Blended Programme: Greetings from Ireland

So hello from Ireland!

Our ten weeks in here Carlow is almost over. In couple of days we are flying back to home. I’m leaving with really mixed feelings: in other hand this has been really amazing experience and I've had so great time, but in other hand I really miss home, all my friend and family.

We have had so many great experiences here that I don’t even know where to start: trip to London, my weekend in Dublin with my sister, our day in Kilkenny etc.

We’ve had some awesome experiences that I will never forget!

Like Joonas has mentioned in his blog, the school system in here is really different from ours. In Finland, we do lot of group works and different kind of assignments, when in here they want all in writing. So we have been doing a lot of essays and learning logs etc. We are going to school on every Monday and Tuesday and rest of the week we are in our placements.

My placement was in The Vault, which is kind of youth community center. It is run by Carlow Regional Youth Services, and it’s a place for teenagers to hang out and spend time in a safe environment. So my place is really just about interacting with the young people and making The Vault a nice and safe place for them to be in. I’m there on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays and weekends I have time off.

There is a lot of things that I am going to miss from Carlow. Most of the people have been super friendly, and that’s new for me because in Finland strangers hardly never speak to each other if they don't have to. People also go in to pub's really often: not like in Finland just to get drunk, but just to hang a round and spend time.

I think that Ireland is a really beautiful country. It's not that different from Finland, just a lot greener. And there is a lot more sheep's! The weather is also kind of different, warmer and a lot wetter. It also can change in minutes: first it can be raining and in blink of an eye the sun starts to shine.

We have seen some really nice places in here, like Carlow castle, Carlow Town Park, Kilkenny (the whole town were absolutely beautiful!) and lot more. And there would still be so much more to see!

I would recommend anybody who has the opportunity to visit Ireland; it has been so amazing ten weeks.

Here are some pictures from my journey!