Author Archives: sbufkin15

“Our pioneers keep striking, inwards and downwards:” Poetry in Northern Ireland

The first thing that drew me to Belfast was poetry. After spending a year poring through the verse of Northern Ireland’s poets, I wanted too to live “in Belfast between the mountain and the gantries/To the hooting of lost sirens … Continue reading

Posted in Class of 2015, Northern Ireland, Queen's University Belfast | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Learning to Speak Like a Local, Norn Ireland Edition

Moving to Belfast, I reckoned, would involve some culture shock. More potatoes, more rain, more swearing. But it couldn’t be that different. After all, in Northern Ireland, they still spoke English. It wasn’t like I would have to master an … Continue reading

Posted in Class of 2015, Northern Ireland, Queen's University Belfast | Leave a comment

Settling into the Routines of a New Life

When packing to head off to Belfast for a year, I was wracked by many of the same anxieties that beset me when I went off to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill years before. What if I … Continue reading

Posted in Class of 2015, Northern Ireland, Queen's University Belfast | Leave a comment

Mind Your Ankle

“You alright down there?” I looked up the towering cliff face to the small face peering down at me. With one toe jammed onto a small purchase in the granite and another slipping a bit from its wedged hold on … Continue reading

Posted in Northern Ireland, Queen's University Belfast, Uncategorized | Leave a comment