Standing on buzzing mid-morning O’Connell Street, Dublin’s nucleus, I’m genuinely surprised by how small size of the city’s center.  The buildings barely scrape the sky, and I can walk from almost anywhere to almost anywhere else. And yet, I know Ireland’s capital is full, overgrown with playwrights, poets, musicians, artists, economists and software programmers who have made an impact on the world that is much larger than what the streets here could seem to hold.

Deciding to come to Ireland to study abroad was easy for me.  I felt prepared to become, even for a temporary time, part of an island that seemed familiar even before I stepped onto it. Wading through the information on study abroad providers and institutions themselves, however, was far more challenging. Initial skimming in my study abroad office library raised questions I didn’t know I needed to ask. Did I want to enroll directly to the college I hoped to attend, or go with a company that organizes study abroad? Did I have to use a program pre-approved by my own college? Could I contact the institutions myself to find out more about course offerings? How did I know my credits would transfer back? Surely tuition would be more expensive than my home institution?

 I decided to start with an initial web search on my own college website. This yielded worthwhile results, as I learned that our Study Abroad Office held periodic meetings in relation to study abroad. I made an appointment with a study abroad advisor and looked then at the study abroad page on programs. I found out that my institution offered both pre-approved programs, as well as the option of choosing an independent program. I noted down programs I liked and quickly moved on to the second part of my investigation, the general web search.  Just typing ‘study abroad’ into a search engine revealed over 13 million results! I narrowed it down a bit more. ‘Study abroad Ireland’ yielded four million results. I added an academic area: ‘Study abroad Ireland Literature,’ and here I set down to work. I skimmed a number of both sponsored and non-sponsored results, viewed images, testimonials and program outlines that all appealed to my best sense of adventure and academic excellence. I made another list and moved on to the third part of my investigation: keeping my appointment with the Study Abroad Office. Having asked an hour’s worth of questions, I felt equipped to run this new development of going abroad past my friends and my family.

In the end, I opted to work directly with the college I chose in Dublin, meeting periodically with my advisor to ensure all my credits would transfer. I was able to use my financial aid for the semester and obtained an extra study abroad grant. A year’s worth of forethought and planning was a tiny bit of work expended to gain this initial moment in Dublin. People are moving around, in opposite directions, rushing to work, buying the paper off a street vendor, walking to a café, catching a bus.  This dance is pure energy on the street in front of me.  It is a city waltz, and I’m the only one standing still, watching it pulse.