Fresher's Week & Happy Guinness Day!

This is now my second week of classes and the Drop/Add period is almost over. It's also what's known as Fresher's Week, meaning the week when we all sign up for clubs and sports. Mostly this seems the same as home, but what's really different that all the Americans can't get past is that you have to pay extra to do anything. They have a dinner event for International students- you have to pay 5 euros to get in. Clubs- you have to pay 2 euros to join to get the opportunity to buy tickets for later events. Want to join a sport? You have to pay 10 or 20 euros to join, and then if the team travels or anything, you have to pay your way on that too. The campus gym- a special before October, 89 euros for 3 months. I guess its a good system for those who don't want to do anything on campus, but I think all us international students feel broke just hanging around on campus! It's definitely a cultural difference, because what I hear from my Irish roommates (and this one friend who sort of lives here all the time, but it's ok because she's very nice and a bit exotic to us Americans) is that they only pay a fee of a few hundred euros for admission when they get in, and don't have any ridiculous tuition most of the time. Can you imagine?

Well, I know what you're wondering. What clubs did I join? Well, I only had 6 euros so I only joined three clubs, haha. I joined the International Student Club, the English and Literary Society, and the campus LGBT Club. I'm hoping to join the Capoeira sports club. I'm guessing they don't have traveling matches? UCD has some of the most ridiculous and awesome sports clubs I've ever seen at a school. There's the normal team sports, including Gaelic football, Hurling, and Rubgy (both men's and women's). And then there's the water sports, like windsurfing, para-sailing, sailing- as if it weren't cold enough here! Actually, if the meets weren't on weekends, I'd totally join the sailing club! Then we have the completely strange: climbing and potholing, riflery, archery, trampolining, etc. They all seem awesome to try, I'm sorry I don't have more time here to give to doing non-schoolwork stuff, haha. I'm excited to try Capoeira again. Just before I started high school I traveled to Costa Rica with a teacher who introduced me to the sport, and I was hooked from then on! I even brought my white pants- the usual requisite uniform. In case anyone hasn't heard about Capoeira, it is a sport that is also a dance. It comes from Brazil, supposed created by slaves who weren't allowed to fight, so they worked out all their feuds by participating in this martial arts, contact, dance set to drums and other rhythmic instruments. Anyways, I'm excited to see it growing in popularity and that I may get to practice it every week!

Finally, the last bit of news I have is that this weekend I will be traveling to Cork. I have my hostel and my train ticket booked, and I continue to plan out my 3 days there. I am certainly planning to get to Blarney to kiss the Blarney stone, and I've read up on a lot of fun things to see in Cork City. If anyone has suggestions, I'm always looking for new things to try! I will be stopping in City Center tomorrow to buy myself a cheap camera (still unresolved technical issues with my phone...) and then I will be sure to log my weekend for you all.

Just a random bit of trivia about the goings-on here in Dublin- tomorrow is Arthur Guinness day! He is a very important in the cultural history of Dublin, and tomorrow will be celebrated properly by, of course, going out and drinking way too much Guinness. I don't know if they celebrate in Cork, but I may stop into a pub in solidarity. You are welcome to follow my example :)

That's all for tonight! I have to get up a little early tomorrow for my gym orientation so I can finally have a set place to work out! I'm so thankful I'm in the one dorm with a free gym! And it's next to the laundry- two birds with one stone. Goodnight everyone! Happy Arthur Guinness day tomorrow!

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!

Ranganna- Classes

Good evening all! After being here for more than a week, I finally had my first day of classes. I had 3 classes on today: Introduction to Folklore at 11, Beginning Irish at 1, and Early Irish Hero Tales at 2. Each class is only 50 minutes. Coming from a university that has classes that are either an hour and twenty minutes or else three hours, 50 minutes felt like cheating. All of the my classes seem very exciting. I generally sign up for a class more for the subject than the professor, so I spent less time trying to like the professors today and more time oohing and aahing over the reading list. I'm going to have to buy a whole other suitcase to ship my textbooks home! The class sizes have been pretty small compared to what I'm used- my first class, held in a stepped theatre and certain my largest class, only had about 50 or 60 kids in attendance. My smallest class so far, Beginning Irish, had only about 15. At home, I'm used to my small classes being about 40 and my large classes having around 150 students or so. Tomorrow I have one new class, called Ireland Uncovered, about the history of Ireland. I also have a fifth class, Discovering Ireland, but that's a field-trip-only class, in which I am only required to go on 3 all-day field trips and write a journal during the course of the semester. 


