Porstewart, Northern Ireland

Portstewart, Northern Ireland

While taking trips with other people is great, I think there’s something special about taking a trip—even a trip of a few hours—by yourself.

Towards the end of my time abroad, I realized that I had never been to Portstewart, Northern Ireland. The town where I was studying in Northern Ireland, Coleraine, was very close to two coastal tourist towns, Portrush and Portstewart, where many students from the University of Ulster-Coleraine lived. Despite being nearby, I had only been to Portrush, not Portstewart.


Initially, I didn’t care all that much about missing out on Portstewart, but a friend encouraged me to go by emphasizing how beautiful it was. I had a free day so I decided to take the trek to Portstewart by myself. I didn’t ride the busses in Northern Ireland very often—at least, not the busses with local routes. I had used busses a lot for trips of a longer length, such as journeys to Belfast, but this trip by bus was about fifteen minutes. 


Cliff path

I knew I wanted to go to the promenade in Portstewart and then walk to the beach, but I wasn’t quite sure where the promenade was or when to get off the bus. At some point, I spotted a sign for the promenade and a minute or two later realized the bus was taking me away from the promenade instead of towards it. Thankfully, I noticed quickly enough that I was only walking about five more minutes than I would’ve had to otherwise. Though it was cold that day, I didn’t mind the walk. I had my digital camera with me and nothing distracting me from snapping tons of photographs.


At the promenade, I checked out a few of the shops.  I finally was able to find some gifts for Susquehanna friends at one of the stores.  They were little trinkets—a pretty key chain, a button my friend now has on her backpack, a cute mirror with a floral print on the back—and not particularly Irish, but I liked them a lot.





Short stretch of beach along the scenic walk

After wandering the promenade, I headed over to the cliff path. The cliff path took me by the former Dominican convent and gave me a great view of the water and of Portstewart. This cliff path turned into a scenic walk to the beach. It was a longer walk from the start of the cliff path to the beach than I expected. Though it was peaceful and the views were gorgeous, I was also quite cold, so I was excited when the beach was finally in sight. 

One downside of taking trips by yourself is not getting to be in your own photographs. I tried my best to take some pictures of myself with the ocean behind me, though doing so felt pretty ridiculous. 


It was getting dark as I made my way back to the promenade. When I checked the bus times at the bus stop, I had some time to spare before I had to head back to Coleraine. Portstewart has a famous ice cream place with some of the best ice cream in Northern Ireland. I felt like I should’ve taken advantage of it but I was way too cold to think about ice cream. Instead, I went into a café and enjoyed a warm, tasty Belgian waffle before catching the bus back to Coleraine.


Sad about walking back to town

Though I’m sure I would’ve enjoyed going to Portstewart with friends, it was also great to experience it by myself. The main attraction of Portstewart is its wonderful natural beauty, and I was able to enjoy that at my own pace. There is also a feeling of independence that comes with tackling one of the places to go on your To Do List by yourself. I was really glad that I ended up taking that friend’s advice.

Nostalgia

At the Giant's Causeway in Northern Ireland

To be honest, this semester has been pretty stressful. Going from the easy pace of a semester abroad to my regular, full Susquehanna schedule would have been hard enough, but I think this semester has been particularly busy.

I've been doing a lot of work since I've come back from Easter break--a travel writing essay, a term paper for my C.S. Lewis course, and a group presentation for Women in Biblical Tradition. In the midst of these late nights, I have felt particularly nostalgic my semester in Northern Ireland. I only had three courses, none of which started before noon. I had very little homework. I had time to just hang out, as well as time to travel. So often I was seeing beautiful things, and I was consistently surrounded by stunning landscapes.

The fact that I was working on my travel writing essay, a creative piece that is supposed to reflect on my time abroad, did not help matters at all in terms of nostalgia—especially when I was going through my photographs to help write up some descriptions.

Though I really miss that time abroad now, I should probably also remember how much I missed Susquehanna while I was abroad. I missed my friends most of all, but I also missed the familiarity. I missed not having to pay for printing and a campus that was sensibly organized. I even missed Susquehanna’s cafeteria.




Gorgeous sight in Republic of Ireland

It's really hard to ever be fully content in one place—or at least it is for me. On my Northern Irish adventure, some part of me wanted to be home, while here some part of me wants to go back to Northern Ireland for more adventures. Maybe the key here is that nothing is going to be perfect. My semester abroad was great, but I was homesick at times and it didn’t feel like the same ideal, never-want-to-leave experience many of my classmates have had. At the beginning of this semester, I remember people who studied away commenting how much they didn’t want to be back at Susquehanna and how sad it was to come home, while I was thrilled to be back at SU. Being back at SU is great in its own ways, but like almost everything else in life, it’s not fun all the time.

