I left off Sunday night before a new school week was about to begin. During the week we've started to get into a bit of a routine. We go to classes, make dinner, often some sort of shopping, usually food shopping. It's actually crazy how much food five girls can go through. I don't think I'm eating any more than normal but for these tiny girls some of them can really eat. So we have to go to the store every three days or so to buy another loaf of bread, milk, cheese, and other staples. Who goes through a block of cheese in 3 days? This coming from a girl who absolutely loves cheese too. It's insane. We often make meals together, especially dinner, so cooking for five people we do use a lot of food but it just surprises me every time. Usually towards the end of the week, Wednesday night or Thursday night, we try to all casually hang out and drink. We go over to someone's house (since our living room is too small for more than five people) and play cards, games, or whatever we end up doing. Then the weekends we will go to pubs/clubs or travel.
The weekend before last, Saturday specifically, I had one of the best nights so far. We went to Oktoberfest (for those who don't know- originally a German festival basically to drink mass amounts of beer and celebrate German culture) and it was fantastic! It was particularly fun because we have many German students in our Erasmus program, including two of my housemates, so it was a blast having them teach us the songs and chants. Although the beer was extremely expensive, they gave us mugs the size of my head, so it was worth it in the end. I put my favorite picture of the night to the right. By the end of the night we were all dancing to the traditional German music and having almost too much fun doing it.
Although everyone is from different countries and cultures, it's amazing how well we all get along. Maybe I shouldn't be so surprised but I never thought I would be so close to a group of individuals from all over the country in such a short period of time. I can't imagine leaving them when the time comes. It will be so weird not to have breakfast with my housemates every morning, dancing with my Polish friends, or talking music with my Swish girls. We're all so different, yet so much the same. I will admit, we have a few odd balls in the group but even they are very kind just a little socially inept. One night in particular which I think shows the kind heart of the group was Ollo's birthday night. Ollo is from Austria and his birthday was Tuesday. So Monday Anja came up with the plan for all of us Erasmus students to surprise Ollo at midnight and come to his house with balloons, pink happy birthday banner, and sing him happy birthday. So we did it! Almost 30 of us gathered at midnight in front of his house to sing him happy birthday. Not only was it hilarious because he came out in his boxers while we're all standing there with balloons and cameras but in my opinion extremely thoughtful. Of Anja for coming up with the plan and everyone who showed up at midnight on a Tuesday school night just to sing him happy birthday. I could feel the love from everyone that night.This past Wednesday we took a trip to Giants Causeway (for those who don't know- one of the biggest attractions of Northern Ireland- gorgeous giant stones beside the coast). This trip was put together by the Erasmus administrators so everyone, besides one person I believe, went on it. We started off at Carrick-A-Rede rope bridge near Ballintoy. I guess my expectations for the rope bridge were higher because of the canopy walk I did in Ghana, which was over 100 feet in the air in the tops of trees in the forest. So I was expecting something similarly terrifying but this was much lower and not nearly as long of a walk. In Ghana at the time, I actually hated doing the canopy walk because I'm quite afraid of heights and I actually thought I was going to die. Not because I was going to fall off but of a heart attack from fear. But of course, I didn't die of either and now I'm actually happy I had the experience because it made me MUCH less afraid to do other heights activities such as this rope bridge. The only thing I was worried about was getting blown off the bridge by the wind because it was insanely windy that day. In fact, we had nice weather the past two weeks and the day of our trip of course it's windy and ended up pouring raining. Typical Ireland I suppose. Next stop was Bushmills Whiskey Distillery. Being from Kentucky, taking a tour of a distillery didn't sound as exciting to me because we have our fair share of bourbon distilleries but it was actually very interesting. Although I've been around the outside of distilleries at home and even inside old abandoned ones, I had never seen the inside of a working one. We took our tour and even got a free sample at the end. (Tip: if you ever go to Bushmills and try the whiskey, get the hot tamale one) By this time it was pouring raining and we were finally off to Giants Causeway. Although the rain took away some of the fun and made it more difficult to take pictures, it was still very beautiful and I hope to go back again on a less rainy day.
