Final Blog - Service Project

I was fortunate enough to have made many different connections with a lot of different people.  One of these connections was with JP, who works at Park Lodge.  I began to learn more about who JP was and what he liked to do through helping him with various tasks around the Hotel.  We would take about traveling, like which places were good and which places to never go to at all.  We had many laughs with JP, while helping him.  JP would ask his fair bit of questions, like what did we think of our last trip or where we were planning on spending our spring break and what we like about Ireland compared to the United States.  Through our various responses, we laughed and joked about why one was better than the other and then went about with another round of questions.  It was really nice getting to know JP and what he thinks about the world of politics, schooling, and generally who he is as a family man.  This trip would not have been the same, for me, if it wasn't seeing JP walking around working on something, and stopping and having a quick chat or him making a witty joke about what someone was doing or had said.  I feel that it was with this connection that a better understanding of traveling and what makes Ireland unique, that I was able to achieve.  Sorry about not having pictures for this blog as I was usually to busy working or just forgot to snap a couple of pictures ahead of time.  Since this is my last blog I will being arriving home this weekend so if you have any questions or are interested in hearing about my adventures please get a hold of me.

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Kyle Halsted

Week Eleven - Northern Ireland Trip

Pottery From Belleek

This week we took a trip to the Northern part of Ireland.  The Northern part of Ireland is part of the England and is somewhat separated from the Ireland as a whole.  The reason that I saw it is somewhat separated from the Ireland is because there is no border control or check points to cross, there is just an invisible line.  Our first stop was to Belleek Pottery.  This is an interesting Pottery manufacture in the sense that there are twelve different artisans that work on each piece of pottery.  Seeing how each piece of pottery has been made was very interesting.  I am not an artsy person so I was more interested in the history of the factory rather than the pottery itself.  Our next stop was to Ulster American Park.  This park gave a glimpse of how the Irish people lived before the time of the potato famine.  I really enjoyed the my time here learning about the history of early Irish Immigrants.  This was only the one half of the park the other half was about the Irish immigrants when they landed in America.  We got to see the transition they faced when getting off the ship at port.  The transition would have been very usual and different from the lives that they had previously been living.  For instance getting off the ship they would be surrounded by stores that would be selling all sorts of different things.  Our last stop was in the city of Belfast.  This city was one of the larger cities that we have been too, due to the fact that it is a large shipping port.  Many people have warned me about going into the northern part of Ireland and to be careful who I talk too and who approaches me.  But I have had the privilege to go to the north during a time when peace negotiations have been happening for many years now.  However I will note that the time that I spent in Belfast I felt a lot of tension.  This tension that I felt while in Belfast is due to how divided the city is because of religion.  The city has been separated into Protestant and Catholic pieces that are fit together like a jigsaw puzzle.  Fortunately for my fellow classmates and myself we were able to travel around Belfast and back to our home away from home with no trouble at all.

Queens University

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Kyle Halsted

                  

Mural in the Titanic Quarter

Titanic Museum

Week Ten - Trip to WestPort and Croagh Patrick

Kylemore Abby

On our journey to West Port in Ireland we made a few brief stops along the way.  One of the stops that we made was to Kylemore Abby.  This is a beautiful estate in Connemara.  The monastery was build on the grounds of the home previously owned by Mitchell Henry.  The private home was transformed into the monastery in the 1900's by  Benedictine Nuns.

