Dublin, Ireland

Dublin is as green and grand as I had imagined. My adventure began in Navan, Ireland, just northwest of Dublin’s city center where a friend of mine lives. Between Navan and Dublin City Centre is a wonderful balance between the beautiful countryside, intricate architecture and a pride for Guinness beer.

Navan

Slane Castle (Slane, Boyne Valley): Constructed in 1785, Slane Castle overlooks the Boyne River of Meath County. The owner, Lord Henry Conyham lives there to this day. In 1991, a fire in the castle caused an estimated 2 million pounds worth of damage. After a ten-year restoration, it reopened in 2001 and continues to offer tours. Although I didn’t take an inside tour, the exterior alone is very impressive. Since 1981, the grounds are often used for rock concerts, since it’s landscape creates a natural ampihiteatre with an 80,000 person capacity. Artists including The Rolling Stones, Queen, Madonna and David Bowie have performed on the grounds.

Bective Abbey Ruins (Bective, Meath County): Bective Abbey is a Cistercian abbey on the River Boyne that was founded in 1147. Although there isn’t much left of the structure it’s still a cool place to explore. It’s known as one of the locations for shooting the film Braveheart in 1995. 

Trim Castle (Trim, Meath County): Trim is the most touristy attraction of the castles I visited, but for good reason. Trim is a Norman castle built in the 12th century on the south bank of the the Boyne River and it’s the largest Norman castle in Ireland. The bridge that leads to the front gate over a moat makes for a grand entrance to the inside area of the ruins. This castle is also well known as a film location for Braveheart. After visiting the castle, the surrounding town is worth a walk-around. The streets and buildings are quaint and colorful. It’s a great place to grab lunch at a local Irish pub after visiting the castle across the street.

Dublin City Center

For tourists who aren’t able to check into their accommodations until later in the afternoon, I highly recommend dropping your bags off at the Tourist Center on O’Connell street. For only 5 euros per bag, it saves time and money to conveniently check your bag in at the office and explore the city without the hassle of carrying around your luggage. 

Guinness Storehouse: We started our tour of the city centre with the Gunniess Storehouse, which I highly recommend for the start because it’s one of the furthest attractions of the centre. It was more than I imagined it would be with its 5-story high self-guided tour from production to restaurants, and a stunning view over the city. The tour starts at the center where the 9000-year contract signed by Aurther Guinness himself sits beneath your feet inside a glass display. An orator gives you some background to the Guinness history and your self-guided tour begins. It’s an amazing display with signs and visual effects to paint a picture of the process from cropping, fermentation, and maturing, all the way to bottling and advertising. My favorite parts were The Tasting Room and the Guinness Acadamy, both of which are interactive tasting sessions. In the tasting room are four stations, each with there own aroma that combine to make the Guinness scent. You receive a sample-sized glass and proceed to a room where an orator explains the different sensors of your taste buds, and how it combines to give your to stout taste of a Guinness. After the tasting room, we headed to the Guinness Academy, where your ticket comes with a free pint of Guinness. But this is not just a beer that’s handed to you. In groups of about 10 people, an expert explains the steps to pouring a bereft pint from the tab. One by one, everyone gets the chance to pour their own pint of beer and you receive a printed certificate with you name on it, proving you’ve taking the “course” to pour a perfect pint. Overall, the Guiness Storehouse was one of my favorite experiences in all of Dublin.

The Brazen Head: After the Guinness Storehouse, we headed over to The Brazen Head for lunch. What’s special about Brazen Head is it’s the oldest pub in all of Ireland, dating back to  1198. What I enjoyed about the atmosphere of the pub was walking through an archway and that opens into a small courtyard with both indoor and outdoor seating, and multiple bars on all four sides of the courtyard. It was cozy, authentic and very decently priced.

St. Patrick’s Cathedral: What makes St. Patrick’s Cathedral unique is the beautiful park that’s situated directly in front of it. The inside of the cathedral is beautiful with stainglass, detailed architecture with arches, and an ornately-decorated alter. Although it costs about 6 euros to go inside, the park is free to stroll through. From the back of the park is a spectacular view of the cathedral with flowers, greenery and people lounging in the sun. It’s a great stop to read a book or have a picnic.  

