Inis Mor

Posted on July 18, 2015 by Jennifer Hight

So for the last portion of my trip, my class and I have been staying in the lovely city of Galway. I personally love it. It is beautiful. It looks like a traditional Irish village but it big enough that there is always something fun to do. Personally I’m just excited that I get to run around in a really cool city and have lots of fun. I like it even better than Dublin, which is awesome.

But we haven’t just stayed in Galway. Yesterday out class was loaded into a bus and taken out to Inis Mor, an island off of the Irish coast. To get there we had to take a ferry ride and I believe the sea was mad at us. It was the most brutal boat ride I can remember, with us being tossed around and rolled. Even worse was the fact that I spent the entire time panicking. The waves threw us sideways at one point which sent me into a flashback of the accident I was in earlier this year. If that had been the end of it, I would have been fine. But instead we were thrown around for another 30 minutes so I had a panic attack and spent the entire time sobbing hysterically. But I made it off the ferry and was rewarded for my bravery with this…

Ruins! Wonderful, beautiful 7-8th century ruins of the monastic community that once lived on Inis Mor! OHMYGODITWASAMAZING!!! I may or may not have run around the ruins like a hyper active six year old yelling at the top of my lungs about the great historic treasure we were seeing while everyone else stared at me like I was insane. But hey, it got my mind off the ferry ride.

Now I should probably describe the island for you all. Inis Mor is a god forsaken (get it? Cause of the abandoned monastic community?) chunk of rock off the Irish coast. It’s only ten miles length wise, and two across. The soil was created by the first settlers who made it out of seaweed and sand so they could live there. Hearing that, I began to question the sanity of these individuals. Ireland is just an afternoon boat ride away. You can see it from the island. And these people chose to stay there? Crazy.

But the view does make up for it.

All around the island are these stone walls. At first we thought they were for farms, but they’re not. The island is so rocky that when farmers were planting their fields, they kept creating piles of rocks. Unsure of what to do with them, they then created all the walls we saw.

And one of the most impressive walls is the ancient fort: Dun Aonghasa. Built in the early broze age, it is the oldest fort in all of Europe. To get there, we had to climb straight up a mountain. I went nice and slow not to stress my leg and it was beautiful to look out over Inis Mor and see the landscape stretching out. The view at the top was just as spectacular as the rest.

The fort once was away from the cliffs, but the years have eroded it so it hangs off over the edge of one. Now, you may be wondering why I look so ridiculous in this picture. The reason is simple. At the top of the mountain, gale force wind hits you. It knocked me back a couple of feet when I first got there. The entire time I was slanted sideways into the wind.

It really made me miss my little brother Spencer. He’s about a foot taller than me, so when we go to places like this he is my babysitter. His job in high wind conditions is to keep a firm hold of my hood so I don’t get blown off over the cliff. Without him there I had to make sure I didn’t get knocked over the edge.

It was a great little day trip. And the ancient history I saw made me ridiculously excited. Seriously. I was the most excited person once off the ferry of doom. I would love to got back there some other time when it is not super windy and spend more time poking aroung Dun Aonghasa and the surrounding shops.

