Tellus

Tellus: (tel’us), n. 1. [Latin] earth, soil, and the land; a country; the world. 2. a collection of Willamette University student’s insights, stories, photos and thoughts from their experiences studying abroad.

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At the time this picture was taken, we were well into our two and a half hour tour. It was ice cold and snowing in the city of Derry and every party of my body was freezing. By the time we got to the Bogside, a part of the city that contains tons of peace murals concerning the Northern Ireland conflict between the Protestants and the Catholics, I was too cold to appreciate the wall where I was standing. The only reason I was at all inspired to take this picture was because our tour guide informed us that the ‘You are Now entering Free Derry’ wall was famous. However, after I left Derry, the little city ended up becoming quite a significant part of my experience in Ireland. After returning to Galway, I kept thinking about what the tour guide had said about all of the fighting and lives that had been lost in the city. I was so intrigued that I decided to write my final Irish history paper on Bloody Sunday, a gruesome event that had occurred in the city years earlier. I ended up learning a lot about the city and about the Northern Ireland Conflict as a whole. Whenever I look at this picture, I remember how amazing our tour guide was, the pride he exhibited for his precious city, and the paper I wrote that ended up teaching me a great deal more than I anticipated learning about the city. At the finish of our tour, our tour guide told us that the city of Derry had many names, but that his favorite by far was ‘Legendary,’ the title of this picture!