My time in Dublin

Introduction

My name is Arthur Sehm, at the moment I’m 16 years old and I’m in 10th grade at the GAP in Leipzig, Germany. It all started in 8th grade when my teacher asked my year to join an exchange to Dublin, Ireland. I took part in it and became the exchange partner of James Harold. I believe, that we were the ones with the best contact since we messaged each other a lot and even had calls. I improved my English a lot and I think James´ German (which was already incredible) improved as well. Me and James were already really good friends, when the exchange started and it was noticeable that we had been having contact for a long time. After James had spent his time in Germany and I mine in Ireland, we didn’t want it to be over and luckily the Erasmus+ Individual Exchange Program existed.

My (2nd) time in James family went from the 22nd of September to the 12th of October 2024. It was a great, if not one of the best times of my entire life.

The Luttrellstown Community College was pretty different to the GAP. The average school day started at around 8:30 with “Tutorial”, where a teacher checks if all the students are on time in school and if there are any important news, the pupils have to know. After tutorial, everyone has to go to their classroom, which might be a different one to others in your group, depending on the courses you’re doing. One class takes almost an hour, and you have three blocks of two classes a day, except for Friday, where there are only two blocks of two classes. There are two breaks one for breakfast and one for lunch. You can get yourself food in the cafeteria, but most people prefer to bring food themselves. School ends at around 3:20 pm and most people walk home, whilst others get a lift.

Irish students do a, so called, transition year in their 10th school year, which is basically about them not spending too much time in classes and instead focusing on personal development, making friendships, being able to do some job orientation and having the opportunity to do exchanges and other time expensive programs. Thanks to this, classes and timetables weren’t as strict as they would usually be, making it possible to do a little tour through the building on my first days. Because of transition year, the school had trips planned themselves as well. And even though one of them was moved into the week after my stay in Dublin, I still got to visit Avon Ri with the entire year. Being there, we got to climb, arch and zip-line.

Coincidentally the school also had an open night during my stay there. It was a really good way for me to actually get to know the school and its subjects, such as home-economics or graphics, both being subjects, you wouldn’t have in German schools. Other new subjects, I didn’t know, were horticulture, a transition year-only subject, in which students take care of the garden, driving skills, in which pupils learn everything there is to know about a car, Irish culture and business, students have to make their own little company. All these subjects were so cool and I wonder why these aren’t taught in Germany.

On my first weekend, me, James and Dara went to a little village outside of Dublin called Kilkenny. It was really nice with the old castle of the Butlers family, a little market and some cathedrals. On our way there we sat next to an old man, who we talked to. The chat we had with him went on for the entire drive of one and a half hours. He told us a lot about how he lived, not using any smart devices. It was really nice, since something like that wouldn’t really happen in Germany and it was a really good first impression of nice Irish people.

We spent the other weekends by going to Phoenix Park, where you could actually somehow see deer, driving to Malahide, a little town just outside of Dublin or walking around the Maynooth University campus.

Meeting friends was also something we’d do for my entire time there. No matter if in the mall, at a friend’s house, or in the park, there were a lot of places to go. The two things I probably enjoyed the most were eating pizza and going to an arcade, it was so fun to just spent the evening with these people and I’m really looking forward to seeing them again as soon as possible.

Since Dublin is the capital of Ireland, there was a lot to do like visiting the main streets or harbour.   

Being in Dublin for three weeks was such a great experience and I’m really grateful for my wonderful host family. In my opinion everyone should do at least one exchange and I’d recommend it. It’s so cool.

Arthur Sehm