Arcadia Ireland

Recently I caught up with one of our Trinity College Dublin students Madison Casey from Miami University Oxford. She has some wonderful stories to tell and has made Irish friends from Dublin, Clare and beyond. She believes that students should not stop stepping out of their comfort zone, and to break away from the familiar sometimes to feel more connected to the Irish. Madison has done what we advise all students to do, and that is to join a club or society. Right now she is a part of the women's soccer team at Trinity College.

Madison has loved Ireland so much that she has recently extended her time from Fall Semester to Full year. We are delighted that she will be with us until next May. 

 Catch up on our chat below: 

What has been the highlight of your time in Ireland so far?

The highlight of my time in Ireland would have to be the constant series of unexpected events. I didn’t know what to expect when I traveled from the United States to Ireland, but in the three months I’ve been here, I’ve had the opportunity to represent Trinity College in multiple soccer matches, I’ve had the honor of staying at a new friend’s house in the countryside and was included in activities with not only her immediate family but her extended family as well, and I’ve met and become close friends with people not just from Ireland but from other countries spread far across the globe – all of these amazing events have left me wanting, and recently committing, to extend my stay in Ireland from a single semester to a full year. I’m looking forward to even more unique experiences in Ireland, and deepening my friendships here. I’m excited for what my time in Ireland brings next!

Have you joined any clubs or societies?

I tried out for, and now can proudly say that I play for the Trinity Women’s Soccer Team! I have made so many new friends from this wonderful group of women, and have had an amazing time bonding with them as a team. There are many players who are from Ireland, but there also are other players from countries such as Germany, Switzerland, Poland, and Canada. It’s welcoming to find out how much we all have in common despite living in completely different parts of the world.

Where is your favourite place to go for the craic?

I feel like some people might answer this question with names of specific clubs or pubs, but my favorite place for the craic most times ends up being after my friends and I return from being out and stay up during the late hours of the night laughing and sharing stories. I have a good amount of friends who have flats in city center and I often find myself having sleepovers with them there, after which we end up waking up and continuing our stories and laughter from the night before over breakfast. It truly hasn’t been much time since I first arrived in Ireland, but I can already say that some of the friendships I’ve made so far are friendships I plan on keeping long into the future!

Any favourite Irish foods so far?

A few weeks back, I was introduced to a simple but delicious breakfast combination. My new friend Claire, who is originally from County Clare, shared some of her mother’s homemade brown bread with me, which she suggested I top with a layer of butter and a couple slices of Irish pork sausage. It was a simple recipe, but I’ve been addicted ever since. I bought similar ingredients to try to recreate what we had, but as always, the homemade version is always better!

Favourite time of the day in Ireland?

My favorite time of the day in Ireland is late afternoon. Dublin is a very busy city during the day and has a very active nightlife as well. There’s a small window of time between these two busy parts of the day when people are either getting home from work/school or are beginning to get ready to go out on the town for the night. This is a peaceful pause in the day and it’s also usually around the time the sun starts the set and the sky turns into a blend of beautiful colors.

 How often do you chat to family and friends back home?

Because of the time difference, sometimes it’s hard to find a good time of the day to talk with family and friends back home. I usually FaceTime my parents and friends a couple times a week to keep them updated on my classes, soccer games, or any fun trips or activities I do around Ireland. Sometimes I do get a little homesick, especially around the holidays where I’m used to spending time with people back home, but they always encourage me to make the most of my time here in Ireland. My mom also makes sure to send me lots of pictures of my dog, especially when my family dresses her up for holidays!

Anything you miss from back home?

I definitely miss the familiarity of some American brands, especially when it comes to food. I’ve survived off of honey nut cheerios since I was a kid, so adjusting to Irish brands I’d never heard of was a little harder than I expected. I also have had to become accustomed to shopping for groceries more often than I did back home because the food here has fewer preservatives than the food in US grocery stores, and therefore expires faster.

Made any new Irish friends?

I’ve made a lot of new Irish friends since coming here. Claire, who I’d mentioned before, was kind enough to bring me to her home in County Clare where I got to meet her family and some hometown friends. She’s the oldest of four children, just like me, with two younger brothers and a sister. She showed me around her hometown and brought me to a couple local shops that her and her friends used to visit often during secondary school. Then we went to her aunt’s house, where I got to meet multiple cousins and other family members. Afterwards, we hung out with her siblings and played around with some curling sticks and a
soccer ball. By the time we tired ourselves out, we invited some of Claire’s hometown friends over and we had a movie night. Coming to Ireland, I didn’t expect to be involved in a family setting like the one I found myself in with Claire’s family. I expected most of my interactions to involve other people around my age. It was a welcoming feeling to be included in her family interactions and activities, especially with me feeling a bit homesick around the holiday times. It also was an amazing experience being able to live multiple days in a country setting in Ireland, which is a big contrast to the busy city environment of Dublin.

How has this experience impacted your life goals, direction, academic aspirations,
career aspirations, personal development to date?

I always knew I wanted to have a career that would involve travel and meeting new people around the world, and this experience in Ireland has only intensified my desire for this type of work. I have a passion for writing and photography and the reason for this is because these are the best ways to capture stories. Everyone in this world has stories to tell and experiences to share, and this fascinates me like nothing else. I’ve been travelling since I was a little girl, and I realized that every time I travelled to a new country, my first thought was always “What would it have been like to grow up in this country instead of the US?” And after wondering this time and time again, I realized that I didn’t just want to wonder, I wanted to know. I wanted to understand the events in people’s lives that lead up to where they are now and how their personal culture impacted them. Living in Ireland for an extended period of time, allowing me to meet, interact, and befriend people living in different circumstances than I do has given me the ability to hear and understand such stories. And I’ve come to the realization that I don’t want to ever stop hearing about others’ tales and adventures. I want to continue to travel and listen to as many as I can in my life and this opportunity I’ve been given to study the year in Ireland has given me the biggest leap yet into the type of lifestyle I want to pursue. I am so thankful for this study abroad experience and for those individuals who have helped me along the way.

Any advice to give to others on the programme?

Don’t stop stepping outside of your comfort zone. For many, simply travelling to study in a new country is daunting, to begin with, and because of this big change to their environment, I believe that some people retreat back to their comfort zone once they arrive in the new country. This could mean that they mostly hang around other Americans instead of branching out to other individuals who are native to the new country. This also could mean that students may spend too much time in their accommodations or when they do decide to travel, they do so with only the company of their friends inside their program or other American friends from back home who are also studying abroad. I am not saying that this is a bad thing to do, but it does hinder one’s ability to immerse themselves into new cultures and surroundings. My most memorable experiences here so far have been with people that live in Ireland because they have a completely different lifestyle to share with me.