This week I would like to give you all a quick update on my life and my semester in Galway as well as provide a few ways to cope with stress. To start off, I am no longer in Galway. I have returned home to Pennsylvania because this was the safest option considering that the coronavirus situation is constantly changing. The moving home process began when I was woken up at 1am on Thursday by a phone call from my mom. She was panicked because President Trump had just issued a travel ban which seemed as though it included the UK and Ireland, so she wanted me to book a flight home immediately. Looking back, with a little more clarification from the government and less panic from my family I could have avoided booking a last minute flight because the ban did not include the UK and Ireland, but of course that’s not the way things happened. Anyway, very early Thursday morning I booked a flight home for Friday morning at 9:40 am. This meant that I barely had one day to pack up my whole life, say goodbye to friends and Galway, email all my professors about my upcoming absences, and move out of my accommodation. If that isn’t overwhelming I don’t know what is. Getting back to sleep after booking my flight was difficult because I was feeling extremely stressed. A few ways I like to deal with stress are by walking away/taking a break from the thing that is causing my stress and by talking to friends about my stress. So, at 2:30 am this is exactly what I did. I turned on my favorite Netflix show and started texting all my friends from Galway who were going through the same situation as I was. It was very helpful to talk to people who understood my situation. My friends were able to offer me advice and I was able to help them make decisions about leaving Galway and going home as well. I eventually got to sleep but had to wake up early the next morning to start packing up my belongings. Packing all my clothes, shoes, souvenirs, etc. took considerably longer than I had anticipated which unfortunately left me less time to enjoy Galway one last time with my friends. That night we went to dinner at a restaurant called McSwiggan’s. Having dinner with my friends was a huge stress reliever because we were able to share our thoughts and feelings about leaving Galway and what it would be like to finish classes from home (my friends and I at dinner pictured below). After saying goodbye to my friends, I headed home to hopefully get some sleep before I left to catch my bus to the airport at 2:45am. Traveling alone was something that was new to me as well. I had never been through the airport alone because I was lucky enough to fly to Ireland with a friend from SU. I had some anxiety about navigating the airport at such an uncertain and crazy time to travel, but I knew that I could do it. I got lost and confused a time or two throughout my journey, but I always found someone who worked at the airport and they were very willing to help me find my way. I landed in Philadelphia Friday at 1:30pm and headed home from there. I am currently in a self-quarantine/social distancing position because you can be a carrier for coronavirus and not show any symptoms. Currently on day six of my self-quarantine and I haven’t gone crazy yet 😉. I am just working on some assignments and final essays for my NUIG classes. Galway was a wonderful place to study abroad and I will miss it dearly, but I am happy to be home now because I know it was the right/safe decision to make.
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