I hope that I will eventually be able to spend some time abroad after graduation. It certainly fuels the nostalgia that I had a little less than three months in Northern Ireland and I have no guarantee that I’ll ever make it out to Europe again! I’d love to spend some more time in Edinburgh or Dublin, two of the cities I visited. Maybe I should start viewing my Northern Ireland experience as if I am anticipating those future travels. 

A semester away doesn't have to be a finished story. It can be chapter one.


Rathlin Island

Ferry to Rathlin Island!

One of my favorite parts of studying abroad in Northern Ireland was the scenery. Though I got chances to take in the natural beauty all the time—sometimes simply by looking out my bedroom window—one of the best opportunities was on a day trip to Rathlin Island.

Rathlin Island is an island off of Northern Ireland’s North Antrim coast. Some of my flat-mates had gone on a trip there, and they had beautiful pictures. My two flat-mates from Hong Kong, Vicki and Tiffany, invited me to join them on their own trip to the island. To get there, we took a bus from our town, Coleraine, to the town of Ballycastle. Though I don’t think Coleraine and Ballycastle are all that far from each other, it was a lengthy bus ride. We had to hurry to find the ferry terminal in Ballycastle so we could make the ferry we wanted and have enough time to spend on the island. Riding that ferry reminded me of how much I don’t like boats! We spent about forty minutes on the ferry on the way there, and I felt fairly queasy. I’d taken some motion sickness medicine, though, which I’m sure helped me feel a lot better than I would have otherwise.

I was definitely relieved when we made it ashore! It was cold (most of my semester in Northern Ireland was), but a nice day at first, and the island looked gorgeous. We wandered over towards the tourist center and saw that it was closed for the season. That meant we were on our own to make the most of the day.

We ended up following the signs that pointed towards walking paths. One of us also had snagged a brochure that had a color-coded map of the walking trails. We ended up a bit confused along the way. The trail seemed to stop suddenly and didn't take us where the map said it would, and it took us much longer to reach the lighthouse we’d been heading towards than we had expected. The pathways were also much muddier than anticipated! My jeans and shoes were completely covered after the trip.

Even so, it was a great day of wandering through the island and marveling at nature. Included are a few of the photos from my trip. Hopefully you can see what I mean.

The highlight of the trip was definitely getting to see seals. Rathlin Island is known for its wildlife. It has a variety of wild birds, and if you come during the summer months, you can even see a puffin! Because it was the middle of autumn, though, we didn’t get a chance to see puffins. Seeing seals in the wild was more than enough for me. I hadn’t even been that interested in the seals, compared to my two flat-mates, but when we spotted them, I couldn’t stop myself from being thrilled. We stood by the rocks and watched them for a long time. I am pretty sure they were watching us too.

As we were returning the way we had come on the trail, a downpour started. We decided to cut our trip a bit short since we were getting soaked. Of course, as we made our way to the ferry, that was when the rain stopped. At least that gave us a chance to see a fantastic double rainbow.

Once the ferry dropped us off in Ballycastle, we had a little bit of time before the bus to Coleraine came. I remember being quite cold as we went into a small grocery store. I picked up a box of Ritz crackers to eat on the bus ride back to Coleraine. I was excited to get back to my flat, have dinner, get out of my muddy clothes, and be warm. As much as I was itching to get back to my flat, I was happy that I had made the trip to Rathlin Island. All we really did was walk around for a few hours, but in a place like that, walking around is more than enough.

I would love to be able to spend an extended period of time there, though. A Writer's Chair was erected on Rathlin Island to commemorate all the writers who have visited or spent time on the island. I can definitely see why it would attract writers. The views are inspiring, and it's definitely a get-away from everyday life. A week there to work on writing would be a fabulous retreat! Maybe I can make that a reality one day.

Walking Coleraine

Walking in Coleraine

I’ve written about the university where I studied last semester. I’ve elaborated on a trip to London and weekends in Belfast. What I haven’t spent enough time on is the town I studied itself—Coleraine, Northern Ireland.

It’s a large town near the Northern coast of Northern Ireland.  It’s a fairly wealthy area  and is about twenty minutes or so away from one of the most important Northern Ireland tourist attractions, the Giant’s Causeway. It is near two coastal towns, Portrush and Porstewart, where many students live and which have much more to do in terms of restaurants and night life.

