Casey Sims '10

Today is Sunday, May 18 - the infamous date of departure. For myself and about 20 other students, this date signifies the beginning of Bucknell in Northern Ireland. It is also graduation on campus today, so for the class of 2008, this signifies the conclusion of their time at Bucknell. Needless to say, this is a pretty big day for Bucknellians. Although the weather outside isn't exactly complementary for these events, it's gonna take a lot more than a bit of rain to distract me from what lies ahead. In fact, I'm kind of happy about the weather. EVERYONE I've talked to about Northern Ireland tells me how much it rains there, so if it were a perfectly sunny day it'd be tough saying goodbye.

So I'm officially settled into my lovely five bedroom flat, I'm beginning to get a hang of the currency and I've learned to look in the correct direction when crossing the street. These miniscule every day tasks take an enormous amount of concentration here. After living in the mods for the past year with four other girls, I'm thoroughly enjoying the single rooms we each have here. I'm getting used to pulling the string on the ceiling in order to turn the shower on, and I still am enamored by the view of the river I have from my bedroom window.

I was fully prepared for grey skies, rain and conflict when I arrived in Northern Ireland. Two days before I left, me mum and I went shopping at the Tannersville outlets, and after dragging her around for two hours in a specific search for rain boots and a rain jacket, I managed only to find a $25 rain jacket at a store called Totes. In a frantic frenzy to find rain boots I later ventured to the Susquehanna Valley mall and purchased a pair from the Shoe Department. After spending a week and a half in Derry, I've finally decided that the stress and mere $50 I spent on these items was not worth it. Not only have we had blue skies, sun and warm weather, but every person I've encountered has been nothing but cheerful, enthusiastic and extremely welcoming. Not to mention they have complimented by beautiful accent! I've worn flip-flops more than I've worn my rain boots and the only reason I wear my rain jacket is because out of the two jackets I brought, it is the lightest.

Although I've witnessed very little violence while being in Northern Ireland, it's still difficult to ignore the reality of where we are. Northern Ireland's violence and contested history is painted on walls, depicted in monuments and simply talked about wherever we go.

I wish I had enough time to sit down and explain in detail everything that I've experienced on this trip. Unfortunately I don't have enough time to do that, and even if I did have enough time, it'd be impossible. It's Saturday night and we are leaving at seven in the morning to catch our flight. Part of me wants to stay up and experience as much of Derry as I can, and the other part wants to sleep because I'm extremely exhausted. This past week was packed full of lectures and excursions, but the most memorable excursion was to Giants Causeway today. I could use words like magnificent, incredible, indescribable, but still.... none of those describe what it was like. I'm literally at a loss of words. So I'll post some pictures, which still don't do it justice, but will perhaps explain it more.

Every time I get in an airplane I find it so unnatural to look down at the clouds. No matter how many planes I get on I'll never get used to it.

The trip to Australia alone required me to board five different planes and, due to lost luggage, missed flights, delayed flights and bus rides, the trip took a total of two days. Two days of stuffy air, cramped seating, fake food and frustration. Fortunately, the final destination was on a resort in Australia, surrounded by beaches and kangaroos.

I've been residing in my new apartment for a week now. After doing some grocery shopping and buying some blankets and space heaters, it's beginning to feel like home.

Time is flying by so far! The minute I begin to feel comfortable and settle into a routine, I encounter something new that throws me off. This doesn't surprise me. In fact, I'm actually surprised when I feel comfortable in this new foreign city. So I guess I'm the one that goes in search of adventures to take myself out of my comfort zone.

After spending two weeks in Australia having no schedule and no classes, it started to feel like vacation. There is that point every summer where you get sick of sitting around doing nothing. Well not necessarily sick of it, but personally, I reach a point every summer where I'm ready to start going back to class and work and having a routine. That is the point I reached here. Whether it was boredom or simply the anticipation for the semester to begin, I was ready to go to class last Monday. However, when I picked my classes a few months ago, I designed my schedule so that I only had classes on Wednesdays and Thursdays. (I must have done this when I was at the point of being sick of class and ready for summer.) So instead I had two more days until my classes began so I had to entertain myself. I decided to go into Sydney, but in one of my many (and many more to come) bus disasters I ended up getting off in a neighborhood and wandered around until I found an enormous park. I believe it was called the Centennial Park and there were people walking dogs, jogging, and riding bikes. I even walked past someone who I could have sworn was Lance Armstrong. I'll never know now... It was very calming and I wandered around here for a while until I made my way back home to hear about all of my roommates' first days.

I assumed doing the three-week program with Bucknell in Northern Ireland at the beginning of the summer was going to prepare me for my semester in Australia. I'm starting to realize that this isn't the case. Those three weeks obviously impacted me and evoked personal changes; however, it did not prepare me for spending four months in another country on my own. Not only do I not have my posse of friends that accompanied me to Northern Ireland, but I also don't have one single familiar face with me.

This idea is daunting, and what's even more daunting than the idea of it, is the reality of it. It's such an odd experience to meet strangers who eventually become that familiar face. It's impossible to avoid this though, no matter how independent or nomadic a person may be, there is always that part of you that finds comfort in the familiar.

I was sitting with my friend Stefi from Miami and we came to the conclusion that just because we have four months in Sydney doesn't mean we should save all our activities till the last minute. The first week I arrived I made a list with about 40 activities I wanted to do before I left. I've accomplished some of them. However, if I plan on completing all 40 I need to get a move on. So, the next day we took initiative. One of the girls living in my building has an internship at Amnesty International and a few of us went to the city to have lunch with her. After indulging in a delicious lunch (with a lot of beets) my fingers were stained purple and we ventured to Darling Harbour.

Time is flying by here! I'm going into my sixth week of classes, which means I'm halfway through the semester. Of course this also means that I have projects and papers due in all my classes at the same time so things are getting extremely busy. Naturally, the weather is starting to get nice which makes it that much harder to focus on my work. Today was the first day of spring, and I spent four hours in the dark room attempting to print pictures for my project. I failed miserably. So, tomorrow morning I'll be getting up at the crack of dawn to journey over to COFA and give it another go.