Primeras Impresiones

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  1. “Madrid is huge! “Being from a small Wisconsin town and attending college in a small Minnesota town, I have minimal experience with big cities. My few weeks in Argentina gave me a little taste of a big city, but we didn’t have as much free time there as we do here. Thankfully, the metro is pretty easy to use, especially after using the one in BA. It’s pretty efficient, too, which is something I know I’ll miss when I return to the small towns. 
  2. “Our residency is so cute!” The three of us in Spain were all assigned to the same student residency, a 15-minute walk from our classes’ building. I won’t talk about the place too much, but we had a patience test when we arrived. Sarah’s and my rooms weren’t stocked with linens, Tupperware, or towels for the bathroom. It took us a few days (yes, days) to get these things delivered to us by the housing program. They also don’t supply toilet paper, which we found out the hard way. But the place is super cute!
  3. “The air quality is bad?” Every time I looked at my weather app, the first thing to pop up was the air quality conditions, which are almost always unhealthy. Personally, I can’t really notice a difference between the air here and that back home, but maybe I just didn’t memorize the air from back home. Honestly, though, I can’t say I’m surprised since probably half the people here smoke. I don’t say this directly affects air quality, but it makes sense if it did. 
  4. “Spain is a social culture.” The smoking and going out culture really emphasizes how social the society is. These things aren’t always done indulgently but almost like an excuse to be social. A little conversation during a smoke break, a glass of wine on a lunch date, tapas and a drink with a group at night. Both of the Nebrija campuses have outdoor common areas where students can mingle. Although we have all our classes at the smaller, less pretty building, we still have time between classes to chat with new people and make friends. 
  5. “Everyone here looks so nice!” I mean this in two ways; first of all, they’re pretty. There are very few people that I would consider to be “out of shape.” This is probably because walking is common with things being so close together and because of the food. They don’t tend to eat much, but when they do, it’s healthy overall, especially compared to many options in the US. Second of all, they all have such good style. Barely ever do you see leggings or sweatpants or sweatshirts. That’s just not how they do it here. Not to be rude, but guys from the US need to take notes! These Spanish men are stylish!
  6. “This weather is warm; why do people look cold?” The weather here has been warmer than usual, getting up to 60 degrees a few days. Now the temperatures are in the 50s, and people look like they’re going to brave the below-zero temperatures of windy Minnesota! I’ve been comfortable in just a cardigan or sweater. They have oversized coats, hats, scarves, and gloves. They wear so many layers of clothing. And somehow, they still look fashionable!

Cozy Corners and Cultural Connections: My Irish Housing Experience

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I have been living in Galway for 35 days now, and it’s a hard statistic for me to believe. Time moves differently in Ireland– the days fly by. For the most part, I have gotten over the initial culture shock and am thriving. I have a solid daily routine, and that helps a lot with providing stability and peace of mind. I plan my daily routine each week and intentionally carve out time to work on things that bring me pleasure. For example, I wake up each morning and allot about one to two hours for writing before I start my day. On February 5th, I finished working on a rough draft of a 20,000-word novella. Now, I’m working on a memoir of the early years of my life. I started this because I noticed that I have lost some of my early childhood memories and want to preserve them by writing them down. I have also been reading a ton– I’ve read nine books since I arrived in Ireland. Currently, I am reading the monstrous novel “Lonesome Dove” by Larry McMurtry and having a whale of a time.

I have been tasked with writing about my housing arrangements for this blog. When I left for Galway, I did not know that Ireland is in the midst of a housing crisis. I found housing accommodations without any hassle, a blessing from God that I did not realize I had received until I talked to some Irish friends. I live in a student village, essentially blocks of identically shaped houses arranged like a game of Tetris. The houses are made of brick, and from the outside, they wouldn’t look out of place in a college town in the United States. I was blessed with a house that faces the Northeast, which means I am protected from the ferocious winds that come off the North Atlantic from the Southwest. It’s the little things in life.

