It Is Indeed Green Here
When it comes to living arrangements, I will begin by talking about the thing that first jumped out at me when I entered my current abode. The flooring. Now, when I imagined where I would stay while studying on a campus that is mere feet away from a legit castle, I pictured something quaint, even cozy. Stone covered in ivy, beautiful views, wooden features. An overall medieval feel. Instead, after having to use my cell phone to unlock three different doors, I was hit with what I can only describe as a grubby lime living its second life as a floor. Carpet and linoleum. I know this might sound like a wild description, but I will include photo evidence so you can see what I mean. Not only is it lime green, but it is also littered with mystery stains, which I can only speculate point to the original use for this building —a putt-putt course. Alas, the world may never know.
The craziest thing is, there is quaint accommodation on campus, it’s just on the opposite side of campus, the pretty side. The side we live on is modern. Iron and glass everywhere. Abstract sculptures, geometric shapes, the whole bag. Then all you have to do is cross the road that splits the campus in half, and suddenly you are in picturesque Ireland – large, moss-covered stone buildings, a massive Gothic church, and a beautiful, green courtyard. Below is a picture of the casual beauty that I encounter when I cross the road on my afternoon runs. (Psst, there’s a picture of the church if you scroll down). A perfect example of a juxtaposition. Wow, 11th-grade honors English class is coming in clutch for the big words today. 
ANYWHO, I’m getting carried away, per usual. I truly can’t complain about my apartment. It’s located on campus and only around a five-minute walk to any of my classes, a 10-minute walk to the shopping center, and 20-minute walk to the train station. It’s what real estate agents would call “prime property”. I like to think that its lack of character makes the bare minimum effort that my flatmates and I put into decorating it look amazing. We have already arrayed one wall with some beautiful self-portraits, and week-old flowers are currently living in an old pasta sauce jar on our kitchen table. Yeah, we’re classy around here.
As for my own room, I will stick to minimal decoration as I do not want to have a lot of things to deal with at the end of the semester, as I’m trying to pack for my flight back. As compared to MLC, it is grand. I have my own FULL bathroom connected to my room. Gone are the days of scampering down the hallway in a towel on the way to the shower. Along with that, there is plenty of storage space, which is completely wasted on me currently, as I am living as a vagrant. Not sharing a room and sleeping under someone else has also been an amazing luxury. Not that I don’t enjoy having a roommate to keep me sane, shout out to Heather, but it is a breath of fresh air to feel a sense of independence after living in a dorm for so many years.
Unfortunately, with independence comes maintenance, namely cleaning, which my flatmates and I have found to be frustrating as hair seems to collect so quickly and the bread here seems to be so crumbly. Maybe the lime green just makes it more obvious, who knows? While we’re on the topic of first-world problems, making my own food sounds all fine and dandy until I actually have to go and buy groceries and walk them back home. For those wondering, a backpack is always the way to go. Independence also requires self-regulation and motivation, which is easy to slack on when you have the option of rotting in your room without anyone knowing or saying a word. Those are the times that I have to remind myself that I am in IRELAND and that I should make the most of the time that I’m here. Luckily for me, my flatmates think the same way.
Ah! What a natural segue into talking about said flatmates. All four of them are from the US, but from different parts of the country. Michigan, New Jersey, California, and Kentucky. We are all very different, yet we somehow manage to get along very well. As I mentioned in my last blog, we have had to find familiarity with each other fairly quickly. We’ve all made the unspoken choice to stick together and are even getting to a point where we can actually be vulnerable with each other. I’ve had interesting conversations with each of them already, and I look forward to the adventures that we will go on together. A trip to London is currently in the works, which will definitely shake out to be the weekend of a lifetime.
Well, now is the time in the show that I must bid adieu as I must run to class, but just know that I am very much enjoying my time abroad. I really don’t mind the crumbly bread. It’s actually much better than any bread that I’ve ever eaten in the caf. Yes, that was subtle shade. Oh, also, my apologies for all of the dramatics throughout this entry; it’s been a week. Ok, I actually have to go now. Classes here may start five minutes later than the appointed time, but I don’t want to be the person who makes people have to stand up, so I can get a middle seat in the lecture hall. Until next time!
