Getting Settled In

I have been in Ireland for almost two weeks now. So far, I can say that Carlow County is very beautiful and full of charm. The locals are extremely friendly and very approachable if you need to ask for directions. Although it is viewed as a smaller county, there is a lot more within the area compared to the small towns throughout Pennsylvania. Throughout the town there are many shops and stores on most streets. The streets and sidewalks are kept extremely clean because littering appears to be a rare occurrence here. 

When I arrived to Carlow my first observation was that people are rarely on their cell phones. Instead of going on Facebook or texting their friends, the locals tend to focus on who their surrounding environment. Even during orientation when there were speakers talking for a long time, everyone was attuned with what was going on. As silly as it sounds, that was completely mind boggling to me.

Orientation day consisted of an overview of Carlow College. It began with a tour from members of the student union who were able to point out important aspects about the college such as seeing the nurse is completely free or that showing our student identification on the bus gives allows us to have discounts. 

Carlow College

What really stood out to me during the orientation was how they continuously talked about the end of the year essay. Instead of taking an exam with true/false or multiple choice questions, students are given an end of the year essay question. This is a major portion of my grade this semester, so the college wants the students to spend their time focusing on the essay itself. So while students are learning new concepts and ideas in their classes, they are able to apply these ideas to the essay question as well as using the provided required and secondary readings.

They also talked a lot about the types of support the college provides like tutoring, understanding different learning styles, and essay tutorials. However, the college first and foremost stresses the students independence. This is because the students are given several pages of reading lists that they are expected to keep up on.