“I really liked being able to compare a holy child in a different country to my holy child at home, and it was especially cool to see some things that I love at home that were exactly the same. The grades were all really close like Holy Child here, and everyone genuinely liked learning and being at school. It was also so cool to be there at the same time as girls from Holy child in Anaheim and Pasadena and New York because we could see perspectives from even more Holy Child's (in one of the pictures with the group of girls we are with holy child girls from Anaheim Pasadena and Killiney). However I also really liked to see how different the country and customs really were. Charlotte and I got even more out of the experience because our host family had a bunch of different exchanges from other countries (Italy, Spain, France) so we really took advantage of that experience and got out of our comfort zones to know all the different people even though some of them barely spoke English. The HC in Killiney had an amazing view because it was basically on the beach. I learned interesting things in classes there like self-defense, how to start a business, and cooking/baking. When we weren't in school we really explored all over Ireland and went to the cliffs of Moher, Blarney castle, and really got to know Dublin. This experience has made me want to go see new places and adventure into new countries even more than I had wanted to before. I learned to come out of my comfort zone by trying new foods, jumping on the train and going to explore a new city in Ireland, or trying to learn some Irish slang. Every day I became more excited to try new things and try and find the differences. The best thing I got out of the trip is I made so many close friends that I can't wait to see again one day!”  - Lilly Hagerup