View from Croagh Patrick

The second stop that we made was at Croagh Patrick.  This is one of the mountains that Ireland has to offer.  The main purpose for Croagh Patrick is strongly tied to religion.  Many people climb to the top of Croagh Patrick each year to attend church.  At certain times each year there is an influx of people that visit this religious mountain to attempt the climb.  I was given the opportunity to climb it myself.  The climb itself was a very long and slow going process.  At the beginning of the climb when you first see the mountain it does not seem like it will be much of a problem.  The challenge begins when you have made it past this first quarter of the climb.  This is when the gradient of the climb begins to steepen and the further you go the steeper it seems to get,  but do not fret because there as some nice flat spots along the way to caught your breathe.  After you reach the halfway mark on the mountain yet another challenge presents itself.  This challenge is tackling the smaller loose rocks along the steepest part of the mountain.  The steepest part of the Croagh Patrick is last 100 yard to the top, which seem to be at a near vertical climb.  After you finish this portion of the mountain you are rewarded with a beautiful view of the Irish countryside.  Then you begin the final challenge of the mountain, which is to traverse back down the mountain.  The time that I was able to complete my ascent and descent of Croagh Patrick, took around 3 hours.  As everyone wander back into the bus after their climb we all sat with sore and tired legs to our final destination of West Port City.  

Bridge along the Greenway

During the second day in West Port, Zayne  and myself rented some bikes and rode them to the next town of New Port.  We took the Great Western Greenway, which is a path that is only open to people walking or riding bikes through the countryside.  The views that we say on this journey, were mostly of green pastures and lots of sheep grazing.  The greenway trail that we took to New Port was roughly 14 miles round trip.  As we finished our bike ride to New Port our day was pretty much over and we had to return back to our home away from home back in Spiddal.

 

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Kyle Halsted

Monument at Croagh Patrick

View form Croagh Patrick

Mountain along our route

Stream along our route

Week Nine - Social Connections

First Bus Ride as a group

Many different connections are being made while I am on my adventure here in Ireland.  The first connection that I made was with the people in my cabin.  Since we all came here together not really knowing each other very well, with the exception that a few people came here with a friend.  We all needed to connect and begin to mesh well together for this three month adventure.  After the first couple of days and lots of struggling to remember every ones name, I feel like we have all connected with one another.  The next form of connection that was being made, was with our teachers that are instructing us in the different classes regarding Ireland.  Each of these teachers were really easy to get to know and get a very accepting and welcoming feeling from each and every one of them.  After meeting our teachers, came meeting people out in the communities of Ireland.  Most of the time this is done while having some food in a pub and talking with a waiter or a local Irish man/woman.  They are very inquisitive about where you are from or the religion that you practice.  These are all done with a warming, inviting atmosphere and if the questions begin to get to personal they will refrain from forcing answers out of you.  This is good to get to know about them and where they are from, while also making some new friends while here.  Since I have been here and in other countries traveling, I have had the pleasure of chatting and getting to know a variety of people from all around the country.  These conversations and connections that I have made while, they may seem brief, shall be some of the best connections that I have made in such a short amount of time.

Going Lip Lining Outside of Galway

Week Seven - Language Issues

Dia Dhuit.  Conas atá tú? Tá mé go maith.  Do not worry I will not be writing this blog in complete Irish.  This is one of the more difficult things that I would say that I have learned, since being here in Ireland.  Just that simply greeting, question and response took me quite a few tries to say and even now I still cannot say that I pronounce it correct.  The first part, the greeting, Dia Dhuit and is pronounced like GeeHa whicht which is a typical greeting in Ireland meaning "Hello, good day".  The second part, the question, Conas atá tú and is pronounced like Koonas atah twoo which is a question for asking "how you are doing".  The third and final part, the response, Tá mé go maith and is pronounced like Tah May Go Mah meaning "I am good".  While I try to learn this language I resort to trying to sound the words out, like we were taught in elementary school.  For the most part this does not work.  As you can see the words do not have much of a pattern to try to sound out and have two consonants together.  The only thing that can make understanding this language is when a really thick accent is placed on top of the words.  This makes listening to people in the pubs or around town really difficult to understand.  If you think this could not get much worse you are wrong.  The thing that can make this language even more difficult is the unique pronunciations that each region in Ireland.  Some places have totally different ways to say hello or they change where the emphasis is at in the word.  Maybe you are thinking "hey,  that is pretty bad, no way this can get any worse", well I am here to tell you it can and it does.  The part that makes this language even harder to understand is when a few pints of Guinness are in an Irish man wanting to have a conversation.  I have found it easier to not ask him to repeat himself, because it can and possibly will get worse.  While the language is difficult to foreigners to speak and understand not many of the locals choose to speak much of the language.  Since I have been here I have not found a single person who solely speaks Irish, many people are bilingual.  And fret not all of the signs for direction and caution are in both Irish and English, so you do not have to speak the language to get around and have a good time in Ireland.  Go raibh maith agat le haghaidh léamh/Thanks for reading.

