Home. In Both Senses.

When most college students travel to study abroad it is mainly about going out and seeing everything we can. Traveling as much as possible. Discovering new things to do and new cultures. What our group found that was very different from most of these experiences was not only the previously listed things, but a new home. We made friends there we will have forever and are welcome to return whenever we would like. We grew accustomed to the differences there and truly fit in by the end of the trip. So even though we were returning to the United States our actual "home" it was incredibly hard to leave because Dungarvan, Ireland is our another place we can actually call our home. There were incredible experiences and the fact that the terrible ones cannot mar those speaks for itself. I hope to return to Ireland soon!

Mommy and the Hulk in Fungarvan

After I finally got released from the hospital I had a few days to show mom around Dungarvan before we had to return so I could be cleared to fly! I could not walk for more than an hour with support so they were short excursions but the town is not too large so it worked!
The first adventure was showing mom the town. We walked to the harbor and watched the two Dungarvan swans majestically floating around for oh, about forty five minutes. To be fair, we don't see many swans at our house in Georgia!
The second trip into the town was when the first Maritime Festival ever was launched in Dungarvan! We saw the tall ships and other boats come in. Then we went grocery shopping which was fun because it is incredibly different from shopping in the United States. I tried to buy some champagne to celebrate being out of the hospital but mom was having none of it. Something about mixing medicine and alcohol she wasn't comfortable with.
The third trip was to the candy shop. Where we bought out the store. There were chocolate, fudges, truffles, gummies, unkown candies, lollipops, and everything else. And we bought all of it, initially for our friends at home but somehow half of the treats were missing when it was time to pack them up...
The fourth trip out was my moms favorite. We saw the fireworks that closed the Maritime Festival. They lasted for twenty minutes and were, frankly, much better than we were expecting for such a small town! There were so many different kinds and it was somewhat surreal to watch them sparkle over the water. Plus I was deaf in one ear so the loud noises were not bad at all!
I know it does not seem like she got to see much but I went to a lot of trouble to get her to Ireland. I am kidding of course!

The Hulk in the Hospital

There were only three weeks left of the trip and one of the weeks would be dedicated to traveling around Europe. I went with some friends to the gym as normal before class to run for a bit, beer and potatoes are not the best recipe for trying to stay in shape. As I was running I started to feel a bit faint and pressed the pause button on the treadmill so that I could stop and sit down for a bit. That is the last thing I remember happening until three days later when I woke up in the Waterford hospital.
According to my friends and people who saw what happened I stopped the machine, stood there for a few seconds before I passed out, fell backwards and hit my head off the rowing machine behind the treadmill. I managed to give myself a concussion, crack my head open, burst my ear drum, fracture my cheek and jawbone and damage one of my facial nerves. For a while I was unable to talk or realize what was happening but apparently had some conversations with people later during the day and turned into a sass queen. For example, when the doctor was putting staples in my head he didn't really tell me what was happening. I don't remember this but my friend who was with me said he quickly explained what had done when he was finished and ran out of the room. I looked at her and said in the most offended and privileged tone, "did he...just put...STAPLES in my head??" I did not know that I was in the hospital or what was going on.
I stayed there for the rest of the week until I came to when my mom was flown over. I just woke up and suddenly knew what was going on. I was released for two days and spent it sleeping which I'm sure my mom was thrilled about. She comes to Ireland to watch me sleep, must be entertaining. Then I realized I could not move the left side of my face. I was driven back to the hospital and it turned out that the cheek and jaw fractures and the eardrum had damaged my facial nerve severely and they needed to strengthen it immediately. This is where the stories begin.
For the first week I was concussed and did not know what was happening. The second week I was pumped full of steroids. I took twelve tablets daily once I was released the second time meaning...I was on way more in the hospital. I was also aware of all the IVs unlike before. The combination of very strong pain killers, antibiotics, and steroids made me decide that I was the Hulk and that I needed to get out of the hospital. Two weeks in there was a pretty long time, to be fair. One of the first nights of the second week I got up, took my metal IV stands and started walking out of the Ward. I was quickly returned to my bed by the nurse where I promptly began trying to take the IVs out. When the nurse asked me what I was doing I declared that "the Hulk doesn't need your poison." The next morning I woke up with my head bandages sort of taped to the bed and the nurse filled my mom and I in on the shenanigans. It was a proud moment for her.

