IE3 Intern Explores the Emerald Isle

Noted on July 30, 2009 by Michele Justice in

Here's a quote from Laura's blog, just before she left for Ireland.

"HOO BOY!

I leave for Ireland in one week. I’m still trying to pack, but all I really end up doing is moving the pile I’ve made from one part of my closet to another. I have my clothing figured out, and the big important stuff like my passport and money – I even made a chart to help me learn Celcius and euros faster. (Unfortunately I still don’t even know how to spell Celscius. Celsius? There we go.)

And I’ve been looking through my Lonely Planet guide book (which has been immeasurably helpful), for cultural tips and history, as well has fun places to go on the weekends. (Recommendations welcome!) And I’m excited. I’m envisioning spending the first week walking the city, finding the grocery store and the laundromat and the bus station; catching a bus on Saturdays and heading in any direction, because odds are good I will disembark in a little town with a weekly market; and oh yes, working at my very important internship so I can come back and get a sweet job.

But there’s this looming specter of culture shock. I haven’t been abroad long enough to really get culture shock. Our January Term class in England took up three weeks, and we traveled so much and saw so many different places that there wasn’t really any time to process the differences we were experiencing. Well, that’s not entirely true – in Keswick, we were stuck in a hostel with a crazy priest, and it was always raining and everything was closed between 4-6 PM and I lost one of my favorite earrings. But then we moved on, and I found identical earrings at a town market, and things were fine.

But this is two and a half months in a very different setting, with no network of friends to fall back on and a very fixed set of requirements to meet and a new culture to learn very quickly. I know, I know, that about two or three weeks in, maybe later, something will snap and suddenly I will hate everything and miss everyone and I won’t know what to do about myself and it will suck. It’s like knowing you have to get a shot – you sit there on the table and they rub that swab on your arm and you think “oh *#&@” and then the needle’s in and you’re silently screaming (or maybe actually screaming), and then it’s over and you’re still alive and your arm is a little sore but you’re done. You’re set.

That’s culture shock.

I had the idea to bring a couple recipes with me so I could cook for whatever friends I happen to make. The dorms provide all the kitchen supplies, so hopefully I’ll be able to make something cool, but tonight I remembered something critical – they don’t use cups, tablespoons, etc. I don’t know how many metric units equal a cup. All I know is that whenever I feel like cooking, I’ll have to write out all the equivalents and hopefully not burn anything in my oven, which will function in Celsius."

Photo credit to Laura Allison. Follow Laura's blog at: http://rubybastille.wordpress.com/