It has been officially been one week since classes began and I finally feel as though I am starting to get settled in to our home for the next nine weeks. There has been a bit of a learning curve in figuring out our cottages as hot water is not often readily available, and we are limited on the amount of power we can use as it is based off of putting money in a machine. There have been times where I’ve been visiting friends in their cottages and everything in the house will shut off with no warning. My cottage-mate Ronald and I have yet to have that problem as we have been incredibly frugal. One our first mornings we walked out of our rooms and could see our breath, and at that point we realized we were maybe being a bit too frugal, but we’ve done well, nonetheless.
Aside from talking about my living situation, I figured this blog post would be a good time to point out some of the most obvious differences between the United States compared to Ireland, as well as the things I like and don’t necessarily care for.
There are many things that set Ireland apart from the U.S. one of the most obvious being that evidence of Ireland’s history is visible virtually anywhere you go. Many of the buildings in Ireland have been standing for several centuries and are still used today, mixing a modern interior with a very old stone exterior. Another obvious difference is that people drive on the opposite side of the road to us. Their money is also vastly different as the US has a dollar bill, but Ireland actually uses coins for anything under five euros. It is a small thing, but it is somewhat frustrating to have to try and identify the different coins from each other in my wallet at stores as they have more types of coins in use than the U.S. One of my favorite things about Ireland so far however is that once you’re in Galway or Dublin you can walk virtually anywhere with relative ease.
I would be lying if I said there weren’t things I missed about being home. I of course miss my family and friends back home, those should be obvious, but I also miss having my car a tremendous amount. I didn’t really think about how much of a hit to my sense of independence not having access to my car would be until I had been here a few days. Many people simply rely on public transportation here and do not worry about cars. I will also say that the fact that everything is in walking distance is a bit of a double-edged sword as I also like to be able to look out in fields and such when I am driving or walking. So far that has not been as much of an option where we have been located. There will be much more traveling in the future though so I am not too worried about this yet. I look forward to sharing more adventures with you!
Ramblin' Dan 