St. Stephen’s Green: The historical park and garden is comparable to Central Park in NYC. It’s a 9-Hetacre square of greenery in the middle of Dublin Centre. The middle of the park has a roundabout walkway the splits in different directions of the park with shady trees all around. Many student from Trinity College, along with locals and tourists alike take a break from the hustle and bustle of the urban landscape. There are ponds with plenty of ducks and swans to feed and benches for reading or naps.

Grafton Street: We stumbled upon Grafton Street, which is a well-known pedestrian shopping street in the city centre. It was full of people listening to street performers, eating ice cream and browsing the shops. It’s a nice area to walk through on your way to Trinity College which is just on the other end of the area.

Trinity College: Right next door to St. Stephen’s Green is Trinity College — the sole constituent college of the University of Dublin that was established in 1592 — is well worth a walk through. The architecture is something like no other, with cobble stone pathways and a open green recreational field that gives it a campus feel separate from the city centre. Two buildings in particular that are worth touring are the chapel and the library. Built in 1798, the chapel’s interior reflects the college’s Angelican heritage, with tall stainglass as the backdrop of the alter on the far side upon entering. The Library is the largest research libary in Ireland and impressive in size. It contains about 5 million books, along with manuscripts, maps and printed music. 

Temple Bar: Temple Bar is an area on the south bank of the River Liffey and is known as the cultural quarter of Dublin. It’s a great place to get dinner and enjoy a few drinks into the night. It’s full of restaurants and pubs with outdoor seating, music and the like. It’s great even just to walk through as it depicts what many imagine when they think of Irish nightlife.

There is plenty more to do in Dublin than the few highlights I was able to get to. Here are some other well-known sites that are worth checking out: Kilmainham Gaol, Christ Church Cathedral, Old Jameson Distillery, Dublin Castle, and the General Post Office.

Paris, France

10 Things You’ll be Glad You Packed to Study Abroad

Now that my time in Europe is coming to an end, I want to share my top 10 essential things to pack when studying a semester abroad. I chose these 10 because either I forgot to bring it and I later realized how much easier my life would have been if I brought it, or because I packed it and it ended up being a life saver!

1. Portable phone charger

When studying abroad you’ll probably go on a lot of weekend trips and do lots of city touring. It’s the worst when it’s the middle of the day and you phone dies (me in Sevilla!). Then for the rest of the day you can’t take photos or get separated from the group since you’d have no way of contacting them. A portable charger would have saved me a lot of trouble during my outtings.

2. Journal

Every traveler needs a journal, especially when you’re making this journey solo. There’s no better souvenir than your own collection of stories to remember down the road. Mine came in handy especially when I was feeling home sick or having issues to vent about. A journal can be a good stress relief and comforting when being alone abroad.

3. Neck Pillow

I can’t tell you how happy I was to invest in a neck pillow! I’ve taken so many bus journeys and my most valuable item used was my neck pillow. It makes a hell of a difference and especially for night travel. It’s way easier to fall asleep and pass the time until arriving at your next destination.

4. Favorite home snacks

There will come a point in time that you just get tired of the local food and desperately miss some at home snack that isn’t sold there. When my parents sent me a (costly) package, they filled it with my favorite American snacks that held me over until returning home. But better to pack it in your bag and bring it over; it also leaves space for your return home since you’ll have that extra room in your suitcase.

5. Universal adapter and charger

You can probably find these in a local “everything” shop abroad but it’s way more convenient to bring it over with you. The charger I brought from home wasn’t a universal one (meaning it has adaptations for all the different global plugs in one charger). I figured out that it would charge my phone but wouldn’t charge my computer, so I couldn’t use it for two weeks until I found a universal one abroad because it was dead. I also recommend you bring 2 to 3 adapters because it gets really annoying to charge all your electronics with a single charger.

