Author Archives: mdv5030

Trip to Galway

Yesterday, a group of my friends and I traveled to Galway for the day.  This will be an entire photo blog.  Enjoy.

Starting off with some photos from Friday night, which we spent at Stables:


^Jennie and myself about to go out.


^How much one Irish person drinks in a week.


^Katie’s first Guinness.


^Friends

Our trip to Galway:


^On the way to the bus station at 8AM. Moon still out :]


^We made it!


^Friars River


^More River


^Me


^Meagan and Danielle on the River


^Katie and me being goofy.


^Pretty cool tree.


^Leaf imprinted on the sidewalk.


^Cute sign.


^Found on a trashcan. hah.


^Human Statue.


^Spanish Arch.


^Spanish Quarters.


^Street shot.


^Excellent.


^Broken clock.


^COOKIES!


^Pretzel from a street vendor.


^Some things we found in the shops were just wonderful.


^Bike with flowers :]


^If there are musicians…I will find them.


^Band called Keywest. Incredible. Here is a video of them.


^Real Irish Music (we had no idea he was behind us).


^They were fun!


^SO MUCH GOOD MUSIC.


^Excellent, right? Right. Right, right, right.


^Buildings.


^Cathedral from a distance.


^Cathedral up close.


^HUUUUGE Cathedral.
^Organ inside the Cathedral.


^Candle inside the Cathedral.

A LOT OF PHOTOS, I KNOW. Gonna look for a better way to do this (put a slideshow in? eh?).

Cheers,
Melanie


Location: Galway, Ireland

No homework?! Is this real life?

This week and next week are my trial periods for classes (or modules, as they call them here).  I came in knowing pretty much what I wanted to take, after talking to my business adviser.  My COMM adviser never really e-mails me back, so I’m just hoping that the class I am taking to count as a COMM credit does.  Otherwise, I was told to take two GAU’s (international classes for business……I think any class here should count for that, but we’ll see), a GH, and a GN. 

Module #1 (what I hope to count as a COMM class):  Sociology of Media Audiences.  I have previously taken sociology, as well as Cultural Studies of the Mass Media, and I found both topics to be incredibly interesting…..so that led me to this module.  The lecturer (they don’t call them professors…) is pretty awesome.  We have one assignment worth 45% of our grade and a project worth 55% of our grade.  Yay for no exams!  The only drawback:  It is at 9AM on Mondays and Fridays.  Yikes!  The good thing about is that she puts everything on Sulis (their version of Angel), so you don’t REALLY have to show up to lectures.  I believe this will sit pretty in my schedule.

Module #2 (what will almost definitely be a GN):  Geoscience.  I really struggled through my first geoscience module.  Our lecturer is rather monotone, and I think I took a micronap at one point in time.  I panicked and thought, “Oh no! I have to find another science class!”  I thought I’d try out Clean Technology just in case I liked it better.  I didn’t.  Geoscience it is!  The module grades purely on essays, so that could get interesting.

Module #3 (GH/GAU):  Irish Folklore.  This module is almost entirely international students, and the lecturer seems very nice.  Sticking with this one for sure.

Module #4 (GS?):  Social Psychology.  I’m not really sure if I need this module for anything, but the subject interests me, and the lecturer seems pretty solid.  In.

Module #5 (not sure if this counts for anything after just talking to my adviser…..which is unfortunate):  Historical/Cultural Geography of Ireland.  The module seems interesting, but the lecturer is a bit hard to understand.  If it doesn’t count for anything for me, I will not be taking it.

I am venturing to an Irish music/dance module today, and hopefully that will count as my other GAU.  If not…..then I’ll still probably take that over Module 5, just because it will be fun.  hah.

Other updates:

I went to my first club here on Tuesday night for my friend Danielle’s birthday.  It was called Trinity Rooms (which makes me think of church), and it was out of control. I felt old in there, though.  I’m guessing most were 18-19 year olds.  Drinks were very expensive, and it seemed no matter where I was dancing, there was always someone dancing all up on me.  I don’t think I’ll go back.  Pubs > Clubs.

I booked my first flight on RyanAir!  Heading to Belgium in two weeks! Yay!

The internet went down in our house on Wednesday night, and everyone freaked out (we literally don’t do anything late at night that isn’t on the internet).  Also, two random drunk Irish men wandered into our house that night.  Not sure how they got in, but that was weird.

Almost forgot!  Going to Galway this weekend 🙂

Can’t wait to plan more trips.  I want to go everywhere!

No photos this post, but there should be a ton on the next post from Galway!


Location: Limerick, Ireland

“You have to go to the pub, it’s like our community center.” –Orientation

This first week has been incredibly hectic. 

The flight was fine.  No crying babies.  Watched Easy A and tried to sleep (but failed quite miserably).  I’m almost positive a little over half of the plane was going to U of L (about 65 people?) which made getting past customs and finding our shuttle quite simple.

I arrived at U of L around 10AM.  Once dropped off at reception in my village (I’m living in Kimurry village), we had to fend for ourselves.  We weren’t given any directions on where to get food or what to do.  I was not used to this type of survival at all.  I was in a strange place with no direction.   After getting lost a few times, I found a grocery store and picked up very few items.  This is where I learned that you are supposed to bring your own grocery bags to the store.  I guess Ireland is green in more than one way.

