The Hill Street playground

Author: Peyton Mosman | Major: Psychology | Semester: Summer 2022

Hello! And welcome to my End-of-Summer-Abroad blog post. Before you go looking for a Start-of-Summer blog post, I will confess to you that there isn’t one. Though I have some great excuses in my back pocket as to why there isn’t one, the truth is that I just didn’t have it together when I got to Ireland. Not that I would’ve had many profound or productive things to say eight weeks ago; nothing had happened yet. Now, lots of things have happened. My abroad experience has been rather unique, I’d say, at least compared to the average Arkansas Abroad Experience. I am majoring in the largest major at our University (let’s hear it for the psychology department!) and yet am the only student from Arkansas who has gone abroad to this city (Dublin) with this program (Global Experiences). This fact has put me in a position of power: I (the blogger) get to tell my story however I like, and you (the reader) have nothing to compare my claims to. But don’t worry. I’ll do my best to give it to you straight, the good and the bad and the ugly of interning abroad as an American college student.

The comment I’ve gotten most often- and from people all over the world- is that I look oh-so American. I found this funny at first because I am not by any means a picturesque American girl. My hair is brown, my bust is small, and I have rather fair skin. Before coming to Ireland, I had this vision, this daydream, that I would come to Europe for the summer and blend flawlessly with the culture here. And though I have certainly been welcomed and immersed into the culture, it’s still very obvious that I have No Idea What is Going On. And nothing makes you look more American than that.

The way I see it, America and Ireland have one big thing in common: both countries are isolated. Ireland is a relatively small island off the coast of Europe, accessible primarily by plane. For the Irish this phenomenon has brought them peace in recent years. Life here as of late is quiet, calm, and content. Many of their systems are the same as what you would find in central Europe, so they lack the ignorance we Americans have, but they have managed to stay out of any serious European drama (save the whole thing with Belfast). The Irish are perfectly content to mind their own damn business. America, on the other hand, is completely off in its own world. The USA is an island in its own way. With such minimal exposure to non-American lifestyles, we have no concept of how anyone else lives, or really that people live differently than us in the first place. We are raised with a value for centralized thinking that many European countries don’t have. Our generation of Americans is not expected to go travel before we are done growing up, and this cultural stagnancy has cost us a lot of knowledge. Something about living in a place where public transportation supports not just the city or country, but the whole continent, I truly believe makes a person invincible.

I am residing in Dublin, which is a huge immigration hub. This summer I am interning at a family resource center located in Dublin 1 (the descriptor “Dublin 1” serves as a zip code). Over 80% of the residents in the neighborhood are immigrants, and though the area is referred to as Dublin’s Chinatown, the residents come from all over. My job is to help habilitate immigrant families into the Dublin area. At least, that is how I will phrase it on my resume. The job is much less formal than the title implies. The organization I work with is called Hill Street. Before sharing any other information, I feel you should know that the property of “Hill Street” (which includes a main building, a basketball court, and 2 playgrounds) is also an old graveyard. It was literally built on top of a cemetery. The headstones still line the fence of the playgrounds because the city had nowhere else to put them. There is also a very old structure that isn’t technically a castle but definitely looks like a castle. Yes, they have a key and no, you cannot go inside (I asked). There are 8 employees at Hill Street; four are Irish, two are Chinese, one is Hungarian, and one is Brazilian. All are women. All consider each other- and now even seem to consider me- family. They are family to each other, and they are family to hundreds of families in Dublin.

Throughout the year, Hill Street runs various programs to help set parents and children alike up for success in Ireland, as well as hosting a handful of events for the community. I call it a community, but I feel that word implies that this is a niche group of people with lots in common. That does not remotely describe the citizens of Dublin 1. The programs and events Hill Street puts on provide for thousands of people: families and children of business owners, technicians, office workers, merchants, and laborers, many of whom are immigrants or first-generation Irishmen. All of whom lack the village they need to raise their children. That is what Hill Street is there for. The program they are most renowned for at the moment is called “Prep for Preschool”. In Ireland, children are given two years of free pre-school before beginning real school at age 5. Often times immigrant children have never been away from their parents, since they have no friends or family in the area to help care for them. Many kids are struggle to handle more than a few minutes away from their mom and dad. Prep-for-Preschool introduces and acclimates them to a schooling environment slowly and builds their tolerance for being away from their parents. As the kids become more independent, and the length of their time apart grows, the parents are offered classes downstairs. There is a curriculum in place, covering everything from how to register for free healthcare to classes on speaking basic English. A plethora of information is made available to these parents while their 1- and 2-year-old children develop necessary social skills in another room, all for no financial burden.

