University College Dublin (UCD)

Seperate your debit cards and don't carry all your cards in your wallet. Should something happen, you won't have anything as a backup source and you will be out of the loop until your parents send you new cards. Trust me, I learned my lesson the hard way!

At the beginning it was quite difficult, because I thought I had a better knoledge of English: the main problem was to understand the local people; it was not a problem to understand the teachers and with time it became easyer to understand the local people. I met a lot of American people in the Residence where I was living so at the end my english was quite OK. I have to say, also, that I talked a lot in English with foreigners (German, French, Spanish, Dutch)so maybe I don't have an Oxford accent.

I opened a bank account in Dublin, which made saving and spending easier. The cost of ATM withdrawals with my American debit card necessitated taking out large sums of money at a time. I would then deposit this money into my irish account.

Don't have major expectations because if they are not met you will be let down. Instead, enjoy your time and learn to appreciate both the similarities and differences of being in Ireland compared to being at home.

At the begining it was difficult to communicate and to understand. But after 1 month,the communication became easier. Now, I'm fluent but not bilingual, because at university,you listen to the courses and don't speak much, and when you are an international student, you meet more international students than local students. So during this year, I heard a lot of english, but I didn't talk so much with native speakers. My spoken english could be better!