6. Foreign money

The currency exchange post in the airports can be expensive. I recommend pulling out at least 200 in the local currency of where you are going.  Oh, and there is no reason to bring cash of your home country so don’t bother!

7. Medicine

If you do one thing right for yourself it’s bringing over-the-counter medicines from home. Odds are, you will most likely get sick at some point during your stay there and it can be frustrating to try to get medicine in a foreign country. Especially if it’s in another language. I wish I had brought some DayQuil or an Antihistamine for when I was just starting to get a cold because odds are they wouldn’t have turned out as bad if I had medicine from home.

8. Digital camera

I made the mistake of thinking I could take all my pictures for the whole semester on my phone. They weren’t as good of quality as I wanted for the beautiful sites I was seeing. When my phone died in the middle of a city tour in Sevilla, I finally decided to go buy a camera. And I wish I did sooner because I love my camera and the quality of my pictures are so much better.

9. Tennis shoes

It’s likely that you will be doing a lot of walking, hiking, or outdoor activities in general. Maybe you even want to join a local gym during your time abroad. I highly recommend taking a pair of tennis shoes. I’ve used mine for so many activities here (even though I’m not much of a tennis shoe person) and I’m super thankful that I packed them.

10. cross-shoulder bag

Back at home I’m the girl that has the over sized bag and never caught wearing a shoulder bag. But when traveling abroad a smaller cross shoulder works better because you can keep it in front of you at all times to keep a careful eye out on it. Pickpocketers are real and in every touristic city out there so it’s better to be simple and safe than waving a big bag around bringing attention to it.

A last tip about packing: don’t over pack and remember to stick to the basics. Don’t waste space on the things you can buy abroad like shampoo or mouthwash. Always pack a winter jacket if you know there will be cold months and bring what ever prescriptions you have, like enough contacts to last you the amount of time there.

These are just my top essentials, what are yours? If there is anything I forgot and you feel like it’s an essential comment below!

Foreign Friends with Common Interest: Amigos Extraños con Intereses Similar

I came to this country not knowing a single person, besides my native flatmate I talked to virtually. I was most worried about not doing any of the things I wanted because I wouldn’t find good friends to go out with. The first two weeks I was a little bummed because I was staying home with no plans on the weekends. But it was just a matter of time before no friends became a sea of familiar faces when I went to Tapas Tuesday this week.

It all stared because of this beautiful oxymoron we call social media. Many today believe social media is actually making people antisocial but depending on how you use it, it could be the only way to begin being social in a foreign place.

Someone posted on the ESN (Eurasum Student Network) Facebook page that they wanted to go hiking on the weekend. An great response of people suggested we meet up the day before to prepare the details of the trip. I decided to meet with this group of strangers whose only common interest established was hiking. And it was the best decision I’ve made. I met ten people, none of which were from America, and we planned out the trip to Mieres, a city 25 minutes south of Oviedo. Afterward a gentleman made small talk with me about school here as an international student. Somehow this led to an invite of a party he was attending that night. Now, yes we all know not to ‘go out with random strangers’ but I feel in this situation it was quite different. He was a fellow international student who I would be hiking with the following day so it made sense that I would accept my first night out to this party. We met up and he introduced me to some others that he’s met, which was a girl from Portugal and the other from China. We went to this party where I met more students from Ireland and the UK. It was a great beginning to my week of new friendships.

My hike up the asturian mountain!

The following day at hiking, the 12 of us made the most gorgeous hike I’ve ever endured. It was a six hour hike on the Vegalafonte trail and although my foot’s blister worsen, it was beyond worth it. I mingled with students from Germany, Whales, Czech Republic, and of course Ireland. We packed a lunch and sat at this small meadow that overlooked the asturian mountain range. The pictures don’t even give justice to the view that I saw for hours. I would highly recommend this trail to anyone planning to visit Asturias, Spain.