This description is accurate, but not how I remember Coleraine. Perhaps it would be helpful to think back on this town in moments—in walks.

University of Ulster-Coleraine is not right in the town. Rather, there’s a bit of walk from campus to any place you want to go in town. My first foray off campus and into Coleraine was probably the first day I had arrived. My flat-mates and I needed to pick up some food, so we asked our RA where to find a grocery store. She told us the Spar was about a ten or fifteen minute walk. I had been thrown off by “the Spar.” What was a Spar? What kind of Northern Irish slang was that? It turned out to simply be the name of a popular convenience store.I remember now how quiet my flat-mates and I were. We were still getting used to each other, still thrown off by this new university and new country.



House in Coleraine

Thankfully for us, the walk was pretty straightforward—literally. A large part of the walk towards town from my on-campus accommodations was a long, straight road behind our lodgings. On that road, we passed a lot of houses. Something I noticed fairly early was that people hung their clothes to dry, which is still actually pretty shocking considering how often and sporadically it rains in Northern Ireland. Also on that road is the Coleraine Borough Council offices, which I’d visit with the other international students for a reception during International Students Orientation week.

Finally, we reached a large intersection and the Spar. The Spar is located in a little clump of stores (including the Winemark where we purchased  Apple Toffee Cider, the most delicious drink I’ve ever had in my life), but you have to go past it and walk a little longer to really reach the heart of town.  



St. Patrick's Church

The Spar is pretty small, so more intense food shopping required the Tesco, the big grocery store in town. During orientation, my American friend Zoe, my flat-mates from Hong Kong Vicky and Tiffany, and one or two other international students decided to venture to Tesco.We had just finished a tour of campus, so we asked our tour guide for directions. He had spoken quickly and vaguely. It probably didn’t help that we were far from experts on the Northern Irish accents yet. With some idea of where to go, we headed into town in search of the Tesco and had stop multiple times for directions Everyone was very friendly, even if they didn’t give the clearest directions. In typical fashion for Northern Ireland, it began raining on-and-off during our long, twisted trek to Tesco. I easily could classify it as  a miserable experience, but instead, it felt like an adventure. And it certainly felt like an accomplishment when we finally happened upon the Tesco.



Christmas!

Another complicated walk came soon after, when friends and I attempted to find the bus station in town (something we’d easily find later and be astounded that we hadn’t been able to do before). This resulted in a lot of wandering around Coleraine and snapping pictures of our surroundings—of yet another gorgeous church, for instance, or beautiful houses. There’s something very different about the buildings and homes in Northern Ireland. They seem older. Dare I say, cuter…thought  that may be a patronizing designation.

Countless walks followed these early ones. 

Walks to church on Sunday mornings—that beautiful Church of Ireland church towards the center of down, smack dab in the middle of the pedestrian shopping area. Walks back from Tesco, arms loaded with groceries. Walks to the bus station that had once eluded me, perhaps with a black backpack on my back as I headed for adventure. 



Of course, not every memory of the town is a memory of walking.

Mayor + penguin=dancing fun

Zoe and I went to the Christmas tree light-up ceremony in town, for instance. That memory involves lots of standing in the cold, sometimes retreating into stores to get warm. We stumbled upon the Gangam Style dance competition just a little too late, but both felt we would’ve been top contenders for the prize:  a two-night hotel stay in Belfast. We witnessed a short Christmas parade with children in colorful costumes and SpongeBob Squarepants and a man in a penguin costume. Santa Claus gave a short speech, and the Mayor of Coleraine, who we had met at the reception for international students, also spoke. Zoe and I both enjoyed what happened next, and I know I take it with me as one of my favorite mental images from the semester. In front of the stage, the Mayor danced happily to Christmas music with the penguin. After taking a little bit of time to admire the lights and get our picture taken in front of the big Christmas tree, we hurried back to campus with freezing hands. There we go—the memory goes back to those walks again.



River Bann

And now I think about my last walk around Coleraine. I had to go get souvenirs for my dad downtown and didn’t want to wait until it was dark, but camera in hand, I decided to take a little detour on a side street to look at some houses and walk by the River Bann. I was feeling very thoughtful about my study abroad experience, staring out at the river, a large rolling green hill in the distance that struck me as particularly Irish. This contemplative moment was interrupted by the realization I had stepped in dog poop. which was frustrating but struck me as  pretty funny timing.