I Kissed a Legend (or just, the Blarney Stone)

After Cork we set off to our bed and breakfast where we were going to stay for the night after we saw the Blarney Castle. It was called the White House and was absolutely wonderful. Not only was it so comfortable and welcoming but it was luxurious inside! We dropped off our luggage and then went to find the Castle. This was very easy as Blarney is on the smaller side.
The grounds of the castle was the first thing we saw. They were stunning. Flowers everywhere, trees hanging low, a rushing river than ran throughout the whole place, and tiny waterfalls. It was glorious. Then the Castle loomed up on the hill. It was all stone and most of the inside had fallen down but we found the staircase and started the climb, which was actually frightening. There was a rope hanging down the stairs that went up in a spiral pattern. The steps grew smaller and smaller until just the balls of our feet were able to make contact with the stones. Then just when we thought we were going to die the staircase opened up to the top of the castle and a view of Blarney. We had a 360 degree overlook of the grounds, we could even see our bed and breakfast from the there! After admiring that for a few moments we made our way to the stone to kiss it and hopefully receive the gift of gab. Not like any of us needed it. We had a tendency to talk over one another.
Kissing the stone was not scary just...unexpected. You lay down and a kind elderly Irish man directs you to hold onto the metal bars they placed there. Then he holds you as you lean back...back...further back...until you think you are a gymnast and can finally  reach the stone. Then he pulls you up and you are done! It was very informal. After that we ran around the castle grounds for a good few hours.
The next day we woke up to the most fabulous breakfast. For one thing...the White House served us real pancakes! Delicious, American-style pancakes! After some time spent in heaven, we went to see the Blarney Mills before we went back to Dungarvan thinking we could maybe afford a pair of socks. We were not expecting there to be so much merchandise. There were blankets, scarves, about ten thousand sweaters, a baby section, toys, and of course the socks. That doesn't even cover half of it. It was just a huge place filled with wool EVERYTHING. We all ended up making a purchase to bring back to remind us of Blarney.

The City of Cork

A group of my friends and I decided we wanted to go see the Blarney Stone. However I stayed in Cork for a bit before we headed to Blarney. Cork is by far my favorite "big" Irish city that I was able to travel too. Dublin was very touristy but Cork was grand. There were murals on the walls of alley ways, a huge market that sold everything possible, tons of shopping, live music in the streets, and just a general lively and welcome feel to the city. A few things of note happened here:
1. We found a live human turtle. Just kidding, it was a boy wearing green with a green turtle backpack on as shown to the right. But we can stick with human turtle because it is better than the reality.
2. We found Chinatown in Ireland.
3. We saw the unique color blocked houses that lined the hills.
4. We just loved Cork.
Walking around and exploring was so gratifying because it was as if the city had a culture of its own. I highly recommend going to Cork just to walk around.

Karaoke in Ireland

One activity that the group signed up to do was go to a Karaoke Bar a little ways outside of Dungarvan. This was a most excellent idea. After a few pints we were all primed to perform. It was a great experience because not only did all the Americans make the Irish people's ear drums cry, but it was a great chance to bond with other people in our group.
Then one of the greatest moments of my life happened.
It was around minutes before the group was supposed to leave to return to Dungarvan and one of my friends and I had entered a card we thought was not going to be called. We had written down that our names were Jack and Rose and that we were to be performing "My Heart Will Go On" from the Titanic.
I am a ballet major and my friend is a music major and can actually sing quite well. So what happened next was that we absolutely put on a show. We were romantically dancing and eventually had the entire bar singing along and dancing with each other. As soon as the song ended we were applauded and then loaded onto the bus to go home. But not after complimented by everyone we passed with Irish phrases such as "that was great craic!"

Clonea Beach

I had tried unsuccessfully to find Clonea Beach since so many of my Irish friends told me to visit it. This is mainly because I kept getting lost since I apparently can't read street signs correctly. I will stay in school. One day I set out with one of my friends on a bicycle to find this beach...and we found it! It is easy to see why William Butler Yeats was able to write so many poems simply out Irelands scenery. On the way to Clonea we rode through a field of cows as usual and were startled by a baby peacock flying over the hedge in front of us. Yes, a baby peacock. After this we arrived at the beach surrounded by countryside and cliffs. The beaches in Ireland are very different from the beaches in America. We have white, powdery sand and very flat areas surrounding our beaches whereas Ireland has rocky terrain leading right up to the water. It was beautiful. My friend and I sat on the rocks looking out at the ocean for a long time just trying to take it all in. Then the tide decided to join us so we went back home.

