An odd 3 days

So I’m assuming there comes a few points in everyone's study abroad experience where they want nothing more than to be surrounded by the comforts and people of their own home, and where they question if living in a foreign country for a few months was really the decision. Unfortunately, I had my first one Tuesday evening. It has luckily been remedied since then, but I suppose I shall discuss it.

The 14 of us arrived at Knocklayd Retreat Center near Ballycastle on Monday afternoon for a 3-day “getting to know each other” experience. We split up into pairs for bedrooms (Bri and I clung to each other, obviously) and settled in. The owners of the retreat center were American and were extremely excited to have us stay. They prepared the meals for us for the duration of the stay, and I suppose it was easier for them to plan the menu for Americans rather than for Irish folk who like things like corned beef and steak-and-kidney pie. Ish. Anyway, I didn’t take any pictures of this place because it was just a little house up in the mountains, and I’m pretty sure it snowed the whole time we were there. Hence, the pictures would have been of just the inside of a regular house, or a window with white and fog outside. Being from MN, I’m assuming both of these views are pretty well standard.

We spent the first day at Knocklayd playing ice breaking games and getting a wonderful meal of grilled cheese and lentil soup, mmm. It was fabulous to have functioning HEAT and trustworthy HOT showers, my goodness. It was nice to have someone else cooking for us for a couple days, but I have to admit I much rather enjoy being in charge of my own diet. On Tuesday afternoon, we did our internship selection process which was a good kick off to the theme of this trip-conflict resolution. Many of us wanted the same internships, and many of us also preferred to be in Belfast which is impossible because we were told we needed at least an 8/5 split between the cities. After about two hours of nasty glares, whining, and persuading, we all had a pamphlet in hand describing where and how we were going to spend 8 weeks of the semester. Ready for my outcome? Don don don….


I’ll be in Belfast :) Hoorah! My internship is with Corrymeela Centre, which is a safe-haven type community that teaches about and promotes peaceful living. So exciting! P.S. It was my #1 first choice, you can clearly see my negotiation skills at work.

Here’s where the story sours a little. Happy after my internship assignment but feeling slightly sick from the amounts of coffee I had drank during the afternoon, I decided to try to sleep off the strange shaky feeling with a nap before dinner. Two hours later I woke up feeling nauseous but decided to go dinner anyway (it takes a lot for me to miss a meal). I sat down at the table with Becca, Laureen, and Nigel and ate about two bites of my fried rice before starting to get really dizzy, mumbling something, and getting up and stumbling to the living room. Suddenly my whole body ached, I was sweating, my head was pounding, and my vision was blurring. I was slightly taken aback that no one at the dinner table had come to see if I was alright, but I decided to just put myself to bed and not worry about it. Half an hour later, I was awoken by shouts and footsteps running around the house. The phrases I caught were “going to the pub!” and “can’t wait!”, blah blah blah. Bri creaked open my door and asked if I wanted to go out, and I think I just sort of stared in a disbelief fashion. Clearly I was dying and no one cared. The next hour consisted of dozing off, breaking into a sweat, and convulsing from being cold on repeat. After a few minutes of being awake, I heard footsteps coming upstairs. Once again, it was Bri who opened the door. She had stayed home from the pub to make sure I was okay. I can’t really put into words the appreciation I felt for my friend who I had only met one week before, but I don’t know what kind of people think leaving someone who is violently ill alone in a dark house in the Northern Irish mountains with no idea how to call anyone was a nice idea. I tell you. Before I had known she stayed home, I was so upset I didn’t know what to do. I was feeling SO sick, had no medication with me, was in a strange place with a comforter that wasn’t washed, thought that I was home alone, and quite frankly I was wondering why I came on this trip. Luckily the night began to get better once I had some company and drank several glasses of water. I think my sickness was brought upon by a mixture of extreme dehydration, food that I don’t normally eat, and intense amounts of coffee and tea. All in all, Tuesday night was awful.

Now things look up from here, thank goodness. I awoke this morning feeling 95% better, ate a bowl of rice krispies, and packed up my things. The 14 of us left Knocklayd (thank goodness, in my opinion) for a day of tourist-related activities before returning home to Coleraine. The idea of the retreat was nice, but it isn’t exactly my cup of tea being given fatty meals 3 times a day, sharing a bathroom with 9 people (one boy with extremely smelly digestive issues, not really sure what’s going on there…), and thinking I was going to need to go to the hospital while the rest of my class was at the pub. Sigh. ANYWAY. We drove away from that wretched place and spent a lovely day taking in the sights of the Giant’s Causeway (supposedly one of the most beautiful places on the island of Ireland), Dunluce Castle, and touring the Bushmill’s Distillery. It was interesting to see the process in which the whiskey was made, but I definitely took the free coffee rather than free whiskey glass at the end of the tour-blegh to whiskey, bourbon, and sherry. Isn’t really my thing, I guess. I think I’m a more vineyard-touring type girl!

Finally after making a stop at the grocery store we’re back at our flat in Coleraine. I bought immense amounts of cereal, bananas, veggie burgers, apples, bread, and peanut butter and am looking forward to sleeping in my own room and eating my own food for the next two weeks. Hoorah! Sorry this was so long, I shall leave you with some pictures now:

Giant's Causeway:





Bushmill's Distillery:



Dunluce Castle:






p.s. In the awkward shadow pic we were trying to spell "HECUA"

That's all for now!
Love, Karen