Cultural Differences

When walking into an office for an appointment, or someones house as a guest, in America, what is the first thing they may ask you?  I guess it may depend on where you may be, but it usually goes like, do you want something to drink or often times there may be no offering. You just have to ask.  Here on the Emerald Island however, they always try their best to be as kind and thoughtful.  Not just a "Nebraska Nice" where they are doing it cause its the right thing to do, but because they are genuinely concerned and care about the well being of who is right in front of them.  So, back to the first sentence, in america, depending on where you may be, you are maybe offered a drink.  Here however, it is a genuine yet specific question of, would you like tea or coffee?  Saying no, not an option, by the way.  Tried that at the nursing  home where we are doing our service project, and yet I still ended up with a cup of tea in front of me. The tea and coffee here however, is nothing like back at home. They are both so much richer with flavour and authenticity.  Definitely say yes to that cup of tea or coffee, you would be missing out if you said no.

wood carver form Sligo

With that said, it just shows that culturally, the Irish behaviors tend to be more thoughtful.   Now I have an american accent and possibly still, after living here 3 months, may look like a tourist, so it could be possible that they are only acting kind for that reason. I must say, the men over about say 40 are delightful.  They are more than happier to help out and do it in a most gracious, loving way.  From taxi drivers, to security guards, to wood carvers, to jewelers, to people passing by. They will tell you about their whole life story with no worry to time.  I feel as though my description is not doing them justice. Come here and you will most definitely experience it.  The women tend to keep to them selves on the other hand. By the way, do not be shocked if you get asked about Trump 2-10 times a day.

The Irish may have the stereotype of drinking all the time, which is true to some extent, however, the Irish are Hard workers.  Over and Over again have we been told in our history class how hard the Irish work.  After Witnessing the Lodge assistant owner and handy man, this statement is very true.  His name is Jean Paul, J.P. for short.  He knows so much  information about traveling, finding good cheap transportation and when and when not to go to certain countries.  He also, is always working whenever I see him around.

my view on my morning or morning run... 

Sense of humor also, is their second language here.  If you do not have any ounce of sarcasm, it could be rough trying to get around .  They joke and occasionally a couple vulgar words may slip out, but in the most beautiful way. Not that I encourage this behavior, however, coming from an Irish man, it almost sounds like art, and not anything to be offended by.


I have always felt safe here in Ireland, I have not once felt unsafe.  I can go on a walk in the country side by the cows and the rock walls and not have to worry about anything.  Obviously, it is good to have that little light of caution in the back of your mind, however, culturally, I feel as though the people here were raised to enjoy life, be kind and have fun.  I also love the way in which they live life so simply.  Day to day life doesn't fly by here.  They do not take good to people rushing them.  I also see a lot of people exercising
and riding  bikes, and walking a lot more.

Culturally, from where I was raised, in Nebraska, these seem as major differences to me.  How a person was raised depends a lot on location, religion and many other factors.  I most definitely love the fact that I have been able to be submerged in the culture for a prolonged time.

Class in Ireland has been quite a new experience.  I would compare it to a chalk board.  Not just any chalk board, this chalk board.  This is the chalk board in our daily classroom.  If you notice, there are three main colors.  Yellow stands for my culture class, pink stands for my history class and blue stands for the literature class.  My Special topics class is the black board itself. 

Yellow:

My culture class has been a great experience so far.  We have had the chance to learn to bake some fresh vegetable Irish stew and cheesy potatoes.  We have learned the basics of the Irish language. For example we have learned to say hello, and their Irish welcome which is "A hundred thousand welcomes".   We have also been learning about Iris folklore.  My favorite story so far is about the mermaids and how they lure people out then capture their souls.  It definitely is the complete of opposite of what we think of mermaids.  Ariel would be disappointed.  Our next item of learning in our culture class is the Irish tin Whistle.  This has so far been my favorite part about this class.  A younger music teacher who plays her Irish instruments amazingly, comes in three or four Mondays and teaches us the basic of Playing.   Our class definitely sounds like the5th graders learning the Recorder.  We have learned the difference between a polka and a Waltz, and other unique Celtic Instruments.   