An Emergency Sign

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Kyle Halsted

Ireland Study Abraod

Just an informational Sign

Week Six - Daily Habits

Ocean view

Since I have been here I have made some changes when it comes to my daily routines.  One of the biggest changes is being more disconnected.  When I say this it is being disconnected from all of my electronics that I would normally be using normally when I am home.  Since I have been here it seems like all of the batteries that are in my electronics seem to have a longer life span between charges.  I have also been walking more and spent more of my time outdoors exploring and site seeing.  This is different for me because I am constantly stuck indoors working on homework and projects for school.  Another thing that has been quite refreshing is that nobody really seems to be in a rush for anything.  This is a nice change of pace from being home where it constantly seems like every one I see is rushing to finish their tasks by a certain deadline.  This allows more time for reflection and some introspection my future goals and where I want to be in the near future.

Homemade Spaghetti

Even though it seems like I have a lot of free time, I still have homework assignments that are required to be completed.  This helps me feel less homesick because it is something that I enjoy doing and reminds me of home.  Another thing that is nice and reminds me of home is all of the cooking that we do within our cabin.  The home cooked meals allow a sense of home to still be here, even though I do not get to enjoy meals prepared by my family at home.  Another thing that our cabin does to ward off the feelings of homesickness are to play lots of card games.  We play games like rummy, pitch, and even cribbage.  While playing card games help ward off some homesickness it does not fend off it all.  It is nice that everyone here is so open and willing to talk.  Since everyone here seems to have became friends in such a short time,  it feels like the connections that have been made here have lasted much longer than the few short weeks since we have all got here.

Chicken Potatoes and Rice

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Kyle Halsted

Ireland Study Abroad

Kitchen

Living room

Dining room

River by Spiddal

Week Five - Culture Insights

During my stay here in Ireland I have been able to pick up on a few differences between our two cultures.  Some of the differences that I have noticed include the views on religion and drinking habits.

To start most of the local Irish that I have talked to make the claim that to be Irish you are also Catholic.  I think that the main reason that all Irish people make this claim comes from when there was so much turmoil during religious prosecution in European countries.  During the civil war in Ireland the two sides were split based on religious views.  This kind of separation between the religions in Ireland have caused  some parts of the country to be like a puzzle.  This sense that even parts of a city have boundaries seem really confusing at first, but when I step back and look it seems fairly similar to segregation we had before the civil rights movement.  The real difference is that there segregation is still affecting the country today, while we seem to have moved passed ours for the most part.

Meal Quality from a pub

Another huge difference that I have noticed is when I spend some time in the local pubs.  Many of the locals will only have 1-2 pints before they are done at the pub.  This also includes locals around the same age as myself.  This is unique because all you ever hear about in the United States is underage drinking and binge drinking at parties.  The idea of a lower drinking age and being more involved in teaching youth how to drink responsibly is a great idea.  While talking with locals about the two drinking cultures I feel that the safer and more understood is that of the Irish Culture.

Breakfast is Served All Day

 The reason I feel this way is because more youth here understand the dangers of drinking.  This allows for more people to drink socially and to have a great time.  While pubs are like bars, bars are not like pubs.  The reason that I say this is because when in a pub, you can get restaurant quality food.  This is the main difference that distinguishes the two from each other.




