Luck of the Irish

This past weekend marked a very significant part of our study abroad experience: our first bit of travel outside of the UK!

Granted we didn't go very far (not to undersell Ireland, because it was absolutely amazing), but this first bit of European travel did only entail a one hour plane ride across the Irish Sea. That being said- as I've come to learn these past couple of months- never underestimate the power and promise of unforeseen adventures and circumstances. This past weekend we almost lost a member of our four-person traveling group, allowed a former fire-throwing street performer to lead us around the city, consumed far too much Guinness (which too be fair isn't that much), spent the majority of our time in church, and became entirely water-resistant as a means for survival. Luck of the Irish, am I right?

May the road rise up to meet you...

Perhaps the most nerve-wracking part about all of this was the travel anxiety. We may not have been traveling very far, but it still meant our first flight out of Newcastle, our first customs experience, and most importantly, our first solo hostel stay. Luckily as I said before, I was traveling with three other of my closest American friends so we at least had each other with which to figure things out. Did this prevent one of us from forgetting to print the boarding passes and nearly missing the flight? Absolutely not. It did, however, mean that we got to do a stereotypical American tourist sprint through the airport which was super fun. Once officially in Dublin, I was split from my friends going through customs because of what Mum calls "the one thing she's good for"- my British passport. While I obviously don't support that, I won't deny it's easily one of my new favorite things she's good for because now what takes my friends 5 minutes of questioning and a biometric test, literally takes me ten seconds and a (albeit slightly confused) smile from an Irish customs officer. Cheers for that Mum!

The next part of the adventure was waiting for us in the form of our eight-bed rooms at our youth hostel. Aside from the fact that it reminded me of an old boarding school or maybe the orphanage from Annie, we actually had a really nice stay there and even got to room with other Americans. We joked that this was probably the closest we will have ever come to living in a fraternity house- complete with constant guitar playing in the hallway and drinking games in the dining hall- which was made even more interesting by the fact that the dining hall was actually a renovated church. The important part was that we all had beds to sleep in (and that Sarah brought ear plugs).

... May the wind be always in your face

To say that we woke up to a big rainstorm on Saturday would be the understatement of the century, so instead I'll just say that I will never again complain about Newcastle weather and leave it at that. In retrospect though, has anyone truly experienced Dublin unless they do it soaking wet and with an inside-out umbrella? Our real Irish luck rested in the fact that we found a free walking tour around the city with a man named Oisín- "The best tour guide in Dublin", as his sign claimed. He actually made several claims throughout the day, such as: "I'm what you call a 'true blue dub'", "Back in the day when I was working on my PhD...", "Back in the day when I was a street performer and I juggled fire...", "Back in the day when I was a goth and hung around in alleys just like this one...", and "Everyone in Dublin hates U2 because they didn't do enough drugs" (ask anyone apparently). Relevancy and cultural accuracy aside, joining that tour was the best decision we could have made because we saw and learned about things that we never would have if we had just relied on our iPhones to show us around. In my opinion, the only real way to see a city is with the guidance of someone who has lived there their entire life and in that respect we certainly got very lucky. 

And the best part? In the end, it even decided to stop raining for a quick millisecond. 

The next stop for us after the tour was the famous Guinness factory. Now I'm not a big fan of beer, to be fair I don't think any of us are, but it was that or the Jameson factory and I certainly wasn't going to suffer whiskey so Guinness it was. The factory itself was actually really cool, displaying not just the process of making the beer, but also teaching how to properly pour the perfect pint of Guinness and- my personal favorite- the tasting rooms. Again, I hate Guinness, but they have an actual whole room devoted to teaching you how to pick out each of the different ingredients in the beer, and it looks exactly like something out of Willy Wonka. For example, you can personally go to the several different "aroma pods" around the room and have the smells of the ingredients spritzed into your face (which honestly helps in no way when drinking the beer with your mouth) but is still wicked neat. We then of course enjoyed our "free" (€16) pint of Guinness in their Gravity Bar which overlooks the whole of Dublin, and that was by far the best part of the tour. Even Willy Wonka couldn't provide a view quite like that one. 

(Guinness's most satisfied customers)

An Irish Blessing 

We were only in Dublin for a total of about 36 hours, but when all was said and done it felt as though we had been there for days. That night us girls banded together and attempted to go out in the rain only to make it to a nightclub called "The Church" (the second church renovated to be used for alcoholic reasons, only in Ireland) and nearly be turned away at the door because of our homeless, umbrella-less appearances. Needless to say, we found a pub near the hostel to be much more our pace and sat down and happily drank our sweet, non-Guinness ciders to a classic background of Irish rock (U2 not included, funnily enough). In the morning our 9 am flight came around way too fast of course, but largely because we just weren't ready to leave yet. 

I would say that our first official trip outside of the United Kingdom was an immense success for all of the unexpected little turns that it took. I can now check Ireland off of my list of places to see on my tour of the world, and maybe more importantly, I can say I truly know what it's like to be a quarter Irish now. I may hate the taste of beer, all but melt in the rain, and only own green clothing that has "Loyola" written explicitly across it, but it's hard not to love a city that looks beautiful even in the pouring rain. 

In the words of Bono, after the flood all the colors came out

it was a beautiful day.

Fifty

As of today, I have officially been abroad for 50 days.

