Irish people are extremely kind and welcoming, and they are proud of their Irish heritage. Living here, I understood for the first time what it means to have a strong national identity tied to both history and religion.
Living in Dublin has also pushed me to become more of an adult, just in the span of a few short months. Before this term, I could barely cook myself a pot of pasta. Now I not only know how to cook a real dinner, but I also know how to shop for groceries in a foreign grocery store. I’ve learned to keep an eye on my belongings while walking down busy streets, careful not to let anything get stolen. I’ve found running routes in a strange city, and I’ve gotten used to looking right-left-right for oncoming traffic.
Most importantly, though, I have learned to enter every new city with an open mind. This term, I traveled to more places than I’d been in all my 20 years combined. Almost every other weekend, my friends and I bought cheap tickets to foreign cities in different corners of the continent. I went to Bristol and Bath, England; Amsterdam, Netherlands; Athens and Mykonos, Greece; Budapest, Hungary; Berlin, Germany; and London, England. And that’s not even counting the beautiful places I saw in Ireland! While my bank account is now looking almost too empty for comfort, I wouldn’t trade these experiences for anything. Each time I got off the plane in a new city, I had to figure out how to use public transportation to get to my hostel. I had to see what currency the country used and find out where to get some. I had to find good food to eat, and of course, I had to find the best things to do while I was there.
All that was scary at first, but after a few trips to new places, I decided that travelling is much more fun than frightening.
