Hello all!
Ever since we reached the airport in Dublin, it’s been a whirlwind ride of new experiences. When we reached Ireland, it was hard to believe that I packed my bags for a year and was now on my own (well, with my fellow Holy Cross friends) trying to catch the bus for Trinity.
From Trinity, our next adventure was on the DART train to go to our cultural advisor’s house, where we would be staying the first night. She lives in Sandycove off the coast of the Irish Sea so already I have a few nice pictures. Our cultural advisor, Silvia, is wonderful! True Irish hospitality: door wide open with the table set for breakfast (though by the time we arrived it was more like late brunch). We talked and then set out to take a walk in her quaint little town. We came back for a great Shepherd’s pie dinner and ice cream and pudding. Her house is lovely, I took pictures, but they just don’t do it justice … I loved the little fireplaces in each room!
The next morning we made a mad dash for supplies on our first full day: cell phones, couple of grocery staples, bedding. Dublin’s more expensive than we all imagined. Fingers crossed for better exchange rate.
Monday morning was our orientation with the Semester Start Up Programme. It’s nice, we’ve had our lectures all this week in Irish History, Art & Architecture, and Literature. It’s about three hours and then we have activities such as a Trinity campus tour (helpful) and another day we had a two hour walking tour of Dublin where afterwards our guide went and got fish and chips with us at the famous place in Dublin which has a list of all the famous people that have been there.
Funny, everything here to get settled you have to go to one office, but then get a letter from another office, travel to another office, go off campus. It’s actually hilarious, but it has made us learn the city pretty quickly.
Our first night in Dublin we decided to be real touristy and head up to Temple Bar, the culture, touristy area for a pint at the pub. It was good time and I’m hoping to become more Irish than some of the Irish, as they say here.
Friday was a blast because our SSP program took us to see Oscar Wilde’s "An Ideal Husband." Such a beautiful and historical theater is The Abbey and the actors, lighting, and costumes were great!
This coming week I’m looking forward to some more trips along the coast and a visit to The Battle of the Boyne site.
Cheers (as they say here),
Megan