My house is located in a prime location. I live about a ten-minute walk from a Dunnes (Ireland’s version of Target), a Tesco (Ireland’s version of HyVee), and an Aldi. I live about a 15-minute walk from my University’s campus. Oddly enough, I love my daily walks to class and find them relaxing. The train and bus stations are located in the city center (aka Eyre Square), and it takes me about a 20-minute walk to reach there. With all my walking, I end up averaging 12,000 steps per day.
If I am quite honest, the inside of my house is bland. The walls are painted either white or beige, depending on the room. The aesthetics of my house are comparable to those of a hotel; generic, but sufficient. The ground floor is a combination of a kitchen and living room. The living room is great for lounging, working on homework, and hanging out with people. There’s also a gas fireplace that I often sit in front of as I work on homework. It emits the perfect amount of heat– enough to keep me warm but not overheat me unless I leave it on for more than four hours.

I have a large kitchen to work with, and my house has dishes and cooking utensils, but they are of lower quality. I’ll simply describe the mismatched dishes and utensils as “well-loved” and leave it at that. I don’t particularly appreciate spending too much time in the kitchen because I have a different standard of cleanliness than my roommates. Frequently, I have to reclean dishes before eating and cooking because my roommates fail to remove the crusty bits of food from their dishes. They also often commit the atrocity of not throwing away wrappers– leaving them on the counter or table. I have communicated with my roommates about my grievances, but not much has changed, and I’d like to maintain my peace with my roommates, so I’ll just live with it.

I have three Irish roommates: John, Alan, and Peter. John is studying computer science and is great fun to talk to. He’s helped advise and teach me how certain things work in Ireland. Alan is studying Business and is “one of the lads.” He also enjoys asking me about US politics– I was informed that many Irish citizens, himself included, follow US politics for entertainment. I rarely see Peter because we operate on much different schedules; he’s friendly, but I haven’t had the opportunity to talk to him much. When we do speak, his accent is so thick that it’s hard to understand him sometimes, a difficulty I never expected I would encounter. I have noticed that my Irish roommates tend to have a different philosophy of life than mine. I am very assertive, proactive, and “do things the right way the first time so I won’t have to redo them.” My Irish roommates, classmates, and professors tend to be much more passive and carefree concerning details. It’s not wrong; it’s different, so I’m learning to live with it.

My bedroom is on the first floor, above the living room. I share a room with a guy from California named Colm. Colm and I are very different, but we get along just fine. He’s also very passive, like my Irish roommates. He likes to talk about UFC, Formula 1, and the NFL, so I try my hardest to pretend I know what he’s talking about to converse with him. I sleep in a twin bed, but I’m convinced it’s smaller than an American twin-sized bed because my feet will hang off the edge of the bed if I lay out straight. It’s not the end of the world because the mattress is comfortable. It will never compare to my bed at home, but it’s vastly superior to some of the beds I’ve slept in before.

Next to my bed is my desk. I love my desk. It has the perfect amount of space and storage on the shelves above. At the very least, I spend about three hours daily at my desk. As mentioned, I write for about 1-2 hours daily and also work on homework, read, or ponder at my desk. In fact, I’m sitting at my desk right now as I write this. My private library also sits on the shelf above my desk. I am an unashamed bibliophile. I love to sit at my desk and look at my books– something is enchanting about them.

Now I know what you’re thinking… how does my housing here compare to MLC? I’d say it’s another case of “not wrong, just different.” I enjoy the independence that I have here– I share a bathroom with only one other person, I can quickly cook my food, I can control the temperature of my room, and it is consistently quiet. However, I miss living with my MLC roommates, Rees and Adam. I miss being able to roll out of bed fifteen minutes before class starts and still make it on time. Unsurprisingly, I also miss being able to walk outside of my dorm, hop in my car, and drive anywhere I want.

All in all, I am loving my experience in Ireland so far. I am adjusting to the culture and am continuing to meet loads of new people. So far, one of the biggest shocks has been how much self-education I’ve done. I don’t have many academic obligations (eight hours of class time total per week), so I spend a lot of time reading and researching things that interest me. Believe it or not, adjusting to having so much free time has been challenging. I’ve found the free time especially beneficial for my relationship with God– I take extra time to pray and read my Bible. Please continue to pray for me as I study abroad, and I hope you enjoyed reading this!