A Visit to My Cohort's Home Country

The music and drama therapy are a tight-knit cohort, and for Easter Break, I visited my friend in her home country - Ireland.

One of my goals for my two-year music therapy master's program is to travel as much as I can as so many new and different places are more accessible to me since moving halfway across the globe. There are less than 25 music and drama therapy master students in my cohort year, and quite a few are like me in that they left their home countries to study abroad. I have grown close to all my classmates and would love to visit each of their countries one day. A friend on the course is from Southern Ireland, so I took advantage of the Easter break to travel around Ireland. It was a jam-packed three days, but I saw so many places and things and met some amazingly friendly people there.

I spent a day and a half in Dublin and a day and a half in the Cork area. Dublin was busy, green, and filled with things to do and see. I had the best lamb stew, heard traditional Irish music from a local pub, walked around famous and historical gardens and parks, took a riverboat cruise tour, walked around popular city streets, and saw the Long Room Library in Trinity College. All of this was incredible, but I was very much looking forward to traveling to the south of the island to see my friend and her hometown.

I took a two-and-a-half-hour train south through the beautiful countryside of Ireland on the east side of the island. Everything was so incredibly green, and the mountains were snow-capped. Once I arrived in Cork, I walked around a few different markets, Nano Nagle Museum, and local parks and gardens. Everyone I met and interacted with was so friendly and helpful. The woman working at the museum I visited basically gave me a private tour and answered all my questions as I explored. I met up with my friend towards the end of the day, and we headed to her house in the countryside. She lives at the top of a hill overlooking her country, and there's a beautiful forest behind her family’s house. Her family and siblings were so welcoming as they made me a homemade dinner, and we chatted the whole night through.

The following day, my friend and her friends took me everywhere! We went to the cutest beach town called Kinsale as we walked the streets, ate amazing food, walked around castles in beautiful green fields, and spent most of the day on this wonderful sandy beach. We had a picnic as we watched the boats and people enjoying the beautiful sunny day.

My trip, start to finish, was incredible, and I would highly recommend having a local show you around their hometowns and countries. I feel lucky to be able to do this and make friends all over the world because of my studies at Anglia Ruskin University.