Ireland: Where strange tales begin and happy endings are possible Past Review

Academic rigor, intensity, resources, etc.

The work load was not bad at all. We had to take 2 out of the 3 classes while we were there and I chose to take the history class and the folklore class. I am very interested in history, so I really enjoyed that class. That class didn't have as much 'outside of the class' work as the literature class did. We had to do reading outside of class everyday for the folklore class. Classes were taken at a local art college (IADT), but there were no classes going on for the local students so we were the only ones there.

On-site administration of your program

Our host administrator was born and raised in Ireland, but moved to the US to go to school. He was very familiar with Dublin and it's surrounding areas. All of the staff that were there, were completely helpful with anything we needed. (Housing issues, medical issues, school issues, etc.)

How satisfied were you with your living arrangements?

We lived in a little town outside of Dublin called Stillorgan. It was a quaint little town and everyone was very friendly. Grocery and other stores were within walking distance (abt 15 mins walking). We were able to take the bus into town and they ran, on the week nights, till 11:30p. On the weekends they had a bus called the "Night Bus" and it ran later in the night. We were a bit farther away from class than the other students, but the bus ride was only about 15 mins. Our host family provided us with basically everything we needed. We had an amazing family who were very welcoming. We were provided breakfast and dinner. Our family did not skimp out on the portions:). Once I was there, I bought -shampoo-soap-snacks-blow dryer- etc.

We ate breakfast and dinner with our family. Our host mom was an AMAZING cook. She cook dinner every night and it was never anything I didn't like. They eat a lot of similar things there that we do here. And I am sure our host parents didn't want to culture shock us, so we had chicken, rice, lasagna etc. She did cook some traditional Irish food -sheperds pie, Irish bacon.

How integrated did you feel with the local culture?

Dublin itself was an activity. There was so much to see and do there. We could easily go to town after school, have dinner or just walk around. It is an amazing city. Every Wednesday we had an excursion with our professors and our classmates. They were usually pretty local. We would all meet in Dublin and they would bring us around to different sites in the city. It was great because they were very familiar with everything and were able to show us and tell us about a lot of the city's/country's history. We also took a weekend trip, with our group, to the west side of Ireland. We stayed mainly in the area of Connemara. That is the kind of Ireland you see in the pictures. It is gorgeous. We stopped in a little town and the people were SO friendly. The accents are a lot thicker on the west coast.

How well were health issues addressed during the program?

I never had an issue with my health while I was over there, but a few classmates did and it was taken care of immediately. They were taken to the doctor's right away. Insurance was covered in our program costs.

(1 = not very easy/$200+ on food & personal expenses/week, 2.5 = $100/week, 5 = very easily/minimal cost)

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• Host Family

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• Host Family