Peace and Love,
Mathilde
Blog #3 Village Vibes: Studying and Staying in Limerick
Dia duit! Hello! And Good Day! (pronounced dee-uh g-witch)
It has been just about a month of living in Ireland! You may be wondering if there are dorms on campus or if I live with a host family. What is the housing accommodation like? I live in the Plassey Residence Village, which is pretty much a small apartment complex. There are a few different villages all around campus to accommodate all the students. Each village is comprised of small apartments, each with its own door to the outside. Plassey Village is only about a 15-minute walk to the center of campus and most of my classes. This is pretty typical for all the villages. Each apartment houses 4, 6, or 8 people. My apartment holds 4 bedrooms, each with a twin bed with storage drawers underneath, a desk and chair, a wardrobe, and a sink with cabinet space. We also have a shared living space with a couch, TV, dining table and chairs, and a kitchen.
I live with 3 other lovely ladies—Katie, Nessa, and Eli. We love living together this semester, and I couldn’t be happier with how my housing arrangements turned out. We’ve settled into a routine in the evenings of making dinner and watching a few episodes of Gilmore Girls. I love getting to experiment in the kitchen that I only share with 3 girls instead of an entire dormitory. Friday nights are pizza and movie nights for Katie and me, and we look forward to them every week!
We have a routine of going shopping together each weekend. We make a list of places we need to visit, such as the Milk Market (a farmers’ market), Savvas Music store for Irish tin whistles, Dunnes for groceries or clothes, Penny’s for clothes, Michael Guiney’s for kitchen things, and a local shop for a sweet treat or coffee! We plan our day and make our shopping lists. We check the 304 and 304A bus routes
and times (always estimated as it’s usually late). We spend the morning or most of the day in town, making Dunnes our last stop for groceries before catching the bus back to the village.
As the University of Limerick hosts 18,000+ students, there are quite a few differences between MLC and its 600+ students. The laundry room in my village has 3 washers and 3 dryers for 40+ apartments. MLC provides 8 washers and 8 dryers in the Augustana dormitory for 190+ girls. There are 2 bathrooms in my apartment, shared between 4 girls. Augustana contains 1 large bathroom with 6 toilets and showers, and 10 sinks for an entire floor of girls.
I live in a village called Plassey,
The weather is not too nasty. 🌦️🌈
With Nessa and Eli, and Katie,
We four girls live steady.
We are all pretty classy.
In the village four girls live.
Many memories we give.
Apartments are vast.
But we all will last.
Our kitchen has no sieve.
Dishes and plates we had.
Upon our arrival, we were glad.
To the store we must go.
And tote bags in tow.
The bus with us and our cargo.
Four bedrooms for four.
We have lots of doors.
Twelve you see
And this must be
For we have things to store.
To Guiney’s we shall ‘venture,
For I must have a blender.
Soup I want to create
But puree need to make.
This has brought me much splendor.
Studying and staying in Limerick,
It must be considered a picnic.
Little friends do we see, 🕷️
That should be in a tree. 🐝
Our kitchen has tiny sidekicks.
There are too many good songs to choose from, so here are two!
Irish Pub Song, by The High Kings: https://youtu.be/bp3UsU5pQT8?si=qQ8SZcD7cdcTPccb
Hills of Connemara, by Gaelic Storm: https://youtu.be/rREMPw8U2No?si=3iKjg-4H-7AVBVi9
Blog 3 – Classy Plassey
Happy day, friends!
Holi cannoli! Can you believe it? I have been living in Ireland for a month, and may I say, I still love it just as much as I did when I got here the very first day! The living arrangements certainly help to make me feel at home, which is what I am thrilled to share with you in this blog! Thank you for your kindness in reading this, and I hope that it makes you thankful for the home that God has blessed you with!
Speaking of “thankful”, I find myself silently thanking God for so many things every day! I really do believe that positivity is healing, and my gratitudes have kept me full of joy, even when harder moments have occurred! Here are some of my gratitudes from these past few weeks!
