Andrew Coulbourne
English
I landed at Dublin airport in September of 2024, and quickly made my way to the other side of Ireland by bus. I was astounded at how much empty green space there was (I can confirm, the fields do roll) and I spent a lot of time staring at the road signs and comparing the English and Gaeilge. I arrived in Galway County (Chontae Gaillimhe, the signs told me) by sunset, and I spent about a week settling in.
All of my floormates were other international students, which I was expecting. What I wasn’t expecting was that they were all American women from the same college in Connecticut. I didn’t grow super close with them over the semester, but we had a friendly dynamic and made a couple good memories closer to Thanksgiving and Christmas.
The University of Galway was about a 15-minute walk from our hall along the River Corrib. Along that walk, you could find a few convenience stores, the university’s coffee shop, and the international office, which I frequented with all of my problems and anxieties. Classes began fairly early, and I was surprised to find how light the workload was in comparison. I was taking classes called Stories Told and Retold (on the reuse of mythology in further storytelling), 19th Century British Literature, Literature in the Digital Age, and Poetry of the First World War. You might be afraid for me that I would get burnt out from so many English courses. Worry not! It was so much fun; I got to read a wide range of microfiction, short stories, poems, and old Irish myths, as well as other types of literature that I had been wanting to read anyway. Between these classes, a daily 30-minute (or hour, if I wanted to go back to the dorm between classes, which I often did) walk along the river, and an easy and abundant access to cafe mochas and croissants, I was living in the quietest and quaintest little corner of English major heaven.
The stories are true, and Ireland is very rainy and cloudy. I love the rain, and was so productive because of it. My classes were light (or interesting?) enough that I had no trouble dedicating a huge amount of time to my role at Bartleby from overseas. It was very cold (I also love the cold) and very windy (my hair does not love the windy). As I got braver, I took hour-long walks in every direction to explore, neglecting to use maps if I could help it, and seeing many beautiful fusions of ancient nature and a docile humanity that grew alongside it. So many ruined buildings, mossy stones, walls plastered in ivy, and so on and so forth. Eventually, I even took a few trips south into Counties Clare and North Tipperary.
The money shot. One of these trips was a bus ride through Lislarkin and Ennis to reach the Cliffs of Moher. It was beautiful. I don’t think words can really describe how amazing it was. It was life-changing. I cried a couple times. My grandparents were originally from County Cork, and when I got back to the US all of my uncles and aunts fetched their old washed-out photos of the cliffs, with themselves and my grandparents in frame. That was really special. It took a while to accept the weight of being a stranger to the place that was home just two generations ago, but it was so powerful to think about.
This shot was taken in Eyre Square, a public park about 5 minutes southeast of campus. This is the hub of bus stations, coach stations, and Galway city community as far as I can tell. All the time, almost every evening, there would be huge events and gatherings here, and people would flood out of the shops and pubs to take a turn in the park, maybe ride the little ferris wheel, maybe explore the small shopping center nearby. It was really cute and human, and I had a lot of great memories here.
Overall, my term abroad was far and away the best experience of my life. I finally got a sense of independence in being in control of my own food and housing and transportation and time and all that. I developed a greater love of nature. I grew closer to my family in a strange way; I think understanding where I came from helped me better understand what I create. I would go back in a heartbeat if I could.