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Study Abroad in Ireland~!


Truth and Lies

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Truth and Lies

(First things first, forgive me if I put this in the wrong section. Wasn't sure where to share my excitement. x.x)

Hello, my fellow Avenites! I have not been very active recently, which a hectic school and volunteering schedule, but I am done with the Spring semester and I thought I would share my exciting news with you folks. I am going on a study abroad trip to Ireland to delve into its film and theatre in late June.

I believe this is a very big step for me for a few reasons. For one, I am heavily dependent on my family, and this will be a test to see how well I do away from them for a month. Also, I feel that it is a great opportunity to learn about myself, how well I deal with the stress of being in a new environment and whatnot. And I really hope this will teach me to be more independent.

The class officially begins on June 28th in Dublin, but another person and I are arriving a week early in Shannon, on June 21st, in order to go around and sight see. :D

Our week is basically planned out like this:

  • Arrive in Shannon and find our way to Killarney
  • Do a Ring of Kerry bus tour
  • Go horseback riding in Killarney
  • Find our way down to Portmagee and go to Skellig Rock
  • Travel to Cork to look around the city and then go to Blarney Castle to kiss the Blarney Stone
  • Head up, possibly to Waterford and Wexford for more sightseeing (Waterford crystal and Wexford beaches)
  • Arrive in Dublin to drop off our luggage, then meet with another person and go hiking in Wicklow National Park

After all of that, the class will begin, and we will be staying in Dublin for one week at Trinity College. We will be doing tours of the city, going to theatres, cinemas, and the like. We may even go on a tour of the Guinness factory. Though that will be independent from the course.

4-751-85.guinness.m.jpg

Because Guinness. :lol: (Despite that, I will have you all know that I will not be drinking at all on this trip. xD)

The next two weeks will be spent in Galway, going to film festivals and art festivals and even heading over to the Aran Islands and going around on bikes. (Problem: I don't know how to ride a bike. O_o; ) We will be doing a lot of other stuff, I gather, but the details remain to be... told.

In addition, there will be a few free days in both Dublin and Galway where we can explore on our own, so if anyone in that area would like to arrange a meet-up... :3

So, enough of my squeeing and curling in fear at riding a bike when one doesn't know how to ride a bike. I'd like to ask you all, native or not native to Ireland, what your experiences are in this country:

  • How are people's attitudes towards tourists?
  • Good experiences in youth hostels?
  • How is the climate during this time of year (June 20th-July 20th)?
  • Any attractions or sights that are "must sees" around Dublin or Galway?
  • Clothing to bring? (I am a t-shirt/shorts kind of person, so I want to know if I should buy long sleeves or more pants or whatnot.)
  • Food?
  • Aaaand, any other worthwhile information or just fun facts or experiences?

If y'all have stayed for this much rambling, I will ask you to stay a bit longer just so I can vent out some of my uncertainties. :rolleyes:

I have never flown on an airplane before. (I mean, unless you count that one time when I was ten months old. >.>) I will be on the flight to Ireland alone, and I for one am very worried about going through all of that airport nonsense stuff (flying out of LAX, here o_o) without anyone else to help me out. There is a stop in JFK on the east coast, and more airport stuff. Would anyone care to share their experiences on flights and the like?

And another thing: food. I am on a limited budget that is subject to change whenever the euro goes up or down, and I have been told it is cheaper to just cook for yourself. Most of the youth hostels I have looked at have kitchens to use, and the shared apartments we will be staying in during the course have kitchens as well, so would anyone be able to recommend me any stores to look for to buy good ingredients and I don't know, whatever else anyone thinks would be useful?

Thank you for listening to my excited/worried rambling. ^_^ (Also, as a side note, I do plan on at least learning how to pronounce stuff in Irish so I hopefully don't make a fool of myself butchering words and names.)

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SorryNotSorry

My old foreman, Salty John, once said he tried to study a broad, and she smacked him one!