Week 1

Posted on July 17, 2015 by Courtney Richardson

ah dear wou blog, so much has happened since we last spoke that I feel the need to be ridiculously overdramatic. Sunday we had orientation in the morning and then had the rest of the day to do whatever we wanted. I went with a group to see the changing of the guard, but we didn’t have a very good view so I basically just saw the parade. After that, my group went through St. James’s park and then over to Big Ben and Westminster abbey. The abbey was so gorgeous but we couldn’t go in because it was Sunday. That night I went with some friends from class out to dinner at this burger place down the street. They had fantastic milkshakes that reminded me of mike’s drive-in near my house so that was awesome. Monday was the first day of class and it was fairly interesting we learned about the basis of the English government system. That night we went out to Leicester square for dinner which was really nice, I know I’ll be spending loads more time out there later. Tuesday was my first day off and I went with some classmates to go see the changing of the guard. We got there early and got some pretty decent spots for the whole shebang, after that we went out to the barracks and goofed off there for a little bit before heading to Westminster. The line to get into the abbey was really long so we skipped it for now. That night we went out to the London bridge and then walked over to the tower bridge and the Tower of London. We would have gone in but they were closed for the evening so we just enjoyed the scenery. Wednesday was class day two and we talked more about crime in England and it was really cool learning about the difference between the U.S. and the UK. I was exhausted after class and decided to take a lazy day that ended with a show. There’s this really cool little theater not far from us and they were doubt productions of Shakespeare’s king Henry V. It was an all female production with everyone except Henry also being a member of the chorus. Not gonna lie it was really cool. Thursday marked our first field trip and we went out to battle to see the battlefield and battle abbey from the battle of Hastings in 1066. The British will tell you that that was the last time that they were successfully invaded so that’s pretty cool. I went shopping that night out in Leicester square. They have a big m&m store, not quite as big as the one in Vegas but pretty close. Today I went on a CCSA field trip to Salisbury and Stonehenge. At Salisbury they had the best preserved copy of the Magna Carta and had a big display because of the 800th anniversary of the document. Stonehenge was a bunch of old rocks in fancy positions and it was more interesting when you think about the history of the place and how old it is and how much effort must have been put into it. Tomorrow I’m off to Ireland to see the lovely Jen Hight while she’s over there. I wanted to see it anyway but since it’s her last weekend I’m going now to see it with her. Oh and I went to the first Hard Rock Cafe tonight and got my pin and shirt so I’m content for now.

Here, have some photos

A gate at buckingham palace

Me at buckingham palace

Me me with my new buddy Big Ben

The outside of Westminster abbey

A tomb at Salisbury cathedral. I have no idea why the photo is upside down but I don’t care enough to fix it.

returning home.

Posted on July 16, 2015 by Elaina Snow

Returning home was such a relief. When I first showed up in Italy everything just felt very chaotic and rushed, traffic was crazy, people trying to sell stuff. Compared to America it was just walk right to my car without bumping into people, driving was normal again. It was nice.

The airports in America I feel are way more nice and helpful. I had a problem when returning and they helped solve the problem right away. Compared to Italy I had a hard time with some workers they were really rude just because I didn’t speak Italian, then I had two Italian boys try the same request for me and they helped them no problem (it was not a language barrier thing.)

I was super tired when I got to Italy I fell asleep and slept in the next day for like 13 hours. When I got back to America I was surprisingly not as tired as I thought I would be, I tried to stay up for 24 hours so when I went to sleep here I could get back on a normal sleep schedule. That really helped with the jet lag.

First Impressions

Posted on July 16, 2015 by Jenna Beresheim

Halfway through my first week in London, and I can still hardly believe that I made it here. Today has been my first real shot at ‘down time’ upon arriving.

My trip here was long, but decent. An eight hour flight took my friends and I from Oregon to Iceland, where we soon boarded a plane from Iceland to London, which ended up being nearly three hours. Our arrival at the place we would be staying was not until late afternoon. By then, we barely had time to unpack before we opted into a walking tour of the area to see where everything was in relation to our rooms. Once that was finished, we immediately walked the few blocks to the college for a dinner and orientation with everyone involved in the program – the three of us nearly falling asleep the entire time due to our overnight travels.

To say I slept like the dead that night would be an understatement.

On Sunday, we had another morning orientation, then headed off with a group of people to see the Spitalfields Market. There, we saw crowds of vendors and sampled delicious foods. I personally had lunch from an Eritrean food stall since it is one of my favorites and hard to find around my home town. In our walking around, we experienced multiple cultures and languages just in passing — much more than an average day in Oregon. On the way out, we sampled some chocolate coconut tea that was to die for, and a friend and I purchased a few grams of it to have in our rooms and take back to the states. It tasted as if you were eating coconut chocolate. . . quite a delicious flavor for a tea, if you ask me.

Monday was my first class for Myth, Legend, and Horror. The professor is wildly intelligent and often times gets carried away with random subjects as he knows so much about everything. A welcomed resource in this foreign town. So far, I have yet to have trouble finding food that is acceptable for vegans. A lot of their foods are labeled clearly in relation to whether they are vegetarian friendly, and so forth. Of all the foods I have sampled so far, there have been no disappointments. Everything is so fresh and delicious compared to back in the states. My little group even noticed that their expiration dates come sooner, probably because they do not load it with preservatives and so forth.

