Week 1 (Jan 10-16)

Monday, Jan. 10

January 10, 2011 was my last day in the US for the next few months! After sleeping over at my Delaware relatives’ house, the family (minus Kevin who was on a skiing trip with his roommates) headed up to Philadelphia. We did a bit of site-seeing at Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell. Glenn raised his hand to answer every question our guide posed to us. Perhaps one day we’ll have another history major in the family...

After a snack of soft-pretzels in the airport, we said our goodbyes at the security gates. I managed to make it on the plane for my 9:00pm flight without any problems. On the plane I actually found one of the other girls from UVA, Catherine, who is studying at UCD this semester as well.

Tuesday, Jan. 11

After a sleepless night on the plane, we landed in Dublin at 8:00 local time. Catherine and I met up with Kate- the other UVA girl I knew who was coming. Then we took the aircoach bus through Dublin, wildly snapping pictures through the dusty windows. Unfortunately, the bus dropped us and all our luggage off on the street outside campus. We dragged our bags across the street, the bridge, another street, many lawns, paths and parking lots until we got directions for housing check-in. We three UVA kids parted ways and went to our rooms to unpack.

My housing is on grounds in Glenomena (Glen-oh-MEEN-ah) student residences. I am one of six girls in my suite, and each of us has our own bedroom and bathroom. I don’t know if I’ll ever have my own bathroom again! There is a shower in my bathroom, but it is only about 2x2 ft. We share a common room and kitchen. Unfortunately, there is no oven, and only two mini-fridges to share between the six of us. Our suite is on the fourth floor (5^th for Americans since they count the ground floor as 0 instead of 1), so it has a nice view, and you can even see a bit of the ocean! 

Once I had unpacked, I went on a campus tour. The Belfield campus of UCD was built in the ‘70s when they needed to expand since the old school was in right in the middle of the city. Despite being a series of concrete grey buildings, it looks a lot like an American campus with its groundskeepers, sports fields and coffee shops. One of my favorite features is the Lake (really, a pond) with ducks and a pair of swans. Our tour guide informed us that it used to be a concrete pit where students would gather for protests and riots. Now that it’s a pond, a few fool-hardy students jump in now and again, but if they’re caught they have to pay fine of 52€ and get a tetanus shot. The guide called it “The Toxic Lake”, and the name has stuck amongst my group of friends.

After dinner, I met Kate and some new friends from the tour group to watch the University Hurling team play a scrimmage game in the wind and rain. Hurling is a ball game played with clubs. It’s very fast, very aggressive, and very confusing if, like us, you don’t know any of the rules!

As a result of my greater-than-24-hours day, I was out by 8:30.

Wednesday, Jan. 12

I began my day with a shopping tour that took us through Dublin and dropped us off in the city center to get some necessary shopping done. We were shown a few of the main landmarks and can begin to get our bearings. It turns out I’m a pretty good navigator. I did some shopping with Kate, Joanna and Janetta (our new Canadian friends) for phones, bedding etc. After quite a bit of searching, we managed to locate a bus stop for one of the buses that would take us back to UCD.

That night we went to the Temple Bar district with a large group of international students on an outing arranged by the schools’ Erasmus Student Network. At the Turk’s Head Bar I tried a sip of my friend Aiden’s Bulmers -a hard cider- but the aftertaste dissuaded me from trying any more. It was nice to get to know more people like Cam, Aiden, Joanna, Janetta, and Kate.

When I got back to my room I was able to skype with my family at home. The five-hour time difference meant that my 1:15am call saw them finishing dinner in Virginia.

Thursday, Jan. 13

After a free lunch from the mixer held for international student, a small group of us headed over to the sports center for an introduction to Gaelic Football. I had not realized that it was more of an induction where we were shown what to do, and then had to practice in groups! I was very reluctant to participate at first, but Kate encouraged me to try, and in the end it wasn’t so bad since we were practicing the techniques, but didn’t have to play a whole game.

Next, Kate and Edwin (from Hong-Kong) and I took a trip to the grocery store. My tea-time supplies should last me the next 100 days at least! Unfortunately, the bus never arrived to pick us up, and we were not eager to carry all our groceries back in what we hoped was the right direction just as the sun was setting. After waiting 50 minutes for a bus, we gave in and took a taxi back to campus. Our taxi driver was very friendly and quick to correct us that what we called the “trunk” of his cab was actually the “boot”. After hearing Kate and I are from Virginia, he quizzed us on who the second president was. I assured him the answer was John Adams, but he was adamantly sure the answer was John Quincy Adams (the 6^th president)! I’m not sure if we were able to change his mind.

Friday, Jan. 14

My sleep schedule is still adjusting to the time difference, so when I woke up at 4am, I could not fall asleep again. I spent the next few hours listening to the radio and the political turmoil surround the Taoiseach (basically the president) Brian Cowen. I did a little bit of exploring the library, but they are disgustingly low on Agatha Christie and Arthur Conan Doyle books. And they call this a library?

Another skype date, this time with my family out at my grandparents’ house.

Saturday, Jan. 15

            Today the International Office arranged a bus to take us to IKEA to get some basic supplies. This was my first trip to an IKEA store, and let me tell you, it’s crazy! The store was built on the outskirts of Dublin city, so it could have the room for large parking lots and a massive store. On the top floor you walk through a plethora of rooms accessorized and decorated with IKEA wares, to help you plan out your perfect room. Then on the bottom floor you get to pick up all the objects you admired up top. A group of us managed to get our bed spreads and kitchen ware and get back to the bus on time.

When we got back, we walked over to Blackrock campus for a potluck dinner of our new group. The thing about Blackrock is, although it’s housing through UCD, it is quite a ways away from campus. Since we didn’t know the shortcut, it took us 50 minutes to get there. This made me very thankful to be in Glenomena from which I have an 8 minute walk to class.

            For our after-dinner entertainment, we walked to the town/residential area of Blackrock. Someone decided it would be fun to walk through the park at 10pm, and so we began a creepy tour through the park. We lived through it and nothing terrible happened- this time. Next, we went to a pub where my friends all felt obligated to have Guinness, and I stuck to water. Then we began the long trek back to campus.

Sunday Jan 16

Catherine and I went to mass on grounds. It turns out the campus church draws a nice crowd of non-students on Sundays.

I finally got to meet my other suitemates who were arriving for the beginning of the semester. Eve is the other American here for a semester from GW. Yichan is a grad student from China. Ashley is a first-year engineering student from the Cork area. Niamh and Maeve are fourth-year business-law students. They are in the dorms because their homes are too far for commuting to school every day, but Niamh does tend to go home most weekends.

I tried to get ready to begin classes the next day, but realized at about 11:00pm that I had pencils but no paper, and the stores were closed by then. I’m not ultra-prepared, but ready for class all the same!