Adventures

Wed Jan. 26, 2011
Today I went on yet another field trip. My fine arts professor took us to a modern art gallery, the Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA). I have never been to a real art gallery before, so it was interesting. There was so much to see. However, I found that a lot of what I saw basically looked like nothing. For instance, in one room, there was a glass of water sitting on a glass shelf. Not a painting or anything, actual physical objects, and beside it was a description. It pretty much said that the glass of water was not actually a glass of water, but instead an Oak tree - okay, I'm pretty sure that's a glass of water, whoever made this piece of "art" is delusional, and now rich because of it. Awesome. Just saying, it's rather weird how it works. I mean, I could take part of an Oak tree and put it on display saying that it's a glass of water, but am I going to get rich off it, probably not. So that's how I felt for most of the day, looking at paintings that literally look like nothing but 3 strokes of paint on a canvas.
But then, there were some things worth seeing. Some of the photography was precious to say the least. They had a lot of very old pictures on display. One black and white one of two old people cuddling on a bench, it was adorable. I also really liked the room that had art that was like optical illusions. When you looked at things they looked like they were moving, but weren't. Really made your eyes feel weird. The best part about the trip was that on the way back to school we got to take one of those really big double-decker buses. I had never been on one so it was pretty exciting. We sat up top near the front. It felt so awkward being up so high, every time we made a turn it looked like we were going to crush the tiny cars or people next to us.


Thurs Jan. 27,2011
Yay! It's the weekend again. Having 4-day school weeks is awesome. Very good idea Champlain. Probably the best you have had. We celebrated Lora Cogswell's 21st birthday which was fun. We started the night by getting all dolled up and then a big group of us went to pre-game at Lora's apartment. I learned a fun drinking game, don't really remember the name of it but its basically beer pong mixed with flip cup and its like a relay race. It was super fun. Then we made our way out to the bars. The group was headed to the Palace to dance and stuff, however when we got there their was a huge line and 8 euro cover charge. Some of them stayed but me, Amber, Louis, and Devon ended up at the bar across the street, Flannery's. I really liked it there. It was packed with lots of people our age and played good music. The bad part was that it smelled like throw up pretty bad at the front. We made our way to the back and it was fine though. I'm sure Ill be going back there.


Fri Jan. 28, 2011
A lovely day for a Guinness! Today me, Katie, Amber, Ross, Emily, Bonnie, and Sarah C. Went to the Guinness Factory. Guinness isn't my favorite beer by any means, but it's Irish and like a 10 minute walk from my apartment so we had to do it. The building itself was kind of cool. Once you got inside you could look up and see that you were standing inside the worlds largest pint glass. It look us a few hours to walk the whole thing. It really should have taken much longer than it did, but we didn't really care about reading any of the signs like you are supposed to. lol. They gave us a free sample the picture > and then once we got to the very top we were given a complimentary pint as well. I have to say that pint was the best Guinness I have ever had. They did something right. The top was definitely the coolest part. The whole top floor is called the "Gravity Bar" and its windows all around the outside. There is an amazing view of Dublin and the mountains in the distance. It was so pretty. Seeing things like that really reminds you that we really aren't in the US any more.
After going home and resting up, we went out again to the Pale. They put on an event in honor of the Champlain students. They love us so much because we go there all the time and make them lots of money. lol. So yeah, they hosted a Karaoke night for us. It was a lot of fun. They had 3 euro pints and 3 euro shots, plus gave us some free food. I had my first Jager Bomb and am in love with them. Everyone had a good time singing stupid songs and dancing. I have to say that our group song is most definitely 'Don't Stop Believin' by Journey. Every time we are all together and that song comes on every single one of us goes crazy. We scream it at the top of our lungs, its phenomenal. Really good craic. I acquired some nice pint glasses, compliments of the bar =). I am officially starting my collection of different beer glasses. Guinness -check, Heineken -check. Now just like a hundred more to go!
When we got back from the bar me and Amber went to Jordy's room because we got him a cup too and had to drop it off. We were all real drunk but Jordan was for sure the worst. When we walked in there were broken glasses everywhere and the floor was soaked for some reason. Then we see Jordan in his boxers making Tea. Like wtf lol. Me and Amber ended up tucking him in and telling him an erotic bed time story about the sweet whore 'Baby Guinness'. I wish we recorded it because it was hilarious.

