Category Archives: Irish University

Lasting Connections

One of the questions on the Mitchell End-Of-Year Survey asked us the following: We strive to connect Scholars to people of the island of Ireland. Did your experience have this result? In what ways was this accomplished or hindered? Please … Continue reading

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Bloomsday! Dublin, Books, and Home

As I look around my small UCD student residence—a different room in a different building, after moving at the official end of the semester to summer housing—I’m struck by the fact that this year, no matter how momentous it has … Continue reading

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“And it’s over the fields with my pack on my back…”

I’m up on my feet, walking again—yesterday I even ran to catch a bus! The last few months have been full of travel and activity, and I’ve had lots of opportunities to dispel the restlessness that built up during my convalescence. … Continue reading

Posted in Class of 2012, National University of Ireland Galway | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

A Positive Report

Where does time go? What was that movie where the main character had a huge remote control and could fast forward through life? If I could get my hands on one of those jumbo-size remotes, I would only use the … Continue reading

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Winter Time

When taxi drivers, store keepers, professors, and students in Galway mention the winters of 2010 and 2011, they adopt the tone of those recounting tough, repressed experiences. Ice and snow clogged the stone streets of the city as temperatures dipped to … Continue reading

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The Old and the New

A cactus and a sheep make an odd couple. Let me explain. I began the new year very far away from Ireland, visiting my best friend who is doing research in Buenos Aires. We took a road trip to the … Continue reading

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Break a Leg

When I last wrote, I was traveling home to the US, excited to be be going on tour to Princeton with the Austin theatre company the Rude Mechanicals. Well, on our opening night, I fell off the stage, sprained my … Continue reading

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Nearing the Halfway Mark

I’ve been back in Dublin for two and a half weeks now, after a very good and lengthy visit with my family and friends back in West Virginia. Finals went very well, provisional grades have been released, and this semester’s … Continue reading

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The Thread Connecting It All

Growing up, I had an unusual obsession with the world of professional surfing. I didn’t grow up on the water. And even if I had, in Mississippi that water would have been almost completely devoid of waves. Nobody in my … Continue reading

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Being a Tourist

For many years, I have utterly detested the sight of cameras strewn around necks and gawking eyes open wide with astonishment.  Overloaded sojourners stopped in the middle of sidewalks and even streets near designated tourist sights drive me crazy.  I … Continue reading

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On Coffee and Culture

I woke up early last Friday morning to essentially do one thing: get free coffee. If you have spent any time with me, I have probably waxed poetic about my desire for coffee. What might surprise you is that I … Continue reading

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Contradicting Myself

Almost halfway through.   One would think that at this point in my Mitchell year I would have a firm grasp on identity processes and divisions in Belfast.  The opposite is true. On this very blog, I wrote that the … Continue reading

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