Three things I am grateful for:
- Irish Dancing (it is a tremendously beautiful way to move the body)
- My Housemates (we go on adventures all the time, make memories, have ‘Gilmore Girls’ dinner nights, laugh, and just have loads of fun together)
- Walking (it is such a blessing to have the ability to walk, to take in everything around, and enjoy physical activity in such a unique/individualized manner)
My prompt for this blog focuses on my living arrangements in Limerick, and I am excited to share with you how I have made what could be seen as grotesque into something that has become home!
My Accommodations:
- I live on campus.
- I live in a village.
- I live with three gals and many bugs.
- I live in a much more individualized environment than the housing at MLC.
I don’t know if your brain is like this or not, but I most certainly am someone who needs to visualize my living space prior to arrival. Throughout my years of living in dorms, I always had a freak-out moment sometime in the summer when I needed to know exactly where my new room would be, what the setup would be, what my window would look out at, etc. I just like to have a game plan of how to make my new environment look like home and what I would want to pack to make it feel like home, you know?! Anyway, I had my annual-summer-mental-new-housing freak-out moment prior to coming to Ireland, and I decided to look up on the UL website what the housing arrangements looked like. I began to feel better about what I was seeing until I realized that there are 6 on-campus villages and 3 off-campus villages, and I did not know which village I would be living in! Umm, guys, that was a mega problem on aisle nine! But don’t fret…I figured it out! 😁
It just so happens that I have the incredible opportunity to live in Plassey Village, which is technically on campus, but the village is located just outside of the campus flagpoles. The village is filled with little houses that are connected together and placed along little stone streets. I totally feel like the outside aesthetic of the houses gives epic fairytale vibes! Hehe…sometimes I feel like Snow White walking to my cottage, trying to take shelter from a ton of rain! However, I do have to walk a fair distance to get to important places on campus. For example, for me to walk to the center of campus, I have to walk about 0.6 miles. For me to walk to any of my Irish dance classes, I have to walk about 1 mile (one direction). Needless to say, I am grateful for the ability to walk and for the time that I get to pray or be in deep thought as I make my way around campus!
I am truly blessed. I have the opportunity to live with three amazing gals: Laura, Vanessa, and Eli! God is just so good! We all get along wonderfully, respect one another, have classes together, and love going on adventures together! I couldn’t ask for a better group of people to live with and to call my friends! The amount of love and support that we are able to give to one another fills my cup with so much joy!
We do, however, have a few other friends that like to live with us as well…bees and spiders! We often find our flying friends in the kitchen with us, and I have learned to enjoy their spritely company as they buzz around the air and I buzz around making food! Our 8-legged friends, on the other hand, are much less liked. They come in a variety of sizes and are smashingly good at surprising us when we least expect it! 🙃 Most of the time, I freak out when there is a spider, and I could not be more thankful for Laura’s prompt and speedy spider-attacking abilities! Do not worry, though, we have now found a solution that has helped…peppermint oil on cotton balls! This leads to fewer emotional attacks on us and fewer physical attacks on the spiders. If you have a problem with this yourself, I highly recommend this tactic – “it is so choice”! I do still have one webbed friend that likes to live above my closet, but we have compromised. I have agreed to let him cohabitate in my room as long as he doesn’t move – we will see how long this lasts…
Aside from my new friends and fairytale housing, it is pretty independent living. I have my own room with my own sink! Side note…this is a brilliant idea to have a sink in the room! It makes getting ready in the morning and at night SO much easier! Then, Vanessa and I share a bathroom on the second floor, and Laura and Eli have their rooms and bathroom on the first floor. Together, we share a kitchen and living room space on the second floor! We have the best times cooking and watching “Gilmore Girls” on the couch! This is much different from MLC, as we have individual rooms, only share a bathroom with one other person, have a sink in our rooms, only live in a building with four people total, cook for ourselves, and are fully responsible for our own lives with no one checking in on us. The one thing that is like MLC is the laundry room. We have one laundry room with three washers and three dryers for the entire village. I have had one too many kerfuffles while trying to do laundry here, and I miss having more machines and dryers – thank you MLC for providing machines that work a lot better than these! As usual, I am still VERY careful to not get concussed on the dryer door again…
Overall, the living conditions are wonderful and I have put up Bible verses all over my room for decoration! It makes me feel so at home and I love having some space to myself! I thank God for allowing me to experience a more independent lifestyle where I can learn responsibilities that I would not get at MLC!
