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.

More Travel Experiences to Come

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

More Travel Experiences to Come
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.

More Experiences to Come

Kyle Halsted
Ireland Study Abroad

First International Travel Experience

This is my first time traveling outside of the United States of America.  I have done some domestic flying while living in the US and it was not terrible, but was scary the very first time.  This time was no different.  From booking all the information and arriving to the airport on time, it gets pretty stressful.  After boarding the plane from Omaha

Meal from Plane ride

to Newark, was when it finally hit me that I was starting my first trip abroad but it had not fully sunk in, that I was traveling to another country.  This plane ride seemed fairly short compared to the international flight.  While on the international flight I watched a few movies and had a decent supper while in flight.  It was not until I finally landed in Shannon, Ireland that it hit me, that I am currently in a different country.  The first day here was rough, due to having jet lag and trying to get acclimated to the new surroundings.  The second day I got to learn some Irish words and then went to the local pubs in Spiddal.  It was a new experience having my first alcoholic beverage.  My very first drink was an authentic Irish Guinness.  The initial experience of this shocked me at first but as I continued it did not seem as bad.  I will say that drinking is a very different and unique experience.  I have also been on a walking tour of both Spiddal and Galway.  I hope to learn more about these cities and all of the cities while I am here and in a later blog, I will hopefully share all of the new information that I come across about the cities while here in Ireland.  I am also excited and very anxious for the cheap trips during my spring break and will eventual have tons of pictures to share from these experiences.

First Drink

More Travel Experiences to Come,

Kyle Halsted
Ireland Study Abroad