While Ireland has obviously been incredible, fantastic and all those other words that still can't describe how wonderful it is, now it's time for a few less positive thoughts. First less serious one, I quickly figured out that my outlet converter was not made to charge laptops or other big electronics by having it blow out on me. So then, I was unable to charge anything (like my phone causing great panic in me) but luckily Alex, the my housemate from NY, let me borrow hers until my wonderful mother sent me a new one (this time able to charge my laptop). Hence while I was unable to write in my blog for so long and as you can now figure out- the converter arrived today and that's why I am writing finally!
I may have mentioned this before but probably the biggest disappointment has been coming to the realization that I will not be able to travel as much as I wanted. Yes, I had unreasonably high expectations for seeing every amazing country and city in Europe in three months but I still thought I'd be able to see more than I probably will. For one, I can't exactly travel alone. Since almost everyone here is from Europe, including some the places I wanted to go, Germany, Switzerland, Poland, Czech Republic, etc it would make no sense for them to travel home while abroad. Second, if they are not from the country, they've already been to it, again making them not want to spend the money when they could spend it on other things. Reasonable but still making it difficult for me. Third, even if they have been somewhere and wouldn't mind going again- most of the places they would have to pass their home country to get there, so it would be much cheaper for them to go from their home country, not Ireland. All of these things make sense for them but all end up meaning I either have to travel by myself or not at all. I understand, we're in Ireland and they want to see Ireland but it just sucks that I can't have both. Yes, I'll just get the surface view of a country if we visit for just one weekend but it's just so hard not to want to go because I feel so close. For them, they feel far away- but for me I literally feel like I can touch Italy, France, Netherlands, and all the other amazing countries. I'm trying to look at the positive and know that I will have other chances to see more of Europe but I've been saving money for so long for my Europe excursion (hence the ambitious title of this blog) and coming home without seeing the Eiffel Tower, walking the streets of Amsterdam, or having pasta in Italy just feels wrong. I'm young and most likely will go to Europe again but I can't help feel disappointment not experiencing the hot baths in Budapest. On a positive note, when I do come back I will have amazing friends I can visit who will show me the true experiences of their countries. And I am traveling to London, Scotland, and Dublin while here. Hopefully another country as well but for now those are the ones officially booked! Don't get me wrong, I've been having an unbelievable time here, appreciate every moment and experience and love Ireland to death. If anything it just gives me an excuse to come back. Who knows maybe I'll move to Europe one day.
My final thoughts lately have been about the differences in education. It really hit me when I was sitting in my Divided Societies class (please note all classes are international and Irish students) and the professor said he didn't expect us to know what monotheism means. Now, what's even more striking is that this is a Catholic school. He went on to say how what made the Jews different in the Palestine conflict is that they believed in one God and that's why they won. Call me crazy but if that's why the Jews one the Palestine conflict- why didn't they do something about WWII? The logic was just so illogical and to be teaching this is a college class just flabbergasted me. I don't know if it's my Centre education or pride but I couldn't help but think I knew more than some of these professors. Seriously talking about civil disobedience and all you say is Gandhi was an example. That's all these students will know about Gandhi was that he was just an example of civil disobedience? The surface level of the education here is just astounding. It just made me appreciate the depth of study at Centre. Yes, it's difficult but at least I'm learning things that are worthwhile. Pushing myself to think critically about difficult questions and issues, not simply flying over the terms without giving them deep analysis of their meanings. Either I'm some pretentious academic or the system has got it wrong. We should be teaching our students on deeper levels of study, not only for academic but personal purposes. Education brings knowledge about yourself and about the world. Education helps to figure out who you are and what you value. I've just never appreciated my Centre education like I do now. I have even more respect for my professors expecting so much from us. And I'm glad they do. I'm glad someone believes in me enough to challenge my way of thinking. Maybe this all sounds like mumbo jumbo but basically all I'm trying to say is education is important. Real, deep, thoughtful, challenging, provocative education, which I am luckily to receive at Centre College.
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