Final Stretch – Morgan Billingslea

Hi everyone! I am free from isolation and excited to share what I have been doing this past week with you. In iso I watched a lot of TV, including Season 4 Vol. 1 of Stranger Things and Heartstopper. I am now free and physically feeling fine.

In isolation we met with the Disability Federation of Ireland and the Trinity Disability Services over zoom. It was wonderful hearing about both organizations. DFI was super interesting because they work with so many organizations that are more specialized to provide services to people with disabilities, and Trinity Disability Services gave us insight into how Trinity College accommodates their students and what it is like to experience higher education as a person with a disability.

Friday 6/17 was my first day out, and I presented my Disability Comparison Project via Zoom. My project was on Schizophrenia, and how the experiences of people with Schizophrenia compare between the US and Ireland. I learned a lot through my research about Schizophrenia, as well as many of the organizations across the world that support people with Schizophrenia. Ultimately, I found that the experience in Ireland is not much different from that of the US, and that both countries are still facing a large stigma against the disorder and mental health in general. After my presentation, we got to meet with a woman who worked for Children’s Disability Network and now runs her own private practice. As someone who will be working with children with disabilities, it was extremely interesting to hear about her work, and I got a much better sense of how it is like for a child with a disability to live in Ireland.

I then went to dinner with the whole group and got pasta, which was very good and authentic because we are much closer to Italy. Then, Eliza and I split off and went to see Riverdance for their opening night. It was the 25 year anniversary, and even though I got to see Riverdance last time I was in Dublin, it was so magical and I appreciated it more now than I did then. After the show I went home and packed and fell asleep in preparation for leaving Dublin in the morning.

Saturday 6/18 was exciting and hectic because we were finally leaving for my favorite city: Galway. We got on our private bus at 8am and headed towards the Cliffs of Moher, which is only a two hour drive. It’s so crazy to me that driving from coast to coast in Ireland takes less time than my

commute to Penn State. We stopped at the Barack Obama Plaza; the Irish are obsessed with him. At the cliffs we got lunch and walked along the trail, taking pictures and admiring the beauty. I always feel at home near the Atlantic Ocean.

After the cliffs, we arrived in Galway and moved into our dorms at NUI, which are significantly nicer than the ones at Trinity. I unpacked, and then everyone went out to dinner. We went out after dinner, and it reaffirmed for me that Galway is truly my favorite city.

We had Sunday 6/19 to ourselves, and I chose to wander the city aimlessly. A few of us went to the Galway Market and got food and perused the kiosks, and then I split off to do some shopping and exploring. I

bought myself a Claddaugh ring and necklace that both have Connemara marble in them. I walked all over the city, spent some time at the beach (which is mostly just rocks and seaweed), found some cute coffee shops, and eventually met up with some of the group for dinner before taking the bus back to NUI. I decided to take the rest of the day easy, and did some homework and preparation for the conference this week.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I am very excited to be out of isolation, and cannot wait to attend this conference and learn so much.