After that, I proceeded into downtown Coleraine.  I wanted to savor every moment. Even though I was ready to go home by this point (I missed both my family and all my friends at Susquehanna), I still didn’t like the feeling that I might never go back to this place again. After I had finished shopping, I remember taking a photograph of the  town center area, sure some of the passerby thought I was taking their picture.

And then I walked away.

 Last walk through downtown Coleraine, Northern Ireland

That’s how most semester abroad experiences end, I guess. The locations we study are places we walk through and then walk away from. But the "walk away from" is something I can take knowing that I did, indeed, get to "walk through."

Belfast: Part 3



Mural in a Protestant neigh

The longest time I spent in Belfast was on a weekend trip, organized by my study abroad program. This trip was designed mostly with students studying in the Republic of Ireland in mind, so one of our days was spent exploring Northern Ireland through a bus drive along the coastal route and a visit to some of the main attractions on the coast.  

The time we did spend in Belfast, was great, my favorite part being the black taxi tour. The tour, guided by Northern Irish drivers, took us to some sights that illuminated the conflicts of The Troubles and its impact on Belfast. We saw both Protestant and Catholic neighborhoods and different murals and memorials pertaining to the conflicts. We also stopped at the Peace Wall, which was a wall constructed to separate Protestant and Catholic areas. It’s been signed by people all over the world, including celebrities and political figures such as Beyonce and Bill Clinton. Though I was aware of some of Northern Ireland’s tense history, it was still  sobering to hear about it from guides who lived in Belfast during the peak of violence there. Something I noticed that weekend in Belfast, from our black taxi tour guides and the guide who took us along the Northern Ireland coast, was a sense of pride in just how far Belfast has come. It’s now one of the top tourist destination cities in the world.



Memorial in a Catholic neighborhood

Later that same day, the director of IFSA Butler’s Ireland program led us on a bus tour around Belfast. One of the best parts of this tour was getting to stop outside of the Parliament building. It was not in the center of the city, so I doubt it was something I would have seen on my own.

During one of the evenings in Belfast, I went to the Belfast Christmas Market. This market was outside of Belfast City Hall and featured many international vendors. There were a lot of different foods and drinks from around the world. I treated myself to a delicious French baguette and a Belgian waffle and bought a wallet from London for my mom. The night we were there was also the night of the Christmas tree light-up. We weren’t sure what time the tree was being lit, and to our surprise, the lights went on just as we were leaving the market, which was nice to see.



Protestant neighborhood

I also got a bit of experience with Belfast night life that weekend. We went to one pub that I really liked. It was very crowded, but it had a great atmosphere anyway, mostly because of the live music. The singers performed  some songs that I didn’t know that I assume were from Northern Ireland or Ireland, as well as some folksy covers of current hits. There was also such a variety of people there in terms of ages. It felt very much like an authentic Irish pub.

 

Though I had a few other brief Belfast experiences (such as staying in a Belfast hostel before an early morning flight to Edinburgh), these blog entries have covered the main ones. I’ll be honest—Belfast, by appearance and atmosphere, did not capture my fancy with the immediacy that Dublin or Edinburg did, but I still think the city’s going to hold a warm place in my heart. It was my first European city, after all, and the capital of a country that I’ll always remember for being the first place--and a great place, at that--I ventured outside U.S. borders.

Belfast: Part 2

The Writer's Square

In the previous post, I mentioned my orientation in Belfast and how I didn’t exactly get the best taste of the city that I could have. Thankfully, I made another trip to Belfast fairly early on in the semester. Something really great about my schedule last semester was that I designed it so I had Fridays off to make traveling easier. My two flat mates from Hong Kong, Tiffany and Vicki, and my American friend, Zoe, also didn’t have class that Friday. We walked to the bus station in downtown Coleraine and bought tickets for the bus from Coleraine to Belfast.

On the bus, we looked through one of the pamphlets I had taken about Belfast from my first trip there, but we mostly went without any concrete plan. We were just going to see where the day took us! We weren’t even sure where to get off on the bus. I think one of my friends asked the driver who recommended a stop for us. We got out at what looked like a busy street for shopping.

Delicious lunch!

We wandered around for a while in search of someplace to eat lunch. I was so hungry after the long, slightly nauseating bus ride! I’ve come to realize, though, that finding a place everyone wants to eat is one of the most difficult parts of traveling with others. Eventually, we found a café that was appealing to all of us. I got a delicious baked potato with cheese and bacon. In the U.K., a baked potato is often a meal in itself, at least for lunch, whereas here I think it’s generally regarded as a side dish.