Tomorrow I also can't wait to stop by the bookstore on campus, and pick up my new goodies! One professor reassured us that if we do a little bit of the reading often, then it wouldn't be too much to handle. I was sitting in class thinking, can I read the whole book tonight please? We're not talking about a textbook here. It's a 9th or 10th century story called Táin Bó Cúailnge about a bull that gets run out of the Cooley peninsula area in Ireland. I also still have some last, less pressing shopping to do that might have to wait until Thursday, when my classes finish at noon. Like for instance, I still have to get a frying pan and bath mat and Band-Aids and sandwich bags. I can't believe all the little things you never think about until you don't have them when you need them. Other than the occasional item, I am beginning to feel sort of at home here. My desk is too messy, I don't make my bed, I wander into my kitchen to look for the food I want to magically appear when I'm bored, and I've now hopped a fence to get out of my dorm.

Apparently at this university, in an effort to discourage students from staying out too late or bringing a lot of people home with them at late hours, UCD has certain times when the gates to the dorms are shut and locked. While our keycards work shortly after the gate is closed, most of the night and early morning there is no way to get in or out of the dorm without hopping the fence. Which, I've found out, is quite common. I like to think of it as the school unofficial sobriety test- if you can't make it over the fence, you have to go walk it off until you can manage. This Monday was something called "Black Monday," the first day of classes. The day is used as a kind of "pre-game" for the semester, and from early afternoon on, there was a line outside of the bar to get in. Everyone was out drinking and having some "craic" (pronounced like crack, and an Irish term for good fun) and, supposedly, not going to class. I'm hoping to have a bit of craic myself this weekend, and finally see the inside of a proper Irish pub after dinner. Thankfully, my weekend starts on Thursday :)

I realized I forgot to post about my walk this weekend outside campus. Well, it was absolutely beautiful! I had great weather, as it turned out, though the wind continues to amaze me. I stumbled across a public park that was so lush and green, and because it was Saturday, so lively, I just loved it! I think it might become my personal private spot to go to relax or clear my head. I did a quick sketch from a bench I stopped to sit on for a minute, and view was amazing. I was up on some hill, looking down to some town (no idea of the names of anything yet). I also took a photo of the walking path I followed at the top of the hill. Sorry if the photos are small- all I have is my American phone to use as a camera!

Well, I think that's about it for now! I have told you most of what's been going on here for the last few days. I will be sure to report back on the new class I haven't had yet, and what I'm planning on doing this weekend. Oh, I almost forgot! I went to a great presentation by Andy Steves (Rick Steves' son) on student travel, and he got me all excited again to travel as much as possible! So I will have to make some plans quickly and let you know. Thanks for reading, and as always, I love getting comments! Write you later!

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!

Dia Duit- Hello from Dublin

After arriving Monday morning and meeting UCD orientation staff that escorted us on a bus from the airport and through the housing registration process, I am now in my dorm and settled in. I went on a shopping tour this morning with a group, and bought all my extra necessities I didn't pack- linen, towels, shampoo, and kitchen stuff. My dorm room is really nice. The building seems new and I have my own small bathroom, as well as a bed, desk, the usual. Campus seemed pretty big at first, especially with the bad weather, but now that I'm getting used to it, it's definitely smaller than Rutgers!
This week has been the orientation for international students and freshman, and they've had great activities so far. Yesterday they had coffee, tea and sandwiches being served in the lounge, and this afternoon they had Xbox Kinnect up on a giant tv for people to play. I also have a ticket to go to Ikea on Thursday. As of last night no roommates had appeared (there will be six of us total) but I hear a few now. I think I'm also meeting my shopping buddies for dinner or drinks tonight as well. Not surprisingly, most of the people I've befriended are also seniors, and seem quite different from the 17 year old Irish freshman that are also here...

Here are my photos of the day. The first is a beautiful rainbow I saw while it was heavily drizzling out, and the second is my wonderful lunch. I had friend garlic mushrooms (right), fried goat cheese salad (middle), and assorted veggies, with mashed potatoes on top (left).

Well, beannacht do anois, goodbye for now! I'll try to post again tomorrow. For now it's dinnertime!

Fáilte roimh - Welcome

Being the first post of this blog, let me introduce you to the site. I will be using this blog during my trip to Ireland in the Fall, where I will be studying in Dublin for a semester. Here I will relate my adventures and cultural experiences, as well as anything I learn along the way about Ireland, its history or the people I meet. To begin this learning, I will attempt to include all my titles in Irish and English. I will also include links to interesting sites I find, and, of course, my tweets, photos, and postings. Feel free to let me know if you want me to include anything else- this will be a work in progress from now until the end of December! You're always welcome to leave me a 'hello' in the comments, too. I love to know when anyone is actually reading!

Let the fun begin...