Student Bloggers

When you study abroad, it is easy to view yourself as displaced. You have transitioned out of the familiar. Your country, time zones, and basic day to day are left behind as you pack yourself up to somewhere new. Yet it is human to seek home and its comforts. While you may be able to make a new home in your new apartment, another way to do so is through homestay.

Arcadia organized a homestay weekend for my program so that we could all find out for ourselves what home meant for those in Ireland. I was paired with another girl from the Trinity College Dublin program to stay with a mother and her two boys; a twelve-year-old and an eight-year-old. We stayed in Gorey in Wexford county, an area south of Dublin. While we were all briefed as to what the homestay would include, we weren't really sure what to expect. No matter how unsure all of the students were, it was certainly relieved upon meeting our homestay families. Our host-mother greeted us brightly saying, "Hello girls! You're all very welcome." With that she drove us to her suburb, chatting about her two boys, one at boxing practice, the other waiting at home.

The house we were brought to quickly became a home for us. We were given a bowl of stew, a cup of tea, and an invitation to our host-mother's sister's housewarming party for the apartment she moved into. After the party (and some more hospitable offerings of full plates of food!) the boys, my host-mother, and program mate arrived back in our quiet suburb. Then, with the mother's permission we stayed up playing board games through the later evening with Cian, the 12-year-old boy.

The next day our host-mom took us on a hike to get a better view of Gorey, and it was beautiful. We were able to see the patchwork landscape of Ireland, and take in the majesty of the sea.

The rest of the weekend included getting acquainted with the town and playing charades with Cian.

It's funny that even through a simple weekend, a brief taste of home was constructed in a once foreign place. You don't always realize that you are finding home. Often when you think you are home you assume it is the place you take off your shoes, hang your hat, rest your coat. It turns out though, home is the place that echoes with laughter, smells of the cups of tea you chat over, and rumbles with the sound of the dice being rolled on a late night board game.

While being abroad, you make a home in the adventures and experiences you collect, and the richness you get from them. This new home grows cozier everyday, and will be the place from which I update you.

This week marks my second week of classes at Trinity College Dublin, as I adventure deeper into subjects of Irish literature and Irish history!