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scarletlatitude

I've never studied abroad, but from my vacation trips I know this --- be prepared to change your food options a lot. The grocery stores in Europe are 1/10th of an American store. There are the same basic items, just fewer varieties. One of my family friends buys Froot Loops on the internet, because he can't get them in France and he loves them. If you have a favorite something, you may not be able to find it over there. However if you're like me and you're pretty much up for eating anything that looks edible, you'll be fine. :)

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hi truth and lies, i hope you enjoy ireland. It sounds quite fun what you and your friend have palnned. I hope you both enjoy it. The trip to galway is for the galway arts festival?

Weather wise it can vary quite a bit. This week, we've seen thunder, hale, lighting, heavy rain while today was glorious with sun.

But this is not every week that we have such variances in weather.

I'm not sure about the other stuff as they'd not be my areas but if you need any further help or information, please post in this thread or pm me.

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Commander Werther
  • How are people's attitudes towards tourists?
  • Good experiences in youth hostels?
  • How is the climate during this time of year (June 20th-July 20th)?
  • Any attractions or sights that are "must sees" around Dublin or Galway?
  • Clothing to bring? (I am a t-shirt/shorts kind of person, so I want to know if I should buy long sleeves or more pants or whatnot.)
  • Food?
  • Aaaand, any other worthwhile information or just fun facts or experiences?

If y'all have stayed for this much rambling, I will ask you to stay a bit longer just so I can vent out some of my uncertainties. :rolleyes:

I have never flown on an airplane before. (I mean, unless you count that one time when I was ten months old. >.>) I will be on the flight to Ireland alone, and I for one am very worried about going through all of that airport nonsense stuff (flying out of LAX, here o_o) without anyone else to help me out. There is a stop in JFK on the east coast, and more airport stuff. Would anyone care to share their experiences on flights and the like?

And another thing: food. I am on a limited budget that is subject to change whenever the euro goes up or down, and I have been told it is cheaper to just cook for yourself. Most of the youth hostels I have looked at have kitchens to use, and the shared apartments we will be staying in during the course have kitchens as well, so would anyone be able to recommend me any stores to look for to buy good ingredients and I don't know, whatever else anyone thinks would be useful?

Thank you for listening to my excited/worried rambling. ^_^ (Also, as a side note, I do plan on at least learning how to pronounce stuff in Irish so I hopefully don't make a fool of myself butchering words and names.)

OKAY! THIS IS GOING TO BE SO MUCH FUN :D YOU ARE GOING TO HAVE A GREAT TIME! Ireland is a wonderful and beautiful place and Ive never loved visiting somewhere as much as I have this beautiful country x)

Ive found nothing but nice people in Ireland, they were not rude to me (a tourist) and a few random people just talked to me on the street! (dont worry about pronouncing things in an Irish accent! they will understand you! ^.^)

JFK isnt scary, everything is well marked and theres a food court :) its very nice.

I visited the north of Ireland and Belfast during the middle of winter so I cant help too much on the other questions but I just hope you will have as wonderful a time as I did!

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scarletlatitude

Ooooo I didn't see that you asked about planes...

I am a frequent flier. I live in NC and my family is in PA, so I fly back and forth every holiday.

  1. Keep your stuff with you. Don't leave it unattended. (The TSA takes this VERY seriously. They'll treat unattended bags like bomb threats.)
  2. If there's anything you don't want to lose, keep it in your carry on luggage. I've only had my bag lost once, and thankfully it all came back eventually. (There was this whole mess with the weather and different planes...)
  3. Watch out for their liquids restrictions. For carry on liquids: http://www.tsa.gov/traveler-information/3-1-1-liquids-rule
  4. List of stuff you can and can't have on planes: http://www.tsa.gov/traveler-information/prohibited-items
  5. ALWAYS wrap your liquids and cremes in plastic bags. The pressure changes from being up so high sometimes causes the bottles to pop open. You don't want that mess.
  6. If you get sick easily, get some Dramamine or another motion sickness medicine. I take Dramamine before every flight and it helps me soooooo much. You can never tell when the weather might get rocky. Sometimes planes can feel like roller coasters. (They do sell it in those airport convenience stores. ;) )

The biggest tip I can give you for a plane is to just stay calm. You won't do yourself any favors getting all upset. No matter what happens, shake it off.

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Truth and Lies

hi truth and lies, i hope you enjoy ireland. It sounds quite fun what you and your friend have palnned. I hope you both enjoy it. The trip to galway is for the galway arts festival?