Tuesday was our first field trip day for Myth, Legend, and Horror. The first stop on the map was Warwick Castle, a beautiful, well-preserved chunk of history. The castle was enormous and each room within it held various time periods to show how life changed within its walls throughout history. There were manicured rose gardens and even a working trebuchet – ultimately making the trip worth it.

From there, we hopped back on the train to head for Stratford, where Shakespeare was born and buried. The little town was so cute and almost seemed set back in time – the buildings old yet well taken care of. There were statues around erected in memory of Shakespeare, and places boasting more amazing food and random items for sale. My friends and I even entered a magic shop, complete with hilarious host and scrumptious butterbeer.

Wednesday was laid back in the sense that my friends and I planned out how we would be spending our weekends – concluding that this weekend we would do local things around the area, only to take the train to spend next weekend in Scotland. We have yet to decide whether we wish to head for Paris or Ireland, considering the cost of everything (don’t even get me started on the £ to $ conversions. . . ) Outside of that, we decided to attend one of the local pubs in the area known as The Thirsty Bear. We chatted with some locals and merely sat to eat our dinner and observe London life around us, as well as discuss what we thought of it all so far.

We have learned that people put much more effort into how they look here, and almost suspect that they can tell we are tourists by the way we dress. Women here are constantly in heels or dressy shoes, skirts or dress pants, and dressy tops. The men are almost always in suits, or at least something close to that range. Our group almost wishes we would have known this beforehand, as in our debriefing, they had said jeans and shirts would be fine – but now we feel we stick out like sore thumbs amidst the crowds. Another thing we have noticed is that despite it being an English-speaking country, we often have to slow down or repeat what we say due to our different accents; something we would have never thought about otherwise. Considering the language and cultural variety in this city, it makes sense.

Today (Thursday), I merely went to a local cafe on my own and brought my books to read. It was pleasant to settle into a chair at an outside table, sip at my coffee, and whittle away some of the reading required for class.This way I am getting in small breaks while still experiencing the area and getting a feel of it, without always having the ‘go go go’ mentality.

Overall, I am excited to see what the next few weeks bring.

Week 3

Posted on July 15, 2015 by Sierra Mciver

Our program ended this week and I was surprised at how much I missed everyone because we had ended up getting so close over the past three weeks being with each other for 8+ hours a day. The end of the program came so quick and the last week in Siena came with more surprises, of course. After the Palio there were parties all night and parades everyday with the winning contrada flags all around town. Something else we noticed that was really strange is that we were seeing the people in the winning contrada had binkies in their mouths. At first they were kids so we thought it was weird but nothing too unusual because kids can just be kids sometimes, but then we saw a grown man with a binky in his mouth. I had to ask the director of our program, who was born and raised in Siena and is a member of the eagle contrada. She said the reason for the binkies were because the members of the contrada were considered to be “born again” with their win of the Palio. We thought winning the Palio was a big deal, but we didn’t think it was anything like this. It is truly amazing how the energy and people in a place can make things feel so different. Without the spirit and seriousness of the Sienese attitudes the horse race would be a joke. All this effort put into the Palio is what makes it so special. The tradition, energy, and attitude put into the Palio makes an event you don’t want to miss; because you can see so much tradition and culture in one horse race, it truly is phenomenal.

At the end of our program we had a final dinner and it felt like we all knew each other so well even though we had only known each other for three weeks. I became close friends with a guy in our program and it was great to be able to make new friends in such a short time and close quarters. It was an experience I won’t forget and I am appreciative of the opportunity. I will continue to keep in touch with some people and will forever have the memories of a great study abroad program.

Our Italian Sign Language class picture.

The winning contra’s flag. The Tower.

Final dinner with some staff.

Town hopping

Posted on July 15, 2015 by Sam Stageman

This will be a combination of both my trip to Cork and to Galway, as we only stayed for one night in Cork.

For me, Cork was an ok town. We only got to see the city centre aspect of it, so I feel like I missed out on some stuff. Plus, we arrived quite late so we did not get the opportunity to really explore. Previously, we had ventured to Fota house, another Big House in Ireland. What made this house interesting was that it was the only house not burned during the 20’s. It was similarly decorated as the Newbridge house. It had recently been lived until 1975 when the last owner passed away. This house was also quite interesting as we got to see a lot! With each house, my enjoyment seems to go up.

