Ireland, officially

Thus begins the Ireland blog.

Saturday, June 16: Scheduled for a 4:00pm flight to Newark followed by a 7:10pm flight to Dublin. Too bad Newark had a GROUND STOP due to stupid thunderstorms in the area - they waited so long for the weather to clear that the crew on my flight to Newark timed out and had to go home. So I did not get to Newark. Therefore I did not get to Dublin.

Sunday, June 17: Scheduled for a 3:15pm flight to Atlanta (from Dulles) followed by an 8:30pm flight to Dublin. The rentals had to drive me to Dulles for my flight, and it was a miracle that I even had a flight to be on - every flight to Dublin was full except for this one. WHEW! So while I was supposed to arrive in Dublin at 6:30am Sunday, I instead arrived at 10:00am...

Monday, June 18, along with two other students who had either been bumped from their flights or had had flights cancelled like me. We took a bus to Trinity College, dropped our bags off in our rooms (dorms at the school - two people in each room) and headed straight to class. Interestingly enough, class meets once a week. Which is awesome. We have to journal every day (part of our creative journalling class) and we have a few papers over the course of the program, but each class meets once a week. Anyway, after class I went back to my room to shower and unpack before meeting the rest of the group at 2:55 for a tour of Trinity, and to see the Book of Kells. After that we were free for the rest of the evening, so we went grocery shopping and walked around, then made dinner for ourselves and chilled out.

Tuesday, June 19: Our other class met in the morning to share our First Impression journals, and then we had free time until a movie at 1:00. Susan, Ariel and I wandered around Dublin looking for a place to eat when we finally settled on The Bagel Bar. It was so delicious. At 1:00 we all gathered to watch Michael Collins, a Hollywood film about the period between Easter Rising in 1916 and when Ireland became a free state in 1922. It was an awesome film, I highly recommend it! After the movie we were free for the rest of the day so Katie (roommate) and I went back to our rooms to take a nap for a couple of hours. At 7, the professors took the four latecomers out to dinner since we missed dinner out on Sunday night. We went to Milano, a pizza place, and it was DELICIOUS. Plus we got dessert, which was also delicious. On the way home the skies decided to open up and literally pour buckets on us. I was soaked from head to toe for real. We went back to the dorm to change and meet up with everyone else who was pregaming in the first floor kitchen. We headed out to a pub, had a drink, and then moved on to a four-story pub/club that had several bars and a dance club. I spent most of the night in the basement dancing and it was delightful! Around 2:00am a few of us headed out to go back to the college but were deterred by a bar called Sin. It wasn't as happening as we'd hoped, so we had a drink and headed back to Trinity, where we met up with the other half of the group. We goofed around for a little bit and then went to bed around 4:00.

Wednesday, June 20: We had no schedule until 2:00 on Wednesday so a lot of us took advantage of this and slept in. I have to say I wish I hadn't, but I did and I felt better. We went to the National Library to see a Yeats exhibit, which was pretty cool. From there Jenelle, Katie, Susan, Jessie and I went to get lunch. Jenelle and I went to a place across the street from Susan, Jessie and Katie; Katie joined us when she got her lunch, but then the place we were in closed to Jessie and Susan couldn't get in! Katie, Jenelle and I hit the bookstore after lunch but then went back to the college. At 6:50 we spiffed up and met on the chapel steps to take the DART to Dun Laoghaire (pronounced Dun Leary... weird). We all had tickets to a play about Oscar Wilde called Wilde at Heart.... and we were all disappointed. For real. Really boring. Good actors, but it was just two people. It felt like a class lecture on Oscar Wilde's life given by a really dramatic professor. Boo. After we got off the DART in Dublin afterward, Jenelle, Will, Jessi, Corbin, Dr. Turner and I went to Burger King / McDonald's because we were STARVING and they were the only things still open. Things close down early here for real... most pubs close at 11pm. I went back to the college to catch up on journals but really just wound up talking to Katie and Susan until 3:00 in the morning... I suppose I was so awake because I slept until 12:45 that day?

Today, Thuesday, June 21: At 10:00 this morning we met on the chapel steps and went to the National Gallery of Art, which was a little less than thrilling. The highlight was the fantasy art that was full of elves and creepy stuff. Susan, Katie, Dayne and I ventured off to the Bagel Bar (yah, again... it's that good) to get lunch, then wandered around Grafton street for a little while. At 3:00 we're going to watch The Wind That Shakes the Barley, and from there, WHO KNOWS!!

I really like being here. Dublin's a cool city, but I'm glad we're not spending all of our time here because quite honestly, it doesn't feel like we're in a foreign country. Sure there are some accents here and there, and they drive on the left side of the road and the right sight of the car, but for the most part, I could be in D.C. or New York. Galway should be cooler, and Cork is in the country. The weather has been mostly overcast or rainy, but it's not awful. I REALLY like the people. For real. They're awesome.

And that's about all. :)