Good Craic! Rugby World Cup & Chinese

This is a clip of one of the intense moments of the rugby game this morning. Just as Australia was about to score, Ireland stole the ball and made it almost all the way to the other side of the field. All with 2 minutes left in the game! You can be sure that everyone watching was on their feet and biting their nails, no matter who they were rooting for.


This morning, after a good night out with the roomies last night and not getting to sleep until much too late, I woke up for the 9:30 AM Rugby World Cup game between Ireland and Australia. UCD opened up the lounge for International students early so that we could watch it on the huge screen made of 12 monitors. I met my friend Christina there, and we were certainly not the only ones. There was a group of about 7 or 8 who were Australians, and donned not only colors and flags, but stickers on their cheeks. There were also some of the International student coordinators there, who were decked out in green. And we had a number of people wander in and out throughout the game. It was really very fun!

The only thing that I was surprised about was how subdued everyone was. I'm not sure if it's an Irish thing or the fact that it was 9:30 on a Saturday morning on a college campus, but everyone was very relaxed and calm and extremely cordial. Despite the warnings, there was very little "slagging" (rousing and teasing one another). I had a great time, and am continuing to learn the nuances of the game of rugby. I don't know American sports very well, but I will try with this one.

Here's a photo of the fan gear sported this morning and one of my friend Christina (front bottom right) and all the Irish-cheering devotees behind us. For a small lounge, there were quite a lot of people. Also, most students seem to go home on weekends, so this was an impressive and dedicated crowd.

And then tonight, I made my first call on my Irish cell phone. To whom? To the Chinese food place that was handing out menus last week, of course. I decided to eat in, but didn't feel like cooking, so I ordered Chinese- which, happily, they will deliver to the outside of the dorm building I live in! I had a nice bonding session with one of my roomies over dinner, and had a nice relaxing evening. I really have to check tipping standards here again, because the delivery man that I gave a few extra euros to seemed very genuinely surprised at receiving a tip.The food was pretty good, which sort of surprised me. I haven't exactly seen a lot of diversity so far here...

Anyway, tomorrow I plan on making a video tour of my building and some of UCD campus, so make sure to look out for it! Forgive me if I get a little bit behind on posting a link on Facebook. The site seems to have trouble letting me post or share most anything. Hopefully this will be resolved shortly! As always, thanks for reading!

Chéad Dé Sathairn- My first Saturday

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!