Anyway, back to Cork. There really wasn’t a whole lot to do. Basically, I stayed indoors for awhile after exploring the town, got dinner, and went back home. Dinner was actually McDonalds. I know that’s American food, but I wanted to see if there was any major difference. The answer to that is not much. In addition, there was a horde of Italian teens in the bathroom to my dismay. Overall, not super impressed with Cork that day. Plus, there was a really bad smell there…

Today was pretty exciting though! We visited the Cliffs of (INSANITY) Moher! The view was breathtaking, along with the hike. I only explored one portion of the cliffs because I thought I would run out of time. However, the part I did see was amazing. I became brazen enough to dangle my feet off the edge of the cliff. I was sitting securely, but I still felt scared! Even though this is a major tourist attraction, I do think it actually is something worth seeing. Afterwards, we headed out to Galway, which I will explore thoroughly tomorrow!

Cork and the Cliffs of Moher

Posted on July 15, 2015 by Jennifer Hight

Yesterday we spent the evening in Cork and it was alright. The morning was spent going to Fota House, another Big House for my class. I’m not going to lie, all the houses are beginning to blur together in my mind into one confusing shape. Pretty soon I’ll need to rely on my blog posts to keep track of them all.

After that I spent the day walking around Cork with some kids from the class. A couple others went to Blarney Castle to kiss the stone, but I decided not to. Ok, truth is I was told not to. Jerry, our bus driver, heard I wanted to go and decided to have a word with me. The stone is at the top of a castle, so lots of stairs with no handrail. Added to that you need to be picked up and held up to the stone, which works for everyone else. Not so great with a knee injury. So I looked around Cork and had fun there instead.

It was a pretty city. The only downside was that it smelled like fish everywhere. Other than that it was great.

We woke up early today to head over to Galway. Our first stop was the Cliffs of Moher. I can’t actually describe how amazingly beautiful it was. The sight of the cliff face dropping into the sea under the bright blue sky was breathtaking.The walk was a little difficult for me because of the stairs, but I managed to get up there.

There was a hiking trail that we all followed. It led across the cliffs so we got some spectacular views and pictures. The one I’m on is a small outlook. It was down an incline, so I had to slide down slowly because walking seemed like a bad idea. Then I just stood up, took the picture (which looks amazing) and crawled back up. My teacher, Gill, was complaining that someone with a torn ACL shouldn’t be that close to the edge.

We spent a solid two hours hiking around near the cliffs. After that it was back in the bus and a great bus ride to Galway. We went along the coastal road and got to watch the ocean and see all the houses. There are remains of castles every where on the western coast of Ireland.

Even better was the fact that this section of coast in my last picture is unique only to this section of Ireland. According to Jerry, it was caused in the last Ice Age and years of isolation have kept it pristine. No other place in the world looks like this.

Following the bus ride we checked into our rooms at Galway. We’re in on campus apartments in the univeristy dorms (I think its Univeristy of Galway). Everyone else has a single room, but Luaren and I have to share. Poor Lauren.

I can’t complain about the rooms. They seem arlight, even if they are a bit dusty. My alergies will be kicking in tomorrow.

The only issue so far is that we’re outside of Galway. To get into the city, we take the school shuttle which stops running at 7;30 in the evening. Looks like we’ll have to keep our trips pretty short then. But the city looks nice. It’s less overwhelming than Dublin and not as sleepy as Waterford. So it should be a good place to end the trip.

Diamond in the Rough! Lessons and a Pyramid!

Posted on July 14, 2015 by Gerd Reimann

The second week saw the continuation of learning more from my classes and from my time with my host family, some good and some I am not proud of, but overall beneficial. The main highlight was the weekend excursion, which proved to be another wonderful way to see what kind of interesting things Mexico has in terms of culture. More than anything this was a week full of learning from different sources.