Aside from hiking, the past weekend still commenced the festivities of San Mateo. There were fireworks Saturday evening down at Parque Inviernes (where I took that breaktaking hike I mentioned in a previous blog). Sunday the girl I met from Portugal invited me out and it was one of the last days of the festival. I was so excited to realize that someone wanted to hang out with me. That night we met up for drinks and she introduced me to some friends she met that are from Turkey! How incredible is it that there are so many foreign students and yet we all become such great friends and find so many common interests.

Through ESN, I signed up to go surfing Monday at San Juan de Nievas. We had school off that day because it was the official Day of San Mateo. I went there already seeing a few familiar faces, even though when I signed up I didn’t plan on knowing anyone. One girl was from the UK that I met at the first party I attended and two German girls that are in my project group for one of my classes! From connections they have made, I continued to meet new friends from Italy, Belgium and another Irish girl. I can’t believe I can say that I’ve been surfing in Spain, how cool is that! It was extremely difficult, rained the entire time and was pretty cold. But weather aside, it was such a fun and exhausting experience. I can see why people have such a passion for it.

All of these events lead me to the Tapas Tuesday night where I saw I little bit of everyone from who I’ve encountered over my past few excursions. Never had I imagined that I would be out so often (and so late) with people who are all over the world, yet all so similar to myself. The coolest feeling ever was being with a group of people and conversations were held in four different languages in the same sitting. And the beautiful thing is the majority of students know more than one of these languages so no one is left out. Sometimes people don’t even realize they started talking to me in a language that I don’t know!

Really and truly I never imagined to meet and befriend so many people so quickly. I can’t believe this is just week three of school and already so many events have happened. Let the festivities of studying abroad official begin!

My surfing buddies, Kimberly from Belgium and Jenny from Ireland.

European Culture from the Eyes of an American

I have been in Europe for only one week and there are already so many differences between the culture and the way of life. I am studying abroad in Spain for a semester and the first week I have traveled with my family all over the country.

Transportation:
First, in Barcelona I immediately noticed how the culture has embraced and adopted the public transportation system. The subway in Barcelona was built about 20 years ago for the Summer Olympics. The system is very easy and it’s the most common way to get around the entire city. In America, we consider ourselves very independent and own at least one car in a family household. Pubic transportation systems in America could be implemented and transform our culture in the way it has created such efficiency in Europe.

Housing:
I also noticed there that although there are houses in Barcelona, many people choose to live in apartments. Many more people flock to the inner cities since it’s close walking distant to all. Which leads me to my next point, you walk EVEREYWHERE in the cities of Spain. I’ve never seen so many pedestrians in my life. America has far and few cities that are modeled in a similar light as Europe. New Orleans, New York City and Boston are one of the few.

Food:
Bread and Ham are eaten all the time and can be found almost everywhere. Jamón is eaten here the way chicken is eaten in America. There are bakeries and meateries all over. The food in general is so much fresher here: instead of grocery shopping once a week or even once every other week like us American, the Spaniards shop for fresh food a couple times a week. Therefore their fridgerators are much smaller in comparison.

After Barcelona, we took a flight to Oviedo. This is the small town in which I will call home for the next four months. There I learned a few more things about the culture.

Living the simple life:
Once leaving the big cities, you will come to find that the smaller places enjoy living the simple life. Both in Gijón (a beach town half an hour from Oviedo) and in Oviedo the buildings are old and have been preserved in that manner to keep the culture and history. But because of this, the apartments and hotels run a simple lifestyle. I moved into my apartment and met my Spaniard roommate Maria. I discovered that I have no air conditioning, I have no dryer, and I have no dishwasher. All are things most Americans would consider a necessity.

Nightlife:
Us Americans seem like duds compared to the lifestyle Europeans live out at night. Most stores close during the day, anywhere between 2pm-5pm. This is meant to be a “siesta” time of rest and relaxation. At night all the stores open back up until well past 11 p.m. Dinner for the locals can range anywhere between 9:30 p.m. and 11p.m. On another note, the bars and “discos” (which are clubs) are open and busy until around 4 a.m.

I’ve only been here a week and not only have I started to appreciate the American cultures, but also learned to embrace and enjoy the European culture. Next I am headed to Madrid to learn and see more of what this country has to offer.

