My strange, wondrous, and short trip to Ireland

Meryl Callaway
Editor-in-Chief

Although it seems like ages, I left for Ireland about a year ago. It seems like I was younger then, more naive maybe; however, I was about to embark on the journey of a lifetime and I would never want to turn back.
  While in Ireland, I would live in the small community of Oughterard. It was located just north of Galway and was settled on the shores of Lake Lough Corrib. It was a small agricultural community in which everyone knew everybody else and that was the way they liked it.
  I learned a lot from this community. How to talk to many different types of people, how to appreciate the little things in life and the importance of family. When I left I never thought that I would find myself chasing wild ponies through the untame fields of Ireland, sipping tea and painting in the kitchen of a local artist with other exchange students from Germany, India, and Japan or that, when I returned home, that I would be returning to a completely different world.
  Unfortunately, after having endured the first two and half months of my journey I received word from the exchange agency that, because of the novel coronavirus, all exchange students were to return back to their home countries effective immediately. And, just like that, I was on a plane within 24 hours, on my way back to the United States.
  It was an eerie experience, flying in the midst of a pandemic. I was flying home the day after flight sanctions to the United States were imposed and so the airport was desolate. Buses and trains were no longer running and my returning plane, home to over 200 seats, were filled with 30 measly Americans, desperately trying to return home.
  Upon arrival I was treated like I was radioactive. Even my family, understandably, did not want to come near me and I spent the next two weeks of my life in quarantine with nothing to do but twiddle my thumbs. It was even stranger being home. Believe it or not, once you have been away for so long there is a bit of a culture shock upon your return. They call this reintroduction shock. It was weird because nothing had changed and yet everything. The world had begun to shut down shortly after I had left so, my house (which is under construction) still had the kitchen cabinets hanging, removed from the wall, the stores had the same inventory and nobody had any new stories to tell; however, I was different. I had changed
  So, all in all, my experience in Ireland was incredible despite its disappointing end. I got to adventure outside of my little bubble, became a little wiser and at least I can say that I have a good story to tell.