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Hi, everyone! How are you doing? Someone may be
surprised at this title, “Under the SEA.” But it doesn’t mean the famous song
in “The Little Mermaid.” Now I’m in Dublin to study English in SEA program.
First of all, Dublin is a heavenly city. Sometimes I
feel like being in a movie such as “Howl’s Moving Castle” or “Kiki’s Delivery
Service.” It is not so crowded for a capital city in Europe and I think it is
suitable for studying. There are lots of trees even around the city center. Besides,
green is the theme color of this country, so we often see something green in
Ireland (the post is painted in green, too). I am happy because green is my
favorite color!
University College Dublin, where we are studying, has a
huge campus which is bigger than ICU’s. I heard that UCD is the second (?) best
university in this country and the rival of Trinity College Dublin, the best
univ of Ireland. It’s like “Sou-Kei Sen” in Japan… We are in a general English
course, not an academic one. So grammar exercises tend to be too easy for
Japanese students, but the topics are interesting because they are often related
to our daily life.
ICU students in UCD have an “English only rule” during
SEA program, so we communicate each other in English even in LINE app. In the
first week of our stay, I felt my speaking skill was immediately improving. One
of my aim in Dublin is to strengthen my fluency and activeness. I have more 3
weeks here in Ireland. I’ll stick it out :)