That in and of itself is mind-blowing to me, but made more so by the fact that it's gone by so fast. When I arrived in Newcastle in September it was still vaguely resembling summer, but now it has given up on sun altogether and fall is undoubtedly here. I will admit that this has made me a little homesick for the first time because fall in New England is one of my absolute favorite times of the year, but when I look back on everything that's happened this month I'm wondering when I ever had time to miss home amongst all of the spontaneous adventures October brought with it. Below is a selection of my thoughts, my favorites, and my reasons to never come home.

"This history could have been yours"

This is a direct quote from a tour guide at one of the many historical places that we've visited recently who began his tour by asking for a show of hands from those in the crowd from America. I feel as though my American-ness is obvious enough as it is so I didn't raise my hand, but after several others did he said, "Now I want all of you to keep in mind as we go through the tour, all of this history could have been yours" (well played from the country that doesn't teach about the Revolutionary War). But he had a valid point. There's something magical about being able to visit castles and monuments that have been in place for hundreds and hundreds of years. A few weeks ago I had the privilege of being able to visit three castles- Alnwick, Lindisfarne, and Bamburgh- and it's definitely one of the best trips that we've taken thus far. Alnwick castle is of course famous for more than it's magical historical appeal, it has also been used for real magic in the Harry Potter movies and as a backdrop for Downton Abbey. It's actually still lived in currently by the Duke of Northumberland and his family, but that didn't stop us from shamelessly taking touristy photos and running around on quidditch broomsticks on their lawn. I may not be able to celebrate Thanksgiving and the voyage of the pilgrims this fall, but I think I can happily adopt this history instead. Tonight is my very first Bonfire Night- the commemoration of Guy Fawkes not blowing up the Houses of Parliament (which ironically means lots of fireworks and explosives)- and I can be thankful for that.

 

 Cultural Immersion 

Beyond the historical aspects of British culture, we have also been making a very dedicated effort to fully immerse ourselves in everything England has to offer culturally. This month this included a One Direction concert, our very first James Bond movie, and a quest for the best tea house in Newcastle after discovering that the nearest Dunkin Donuts is in Barcelona (plans already made for the spring).

Booking tickets for the former was probably the most spontaneous decision I've made thus far in my travels- and most likely just a consequence of intense procrastination in the library- but what better place to see some of the most popular British artists surrounded by screaming little girls than in the UK? In addition to getting to see Harry, Liam, Niall, and Louis (and receiving several angry glances from the ten year olds in front of us for googling their names) we were pleasantly surprised to also get to see the amazing Jamie Lawson, Ed Sheeran's first artist on his new label (though sadly he wasn't in attendance as we had hoped). The boys had actually just returned from a summer tour in the US and couldn't stop commenting on "how nice it is to be back in the UK", with which I couldn't agree more, Harry Styles. There's something about going to a One Direction concert in the middle of Newcastle on a school night that has made my abroad experience that much more worthwhile.

 

The next school night excursion was a trip to the cinema to see the new James Bond movie- Spectre- with my flatmates. I brought my American friend Sarah along with me, neither of us having ever seen a James Bond movie in our lives, but we certainly weren't going to let that stop us from following the British crowd. 2.5 hours later of covering each other's eyes and all the adrenaline my heart could handle, we emerged from the theater at 12:30 am both happy to have seen it but probably not needing to ever again. Perhaps we're more suited in crowds of ten year olds with early bedtimes after all. Either way, I can now safely say I've listened to more than Taylor Swift and watched more than Netflix in my culturally-enriching time abroad in England. 

Frisbee, the Circus, and Other Completely Unrelated Things 

My favorite part about the fall in New England is always the preparation for Halloween and all of the little traditions that come with it. Luckily, my newfound favorite part about Newcastle is playing frisbee and I was able to combine the best of both last weekend, which made up for the lack of candy corn and pumpkin-flavored Dunkin. 

This was made possible by the fact that our team played in a mixed regionals tournament in Lancashire against other Northeast university teams from places like Manchester, Liverpool, Durham, and Lancaster. We brought a total of five teams and I was really excited to be chosen to play on the second team as a "fresher" alongside mostly experienced players. Overall, we played seven games throughout the weekend and didn't make nationals ourselves, but our first team qualified which was just as thrilling. Returning to Newcastle, exhausted and sore in just about every way, I couldn't have been more proud of this team or the weekend we spent running back and forth after a frisbee together. 

As always, one of the best parts of the tournament was getting to go out with the other teams on the Saturday night, which also happened to be Halloween. Instead of just dressing up, however, the team was given a theme for fancy dress that for whatever reason was "spooky circus". Given the fact that this isn't something that one can just google ideas for, I ended up settling for a tiger with Sarah dressing as my elephant companion. There was a whole range- bearded men, mimes, clowns- but there just aren't words capable of describing the group dynamic accurately so you'll just have to imagine a group of 50 dead-looking, circus-themed, frisbee-playing, uni students taking on the city of Preston. Overall, it was certainly an unforgettable Halloween even if no one outside of the club could make sense of our costumes and we still had to wake up at 8 am to play another full day of frisbee. I really wouldn't have had it any other way. 

So in the end, as October has come to a conclusion and I'm now facing my last full month in the UK before traveling home for the holidays, I can officially say that fall in England- for all of its differences- certainly surpassed my expectations. In November I have trips all over the UK planned, including Dublin and Edinburgh in the next few weeks, but at the same time I have no regrets about having mainly stayed in England for the past month. Whether or not I actually understand British history, culture, or the proper way to fancy dress, not a second of the past 50 days has been wasted. 

And more importantly, if this was 50, I can't wait to see what crazier, unexpected adventures 7 more months have in store for me.