 Pink:
History class is the designated color, as when I think of the color pink, I tend to think of a little crazy and bright; Which is how I would describe my History class.  We tend to get into raging debates taking most of the class period.  Our instructor is a little more careful about the topics he tends to ask us about now. Our Professor tries to relate Irish history to us as much as possible, knowing that we do not have all the Irish background history that most kids our age here, would have.  We are talking about the Easter rising since it is the Centennial year of this monumental year of 1916.  We also had a debate in one of the most famous Pubs in Galway. It is also very historical as it is called the Kings Head.  It was named after the first king who was beheaded to stop the monarchy and start a democracy.  It is an amazing feeling to learn something in class and then to go out the next day or so and see something you just talked about.


Blue:
My literature class would be described as blue because blue is a mellow color.  In literature class, we study a lot of different types of poetry, literature styles written by Irish authors and a couple different plays. This class can sometimes be lengthy as our professor is very into what he is teaching about.  The poet we are studying a lot of is Yeats.  When we went into Sligo for a weekend, we saw murals of Yeats' poems.  We found out later that he was from the town of Sligo.


The homework load is pretty manageable.  There is a lot of reading if you don't pace yourself.  The books to choose from for Lit are really good books.  It is nice to grab a book in your free time  and sit down in the sun and just read and read and read.







The class room where we study is a nice little lounge with comfortable couches and red carpet .  When the Wi-Fi  is a little weak, we come inhere or we come in here just to hangout.  We mostly do our work in  our cabins, but when you need a change of scenery, this is the place to go. 








The room where we have class is the hotel activity room.  I like this room  as  it has wood en floors and antique style desk chairs.  They have a pool table and a ping pong table.  There is a big window in the front  that gives off a lot of natural light for class.

Since our special topics class is the black board, it is the basis of all our classes.  As we go out and see things on field trips, and our service projects, we are able to apply each color on our chalkboard.
                                                                                                                  

Bijou

One of the past field trips we went on two weeks ago, was to Dublin.  Dublin is on the east side of Ireland(opposite side of where we are studying).  We left on a Tuesday morning and stopped at a monastery that is inland.  It had beautiful stone structures and intricate head stones by the graves. The crosses detail was however, faded from acid rain.  It was definitely a beautiful day as the sky was a vibrant blue and the clouds popped out.  The pope visited this monastery about ten years ago and over couple thousand people showed up.  There were other structures just randomly placed here, which added to the beautiful day even more.  While walking, our feet sunk into the damp grass and we would occasionally come across an old stone with an old Irish name written upon it. 


After leaving the monastery, we soon arrived in the beautiful yet unique city of Dublin.  You soon felt small.  As though you were just an ant going along your daily business just like the other hundreds of ants.  We got off the bus and entered the Kilmane Jail.  It was owned by the British back during the war in the 20th century.

Kilmane Prison

 It was a very fascinating Jail.  The walls and ceiling towered over you in a very intimidating manner.  The lights were harsh, the walls were cold and it was damp and uncomfortable.   The cells were cramped with chalky, white, speckled walls.  Our tour guide was very friendly in a very dramatic way.  He was tall and kind of lanky. He soon led us to a huge room with three floors of cells in a huge dome.  You almost felt slightly uncomfortable knowing how many historical figures stayed in those cells and never left.

P.S. I Love You filming spot

We were then let lose in the City of Dublin, with not even a map in hand, and the river as our only guiding point, we hopped on a tram and landed in the center of the City.

Museum of ModernArt

The next couple of days we split off and walked about 10-20 miles total.  We visited the Art museum of  Modern Art.  It definitely was modern, and I definitely racked my brain trying to understand it.  Still occasionally do.  After this we walked to Dublin Castle, and we found the pub, Whaelens, where "P.S. I love you" was filmed.  The City is so Historic and has beautiful historic buildings.  