Adventure Time

The last day we had to explore Berlin was honestly the best day we had there. We started the morning by going to Sachsenhausen, one of Germany's concentration camps. Honestly, I was completely unprepared for it. We all had studied the history of these camps and knew what to expect but the horror and reality overwhelmed us once we got there. Its easier to learn about something when it is miles away and there is no way to see it. Standing in one of the "houses" was the worst experience of my life. The cruelty and awareness that human beings could do something so brutal to one another was devastating. It was so different from reading about it. I lasted about half an hour in the camp and could not take anymore. We left the camp in tears and determined to go try to cheer up. 

This was when a few events happened. For starters, I had a long boarding competition with a store manager. The short of that story is that he was more experienced and showed off and I (first time stepping on a long board) ran straight into a rack of clothes. After that we got lost on the train. We got off to try to catch the other train back to where we were trying to go and noticed that there was a market going on outside. We ran out of the station and found booth after booth of handmade German trinkets, a pen full of goats, windmills, carousels, and live music. This was perfect. We became immersed in the market place and some of us might have watched the goats playing for at least a nice half hour. After this we noticed one thing, a biergarten. Or as we say in English, a BEER GARDEN. 

We decided this was where we would have dinner and it was the best decision we had made yet. Inside the waiters and waitresses were dressed up in traditional dress, there was a band performing, people were dancing, and there were tables pushed together where one could order the best dinner they had eaten in a while. Having traveled mainly around Berlin we only experienced the urban life until we stumbled upon this place. At our table we made new friends with other travelers lucky enough to have found this place. All in all it was the perfect ending to our Berlin trip.

Museum Island

The big group students split into smaller groups because that made our tourism a lot easier. I was in the same group of three girls from the first day and we sort decided that maps were not necessary. After shopping deep in the heart of Berlin we set off to find Museum Island. Exactly what its name means, Museum Island is an area that is surrounded by two rivers that houses basically all the museums in Berlin. After wandering for a while with the four of us thinking that our individual directional instincts were correct we actually made it to Museum Island without asking for directions or looking at a map. Just for clarification. Here we saw the cathedral and climbed to the top to see a breathtaking view of Berlin. We visited Humboldts box, the Pergamon museum, the Natural History Museum, the Berliner Dom, Checkpoint Charlie, the Wall, and the Mauermuseum. After running around all of these museums we decided to relax on a boat tour. The boat tour was probably one of my favorite things we did that day because we sat on a boat, with beer, and just looked out the window. We did not have to try to translate German, guess where we were going, try to understand the significance of what we were seeing because the tour guide did that!
Here are some pictures from the trip:

Lack of English

Our spring break finally arrived and where better for our group to go but to a cold snowy place known as Berlin, Germany! I'm kidding, we were all very excited to go to Germany and especially get to tour a major city! We arrived and went off to find our lovely hotel where we were to stay for the week. It was up a grand stair case and had elaborate entrance doors. Needless to say, it was not the typical hotel a group of college students expected to be staying in.
After this we went to explore before the big traditional dinner that had been arranged for the entire group later that night. This adventure time was when we learned about language barriers. Here are two great examples:
The Knife
I went with three of my friends to grab a curryworst (a very popular form of the bratworst sausage) for lunch. After we had made our purchases we realized that we needed a knife to cut up the food or else we would look like uncivilized people attacking our food mouth first. We volunteered one of the girls to go up to the counter to ask for a knife. The lady working behind the counter simply nodded to our friend, grabbed oranges, a cup and started juicing the oranges. After a few minutes the woman returned and handed the cup full of fresh squeezed orange juice to our friend. Our friend said "no! no! I really just need a knife!" And made cutting motions. To put it mildly, the woman was not pleased. She went to the sink behind the counter and poured the contents of the cup in their while glaring at our friend the whole time. Then she handed our friend a knife with a look that clearly read "Americans."

The Train 
This story is mainly because it is funny with a side of language issues. Before stepping into the train my friends and I had picked up some coffee because Ireland's version of coffee is coffee flavored water. It is not what most people would consider to be coffee. After this purchase we boarded the train to head to our next destination and sat down next to the door. Four rather loud, giggling, clearly American college girls have a tendency to attract attention. Especially when one of the four girls is telling a story and is oblivious to the fact she is simultaneously pouring her coffee directly onto her own leg. Of course, my friends and I start laughing so hard we can't get the words of warning out to our friend who still has not noticed what she is doing and simply thinks we think her story is fantastic. Till an elderly couple, one young guy, and a few other German people our age start to mime to her what she is doing. They are all smiling, some are laughing to and according to our unfortunate friend "making the weirdest sign language" she has ever seen. Eventually our friend felt the coffee after she had managed to deposit half the cup onto her pants. If it had not been for the language barrier I am sure the German people on the train would have stopped her. Or, you know, just laughed along with us.