Weather wise it can vary quite a bit. This week, we've seen thunder, hale, lighting, heavy rain while today was glorious with sun.

But this is not every week that we have such variances in weather.

I'm not sure about the other stuff as they'd not be my areas but if you need any further help or information, please post in this thread or pm me.

The trip to Galway is indeed partly for the Galway International Arts Festival, among other things. It sounds fun. Have you attended it before?

Oh, wow. That is a lot of different weather you have there. I'm a California person (who incidentally loves rain and the cold), so I only really see mild, hot, or extremely hot and dry. I will be very excited to see weather changes. Crossing my fingers that I see some rain. o_o (On one trip a few years ago, the instructor said that they didn't have any rain whilst they were there.)

OKAY! THIS IS GOING TO BE SO MUCH FUN :D YOU ARE GOING TO HAVE A GREAT TIME! Ireland is a wonderful and beautiful place and Ive never loved visiting somewhere as much as I have this beautiful country x)

Ive found nothing but nice people in Ireland, they were not rude to me (a tourist) and a few random people just talked to me on the street! (dont worry about pronouncing things in an Irish accent! they will understand you! ^.^)

JFK isnt scary, everything is well marked and theres a food court :) its very nice.

I visited the north of Ireland and Belfast during the middle of winter so I cant help too much on the other questions but I just hope you will have as wonderful a time as I did!

I am glad to hear that the people are nice! The instructor has told me that often, even if you don't talk (say at pubs and stuff), people will come up and talk to you.

Thank you for telling me about JFK. Getting through all the airport stuff is definitely my number one concern at this point. I have been interrogating whoever I can about planes and airports and flights and stuff, though none of them have been on an international flight before so they don't know if there's any additional restrictions because of that.

Ooooo I didn't see that you asked about planes...

I am a frequent flier. I live in NC and my family is in PA, so I fly back and forth every holiday.

  1. Keep your stuff with you. Don't leave it unattended. (The TSA takes this VERY seriously. They'll treat unattended bags like bomb threats.)

  2. If there's anything you don't want to lose, keep it in your carry on luggage. I've only had my bag lost once, and thankfully it all came back eventually. (There was this whole mess with the weather and different planes...)

  3. Watch out for their liquids restrictions. For carry on liquids: http://www.tsa.gov/traveler-information/3-1-1-liquids-rule

  4. List of stuff you can and can't have on planes: http://www.tsa.gov/traveler-information/prohibited-items

  5. ALWAYS wrap your liquids and cremes in plastic bags. The pressure changes from being up so high sometimes causes the bottles to pop open. You don't want that mess.

  6. If you get sick easily, get some Dramamine or another motion sickness medicine. I take Dramamine before every flight and it helps me soooooo much. You can never tell when the weather might get rocky. Sometimes planes can feel like roller coasters. (They do sell it in those airport convenience stores. ;) )

The biggest tip I can give you for a plane is to just stay calm. You won't do yourself any favors getting all upset. No matter what happens, shake it off.

Thank you very much for all the information! I will definitely go to those links and read up on whatever I can. I definitely don't want to bring anything that will only get confiscated in the end.

Some more questions have popped into mind concerning airports and flights.

  • Is it safe to keep in my piercings? I have nine ear piercings, all rather small, but two of them are healing and another is having some infection problems, and I do not want to take them out at all. I gather, if they can see it, it may not be a problem? It's not a lot of metal. Six studs, three small hoops.
  • Which seat would you recommend I try to get on a plane? Window seat, aisle seat? Any section that may be best, or does it really just depend on the plane?

Again, thank you to everyone who has responded. :) I'm very happy to receive any information I can that may help me out.

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awkwardfeminist

How exciting! I've never been to Ireland, but I went on an exchange (to Vancouver) last year and it was a lovely experience.

Piercings aren't a problem when flying, at least not in my experience. I prefer the window seat but usually pick the aisle seat when flying alone, just because it's easier to get up and move around if I get restless or need to go to the bathroom. And I agree with everything scarletlatitude wrote about flying. Bring snacks, too! (I am definitely the kind of person who snacks out of boredom, especially on flights, but it's nice if you feel sick or the food is terrible or something.)

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