Long Room

 We also visited Trinity college and saw the Book of Cells which was in the Long Room.   This room was the big room, with thousands of books that smelled like years and years of knowledge, use and dust.  Trinity College is the Harvard of Ireland.

Hostel Stair case

Dublin at night

My favorite part of Dublin however, was the English feel of the people.  Very much different than the rural Ireland that we have been so immersed in.  I also love how most cities here are based on a river.  The colorful buildings catch the reflection on the water creating a real life painting. 
 
Also, the bridges at night are one sight to see.  The water moves in a slow tiresome, wave like motion causing the reflection of the light to slowly move with the river, but still keeping the image in tact.  Our hostel was very nice.   I was on the very top floor which was three flights of a beautiful old almost Victorian spiral stair case.  as you looked up at the gap in between the stairs, your gaze got lost in the continuous pattern of stairs going round and round and round.  As soon as I made it to the top of the stairs, and caught my breath a couple times, I walked into my room that was shared with 5 others from our program.  The window view was my favorite.  You over looked the City at night and saw one of the important buildings right in front, with the spotlights highlighting its importance. 

The next morning we walked not even a half mile from the hostel to have Irish pancakes with Chocolate (melted nutella), bananas, and ice cream.  We then hopped on a bus and headed to the Irish Parliament.  This building was absolutely beautiful, but surprisingly much smaller than our capital building in Washington D.C.  I most definitely enjoyed Dublin and would definitely go back!

looking over the castle

On our way back we visited a castle.  It was called Trim Castle.  It was where the movie brave heart was filmed.  We went to the top of the three story castle and from the top I could see beautiful rolling hills, church steeples reaching for the sky, rivers weaving in and out of hills, smoke from chimneys and old ruins of ancient buildings. 

This was a very memorable field trip and will definitely want to make it back to these places.

Looking over the castle

Art Museum

Daily Life

Daily life is as exciting as you make it.  I have a will to do fun and exciting adventures which add extra excitement to this semester and life in general!  I will start with the basics though.  It gets a little chilly in the cabins, so having warm sweatpants are God send, but what else is God send are these amazing hot water bottles, and water boilers.  They have water boilers in the U.S., however, I had never seen one.  I use it all the time, I use it to make tea, coffee, and to put it in the water bottles.  Every morning I wake up about 8-8:30 and maybe go for a run if the motivation hits me.  I then come back and make coffee or tea and have toast, get ready for the day and go to class for four hours.  After class is when the self motivated adventures can begin.  Here are some things that are mostly a part of my daily life. 

Walks to Spiddal
   I love walking to Spiddal.  Every single time I walk the 25 minutes to get there, something fun or exciting happens.  For example, in these past four weeks, I have managed to trip over a dog, run into a pole, drop my fresh peppers in the road and get splashed by the cars speeding by.  When I say splash, I mean drenched.  I am very thankful for water proof clothing.



Adventures to the Ocean
  From coming from a state where the ocean is about a 30-40 hour drive, a 5 minute walk is refreshing.  There are two types of beaches that I have ran across here.  Sandy beaches are about a 20 min walk both directions. My favorite however, are the rocky beaches.  There are so many treasures to find in them!  If you like to climb, they are basically an adult playground.  I found several sitting rocks that overlook the water, which fit perfectly for when you need fresh air and time to think.  However, mind the black rocks, they are granite and very slippery.  Just ask my swollen Knee...  I also love picking up seashells or taking pictures of the seashells.

 
The cabin
I have three room mates!  They are great and we all contribute equally for the most part, to helping with cleaning, cooking and dishes.   I wasn't very good at cooking or confident, but now, with guidance from my roomies, I can successfully make delectable dishes with noodles, pasta, quiche, and rice casseroles!  They make awesome fries and other delicious food.  I get cabin fever often and to cure it, I go for a walk or run to the ocean. 

Daily life here is definitely a little bit more interesting than it is at home.    It has also taught me my love for china dishes, as we use them daily.

However, everything I have done from day to day has only taught me more about life and my problem solving skills have definitely been put to use.