These past few weeks have been extremely busy, but filled with so much life and vibrancy! Each day is a beautiful continuation of the day before and presents opportunities to talk to new people and form connections around the globe! There are an abundance of activities to do, places to serve, and people to interact with. Life here is real, raw, and ravishing.
Highlights of my month in Ireland include:
- I was accepted into the UL Global Ambassador’s Programme (I will be writing more blogs and hopefully making yoga/pilates videos to be posted on UL social media)
- Visiting Bunratty Castle and the Ring of Kerry (absolutely stunning sites)
- Joining the Environmental Society
- Beginning Irish Dance Classes (it is SO much harder than it looks)
- Seeing the amazing ways that Ireland stresses caring for the environment (sorting trash, litter picking, recycling bottles at the store, using reusable cups/bags, using paper towels that are on a roll and are fabric, etc.)
- Teaching a lesson on past and present tense on the spot in my TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) class
Low-lights of my month in Ireland include:
- Feeling very isolated and out of place in particular environments
- Getting on the wrong bus
- Pain with dancing
Learned Insights from the Low-lights:
- Though there are particular moments of isolation or feeling like I don’t belong, these are the moments that provide me with opportunities to step out of my comfort zone and try to talk to people that I might not normally speak with! These are the moments that help to build my character, confidence, and my ever-growing perspective!
- There was a moment that my housemates and I got on the correct bus, but it was going the wrong direction. So, we had to stay on it for over an hour before the loop turned around and we could get back home! What was amazing about this experience was that we got to see all of Limerick and better familiarize ourselves with landmarks around the city! We also had the opportunity to meet a lovely lady who gave us lots of tips of beautiful places to visit while we are here! Truly a God wink!
- It has been hard on my body to learn Irish Dancing. It is an exquisite way to move one’s body, but with my back and hip issues, I have been undergoing quite a bit of pain to dance in this manner. But I am finding joy in working on moving with a bit less passion so as not to aggravate my body further! This is something that will ultimately be a beneficial thing for me to learn as I continue to further my knowledge of living life with physical constraints.
Scripture that has been close to my heart these past few days:
- 1 John 5:12 – “Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.”
- 1 John 1:8-9 – “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”
- John 14:6 – “Jesus answered, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’”
With that, I have shared with you what has been on my heart and in my mind! This is a charming place and I am so grateful to be calling Plassey Village my home! God is so good and has been blessing every moment with His graces and mercies! Praise be to Him who forgives, loves, and gives eternal life!
Many blessings to you now and always,
Katie Gilkey
Home Away From Home
Having a host family in Germany was something that before I arrived made me both very excited and nervous. Would they like me? Would I like them? Would they be friendly? Would they want to spend time with me?
However, after spending a little over a month with them so far, I can happily say that having a host family was one of the best decisions of my study abroad experience. As soon as I arrived I was greeted by my host mother, who gave me a hug and welcomed me into her home. Soon enough, I found myself settling in and spending time with them at meals and when I was at their house.
Their flat/apartment is in a well kept building about 25 minutes from the city center by train. I often enjoy taking that train to the city center and walking around, not to a specific place but just because I can. I still find it hard to believe when I round the corner coming out of the underground train station and see the Brandenburg Gate right there in front of me. At my host family’s house, I also have my own room and bathroom which is really nice. Pictured above is my room. Having that space to myself has been really awesome, and is something that I definitely would not have gotten if I had done a dorm type living arrangement.
Another thing that I think is awesome is breakfast and dinner. Both of those are covered by my host family, and not having that extra stress of having to find meals has been very useful and beneficial. (And they make really good food too!)
