Monday March 4th

Sitting here in our tracky bottoms (sweatpants) and here to give you a run down of what our first day in Northern Ireland was all about. We left the Oakfield B&B and set out for the city of Belfast. We then dropped our suitcases off at the Tara Lodge hotel and made our way to the University of Ulster in Jordanstown. After wandering the campus to find the OT department we finally were greeted by great faculty with nothing else... But TEA. While looking for the department, everyone we asked for directions, both students and faculty new nothing about OT or it's location on campus. We met with about 30-40 Ulster OT students in a classroom. Both WMU students and Ulster students gave presentations covering the different field work placements they had experienced along with comparing the set up of the OT programs between the two Universities. It was extremely shocking to the Irish girls that in the US we pay for college because they do not. It was equally as shocking to us that they do not have many job openings and many students end up moving to Australia or the US. Also, they are not required to get a masters like in the US. Before lunch we exchanged money to get pounds because the north has kept British tradition and does not use euros like in the Republic (south). We then all broke into groups mixing the two universities where we discussed a fall risk case study. It was a long but informative day at Ulster. We got settled at the hotel and met up with some of the Ulster students at Scalinis, a local Italian restaurant. From there we explored the nightlife and even celebrated one of the Irish OT's birthdays. It was a great day with many new friends made :)


- Kelly and Rebecca