Follow me to keep up with my adventures abroad at my Abroad Category.

Study Abroad Count Down: Progreso para España

 

I can’t believe in just two months I will be on a plane traveling to Spain as a study abroad student. Many who are thinking about studying abroad don’t know where to start, or what the process is going to be like so my blog abroad has started early in hopes  that it will help others who share the same passion as I. I’m currently in the middle of my preparation blog series and wanted to give an update on how things are going.

Currently, things are moving rather slow. I do however, have much to share. First off, I took two pre-departure session that covered health, wellness and financial aid. Once I got in contact with the two girl that studied at University of Oviedo (UniOvi) last semester, things moved along much smoother. One of the girls gave me the contact information of a Spaniard that is planning on staying at the same apartment they were currently renting, and highly recommended to me. I got in contact with her via the “Whatsupp” International texting app. I contacted the landlord as well and she emailed me the leasing contract for a two bedroom apartment fully furnished, for only 250 euros a month (approximately $350). Not a bad deal, I might add.

I’m pretty ecstatic that my living situation has come together, I’m excited and nervous to have a Spanish roommate. It’s a good thing because I’m more immersed in the culture and I have a friend to help me adjust to the culture and she is already familiar with the area. On the other hand I wouldn’t have minded an international student as a roommate. That way, I would feel more at home having another American there to speak English to when I got home or to have someone close to me that is going through the same transition.

But in all reality, I’m going to become fully immersed and embrace this new culture, not hide from it at my apartment.

In other news, I just bought my plane ticket and boy was it expensive. Since I’m returning during the Christmas holiday, the prices home are a tad more expensive, so round trip my expense was roughly $1,500. I’m leaving about a week before class starts because some of my family is coming to travel Spain together. I also have to register at the school and get set up in my apartment in that time span.

I don’t think reality has set in yet concerning the journey I’m about to embark but I welcome the discomfort and channel it into excitement for what’s to come. I’m currently preparing all the documentation necessary for the Visa appointment I set up at the Spanish Embassy next weekend, so I will keep you updated on the rest of the process as the departure date approaches at rapid speed.

Saludos!

Making Connections: Estilo Español

I have met a few amazing people who have helped me tremendously on my preparation journey for Spain. The director of exchange students at USF gave my email to two girls currently in the same program that I will be attending in the fall. Both of them have recently emailed me, and I must say, I would be quite lost without them!

One of the girls has been emailing back and forth with me from Spain about all the problems she ran into in preparing for her departure and what I should be doing at this point in time. She told me that she had researched about 20 different apartments in Oviedo and is currently living at one that she highly recommends I live at considering it’s only 5 minutes from school, 10 minutes from nightlife and right around the corner from the bus and train station. How perfect! Que perfecto!

She also helped me a TON with the process of attaining my visa. I am preparing to book my appointment to the Spanish Embassy in Miami, FL for the end of June. She said I should do it 8 weeks prior to my departure so I have plenty of time to get it before I leave. She said she almost couldn’t go because of having troubles with her visa.

Aside from advancing in my preparations, one of my friends from a mutual club mentioned to me that she knows a guy studying here at USF, who comes from Uni Ovi (Universidad de Oviedo) where I’ll be studying. Tell me, what are the odds?!? So crazy! She connected us in a Facebook chat and we made plans for lunch to talk all about life in Oviedo. He was born and raised there, a good portion of his family is there and he even went to school for undergrad at UniOvi. We met up for lunch today and spent an hour and a half switching off from Spanish and English about all of Spain. He showed me where the girl’s currently in Oviedo are staying at and how the apartment was right across the street from the main inner city of Oviedo. Looking at a map of it now, I am so much more comfortable about the city since I actually can tell where things are located. I still can’t get over how you can walk everywhere in Europe cities and there is public transportation to take you near, far, here or there.

Making these connections have only made me more confident and more excited about my travels to Spain and that I will do well there. It’s a scary thought that I will be doing this all alone over there, but my heart is overwhelmed with the opportunities God has blessed me with. This will be the most memorable and note-worthy experience I’ve had in my life and I can’t wait to get it started!