St. Anne's Cathedral

We spent a lot of time milling about stores in the big shopping area of Belfast, but we also visited some sights as well, my favorite being St. Anne’s Cathedral (also known as the Belfast Cathedral). Though I went into other cathedrals during my time abroad, I think this one was my favorite. Other cathedrals were very beautiful, but as my friends and I separated, wandering alone to look at these high ceilings, stained glass, crosses, etc., I had a sense of the profound at this one that is very hard to describe without being hokey. . I could have stayed there much longer, and I would have loved to have gone to a service there.



Pedestrian shopping area in Belfast

We kept seeing signs for the Writer’s Square, so we decided we wanted to check that out, especially because I’m a Creative Writing major and my friend Zoe is a poet. The Writer’s Square turned out to be a bit anti-climactic. It was just across from St. Anne’s Cathedral and was basically a square with quotes from writers on the ground. Most of the quotes were describing Belfast. All in all, not particularly exciting—but we were able to get a group picture there, which is probably one of my favorite photographs of the semester! We had a little bit of a funny moment there, as well, when we asked an older gentleman to take the picture. Someone first handed him their iPhone for the photograph. He handed it back asking if the photograph was good. None of our heads were in the picture. It was all from the shoulders down! He helped us out by taking another one for us, though.

Another underwhelming attraction was one of Belfast’s libraries. I had read about it in my Belfast brochure, which was designed for tourists, so we figured it might be interesting to visit. It just seemed like a very ordinary library. While we were there, though, we stopped at the café on the lower level for some drinks to quench our thirst. I got an apple juice box.

I think we may have had one more tourist destination in mind when we happened upon a wonderful used bookstore. The place was overstuffed! It was a bit difficult to go through the books, even, because on each shelf, there would be books behind the first row of books. Nonetheless, I bought two books of poetry there, one an anthology of female poets writing about faith and the other a collection by Lucille Clifton.


Used bookstore called "The Bookstore"

After scrambling to find a bathroom (generally, it seems much more difficult to find bathrooms in the U.K.; a lot of stores that I’d assume would have their own bathrooms don’t, and some you have to pay to use), we made our way back to the bus station and headed back to Coleraine. I was able to read all of the Lucille Clifton collection during that bus ride. Overall, the day served as a much more leisurely (and awake!) taste of Belfast. We hadn’t crammed in a bunch of activities (there are still plenty of things to do in Belfast, following this semester, that I would love to do), but we had been able to walk around and explore the city to some extent. And maybe more importantly, I got to have this adventure with the new friends I was making that semester.

These are a few more pictures of this outing. This was not, however, my last adventure in Belfast. More will be featured soon!

Belfast: Part 1

Belfast!

Though I spent my semester abroad in a town instead of a major city, I did get quite a few opportunities to travel to the capital of Northern Ireland, Belfast.

My first experience there was for my orientation. I took a flight from Newark, New Jersey to the Belfast International airport. This was far from a highlight of my semester. I got sick on the plane, so I started out my Northern Ireland experience changing into fresh clothes in the airport, feeling tired, confused about where to go and honestly kind of miserable. . The Belfast International Airport is some distance outside the city of Belfast, so I had to take a cab to the hotel where I’d be meeting a staff member of my program for orientation. I had never gotten a cab before and was a bit nervous about that. Of course, that wasn’t hard at all since there was an area where cabs were waiting for people departing the airport. I remember sitting in the backseat and looking out the window at the beautiful green landscape. I was really there, in Northern Ireland—and I would be staying  there for a whole semester.

When I got to my hotel in Belfast, they told me that I wouldn’t be able to check in. I was, at that point, alone and exhausted (It was 9-something in the morning, maybe,  and I wouldn’t be meeting with someone from my study abroad program until around lunchtime), and that was just about the last thing I wanted to hear. Thankfully, I was able to clear up the misunderstanding and settle into my hotel room.

Because I took an overnight flight and hadn’t slept at all, I was way too tired to take full advantage of my orientation in Belfast, which was only me and my staff worker from IFSA-Butler. I was their only student that semester going to the University of Ulster. This meant the orientation was fairly low-key. My staff worker took me to a shopping area of Belfast. I bought a pay-to-go phone in one of the shopping centers and some towels from Primark, a department store that was in every major city I went to and that I came to love. We also went into a market with a lot of artsy products and different foods. I got tea while I was there—first of many teas I would drink in Northern Ireland; this is notable for me because I was not at all a tea drinker before I went abroad.