Sheep Chasing

One of my friends and I got it into our heads that one thing we HAD to do on this trip was pet a sheep. And one day it looked like an opportunity was given to us. We were traveling around southern Ireland by bus with our study abroad group and everyone got off the bus to take pictures of a lake and mountains and more countryside scenery. Not my friend and I though. We had spotted sheep on the other side of the bus hanging out on the mountain side. There was only one obvious choice: we had to climb that mountain and pet those sheep.
We hit the ground running up the mountain and in our haste forgot that the sheep could probably here us screaming "stay where you are!" "We just wanna hold you!" And other phrases at the animals. It was at this point the sheep decided they did not need our love and ran away. Below is a picture of how close (ahem) we were to achieving our dream.

The Legend of Loftus Hall

While I was in Ireland I was taken to go on the tour of Loftus Hall with some of my Irish friends who had never seen it before. Little did we know we were about to scared out of our minds. As we entered the building before the tour started the staff gave us our tickets in the form of a playing card. Shortly after we began the tour. It was cold, overcast, and windy that day and the beginning of the whole experience was us standing outside listening to the history of the owners of the mansion. We had two tour guides who pointed out the horrible owners of the home and how no one was able to keep it long, even Cromwell had come and taken over the home at some point. I was not paying much attention thinking that the whole tour was going to be a history lesson. Then we entered into the huge mansion. The lighting was only whatever natural light came in through the mostly boarded up windows. After viewing a few rooms and being told how families would use this room as a sitting room, or this room as a dining room, we reconvened in the foyer.
This was when our tour guides asked everyone to get out their tickets/playing cards. They split us up sending those who had black number cards out into the main entrance and those with red number cards into a very dark room we had yet to go into. I had a face card and they told me to go join the people in the main entrance. There was a total of four of us now at the entrance. The guide took us into the dark room where the rest of the group was. We were told that we were going to act out the legend and the guide shut the door, leaving the room pitch black except for the dim lamp on the table.
 He had my group sit down in certain seats pretending to be the family who owned the mansion. I think because I was the only American there they decided to play with me and make me Anne, the daughter of the family. The guide began talking about the legend now, having us introduce ourselves to the other group (who ended up being servants and standing around the table). The guide said that on a particularly stormy night a ship landed at the mansion and a stranger came in to seek shelter for the night. This was when a knock on the door happened and the other tour guide came in dressed up as the stranger. It was funny because the man described to us by legend was "tall, dark, and handsome" and the guide was the typical pale Irish man. Apparently he hit it off with Anne immediately according to the legend and the guide kept making flirtatious looks at me which just made me and my friends laugh.

 According to legend the family eventually began to play a game of cards and the dressed up guide then dealt out cards to the four of us playing the family. The other guide asked us to double check that each of us got five cards. I only had four so I told him this and just casually said to check and make sure it didn't fall off the table. I bent down to look under the table and saw a hoof instead of a foot of the stranger. I screamed, a recorded scream happened, the light went out, sound effects went off and I immediately jumped up to my seat just in time for the guide to jump across the table wearing a demon mask at me then disappear. We were all terrified. It was then that the guide illuminated a hole in the ceiling and told us that apparently the stranger was supposed to have flown out through the ceiling, making a hole in it that to this day no one has been able to repair.
After this traumatizing event we went on to tour the rest of the home. The guide offhandedly mentioned that the girl Anne went insane and was locked up in the tapestry room where she died. When she died she was stuck in the form of her chair because she had been bound there so long. To this day she is supposed to

haunt the tapestry room. No lights work in this room, photos have shown ghostly figures on camera, and the guard dogs who are with the guards as they lock up the mansion for the night will not enter the room. All of these are true facts. The rest of the tour was just explaining weird things that happened until the guides took us into another dark room. They had moved back to the door as we filed into the room and quickly said, "this is the tapestry room, we will leave you here for five minutes to look around." Then shut the door. My friends and I basically wet our pants. Eventually the guides came back to get us and we were able to leave the haunted mansion.
Visit these sites for more information: https://www.facebook.com/LoftusHook
                                                         http://www.loftushall.com/

