Overall I experienced many cultural similarities and differences during my time in Ireland. Since it is an English-speaking country, I had no struggles navigating Maynooth or my campus. Being able to communicate with everyone in Ireland allowed me to ask a lot of questions when I needed help and helped me meet a lot of new people. People in Ireland are extremely friendly and eager to help. Whenever I felt lost or confused, I could count on a local to help me with no questions asked. College life was slightly different considering many students commute from home instead of living on campus. This made the campus feel very empty on the weekends. Also, the drinking age is 18 allowing for the university to have pubs on campus. The drinking culture is huge in Ireland, and many people enjoy going to the pubs and watching local sports. Another big difference I noticed was public transportation. It is common to take a train or bus somewhere instead of having or taking a car. I enjoyed this aspect because it was cheap, and I felt like I had easy access to the rest of the country and Northern Ireland.
I believe that Ireland was the perfect place to study abroad because the language barrier did not interfere with my understanding of my major courses, and I also was in a perfect location to visit other countries. I could easily go to Dublin to fly to countries all throughout Europe on the weekends. Furthermore, my classes had a lot fewer assignments than at Rollins, making balancing work and travel very manageable. Ireland itself was also beautiful to explore and the slower pace of life was a refreshing new experience.