So. I know that this blog was kind of...sparse, to say the least. But, for me, it did serve to allow me to chronicle some of the most amazing experiences I've had over the past four months in Ireland and other countries abroad.
I've been home now for about a week and a half, and I still can't believe that my semester with "The Dubs" is over. We became a family, which I never would have imagined could really happen, and I would count each and every one of those men and women as my true friends. We are a crazy awesome bunch, if I do say so myself, and I had an amazing semester. I also learned SO MUCH about myself and about what it means to be a representative of your country abroad. Here is a list of the things I learned:
1. Irish is confusing, but beautiful. And I still can't say Táin Bó Cúailnge correctly, no matter how hard my friend Connor tried to teach me!
2. Traveling with someone who speaks the language of the place you're going is incredibly helpful. Not having someone who can speak the language is infinitely more fun.
3. I want to live in Rome.
4. I want to live in London.
5. Can I just go back to Ireland now please?--will be a catch phrase of the next semester whenever I want to have more time to do an assignment.
6. Exams can be taken with 2000+ people in the equivalent of a barn, and still turn out okay.
7. Talking to strangers is so helpful it's unreal. But only do this in Ireland; beware in other cities!
8. Traveling with other students is wonderful. Traveling with your parents is wonderful. Traveling on your own is wonderful. Essentially, I really just learned that I love to travel.
9. A mattress pad is God's gift to my back and I am so glad to have it back.
10. Hugging each other at mass during the sign of peace is a privilege, not a right.
11. People, in general, are awesome until proven otherwise. In Ireland, they're pretty much just awesome.
All of these wonders aside, I was pretty homesick and "Dome-sick" at the end of the semester. I was anxious to get back to my family, friends, and "Home Under the Dome" of Notre Dame. I missed my best friends, my choir, and my ISI family terribly, and I am so excited to be able to see them all soon. I can't wait to be on a choir bus for a week meeting all the new Choralians and singing in my hometown (St. Agatha Church, 7:30pm, Saturday 11 January 2014--shameless plug). I can't wait to sing God's praises at Iron Sharpens Iron and hear one of my peers inspire me with a talk. I can't wait to move in with my new roommate in the hottest dorm on campus, Pasquerilla East, and to see all the amazing Pyros that brighten up my day. I can't wait to walk around campus in the snow, to see the Golden Dome glisten in the sunlight, to sit down in new classes,with new faces, and new friends. I can't wait to explore Notre Dame with fresh eyes, and to add my new experiences to the long list of why I am among the luckiest of the lucky, for I attend the greatest of all universities with the greatest of all student bodies which believes in the greatest God of all things: The University of Notre Dame. And that is the most important thing I've realized since being abroad. That I am privileged, and lucky. I guess, in a sense, it's the Luck of the Irish.
P.S.: This will not be my last blog post here. Wayfaring isn't something that just happens overseas; I think it happens everywhere. So this blog will now chronicle my life in whatever words come to me, be they rants, prose, praise, or anything else. Please consider joining me!
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