Champlain Abroad
The Champlain College Ireland program, showed me an Emerald Isle I thought didn’t exist. From talking to ordinary Irish citizens and readings from class, I learned that Ireland was facing the same problems as America and that we are both extremely common.
Since I went to Ireland, I was able to witness the aftermath of one of the worst credit and housing bubbles in history. Before the burst, Ireland’s economy was growing at the same pace as India and China, it was called the Celtic Tiger. This all came to a crashing halt, leaving vacant developments and thousands struggling. I was able to walk around vacant home developments, which had around twenty homes and they were all vacant. I saw unfinished highways, tunnels and bridges, the construction companies ran out of money, packed up and left. There were so many shutdown pubs and a ton of beggars. I felt like I was living in another great depression.
This turned out to be an extremely cool learning experience. This exchange program gave me the opportunity to witness first hand, what happens to a bankrupt country. Seeing whole developed towns that weren’t sold, because everyone lost their money over night, was an eye opener. This experienced showed just how intertwined modern society has become. The Irish credit and housing bubble sent a shocked wave, which not only ravaged Irelands economy, but E.U in whole.
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