Student Journals: AIFS in Limerick, Ireland

Amanda Smith
University of Louisiana at Lafayette
University of Limerick, Ireland

It’s hard to believe the fall semester is already over.  I can remember the morning I left the United States.  I was excited yet nervous because I had never left home before for longer than two weeks.  So many thoughts were running through my head.  “Was I doing the right thing?”  The only thing I knew about the university was from what I had seen on the website for AIFS and the University website. 

The hardest thing for me was leaving my family at the airport in Houston and flying off to a country where I was going to be living for the next four months.  Once in Limerick I made friends right off.  It was amazing how many people there were just like me who also did not know anyone.  As time passed friendships were made that will last a lifetime, and trips were planned for the following summer to meet up again.  Now here I am back home in Louisiana and all I can think about is going back to Ireland.  I am so happy I decided to study abroad in Ireland for the full year. 

I still look back at all the pictures that I have taken over the past semester and it is so hard to believe what I have seen and done.  I have traveled on busses and trains and have explored Ireland, but there is still so much I have not seen.  I think the best part about studying abroad was the experience of learning new things each day.  Whether it was taking the bus by myself into town to shop and actually getting off at the right stop or going out with friends in the evening to a pub to listen to some traditional Irish music, exciting new opportunities arose every day. 

There were some days I would just walk around on the campus or down by the Shannon River amazed at what I would find.  Trails in the woods along the Shannon River that led you to old mill ruins were just some of the things I discovered along my walks. True, I wasn’t the first to discover them, but to me it was something that I will always remember.  People told me that study abroad would change my life and I never really believed them, but they were right.  Studying abroad has opened my eyes to so many things.  Most importantly, I have discovered there is a huge world out there that goes beyond the boundaries of my hometown. 

The experience of being integrated with other Irish students both in the classroom and at home in Plassey Village has taught me so much about a different way of living.  I would not trade my memories of studying abroad for anything in this world.  They will last me a lifetime and will always remind me of the many friends I made and the fun times I had living in Ireland.