PALs 2019-2020 Q&A with Juliann Barbella, CAS '21

Juliann Barbella, a senior in the College of Arts and Sciences, spent a semester abroad at Trinity College Dublin in Dublin, Ireland in 2020. During the 2020-2021 academic year, Juliann is serving as a Penn Abroad Leader, which is Penn Abroad’s student advisory board focused on special projects and supporting fellow students interested in global experiences. We sat down with Juliann to discuss why she chose Trinity, her academic experience there, how she formed friendships in Dublin, and her favorite memories from the experience.

Tell me about yourself. What do you study at Penn? 
My name is Juliann Barbella, and I am a senior in the College. I am majoring in cinema and media studies and minoring in fine arts and computer science. I am very interested in media and the arts, so when I went abroad I studied film. 

What abroad program did you participate in, and why did you choose it? 
I went to Trinity College Dublin in Ireland for my study abroad program. In general, I always knew that I wanted to go abroad when I was applying to college as I thought it would be a really interesting break from the typical US experience. One of the main reasons I chose this specific program was that I had not studied another language long enough to have enough proficiency to study in a non-English speaking country. So I was exploring the different English-speaking options and Ireland struck a chord with me because part of my family is from Ireland. Also, Trinity made sense to me because I had spoken with a few people who had gone there to study and from what I had heard, it seemed like a great program. 

How was the process of applying to your study abroad program and selecting courses? 
When I applied to Trinity, I had to pick the subjects I wanted to study, and then they accepted me based on what I chose. Once I arrived in Dublin I was able to select the exact modules (classes) I wanted to partake in. Because I was a visiting student they essentially gave me the last pick for all the classes. So it was a little difficult as the courses I saw on the website and planned to take were not the exact same as the courses I was able to actually enroll in. I had to go to a lot of different info sessions to figure out what they were offering and what the credit system would look like.  

How were the classes at Trinity different from those at Penn? 
The classes themselves weren’t too different from those at Penn, but one thing that I noticed was that a lot of the coursework and grades were dependent on a final project or paper. The grading system was also a little weird for me because although it was out of 100, generally the highest you were able to get was around 70. The criteria for what they wanted me to write about in papers was very different from my classes in the US. One thing that I really liked about my courses was that I was able to get to know the professors a bit more closely and talk more to the people in my classes because they were so small. I was put into a Whatsapp group with other film majors which was fun, and it was helpful to get to know the other students. 

How did you meet new people abroad? 
I was a part of an orientation program for other international students called the Semester Start-up Program. In this program, we arrived in Dublin three weeks before classes started. Together, we took a course called “Understanding Ireland,” in which we were taught a bit about the history and culture of Ireland, and we went on field trips around Dublin. This experience was mostly where I met my main friend group because a lot of the people lived in the same building and we saw each other a lot during those three weeks. One of the girls in my orientation program was also studying film, so we were definitely close in our classes.  

Did you travel anywhere else during your time abroad? 
I was very fortunate to be able to visit a lot of different countries because the prices are much lower in Europe versus traveling straight from the US. Because I was in Ireland, however, I had to fly everywhere, which was a bit difficult. I was able to visit all four corners of Ireland, and then I went to around six different countries and a bunch of different cities. I spent a lot of my budget on Oktoberfest in September, which was really incredible and worth it. My other travels were done during breaks during the semester and after the semester.  

Did you have any travel mishaps? 
This was a bit of my own fault, but when I went to Belfast with some friends we booked a hostel for the weekend, and I made the mistake of not checking my bed before going to sleep in it. Then, in the middle of the night, I woke up feeling itchy everywhere. I went to the bathroom to check and found that my arms and legs were covered in bites. Thankfully, we had some extra beds in the room, so I switched beds and the biting stopped. I am thinking there were bedbugs in my original bed. 

What was your favorite memory from going abroad? 
This is such a hard question because everywhere I went I had such an amazing experience, so I will pick one example from Ireland and one from outside of it. 

In Ireland, every Tuesday my friends and I would get together after classes and we would do communal dinners where a different person would cook dinner for the group each week. After that, we would head over to a pub called The Porterhouse where we would play music bingo. Since we became regulars at the pub, we became good friends with the person running the music bingo, and we became very good at the game. It was so fun to have that routine and make those memories with my friends. 

In terms of memories outside of Ireland, my favorite place to visit was Lisbon, where I was able to meet up with a few friends there. One of the nights there, one of my friends was not feeling great, so another friend and I ran to a pharmacy and got her medicine. Afterward, we just wandered around the city during the evening, and we ended up at this wine bar where the person serving us was working his last day there. He was so friendly and talkative, giving us tips about what to drink and what to eat. It was so lovely, and I really enjoyed being spontaneous during this time. 

Would you say you changed in some way as a result of you going abroad? If so, how? 
I don’t think I necessarily changed personally, but I think that because I was able to travel more, I became better at preparing to travel. Now I know how to pack pretty efficiently and I know what kind of trips I like. So now, I feel like I know how to travel more safely and confidently. 

Is there anything you would’ve changed about your time abroad? 
I wish I would have known a bit more about how choosing my class schedule was going to work beforehand.  

Favorite food you tried abroad? 
I loved these custard tarts in Lisbon called pasteis. 

Most essential item you packed? 
I fell in love with packing cubes for when I was traveling. They were so helpful when packing for trips where I was unable to take a suitcase and needed to fit a lot of clothes in my backpack.  

Three words to describe your abroad experience? 
Rewarding, beautiful, and unique