As I approach my last week in Belfast, I want to take the time to express just how grateful I am to have the opportunity to study abroad and that I have learned so much about the world and how other people interact with the world since I have been here. I’m hoping to take everything that I have learned from the class setting to the hands-on experience of walking around and talking to people and make Charleston more diverse and make it even better than it already is; especially to help give a voice to people who may not have one and to help other’s cultures within Charleston and the South flourish. I know that I will greatly miss Belfast and I have been honored to call the city my home away from home, but I am excited to get back into the States and see my significant other again (and to have that Southern cooking once again).

As for what I’ve done since the last time I made a blog post; I went down to Newry which is close to the Irish border and honestly feels much more like an Irish city than one that is in Northern Ireland. The reason why I was there was to hike over to a very old church called Killevy Old Churches which dates all the way back to the 11th century; and is the site of a monastery founded by St. Moninna and became very important as a site for nuns in Medieval Ireland. On the way to the church (or monastery) I also came across a court tomb (specifically named the Ballymacdermott Court Tomb) which dates back to 4000 BCE in addition to this I also walked along absolutely beautiful landscapes of the Irish countryside and made we wish that I could live there!

I also went down to Dublin for a few days to celebrate Chanukkah and went to the National Museum of Ireland which as is really cool! I think the coolest part was seeing just how well perseveration things can be in bogs such as clothing and even bodies, the bogs were something that I learned about in one of archeology classes so seeing it in person was amazing and kind of mind-blowing as you can’t really contextualize how well these bodies have been persevered in the bogs until you actually see one in person. Yesterday, I finally went over to the peace wall that separates Falls Road (Catholic) and Shankill Road (Protestant) and it was an eye-opening experience and is honestly the place where I felt the most tension within Belfast, it’s hard to explain why I felt that way as I walking up the wall and I think it’s something you have to experience in order to understand that feeling. I think it was eye-opening to see these two different communities physically separated and just put into perspective how tense and violent things were during the Troubles.

I plan on going to a few more places before I leave such as Downpatrick where St. Patrick is buried along with a few more places within Belfast that I really want to see as there some good hiking trails that I want to do around the city.