The classes built up more from the assignments from last week and I am feeling like things are moving full-force in terms of homework and projects. We have some big presentations in my Spanish Communciation class for fourth year and I am a bit nervous since they seem to be a bit on the long side. Since I am in my fourth year in Spanish, I believe it should be expected. It is actually funny since I sometimes have a hard time giving a presentation in English, but Spanish is a whole different beast. If there is one thing I have learned from my classes though, it would be that the environment can make a huge difference in how one feels about talking. My class is composed of just two students and the teacher. In this way, I feel like it is easier to voice my opinion and the things I want to say in general. While I am still nervous about what I will present. I feel like the informal, smaller size helps to ease the pressure a bit. The other class for writing helped us to learn more forms of tenses and other ways to better understand writing and the like. We ended up having a mid-term which I ended up doing well enough in. I can tell our teacher understands that we are learning, and I know full well that I need to study to do better (which is easier said than done, especially when I am used to turning my brain off in the summer time). In our ESOL class, we presented a cultural backpack and it gave us the chance to see how our cultures shape ourselves. I liked how I felt like I could really show who I was to my peers. It is something I do not normally do, because I always worry I am too different and I cannot relate to anybody at all. Everyone liked my presentation and I loved everyone’s presentations as well. I like how we learn more about culture and what we can do to make culture something meaningful in the class. I still wonder how can I make culture a meaningful thing in my class one day…Only time will tell.

As for time with my host family, it has been very good from my experience. I find that the environment gives me a feeling similar to my own house in Oregon. It gives a sense that everyone is fairly independent, at least in my case. I know they are usually busy with their kids every day which leaves them exhausted and tired. I also try talk to them when the time comes, though sometimes things get busy for everyone. The busy factor was the reason why I did not mention an incident involving some broken class in my room. I was not quite sure how it happened, but I tried to clean it up and take care of it myself. I think my host mother thought I was trying to hide something, but I did not want to disturb her when she was busy. I think we had some difficulties with communication this week. I do not think it put a strain on the relationship, but the difficulties are hard for me at times. I am not a fan of making mistakes. I am feeling better from the little incident though. I feel it is one of many important lessons about the importance of communication. My host my says that I am still young and that it is all right to make mistakes. It’s always so funny how much more hard I am on myself compared to other people.

Eventually, we went to the museums in Mexico D.F, which was the capital if I am not mistaken. We had our hotels reserved and ready and we were able to visit a few museums over the course of a few days. I am not too fond of museums or history either. However, I was able to enjoy some of the sites to an extent. I could see the intricate designs of the rocks, the faith in religion that is very rich in Mexican culture and the like. One of our professors named Alejandro gave us the history lessons about Mexico such as the origin of the paintings and the establishment of the country via events like Cortes and Indigenous people. The best part of the trip by far was visiting the pyramids and enjoying how well designed they were and the views that came with climbing. It left me even more worn-out than the trip to Bernal. It took a while to get back, but I was happy to return and see the family again. Since this trip took the whole weekend, I have plenty of catching up to do for my classes. Summer is always more difficult when homework is involved.

Querétaro, Week 2

Posted on July 14, 2015 by Audrey Jones

I have finished my second week in Mexico, and I feel like I am becoming a lot more comfortable with my surroundings and the language. I spent some time shopping for souvenirs in Teotihuacan, and I found that for simple interactions with the vendors and negotiating prices I didn’t even need to think about what I was saying. We spent the weekend in Mexico City, where we were able to visit several museums over three days. It was a completely different cultural experience from being in Querétaro; the city is much larger, there are far more U.S. stores and restaurants, and there are many more tourists of all nationalities and languages. Interesting side note: on our last day in Mexico City, a massive drug lord escaped from a high security prison in the same state as us for not the first, but the second time. Consequently, we got to see even more police officers around the streets than we normally would.

One of the most interesting things here is the rain. It has rained most nights that I’ve been here, but it’s usually only at night. When it rains, though, it rains a lot. The city also has very poor drainage and a lot of pitted areas, so walking around when it’s raining or even the morning after is like a massive and never-ending game of hopscotch. I’ve found it very interesting to observe how the people here react to the rain; if it starts raining, the streets rapidly empty, and it becomes almost impossible to find a taxi. They also seem to be very adept at reading the clouds and knowing exactly when it is going to begin raining; my señora has not been wrong yet, and people always seem to know when they should have their umbrellas with them.