The Horseback Riding Attempt

My study abroad philosophy was that I should try as many new things as possible. An opportunity presented itself which I had never tried before; Horseback Riding. My sister used to take lessons back in the States but the closest I ever got to the horse was honking the car horn at them to let her know I was ready to pick her up and get out of there. I am slightly nervous around the creatures. Robert Downey Jr. says it best in the second Sherlock Holmes movie, "They're dangerous at both ends and crafty in the middle. Why would I want anything with a mind of its own bobbing about between my legs?" Despite the butterflies in my stomach I went along with a group of my friends for better or worse. The place we went to in Tramore, Ireland gave us some basic training then set us out on a trail...with my horse leading behind a young boy who seemed to be taunting me. Sorry I did not grow up around these animals and therefore could only show off my nonexistent skills kid. 

We trotted along through the woods and next to a beautiful lake. Apparently the woman in charge of our group was in the very back decided it was time to "gallop" or something along those lines. I was too busy looking at the scenery to start standing up and sitting down in time to the horses movements. So I just sort of bounced along while the horse did its thing. We went along the trail like this and finally returned to the arena to dismount our horses. This is when the real problem began. Everything went relatively smooth until I tried to walk. For one thing, my walk was incredibly similar to the old western movie cowboy style swagger walk. For another I was picking my legs up too high with each step and letting my knees somewhat buckle. Out of the whole experience the last thing I expected was to forget how to walk properly. Its funny the things people take for granted, like walking normally. 

Kersey's Dublin vs. Joyce's Dublin

After our group had traveled to see Dublin we began reading The Dubliners by James Joyce. My friends and I had visited the Temple Bar area in the city and enjoyed it. It seemed like the equivalent of a "college town" in America. There were young people everywhere, live music on the streets, graffiti art painted on the walls in some places, and of course an absurd amount of pubs. Needless to say, my friends and I felt like we fit in better in this section of Dublin. The contrast between the aspects of the city we saw compared to the description of Dublin especially in Joyce's stories Counterparts and Two Gallants was a bit shocking. The Dublin James Joyce knew was a shady dirty place that seemed to breed people who survived by trickery. The characters in his stories were dishonest men struggling to make ends meet, and despite those facts they blew the last of their paychecks on drinks. Just like any large city today there will be seedier areas that people, especially tourists, should be careful in. However my experience in Dublin was nothing like the picture Joyce painted.

St. Paddy's Day

Coming into St. Paddy's Day I had no clue what to expect. I had heard rumors that America crazy-fied the Holiday and Ireland did not really celebrate it as much. I would just like to say that these rumors are completely false. From Dublin to Dungarvan there were parades and parties. I started the weekend with a group of friends in Dublin to run a 5K with international students from around the world. As a part of this my group was able to march in the Dublin Paddy's Day Parade! The only problem? It snowed. After a bit of hiking, my group jumped the barriers and ran to the bus station to go back to Dungarvan. We arrived to a full Paddy's Day Party complete with students in their most obnoxious Paddy's Day Finery. Below are a few pictures from the weekend! 

 

Sunshine in Dungarvan

 The other morning something somewhat magical happened in Ireland, the sun came out! To show the sun God's that I greatly appreciated this I decided to take a little hike around Dungarvan to take pictures and explore. There really is nothing quite like the Irish scenery. Everything is so green and the nature to development ratio is much more abundant than in America.

I Didn't Chose the Pub Life...

In honor of St. Patricks Day and William Yeats, I thought I would post this little poem called A Drinking Song:

Wine comes in at the mouth

And love comes in at the eye;

That’s all we shall know for truth

Before we grow old and die.

I lift the glass to my mouth,

I look at you, and I sigh.

Dungarvan's Harbor

The group first arriving in Dungarvan!

Settling In

Dia Duit! We arrived in Ireland to a full Irish breakfast which, I have to say, trumps Egan any time. I'm glad this was the first order of the day because the long flight left some of us out of sorts. We had Bewleys tea at the actual Bewleys Hotel in Dublin and received a fantastic welcome from the people who helped connect Mercyhurst University to Dungarvan! We eventually made our way to the town by nightfall and pretty much threw our suitcases into our lovely holiday homes and hit the hotel pub. It was grand being able to celebrate our first night in Ireland with a Guiness or a Bulmers (a hard apple cider) and get to know everyone in the group!
This is about it for the moment...the jetlag is calling.