We also went to the Titanic Museum. This is a major tourist attraction in Belfast, which is the city where the Titantic was made. The parts of the museum I found most interesting were the replicas of the rooms passengers on the Titanic stayed in, depending by class. They also had costumes from the Titanic movie on display. Even though I’m not such a huge fan of the movie, it was still pretty cool to see the actual costumes Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet wore.  

This first time in Belfast was probably when the fashion differences between the United States and Northern Ireland hit me the most. This was most noticeable when it came to guys. Guys at the University of Ulster-Coleraine do dress differently than guys at Susquehanna, but guys in Belfast dress much more differently. They looked very European—much more attentive to fashion, more styled and less casual than American guys. The outfits of the younger guys, especially, reminded me of the boy band One Direction.

The staff person from IFSA-Butler was going to show me more of Belfast, but I was incredibly tired by dinnertime. We grabbed pizza, headed back to the hotel, and left the next day for Coleraine. It would’ve been pretty disappointing if my only time in Belfast had been in a post-travel whirlwind (I didn’t even get around to taking any pictures), but I thankfully had other opportunities to go to Belfast. Look forward to those in future posts!

The "Study" in Study Abroad

If you go back through my blog entries from my freshman and sophomore years, you’ll see that I wrote a lot about the different courses I had each semester. While I was abroad, I didn’t keep this blog up to date about my academics, so I thought I’d use this post to reflect on the courses I had while I was abroad. An easy enough feat since I only had three classes: History of Magic and Witchcraft in Early Modern Britain and Ireland, Love Poetry, and From the Vote to the Pill: Twentieth Century Women Writers.

In History of Magic, I learned that Ireland had really low rates of witchcraft trials compared to Scotland and England. These low prosecution rates didn’t necessarily correlate to lack of magical belief, though. Often, Celtic areas, such as Ireland, that did not have very fervent witch-hunts still had strong belief in magic. Some places that emphasized belief in malevolent fairies, for instance, saw less need to blame misfortunes on witches; this was particularly true for the Highlands of Scotland. Some areas also believed in more benign versions of witches, such as “butter witches,” which usually only did smaller evils like messing with crops, and in the evil eye, which was when someone’s glance (usually unintentionally) cursed someone.

As a Religion major, I was interested in the religious component of witchcraft belief. In particular, the demonic view of witchcraft focused on a witch’s pact with the devil. In witchcraft trials, those prosecuted were sometimes made to say the Lord’s Prayer as a test. Not being able to say the Lord’s Prayer was a sign of that pact with the devil. Some clergy seemed to believe it was necessary to uphold witchcraft belief in order to sustain a supernatural worldview that allowed for the existence of God. While some churches took on the main responsibility for prosecuting witches, it’s also interesting to note that some churches discouraged witch-hunts. For example, some churches would decrease the amount of witchcraft accusations by charging the accuser with slander, rather than going after the witch. Protestant-Catholic conflict could also be seen in witch-hunts, since suspected witches, particularly in England, were often “papists,” or Catholics, being accused by Protestant officials or neighbors. 

Love Poetry gave an overview of different periods and kinds of love poetry, including ancient, Victorian, marital, and Sapphic. The best part of this class was the exposure I received to all different sorts of poetry. One poet I was introduced to during the class was D.H. Lawrence. I went on to read his collection of love poetry on my own, which I really enjoyed. I hope to go back to some of the other poets I liked when I have more free time to read. For this course, we had seminars where we discussed in closer detail the poetry we read. One of my favorite aspects of this course was preparing for seminars with my friend Zoe. We would choose a poem to focus on and discuss it together, and I feel like we really learned a lot from each other.

From the Vote to the Pill: Twentieth Century Women Writers was probably my most interesting course. In that class, we looked at the work of female writers through the twentieth century, and even into the present-day, through a feminist interpretive lens. One of the books we read was Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf, which I absolutely loved. I think, in this course, I did the academic work of the semester that makes me most proud. For my first essay, I wrote about Margaret Atwood’s novel Surfacing and its portrayal of a crisis of masculinity, and for my second essay, I wrote about Bella’s quest for family and Edward as a father-figure in Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight.

While the courses—or “modules,” in keeping with the terms used at the University of Ulster—fell a bit short of my expectations, probably because I’m used to Americans’ more active class participation, I got a chance to study a lot that I wouldn’t have learned about otherwise.

Northern Ireland?

Something I realize when I talk to other people about my study abroad experience is that a lot of people don’t know much at all about Northern Ireland. I can’t really blame them. I didn’t either before I was interested in going there for a semester.

