being accepted to a study abroad program, there is so much to do in order to finalize everything. You have to attend an orientation, fill out paperwork, and make sure you have all the necessary documents to travel to another country. For example, if you don’t have a passport at the time of acceptance into the program, you have to get one of those as soon as possible. It can take several weeks for your passport to be sent to you. You should also convert some of your money into the currency of your destination before you leave; I’m planning on doing that soon. Gotta get those euros!

I don’t think I’ve ever seen a euro note in real life, so I’m looking forward to using actual euros when I’m in Ireland, as strange as it sounds.

Even though this technical stuff can be a pain, I know it’ll be worth it. I’m really hoping to get a lot out of my time in Dublin even though I’m only going to be there for 7 weeks. Since I’ll have an internship while I’m over there, I hope I learn a lot about the business environment in Ireland. I don’t know what my internship will entail exactly, but I should find out in the coming weeks. I also hope I’ll learn a lot about Irish culture in general. The farthest I’ve been away from home is California, so I’m excited about this opportunity to experience life outside of the United States. And, of course, I hope to make new friends while I’m there.

Other students who have studied abroad have told me how life-changing the experience is. This just reinforces how excited I am to go!

Leaving Ball State at the end of the school year is rough. Of course I want to go home and see my family, but it’s really sad that I won’t see most of my friends until the new school year begins. It’s also a little weird going back home when I haven’t lived there for the past 9 months. I always feel like I don’t exactly fit in the first few days I’m home. But once my family and I adjust our routines, everything works out okay.

But you don’t have to go home for the summer; there are so many things you can do instead. A lot of people study abroad in the summer. That’s what I’m doing! But you could also stay in Muncie and take classes over the summer. That’s a little more intensive than taking classes during the regular school year because an entire semester of information is crammed into a few weeks. It’s not that fun, but if you want to graduate earlier than planned, it’s necessary. You could also get a job or internship somewhere away from home. Getting any kind of working experience while still in college is a good idea, especially if you didn’t work in high school.

It might be tempting to just lie around and do nothing all summer, but let me tell you, it’s AWFUL. I wasn’t able to find a job during the past two summers, and it made my time at home absolutely boring. There was nothing to do. So even if you have to go back home, it’s a good idea to find something to occupy your time. I ended up volunteering at my town’s library just to get out of the house. I also took online classes, one from a community college, and one from Ball State. Sitting around and doing nothing all day loses its appeal after two weeks.

I am so exited that I will be going to Ireland in a few weeks! This summer will be so much more interesting than previous ones.

Let me know what you’re planning to do this summer in the comments.

The speaker was Zach Wahls, and the interesting thing about him is that he is a college student. Usually, speakers who come to campus are much older than us college students. This guy is still in college! This presentation was about family, but it focused on the LGBT aspects of family. Zach has two moms, so this issue directly affects his family. And this came at a very appropriate time, I must say. For those of you who don’t know, Zach spoke to the Iowa House of Representatives in 2011 about why he thought same-sex marriage should be protected by the Iowa constitution. His speech became a viral sensation, which is why he came to Ball State to give a presentation. He’s actually written a book and been on TV numerous times. I’d never heard of him before advertisements for this event started popping up.

There are numerous campus organizations and events, such as this one, that support the LGBT community of Ball State. There is Spectrum, one of the biggest multicultural organizations on campus. Members of the LGBT community, as well as allies, are welcome to join the organization! Spectrum puts on a lot of awesome events throughout the year. Safezone seminars are also available. You can read more about those here.

But if organizations aren’t really your thing, it’s still easy to find students, faculty, and staff who are  members of and/or supportive of the LGBT community. However, be warned – once in a while, random, non-BSU affiliated people come to campus and say some really offensive things about the LGBT community, women, and other groups. It’s hard to ignore these people when they’re shouting such hateful things at you as you go to class. Luckily, this does not happen often, but it’s still something to be aware of.

On that cheerful note, please leave your thoughts and questions in the comments! I’d love to hear from incoming students, current students, and anyone else who happens to read this.