I tried traditional mole for the first time while I was in Mexico City. I’ve only seen real mole in a few Mexican restaurants in the U.S., but pretty much every place here has it in some shape or form. The most common type is chocolatey and very sweet and spicy at the same time. One of my favorite parts of being here is all of the food I get to try; I grew up eating a lot of Mexican food, both homemade and from restaurants, but all of the apparent equivalencies I’ve tried here have been very different. As amazing as this is, it can be very overwhelming to have absolutely nothing familiar around me; even the ketchup is completely different. I feel like I have been experiencing a belated form of culture shock. I caved and visited a McDonald’s the other day, which was somewhat familiar and comforting and helped me to not feel so out of place; since then, I have returned to my previous excitement for trying new things.

On our way back to Querétaro from Mexico City, we took a detour to spend a few hours in Teotihuacan, where there are many intact and massive Mesoamerican pyramids. Pictured above is the largest pyramid there, the Pyramid of the Sun. It was amazing climbing over all the structures around the site; there was also another museum there where I was able to learn more about the cultural significance of the amazing pirámides. This was also the first day that I managed to get a very bad sunburn; even with sunblock, I hadn’t realized how high up we were and how much sun was getting through the heavy cloud cover. Regardless, it was my favorite site that I’ve been able to visit since I’ve been in Mexico.

I am almost half-way through the program, and I already feel like I have learned so much. I am so excited for the next half!

End of the First Week! Climbing like a Mountain Man!

Posted on July 14, 2015 by Gerd Reimann

With the first week coming to an end, I have had the chance to see how my classes would be like and I feel like they both will end up being quite fun (except the homework, which is always hard to get excited about). All of my professors are kind and very much approachable, and I love that. It makes the transition to a new classroom setting easier. The cool thing is that I have the opportunity to practice Spanish in the class via plenty of discussion and all the learning of terms that I thought I knew, but really, I need to work on. The actual classrooms are not really as fancy as the United States, but it is not a major problem. I still have no problem learning from my professors. Honestly the only bad part about the classrooms are the overabundance of mosquitoes all over the place. I am seriously a walking three-course meal from a five-star restaurant to them. I can already feel the bites popping up on my arms. To be more specific, this only happens in my two Spanish classes. My ESOL one does not have this problem from what I have seen. The ESOL class is more like the classes back at Western, but since we are learning about culture, we have an excellent opportunity to see the differences of culture between the U.S and Mexico. I think the class is a nice way to balance the usage of English and Spanish here in Mexico, and the professor is kind as well, also easing some of the anxiety as well.

Living with the host family has been wonderful. They really help me feel more at home and I try my best to talk to them about their life or how their day was. It is very nice to have the opportunity to practice my Spanish, which is always so hard in the U.S. So much English, even at home sometimes. I have also had the chance to play with the grandchildren of my host mother. He is only two and half years old and the other one is only six months. Nevertheless, Raulito, the older one, is very cute and playful. Both kids are a real handful for my host family, usually to the point of leaving them exhausted at the end. It makes me think about my mother and her own job that leaves her very tired as well. I know they volunteered to take in an American student, but I just hope I do not end being much of a burden on them.

Once the weekend rolled around, our party went to the huge rocky point of Bernal by bus. Everyone mentioned how much of a climb it would be, so I decided to activate “Mountain Man mode” and prepare myself for the worst. Honestly, it was an endurance test. It was a major uphill right from the get-go and I was feeling very out of shape…Still I managed to find a nice view from my position (which was about seventy-five percent of the way up, according to one of my group members). I was very happy, and I was especially content with seeing more of the area of Mexico. It truly is a country with beautiful sights to see with little polluted air to breathe and smell. I always thought Mexico was more close to a developing type of place, as opposed to the developed country that is the U.S, but it has its share of huge cities like Queretaro amongst other places. Mexico appears to be a place where all kinds of people can be encountered in one place: the middle class, lower middle class, and people that do not appear to have much. A few times, I would see people always selling things in order to make make money. I think it might reflect on how hard life can be in Mexico when work is not always guaranteed. I try not to give people the impression that I have a lot of money on me (my clothing is usually bland and my boots look pretty worn out and filthy.). I still understand that times are tough, but I also know that it is important to keep one’s guard up so that they can avoid a dangerous situation. Mexico is a place with risks, but in reality, that is the same for all places in the world. Everyone is different, and I know that the longer I am here, the more I can understand about the rich culture that I am sure Mexico has.