The event Hill Street is most renowned for at the moment is Chinese New Year’s. If you’re still reading this, please Venmo $5 to @peyton-mosman. I am saving for a plane ticket so I may attend in February of 2023. The celebration is incredible; it lasts several days and has over 5,000 attendees (even in COVID years)! There is even an avidly managed potluck style table set up, so families can share their culture’s cuisine. Authentic food from authentic people from China, Thailand, India, Poland, Ukraine, Brazil, Germany, Hungary, and many more countries, some I’d never heard of before. The children spend months preparing dances and performances. There is live music and a stage and even a cotton candy machine. I hope to attend someday, but luckily I was around for Hill Street’s Intercultural Family Fun Day (see photo above), which proved to be a slightly toned-down version of Chinese New Year’s, with about 1,000 people in attendance, including several members of the Dublin City Council.

If you’ve made it this far you may have pondered the question: how does Hill Street pay for all of this? Who coughs up the dough for an event for thousands of people? Who is maintaining the expansive property they use? To work in Ireland with children I was required to be trained and vetted by the Republic of Ireland, so I assumed this was going to be a government job. However, upon my arrival I learned that Hill Street is a privately run organization. Most of the funding comes from the Dublin City Council, and the money is directed towards an approved proposal. For example, Prep-for-Preschool and the Chinese New Year’s Celebration were approved proposals. More recently, when the conflict in Ukraine began just a few months ago, Hill Street proposed a bi-weekly day care for parents and children. This offered the mothers a place to network, to ask questions, to meet other Ukrainian families going through the same thing. It gave the children a sense of normalcy, access to playgrounds, and exposure to other kids. It gave them a community. The city of Dublin had placed dozens of Ukrainian mothers in the hotels in Dublin 1, where they stayed for months until more permanent housing became available, and their fathers and sons and husbands were able to come join them.

Hill Street’s latest proposal is for a new building. My supervisor told me in my first week that Hill Street has a lot of respect from the citizens of Dublin right now. This proved to be true at the end of my third week when we got news from the Dublin City Council. They have approved a blueprint that will not disturb the really old building or graves. They have the backing of several important organizations and politicians. They have a timeline that estimates construction completed by 2028. The true details of how they have accomplished this are lost on me, naturally. My knowledge of how to obtain government funding in Ireland is minimal, but regardless, Hill Street is expected to have a new building by 2028!

As we approach the start of European Summer Holiday (the month of August), the entire country seems to be winding down. The Irish are very respectful of the 9-5 workday, and everyone gets a month off in August. If America is going to adopt any customs from Europe let it be that and the free healthcare. The program I have helped to put on over the last four weeks is referred to as Summer Camp. A group of 16 kids come Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., and we take them on three adventures. One to a local beach and one to a local park, both via public transportation, and one “Family Trip” via private rented bus. The family trip consists of the summer camp kids (a new group each week) and about 70 families from the area (a lot of the same faces I love). We are only responsible for the summer camp crew, with a ratio of 4 kids to every 1 adult. So, to put it in my perspective, I have spent the last month travelling Dublin, sight-seeing with some dear friends I have made over the summer, none older than seven or younger than two. Many of whom I am unlikely to see again. Some of whom don’t speak English, but hey, how much do you understand a three-year-old anyway?

Now, buckle in, because I am about to get to the most important lesson in this blog post. The cherry on top of this whole freaking thing. The fact is that the hardest part of study abroad is getting there. They give you so many hoops to jump through, so many meetings and emails and phone calls and decisions and scholarship opportunities that you really need because they also make study abroad so very expensive. And if you do all that, you will find yourself getting on a plane with no clue in the world what you are walking in to. And then you just live. And that is the lesson. Because if studying abroad has shown me anything it is that I can do it. I can make my way in the world. This is the first time I am the only one accountable for myself and this is the only time I will be accountable for only myself. I am so unbelievably young and free. And that is the beauty of being in your twenties.

And so, as this blog post (which has turned out to be far more heartfelt than intended) comes to its close, I want you to know that this summer I also travelled 6 out of the 8 weekends I was abroad. During the week I worked 9-4, but I got off early on Fridays and managed to see London, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Belfast, and the Aran Islands. And although I could write an entirely unrelated blog post about why you should travel, the experience of actually working and living in another country is the part of my summer abroad that shaped me and enabled me to grow as a person over the last two months. They say the point of an internship is to learn what you want from your career. This experience has confirmed not only that this is the field of work I want to go into, but also that I want to work in Ireland. So, in a year, with a bachelor’s in psychology, I hope to go work and study in Ireland. It isn’t as warm as Texas, but with free healthcare and affordable education, Ireland has definitely won my heart.