#gosing

I thought I’d use my last blog post to talk specifically to those who are considering study abroad. It’s a pretty big thing, and sometimes it seems too difficult to fit in with all the craziness of your schedule at home. I promise you, though, this is the BEST thing I could do for my educational and personal growth and it will be invaluable to yours. Every effort on your part will be worth it. Here is some advice for you future study-abroad-ers:

Plan before you leave. If you are going with a faculty-led or affiliate program, there will often be group excursions. They are definitely worth your time - many of those opportunities I wouldn’t have gotten had I gone on my own - but also know what time is yours and take advantage of the chance to travel and do other things. I wish I would’ve asked for a schedule beforehand because I could’ve made better use of my time and money while I was abroad. I did get to take a weekend trip to Scotland with some friends, and that was one of the best parts of my abroad experience. Travel! Explore! Talk to people!

Scotland being super photogenic. (Two of the) Three Sisters of Glencoe. I LOVED Scotland, and the opportunity to travel there definitely enriched my abroad experience. 

Ask about the workload before you go. I am an English minor, so I chose to take English classes while abroad. However, I had NEVER taken a college-level English class before (being a freshman) so I was completely unprepared for the 4000-level classes. I survived, but I certainly did a lot of stressing! Just know what you’re getting into, and decide beforehand what you can handle.

Ask for help. If you are doing a summer program like I did, it is likely that your classes will be smushed into a couple weeks. It can be very overwhelming at times between trying to stay on top of classes and making the most of your abroad experience. Your professors know this, and will gladly help you! They want you to make the most out of your experience, too. Ask for clarification, for time, for advice, for restaurant recommendations, for anything. Same thing with your program directors. My professors and directors were some of the nicest people I’ve ever met and were always willing to help.

The view from the estate (now nature preserve) of playwright Lady Gregory. She was the patroness of William Butler Yeats for much of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Along with Yeats, she wrote a multitude of plays and poetry that are now part of the Irish theatrical canon. We visited her estate on an excursion with one of my classes.

Keep yourself open to new experiences. If you come into your abroad experience closed off and unwilling to try new things, you won’t get everything out of your time. I know it can be really difficult to force yourself to try things, especially if they are extremely foreign to you. But you will leave your experience feeling so much more fulfilled if you force yourself out of your comfort zone! I am a self-taught guitarist, and one day I went with a friends to see some local music. During a break I started talking to the musicians and they invited me to play with them. I was so scared, but I knew I would hate myself if I didn’t do it! So I played one song, then another, then another. They were so kind and supportive and lovely - they even asked me to come back the next week. That experience alone made my entire study abroad worth it.

Photo credit belongs to Tori Cline. Carroll’s on Dominick Street, Galway.

Keep a journal. I seriously struggle with keeping a journal, but I’m really glad I forced myself to write while abroad. Now have great documentation of my time abroad. Plus, I will have the names of places I liked when I inevitably go back to Ireland. :)

Have an active sympathetic imagination. This is a difficult term to describe, but it’s sort of like experiential identification with another person. It was introduced to me by a friend during a class hike up Croagh (pronounced “crow”) Patrick, a Catholic pilgrimage in western Ireland. The site was once pagan, but Saint Patrick fasted for 40 days on top of the mountain and since then it has been a religious destination for Catholics. The especially devout will climb the mountain barefoot (NOT an easy feat). Although I’m not Catholic, I tried to practice a sympathetic imagination to help me understand the importance of this site to the pilgrims. In doing so, my own experience became more meaningful. A sympathetic imagination isn’t just a tool to understand religious significance - it can be used to understand political, social, and ethical significance at home and abroad. This is probably the most important lesson I learned on study abroad: your world view is dependent on your willingness to understand and appreciate the cultures around you. If you actively attempt to see things with an open mind, you will be less judgmental, more accepting, and more appreciative of the opportunities you have and the people around you.

The view on the way down Croagh Patrick, County Mayo. 

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