By Fiona Lee
Hello everyone! I hope everyone’s classes aren’t feeling dire and that you’re all adjusting to the new college year. Fresher’s week in NUIG looked fun from what I’ve seen online, but the FOMO hasn’t been felt too much!
I’m getting more and more settled over here in Canada every day. More homely routines are starting to develop again and it’s feeling less and less like a holiday (which isn’t a bad thing). Even though I spouted the saying that exchange students ‘are all in the same boat’ in regards to meeting people and making friends, I still feel incredibly lucky with the group I have met here. People make a place after all, and my highlights so far have been simple things, like going for a ‘gals brunch’, throwing a frisbee, football games, fun gym sessions, Netflix/pizza evenings and nights out with friends, who I feel like I’ve had for a lot longer than I have. I must also admit that the Irish accent has helped in starting conversations sometimes. It turns out people really are fond of us abroad!
I haven’t missed the other half of studying abroad though, classes have officially begun. Other students I have met have mandatory lectures that they must do well in, as it counts towards their degree, in the same way it would if they were at home, so I feel very lucky that I only have to pass my subjects to get through. I won’t dance on the line though! Since this is my ‘journalism-focused year’, I am required by NUIG to take a few journalism related modules, but other than that, I can take whatever I please. With that in mind, I really do feel a motivation to try slightly random subjects that I’ve never taken before, and to truly appreciate the opportunity to do so while I’m here. This may just be the usual motivation we all get in the first few weeks of college, which tends to fall into a spiral just in time for midterms, but I have a feeling this will be different (hopefully).
Seeing friends settle back into college in Ireland is a strange thing when I’m away from it all, but I can’t help but remember I’m only here for four months. That’s what I remind myself of whenever I feel a bit homesick or missing certain people, and I flash back into reality fairly quickly. I’m very excited for all the little adventures we have planned for the next while, and experiencing Halloween in another country is going to be particularly interesting for me too. Halloween is a serious thing in my ‘Early Celtic Literature’ class, so my lecturer is going to spend that day’s class talking about the history and myth that surrounds it, and has also invited us all to dress up for it. I hope my classmates are a bit of craic and will actually do it! That’s all from Canada for now, until Issue 3! X