Northern Ireland is a part of Ireland, the island, but it is a separate country from the southern part of the island, which is called the Republic of Ireland. The Republic of Ireland is its own independent country, while Northern Ireland is a part of the United Kingdom. When I came into the country, I was entering through U.K, not Irish customs, which is why my study abroad program told people who weren't flying into Belfast (Northern Ireland's capital) that they should fly into London instead of Dublin (the Republic of Ireland's capital).

Peace Wall in Belfast

Identity is a very tricky issue in Northern Ireland. Are people in Northern Ireland British, or are they Irish? Are they simply Northern Irish? The choice of identification is usually indicative of political leanings. A Northern Irish person who considers themselves British might be a unionist, who is supportive of Northern Ireland’s place in the United Kingdom, while a Northern Irish person who calls themselves Irish might be a nationalist, someone who wants Ireland to all be its own country. The contention between these different political factions, which often play out along religious lines (Protestants more often being unionists and Catholics more often being nationalists), has a violent history, in a time called the Troubles. This violence mostly ended after a Good Friday Agreement in 1998, but there are some smaller violent outburts to this day. Because of the gravity of such matters, and because it’s still a very divided country, foreigners need to treat the matter of identify delicately. While international students sometimes got careless when referring to local students with each other, it would be a big faux paus to call someone “British” or “Irish” who wouldn’t use that term for themselves.



Parliament building in Belfast

Towards the end of my semester in Northern Ireland, some violence did break out in the capital city, Belfast, after a vote about hanging the union flag outside of City Hall. The government voted to only fly the flag for certain days each year. Unionists protested this decision, and some of these protests turned violent. This was near Christmas-time, and I remember hearing that the violence was disruptive of a lot of Christmas shopping. In particular, it temporarily shut down the Belfast Christmas Market, which was right outside of City Hall. It was strange knowing that such uproar was happening just where I’d been shopping a week or two earlier.

It was really distressing to hear about this news, especially because I remembered how proud some of the tour guides in Belfast sounded about the progress the city had made. They had lived through the Troubles and times when Northern Ireland, Belfast especially, was only seen as a dangerous place. Now Belfast is one of the top tourist destinations in Europe. Despite all that progress, the divide in Northern Ireland is still very much present.

I remember reading the Facebook statuses of a student from my university, and she seemed very frustrated and wearied by the conflict in her country; still, she was not particularly surprised by the turn of events, and no one else seemed to be.



Belfast city hall decorated for Christmas

Though Northern Ireland is a separate from the Republic of Ireland, there are no signs marking the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic, like we have here between states. I thought this was curious and asked my study abroad program director about it. He said that this was part of an agreement to keep the peace in Ireland. Additionally, people in Northern Ireland are allowed both Irish and U.K. passports.

As a student who was only there for a semester, one of the most notable differences between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland is currency. Northern Ireland uses pounds, like the rest of the U.K., while the Republic of Ireland uses Euros. Something interesting about paper notes in Northern Ireland is that the different banks in Northern Ireland all print different notes, unlike here, where all $1 bills are the same no matter what ATM you use. Though they were still pounds, I had to change my notes to Bank of England pounds when I visited London because many places in London won’t take notes from Northern Irish banks. Northern Ireland, however, accepts Bank of England notes. When I went to Scotland, they also took my Northern Irish pounds. A trip to Dublin also meant I was required to change my currency, but that was to euros; I had to keep in mind a whole different conversion rate. Language is another difference. In Northern Ireland, mostly everything is in English. Once you cross into the Republic of Ireland, though, all the road signs are in English and Irish. In the majority of places, though, both in the Republic and Northern Ireland, people speak English.

Northern Ireland, overall, is a really fascinating country, and I’m glad I learned more about the situation there because of my time abroad. It may be a divided society still, to some extent, and it surely has had a tough recent history. Nevertheless, it is also home to some very welcoming, friendly people and an absolutely gorgeous place to visit. I would recommend it to all travelers, though they should probably go in with a little bit of awareness about the country.

University Life: Ulster vs. Susquehanna

University of Ulster-Coleraine campus

I thought it would be interesting to think of some of the differences between university life here at Susquehanna and university life at University of Ulster-Coleraine, where I spent last semester in Northern Ireland.

I think some of the biggest differences pertain to residence life. In Northern Ireland universities, almost everyone goes home every weekend. Though some people at Susquehanna may make some weekend trips home, the vast majority stick around. Staying for the weekend is a rarity in Northern Ireland.  On Friday afternoons, the university parking lots would clear out, and mostly the only people around campus were international students.