Until next time! Chao 🙂

Spain exchange prep: course approvals, money, and forms ‘oh my’

Estoy abrumada, “I’m overwhelmed” would be an understatement for how stressful this week has been. But I feel satisfied by the amount I managed to accomplish in one week. Monday and Tuesday were the worst because I went to drop off a copy of my passport and the application to the university in Oviedo at the Education Abroad office. Even though I’ve been accepted into the program, I still have to apply for the school there. I found out I need to fill out a course approval form for classes abroad and pay a $500 deposit by the end of the week. Aye Carumba!

This is how the course approval form works, so you can understand my stress: From the host institutes site, I must look through all the courses and translate its syllabus to English and compare it to the syllabus a class it can potentially replace. Once I’ve found a class abroad that I think can be a transfer credit to a class at USF (and counts toward my degree) I must go to the department head of each class and get it approved. Once each class has been individually approved, I go to my academic adviser who will sign off on the whole paper thus completing my semesters coursework abroad!

Talk about time consuming! So the first two days of the week I spent hours looking up classes, translating them and comparing them to USF courses. It got overwhelming at an exponential pace but I finally picked out four classes that will count toward my degree. My program director said I should take no more or less then 12 credit hours so that’s what my plan is.

Today I went to the Department of World Languages today and gave the women two syllabi to approve. It’s going to take a couple weeks to get them approved so those are on standby. As for my business classes I have to go to the Department of Marketing and the Department of Management to get my other two classes approved.

I’m happy to say I officially have one course approved and have a meeting with the Marketing Head tomorrow. I’m glad this process is moving along though or else I would be stressing more than I already am. Lastly, I turned in my $500 deposit today and yes, my bank account is very sad and empty right now but well worth it.

I started a funding site for any of those who would like to donate to my trip. I’m hoping to raise some of the funds, get a scholarship and pay the rest with what money I’ve saved up in the past year. It’s hard to believe I only have 5 months left before I go. I just realized I’ll be celebrating my 20th birthday the first week I’m in Spain, what an awesome gift!

Preparations for Spain, un trabajo en progreso

I’m one step closer to my dream! Did you ever wonder what preparations go into studying abroad?

Now that I’ve been accepted into the program I must apply to the actual university and get into the school. I turned in my official transcripts and am in the works of completing the form to turn into the director of exchange programs so he can send them overseas.

I have two information sessions I will be attending in next month: Finance & Financial Aid and Health & Wellness. I’m sure both will be very informative and will answer many questions I will be able to relay to you readers.

The first week in April my registration date for summer and fall classes open up. This summer I will be taking Advanced Conversation, which is a class taught in Spanish to increase my fluidity in the language. Currently I’m in Spanish IV and have an A so I’m not too worried about the class. As for the fall courses I’m going to have to look through the catalog that Oviedo will offer. Once I find a course that I am interested in there, I have to find a class with a similar syllabus here at USF and get it approved by that specific department head. Once all my classes have been individually approved I have to get my academic adviser to sign off on my curriculum as a whole.

It’s a long process but well worth it. I will keep you updated on the process! I’m still in shock that I’m actually going to Spain, it hasn’t fully sinked in yet but I’m so excited for the journey!

I’m going to Spain! España, aquí vendré

This is my first of many blog post of
my trip to Spain as a foreign exchange student. As a student at the University of South Florida I recently applied to the semester exchange program for Fall 2014 and was accepted. I’m starting this journey now in case any of you guys are thinking about studying abroad and are wondering about the process.

In order to get in a competitive GPA is 2.75 so I was already in good standing at a 3.51. It was also required to take four semesters of Spanish in college. Lastly, all the classes will be taught in Spanish so I must test my fluency.

It seems scary but the excitement of what kind of experience this could be overpowers all the doubts I had about going. Now that I am in the program I have to apply to the actual University of Oviedo and get accepted by it’s administration.

I’m on the right path to my dream so far! I’ll keep you updated with what’s to come.