It was then time to sleep.  And sleep.  And sleep.

The rest of the week was a lot of figuring out where everything is, orientations, pub hopping, and figuring out my class schedule.  I start my first day of classes tomorrow at 9AM.  We’ll see if I like it.  The cool thing is that we (international students) have two weeks to test out any classes we are interested in.  After two weeks, we pick our final schedule.

I really like all of my roommates.  I have one from Finland, one from Canada, and the other three are from the states.  No Irish roommates, which would be disappointing if my roommates weren’t so cool.  We had some nice family dinners, and I seem to be the head cook of the household (which may seem funny to some).  We don’t have a microwave in the kitchen, so my other roommates are actually learning how to cook!  Yay!  Life skills!

So, the Irish are a bit crazy.  And when I say a bit, I mean there are people screaming, “I’m on a boat!!!! I’m on a boat!!!!” outside my house right now.  The guys are very forward, so I am learning to get really good at rejecting people.  I’m not quite sure how they wake up in the morning after drinking so much.  I’m pretty impressed.

I am currently streaming the Steelers game and planning on staying up ’til 3AM to watch the whole game.  The time difference is a bit crazy, because it’s usually the middle of the afternoon when I skype my friends who are just getting up in the morning.  Also, fun fact:  Hulu doesn’t work in Ireland, so that was a huge bummer.

Photo time:


^Blue skies the first day. Love it.


^My first Guinness in Europe.


^Family Dinner #1


^We ventured into the city of Limerick and found this.


^My roommate Meagan, and myself. She’s from Canada and brought all of the roomies awesome Canada mittens :]
^At a pub on campus called Stables.   Fun friends :]


^Family dinner for Fleur’s birthday!

Will write later this week about my classes.

Cheers,
Melanie


Location: Limerick, Ireland

Ireland. Tomorrow? Wait, what?

I am currently sitting in the Pittsburgh airport.  My flight goes out of Pittsburgh at 5:45pm into JFK.  I leave JFK at 9:40pm and arrive at the Shannon airport in Ireland at 9:00am.  I will try to sleep on the plane so my jet lag isn’t horrendous.  If there is even a crying baby…..

I was in Antigua from January 1-8, trying to get my tan on (which is impossible.  I am almost always incredibly pale…..will fit right in in Ireland).  It was a nice getaway, but then I had to face the chore of unpacking from a week vacation and packing for four months.  Packing was not the most fun in the world, but I got it done.  Fingers crossed I didn’t forget anything (though, let’s be honest, I am sure I did).

I went up to State College for the weekend to hangout with my friends one last time.  Saying goodbye to everyone was way more difficult than I ever thought it would be.  I whined to some of my best friends, “I don’t want to leave you,” over and over.  But I’m starting to get more comfortable now that I’m in the airport and on my own.  I don’t think Ireland is ready for me.

Will update again once I get settled in!  Hoping the internet is the first thing I hook up when I get into my new room.  I will be sharing with five other people, but they did not tell me who (pumped for that surprise).

Here are some photos from my vacation in Antigua and my last weekend in Pittsburgh!

Cheers,
Mel


Location: Pittsburgh International Airport

Wait, I leave for Ireland in a Month?

Hello everybody!  My first geoblog entry.  Yay!

My name is Melanie Versaw, and I am a junior at the Penn State University majoring in both Marketing and Advertising.  I will be traveling to Ireland for the spring semester to study at the University of Limerick.  I chose to study abroad because everyone who hasn’t says they regret it.  Oh, and I didn’t want to graduate early. 

I leave relatively soon (January 18th, to be exact).  I am not prepared.  And that’s fine.  I like spontaneity. 

Most of my posts on here are going to include a lot of photographs.  Though I am not a photography/arts major, I am the Photography Editor of Onward State (an excellent PSU news blog), and I want to focus a lot of my time abroad taking photographs and bettering my photography skills. Also, pictures speak louder than words.  So hooray for photo blogs!

I tend to be a rather sarcastic person, which can influence my writing quite a bit, so watch out for that.  I do think this will be a fun experience, though.  I used to be a creative writer, but since I joined so many activities at Penn State, I hardly have time to write during the school year; I’m excited for this little blogging opportunity.  Random fact: I am obsessed with semi-colons. 

Today it is snowing in State College.  I wonder if it’s snowing in Limerick.  Does it snow in Limerick?  …like I said…SO unprepared.  But I cannot wait to go.  It will be a blast. 

I’ll update you on the fiasco I like to call packing sometime in the near future.  First, I must fight through this week (I am throwing a $30k concert tomorrow) and finals week.


^this is me

^this is where I am going

^sample of my concert photography and me hoping there is good music in Limerick.

I will hopefully get fancier with my photography as I learn. To bring up an awesome nerd moment:  the geoblog website isn’t letting people upload photos via the image uploader.  My immediate reaction:  “You can just use the HTML coding.”  Excellent, Mel.  Excellent.

Cheers,
Melanie 


Location: State College, PA