On a somewhat related note, something I’ve taken away from these experiences, especially around meals, is the way they have dinner. Having that time and really intentionally slowing down has been really nice for me. My host family makes a big point to be present in the moment during these times and everyone genuinely shares how their day was. At first, I was nervous for when I’d have to share my day (partially because I’d be saying it in German) but they those moments have quickly become some of my favorite and are a great way to practice my German in what is a very safe space.
Overall, I really enjoy my living arrangements and host family. There are many aspects of their life that I admire. Dinner has quickly become a highlight of my day because I get to sit and talk with my host family. It’s really nice that they are very invested in how my day was and are willing to help me with any questions I have. Having that family feel is another thing I really appreciate.
I have a host brother (18) and a host sister (22) who are both close in age to me, so talking with them feels very natural and I have really enjoyed getting to know them. I hope to continue spending time with them and getting to know them.
The Ins and Outs Of Living With a Host Family
Here in Berlin, I live in what is called a guest or host family. That basically means I’ve chosen to live with a German family instead of staying in the student dorms. Before coming here, we had to write an essay about ourselves, and based on that, the program directors decided which family would be the best match. To be honest, I had been hoping for a family with kids or maybe a pet, but instead, I ended up with a lovely couple in their 50s. And honestly, even though it wasn’t what I pictured at first, it’s still been a good experience.
Living with a host family is so different from staying in the dorms. I knew that the dorm options here would be full of other American exchange students, which is a great opportunity to make friends, but I was hoping for a more authentic experience. A big reason why I came here was to expand my horizons, and I knew that if I lived with other Americans, it would be way too easy to just stick with them and not step into the German Culture. By living with a German family, I’ve been able to experience the culture on a much deeper level. I’ve gotten to try traditional German foods, watch how daily life flows here, and practice speaking German outside of the classroom. That said, it does make things harder when it comes to making friends within my program. Since I don’t live with them or even really near them, I miss out on some of the casual hangouts or late night bonding that happens in the dorms. Sometimes it feels like I’m missing a piece of the social experience.
But at the same time, I wouldn’t trade it. The couple I live with are very kind, and they’ve welcomed me into their home. Much like the rest of Germany, they’re very structured people, the type who like things neat and orderly, which was a little frustrating at first because I didn’t know what the right way to do things was. But as time has gone on, I’ve started to feel more comfortable and even more at home.
My home is in Schlachtensee, a suburb on the edge of Berlin, and it’s absolutely beautiful. I don’t live in the hustle and bustle of central Berlin, which sometimes makes me feel like I’m a bit removed, but it also has its perks. Right near my house, there’s this gorgeous lake where I can walk around or go swimming when the weather is nice. The picture I have here is the restaurant, The Big Pan. I live on the top floor of the apartments in the building behind the restaurant. It is a tiny apartment, but it’s decorated so adorably. I even have my own room, which is nice and cozy.
Another plus of living with a host family is that they feed you breakfast and dinner. And it’s good food at that! The dorm option here leaves you responsible for all your meals. And, your host family’s got your back on the small stuff. One day, it was raining, and my host mom offered me an umbrella. It’s the little things that are making this a much more personable experience than the dorms would have been.
The only downside is the commute. I live about 50 minutes away from school. Every morning, I walk to the station and hop on the S1 train. That ride takes around 15 minutes, and then I transfer to a bus for the rest of the trip. At first, I really dreaded the idea of spending that much time commuting every day. But now, I’ve grown to enjoy it. Germans don’t really talk much on public transportation, which is so different from America, but I quite like the silence. I’ll use that time to relax, wind down, reflect on my day, sometimes I journal, and I’ve even read a few books!
So even though I might miss out on some of the dorm life experiences, I feel like I’ve gained something equally valuable. Living with a host family had given me a deeper look into the culture and pushed me out of the bubble I might have stayed in otherwise. I’ve learned to make a few German dishes, gone to some neighborhood events, and found a new home on the other side of the world.