This is how I have seen the two different culture.  While both are strangely similar, they each have their own unique aspects that show the greatness in each culture.

Small Church on Aran Islands

Church around Trim Castle

 













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Kyle Halsted
Ireland Study Abroad

Fourth Week in Ireland - Travels to Aran Island & Dublin

The entire goal for me during my time here was to see and experience different cultures and see what other countries had for natural landmarks.  The experience to travel around in Ireland is amazing because the landscape is so beautiful.  I was able to take two trips so far. One trip to the Aran Islands and the second to Dublin, the capital city in Ireland.

Ocean View, Aran Islands

While on the Aran Islands, we had the opportunity to see how isolated the islands would have been up until recently to the main land Ireland.  The islands are extremely beautiful and there is a constant view of the ocean no matter where you go on the islands.  The Aran Islands consist of three separate islands, one big island and two smaller islands.  While on Inishmore, the largest of the islands, we toured Dun Aengus and some of the surrounding cliffs.  Dun Aengus is a barbarian fort located on the island, which would have been used for many different things.  This site held an enormous amount of history and allowed an insight to how life was different in the early 1100 b.c. era.  The fort is located along a cliff line to help with defenses and the cliffs are a sheer drop.  Just getting close to an edge like that makes you shake just a little, because nobody really wants to fall.  Another great point that adds to the islands majestic features is the sound and color of the ocean.  But my time here was short so I was not able to see every thing and would like to return to spend some more time site seeing around the island.

Clonmacnoise

During my trip to Dublin, we had many stops along the way.  One was to a monastic settlement, a jail, and then the city itself.  There are many different monastic settlements though out Ireland and they all have an importance with the development of Ireland.  The monastic settlement that we stopped at was Clonmacnoise.  This would have been the main monastic settlement, because it was located right in the middle of Ireland.  The site was absolutely gorgeous to see with all of the stone buildings mostly intact after so long.  After this stop we went to Kilmainham Gaol (and yes that how you say it, gaol = jail in Gaelic) and this was an active jail until about 100 years ago.  This jail also had an overwhelming amount of history attached to it through out the years.  It was originally the first of its kind and had many design problems.  This were addressed in latter designs.  It has housed many prisoners and quite famous one, for example the leaders of the Easter Uprising which brought Ireland is freedom from England.  While I was in the city I had a great time exploring the layout of the city itself.  The city of Dublin feels as small as Grand Island or Kearney but has the actual size of Omaha or Lincoln.  This blew my mind that such a big city could feel so small.

Trinity College

While roaming around the city I went to Trinity College and saw the book of Kells.  The college is amazing with its architecture.  The book of Kells is located in an enormous library.  The book itself allows us to make connections between fact and fiction that is in Irish lore.  Another amazing thing that I was able to experience was Irish Whiskey and the history of Irish Whiskey.  The hardship that people making Irish Whiskey is amazing and not well known.  Do not worry I am not going to give you the entire history it would take to long sorry.  While learning about Irish Whiskey it is only natural to taste some Irish Whiskey, so that is what I did next.  I went to an Irish Whiskey brewery to taste some Irish Whiskey.  The brewery that I went to is the only one that is an active brewery in the last 40 years in Dublin.  All the other breweries move to different parts of Ireland as a consolidation process and it was cheaper at the time to brew in certain places in Ireland.  After have Whiskey for the first time ever it creates a warming affect, which feels really amazing and quite different.  The only thing that I do not like about drinking it is the burning sensation on my throat.  After my Whiskey tasting my time in Dublin was up and I had to return back to Spiddal but on our return we stopped at Trim Castle.

Trim Castle

Many know of the movie Braveheart, well this was the castle that part of it was filmed.  The Castle itself is quite astonishing today.  There is a great misconception that movies have made about castles and that is most of them were white.  Crazy right a gigantic, white building in the middle of green terrain.  This was a shock to hear and I can not imagine a castle like that to be white.

