I cannot believe that we are at the end of our 3rd week! Time has truly flown by and I wish we could stay in this beautiful country forever. These past few days have been filled with many presentations, traveling, and our final site visit.
Thursday morning we started our presentations for our Disability comparison projects. This project focused on different disabilities and their comparisons for the United States to Ireland. The disability I was assigned was severe hearing loss with the use of a cochlear implant. I researched a lot of different resources and accommodations that are offered in the United States and in Ireland for this disability. There was so much information that I found I couldn’t even fit it all into my presentation. We got K.C. Peaches for lunch because we needed a little break in the middle of the day. I got a sandwich, soup, and a delicious raspberry almond cake. After we finished up all of the presentations for the day, we ended our night at the campus bar.
On Friday morning we had two more presentations. Afterward, we had our final site visit with the Children’s Disability Network. She talked to us about her job what she does and about her experience working with students with disabilities. I specifically asked her about what an autism classroom may look like in Ireland so I could compare it to the United States since that is something I am interested in pursuing. The classroom setting is pretty similar, but one difference I noticed was she was talking about a sensory-friendly room in the general education schools. I have seen this at a few schools in the Pennsylvania area but not a whole lot. Then that night we had to say goodbye to Dublin. We all went and got dinner (pizza) and ended the night at our favorite pub.
Packing my bag to go to Galway was a nightmare the night before, but I am glad I did it. I was able to just roll out of bed in the morning and go to the bus. The bus ride was tough for me in the morning because I get car sick very easily. I was not feeling good. That still didn’t stop me from trying to make the most of all of the stops on the tour! Our first stop was the Obama rest stop in a town where Barak Obama’s great-great-grandfather was from. I got a picture with Sara at the Obamas statue. Our next stop was The Blarney Castle, but we did not actually go inside the castle. We just saw the outside. Our final tour destination was the cliffs of Mohre. This was one of the most beautiful sites I had seen on this whole trip. It was very windy in some areas though, I thought I was going to be blown over! After the Cliffs of Mohre, we finally made it to NUI Galway. The dorms here are so nice! The only con is it can get pretty toasty because they do not have air conditioning in Europe. After settling in we went to an Asian-inspired restaurant. My food was absolutely amazing. That night I ended up running into one of my friends from Penn State who studied abroad in the spring and is now traveling Europe. I did not know she was going to be at that exact place at that time. It was a very small world moment. It was a fun night, but I was also exhausted from the day we had and I passed out in bed as soon as I got home.
Sunday was a relaxing day. I went to the street fair with some people and I had an amazing German Bratwurst and garlic aioli chips. Then we just walked around the shops and picked up some groceries. I had to turn in early because I ate so much Bratwurst and I needed a nap. Now that I’m awake I’m just writing my blog!
I am so excited for the week ahead and the conference that we are here to attend. Galway is such a gorgeous city. I cannot wait to see more of it and learn so many new things this week.
-Katherine Kuhn