Posts
Maidin mhaith- good morning! It is a rainy (albeit
sunny) Saturday morning here, just outside Dublin. I haven't even been here a
week, and already I've gone from wearing a long-sleeved shirt, sweatshirt,
jacket and scarf, to wearing just the shirt, and rolling up the sleeves! And
until this morning, I thought I had figured out that rain showers typically
came around 4 or 5 in the afternoon. I guess I'll need more than five days to
figure it out.
That said, so far I have been able to figure out
UCD's campus pretty easily, as well as the bus system into City Centre and to
various stores. So far there has been a lot of scheduled activities to do on
campus, which has been a lot of fun. There's been a ton of free food (always a
plus!) as well as live music, Irish dancing in the Student Club, free stuff
(I've gotten a scarf, a USB drive, packaged food, coupons, pamphlets, pens,
etc.) and many speakers who've been very kind and welcoming. We even heard a
short speech by the Head of the American Studies Department, who reiterated
that we are all ambassadors representing both countries, and finished by saying
that he wanted us to feel both welcomed and cherished. It was very sweet.
Well, today is my first unscheduled day- I really
have nothing on at all. So I will attempt to explore the area just beyond
campus, see what's around. I expect my two missing roommates might move in
today or tomorrow. Although I've very much been enjoying the freedom of
adjusting to Dublin with no responsibilities, I'm looking forward to next week,
when things start to get into gear and I can form more of a routine or at least
a clear picture of what my weeks will entail. I had signed up for some very
interesting classes before I came over, but we were just told about two classes
that are being offered that sound incredible, and so, of course, I'm using the
first drop/add week of class to shift around my schedule. I really hope I can
get into the classes, because not only do they sound exciting, they would make
my school week a 3 day week, with Mondays and Fridays off so I could travel a
bit more. I'll be sure to let you know about what classes I'm taking once I get
them all settled.
Ok, I am going to go eat breakfast now and then go
explore for a bit. It looks like the rain has just about stopped. Sorry for the
two-day break in posts- I caught a bit of a cold- but I will continue to post
about any adventures I find myself on and anecdotes I think are interesting.
And of course, I'll take more pictures! Hopefully, I'll have some later today.
Let me know if you want to know more about something
(or, I suppose, less about something) and be sure to stop by the comments and
say hi! At the very least, look out for a good post on Sunday about the
USA-Ireland rugby match that I'll be watching that morning. Should be grand! :)
One more thing I forgot- if you're on twitter, check
out the hashtag #CelticCapers for all my tweets while I'm here!
Thanks for reading!