And thus my trip to Aran Islands and Dublin had to come to an end.

More pictures attached below.

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Kyle Halsted

Ireland Study Abroad

Cliffs around Dun Aengus

Land on Inishmore

How Castles Actually Looked

Kilmainham Gaol

One wing of Kilmainham

Whiskey Tasting at a Dublin Brewery

Whiskey Tasting From Whiskey Museum

Third Week in Ireland - Academic Life

Primary School in Ireland (middle)

I am going to try to explain the difference in the academic life of a typical American student to the academic life of a typical Irish student in this blog post.  The two academic lives of each student are very similar in the fact that we both have tests to study for, lessons to be learned, and the goal to finish the class with the highest possible grade.  The difference starts in how we are learning the materials for each test.  An Irish professor is more focused on discussion and interaction within the class to get points across to the students.  While an American professor is more more focused on getting important facts and historical points to the student.  Both of these types of teaching work well when wanting the students to do well on a test or exam, but I feel that learning information through the discussion of the topic allows for the students to better know the material later in life.  While it seems that having just facts to learn makes students use to just regurgitating information rather than actually learning the information needed later in life.  That is the main difference that I have seen since I have spent my time here in Ireland learning from the Irish professors in all of my classes.

Secondary School In Ireland

Another big difference that is quite notable is the duration of classes.  Each class is around 4 hours in length.  This is very different from the classes in the United States, which are only around an hour to an hour and a half in length.  This may only be the current classes that I am taking but I find it hard to sit and learn for 4 hours without some sort of fidgeting throughout the class.  The classes are however broken up with breaks and class discussions about important or controversial topics that pull every one into the conversation.  For the overall experience of classes is super wonderful and a great change of pace from what I am useful when taking classes back in the States.

Local Library in Ireland

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Kyle Halsted
Ireland Study Abroad

Second Week in Ireland - Daily Insight

Since I have been here, I have done a wide variety of things.  I have participated in tours of cities and have had some things to drink in the local pubs in each city.  Each and every day the goal is to get all your homework done early so you can go and have a pint at the local pub to relax after a hard time of studying.  Many of the local are really talkative, and they all are bilingual which is really nice.  Most of the time the locals will approach you and start asking you questions like "where are you from?' or "how much land do you own?" or if you have any horses.  Many of these questions seem random but they are interesting to try to explain when most people have not left the island and do not know the size of the United States.  Since every one can speak in English and also in Gaelic the stories and conversation can get pretty interesting.  Some of the words that are used when describing elements from a story that is being told need more explanation because of the translating issue.

Live Music at The King's Head

During the week there is not very many people in local pubs, except for some nice older gentlemen that like to have a conversation, no matter how quick or what the question is, they seem to enjoy answering and conversing with every one.  The time to go to the pub is on a Friday or Saturday night.  On these two nights is when all of the younger generation is out and about looking for a good time.  This is also the times when most pubs have live music being played by either a local band or upstarting artists.  During the time that I listened to the live music at a pub in Galway
called "The King's Head".  This was not a stereotypical Irish jig that they were playing,  the song list included songs by ColdPlay, Darius Rucker, ACDC, Michael Jackson and many more.  While the band played full songs from all of these artists they also did a mash-up of hit television and popular music.  This was a great time and encourage anyone that travels to Ireland to stop into one of the local pubs and listen to what the live music because it will almost ensure a great time.

Typical Weather in Ireland

While traveling on the weekend is not always going to be a possibility, and the weather is most likely going to be rainy,  a good pass time is reading.  Many of the Irish books that were recommended to me by our Literary Professor fill up the time between classes and eating lunch or dinner quite nicely.  The books may not be the easiest to start but once they pick up you never want to put them down and will hook your interest for quite some time.

Coffee from Insomnia cafe

Sorry this seems so long but it is just a glimpse of what I do on a daily basis while I am here in Ireland.

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Kyle Halsted
Ireland Study Abroad