A slightly soggy but brilliant experience in Irelands night life capital

For my exchange I chose to go to National University of Ireland, Galway (NUIG)

My arrival to Ireland brought the realisation that I had definitely not packed for the weather. I arrived in Galway early in the morning by train from Dublin just past the middle of winter. With my hostel not allowing check in before 5, I decided to drop off my luggage and explore the town. After walking out to a headland overlooking the ocean, the weather took a sudden turn for the worse, sleeting rain and a cold wind, at this point I trudged back into town damp and suffering from the distinct chill.

On arrival to a small local pub, I learnt the hospitality of the Irish.

I was soaked to the bone and wanting nothing but to warm up. After seeing my plight one of the locals took it upon themselves to shout me a hot Irish whiskey complete with lemon and cloves. In exchange for a good conversation, I spent the rest of the day enjoying a relaxed atmosphere warm by a fire. This would set the tone for the rest of my exchange which I have thoroughly enjoyed.

Over the next week before teaching began, I attended the orientation and was inducted into NUIG. The university may seem dated if you compare it to UTS and its state off the art technologies but you will find it more than makes up for it with history and student community.

Moving onto academics – I’m studying a Bachelor of Computing Science (Enterprise Systems major) but for my exchange I had 1 direct equivalent subject (Object Oriented Programming: Data Structures and Algorithms) and chose to use my free electives to study a more general knowledge subjects of systems outside my major. These were particularly interesting for me; the subjects encompassing forensic cybersecurity, distributed cloud computing, and critical real-time systems. These subjects were intended for students studying in their final semester which meant that they were somewhat more complex than I was used to and expected prospective students to have deep understanding of coding and relevant domain knowledge. This meant that I had to do extra study to expand my workable knowledge in these domains.

NUIG had a large focus on individual reasoning and understanding of the subject, when comparing to UTS tutorials which have a focus on in-class discussion and team collaboration, and clear focused goals for each tutorial.
NUIG instead used its tutorials as individual study periods to work on assignments in which tutors would provide oversite if you required it. This meant that while there were no in-class set activities, the assessments were of higher complexity requiring more time researching the frameworks, running benchmark tests, and experimenting within that space before compiling your research and clearly indicating what you had found. After these subjects, I have found my ability to articulate the inner workings of systems and design principals has increased dramatically.

Galway as a city has a certain small town charm to it, and so I’ve heard the best night life in Ireland. With a range live traditional and modern music playing every night at the towns inviting pubs and taverns, you will never have to go far to find a warm and inviting place to shelter from rain that accompanies 90% of days here. And should you deem to explore, the town and surrounding areas only a short train trip away, you will find many enchanting places if you choose to tread a little off the beaten track.

When arriving and settling into your exchange should you choose to go, I would highly recommend attending as many of the orientation activities as you can as they will help establish your social sphere for the duration of your stay.

Throughout my time here I have enjoyed many interesting conversations and experiences and would wholly recommend going on exchange to anyone with even a slight interest. UTS’s global exchange team has made everything very easy to setup, and provided me with loads of support before and during my exchange, so a big thank you and thumbs up to them.

Griffin Frame-Szafjanski
Bachelor of Computing Science (Honours)
National University of Ireland, Galway (NUIG)
Ireland

For more information about the UTS Global Exchange program please visit: www.uts.edu.au/thinkglobal