Because of this, social life and night life works much differently in Northern Ireland. People go out during the weekdays, since they go home on weekends, whereas here there’s definitely more happening on weekend nights. For instance, I had some friends at home express surprise when I was messaging them on a Wednesday night about getting ready to go out to a night club, but Wednesday was the big night for that club in terms of students attending. They even sent a free bus to the university that night to take students to and from the club.

It was a bit depressing to see campus so empty on the weekends, but this wasn’t too terrible of an adjustment to make—at least for one semester. My flat was all international students, so my flat-mates were still around. Plus, I was able to spend some weekends travelling or simply relaxing, so that was nice.

Despite the fact that students go home so much more, the living arrangements in Coleraine are much more independent than they are here. There were a few places on campus to eat, but only for lunch, and there was no meal plan to purchase. Students have to take care of themselves, in terms of food. Where I lived on campus, Maple Lodge, students also had to purchase their electricity and a lot of other things that are just part of the dormitory package here, like toilet paper and soap.

This was a bit more of an adjustment. My friends and I at Coleraine had weekly lunch dates, sometimes ate our separate dinners we made together, or a few times had group dinners where we shared food,  but eating at Susquehanna is much more of a social event. It’s a time built into my days to spend with friends, whether that’s grabbing lunch between classes in the cafeteria or meeting at Benny’s for dinner.

Plus, there was also that added responsibility of having to make my own food! I’m not much of a cook, and I spent most of the semester making some microwavable meals, some of which were, actually, surprisingly delicious.

In general, my Northern Irish university seemed to expect more independence and take care of less for its students. For example, there’s no free printing there, which is something we have at Susquehanna. Many athletic classes and other organized asked for fees which might be covered upfront by an activity fee here.  During my international student orientation, I remember discussing with one of my American friends how different this would be at an American university and how much more thoroughly we’d be walked through the processes of finding our way around campus, scheduling, etc.

There are also differences in the academics. I spent much less time in class in my university in Northern Ireland. There were also a lot less assignments throughout the semester. I only had to do midterm and final essays for my courses there, while here I have smaller assignments more frequently. For each class at the University of Ulster, I had a lecture once a week and a seminar once a week. The lecture was the entire class, and a seminar was a smaller group discussion, led by the professor. I know some U.S. schools organize their courses that way, but that’s not how I’m used to things at Susquehanna. Here, because of our small class sizes, there’s not as much of a need for smaller seminar groups, and professors often do a combination of lecturing and leading discussion. I also think discussions here are much more vibrant than some of those I participated in while abroad. During my orientation, a staff worker from my program, IFSA-Butler, told me that often American students find themselves talking a lot more than other students in their classes. I found this to be true. American students, in comparison, seem more willing to speak up and participate, and I did find myself talking a lot more than other students in one of my seminars about women writers.

Of course, there are also bigger differences in education that didn’t have as much of an impact on me because I was only there for a semester, but I know that the Northern Ireland system is much more focused. Students come in with a course of study, and I think all (or almost all) of their courses pertain to that field of study. There’s no Central Curriculum or core requirements like we have at Susquehanna. I was talking to the director of my study abroad program, and he seemed to admire the American system because students could explore so much more. I’m really appreciative of the chances I’ve had to study different things here at Susquehanna. That’s how my Religion major came about, after all, and I’m so glad that I’m double majoring now. I can see, though, how the Northern Irish system might be more practical. Also, the typical degree program there finishes in three years, not four.

Something else I found out is that most students from Northern Ireland don’t end up going to Northern Irish universities. Most go elsewhere in the United Kingdom or to the Republic of Ireland for college. Northern Ireland itself only offers two universities—the University of Ulster, which has five campuses, and Queen’s University-Belfast.   It’s strange to think that while students who go to college in Northern Ireland go home every weekend, there are even more students from Northern Ireland who are spending their college years in a different country. It’s also weird to think about what the admissions process must be like. In America, there’s an overwhelming amount of universities to look at and apply to, while, if a Northern Irish student wants to stay in Northern Ireland, that seems much more simplified.

Overall, while I really enjoyed my time at University of Ulster, I'm inclined towards the Susquehanna way of life. Of course, a lot of that must have to do with it being what I'm used to experiencing. If I could wave a magic wand and change American universities to be more like European ones, I think the only thing I would change was giving us their startlingly low tuition prices!