Sat Jan. 29, 2011
Today a big group of us ventured off to Bray. This place is a little like Howth, it is also a seaside village with some great views. It look us about a 45 minute train ride to get there. I love riding the train, so that was real fun in itself. When we made it to Bray we hiked up the mountain, Bray's Head its called. It was a serious hike. We were only hiking for about 45 minutes, it wasn't that big of a mountain, but it was straight up. Like 90 degree angle for real. So it was really tough. I almost died a few times. Once we got the the top the view was most certainly worth the hike though. Half way around was the Irish Sea, and the other half was rolling landscape which was also very beautiful. I wish that was what we could see out of our apartment window, but instead we get to look directly at another building. We always keep our shades open so we are getting to know our other neighbors little by little.
Tonight we went to a new pub that is close by. Im not sure what the name was maybe Bayron or something like that. It was nice though. Me, Louis and Amber went. Just so happens that they had specials like 3 beers for 10 euro or 3 shots for 10 euro. We we kept just buying rounds for each other. We tried to pay for our second round... a round of Sambuca shots and the bartender insisted that it was on him! He was so sweet. They really like Americans here for some reason. I love it. This place has a bigger dance floor, better music and lights than the Pale and is about the same price or cheaper, so there's a good chance that the Pale is going to be missing us. We made good friends with the bartenders there. We found out that Tuesday nights they have male strippers. I guess me Katie and Amber are going to check it out because we already made promises to them. SO that should be interesting =) We stayed until close (half of 12) and as me Ross and Katie were waiting outside the Garda showed up. They were really nice to us, but said that they had to go to this place all the time at night to make sure they weren't having a meeting. or something like that. We sort of have a feeling they may be associated with some type of gang or mafia lol. But we could be completely making that up, I have no idea. They are great guys.

Sun Jan. 30, 2011
Today Ross Katie Amber and I went to a flea market down the road. We were so excited, but when we first got there we felt a little weird. Everything looked very old and vintage, and really not like what we wanted at all. We realized that we had to dig deep to find the hidden gems. There were a lot of people there and it was a little awkward because a lot of it was people selling used stuff. I didn't really think that was how they worked,but i guess so over here. After all the digging we did end up buying some good shit. I bought a pillow because it was adorable. It has owls on it and I love it. (this was not used) I also got a dress and 2 scarves. They have this flea market the last Sunday of every month so we are gonna try and make it a ritual.

Museum Field trips

As I approached Trinity Campus gates at 8:55 am I began to suspect that I had calculated my all day wrong. I was supposed to be meeting my science lab group at the entrance at 9 am so that we could take a tour of the geological museum on campus. I reached the gates and looked around for a familiar face; nothing. Everyone around me was surely Irish. I figured I would wait, probably everyone was just running a little late. 9:00 am - still no one from my class at all. WTF. The teacher should be here at least, right? I kept thinking I was at the wrong place or something, but no, this is exactly where they had said to meet. Finally I called Jordy who is also in the class, he reassured me that we were supposed to be meeting there and that he was on his way with Ross and Katie, they would be there shortly. So I continued to wait, eventually they showed up, but no one else had. Not even the teacher. We decided that we should walk over to the museum to see if maybe they had met in there instead. Nope, nothing. The museum wasn't even open yet. We didn't really know what to do at this point. We didn't want to walk all the way home or leave and miss them so we sat around until 9:30 when we said screw it, and decided to walk back. As we were leaving we meet a group of familiar faces who told us that we were supposed to meet at the gates at 9:30 am instead of the normal 9 am. Apparently we didn't get the memo, and missed out on an extra half hour of much needed sleep. - of course that would happen to us.
Once inside the museum I was wishing that we hadn't met up with the group at all because it was so boring. There were literally like 7 rows of display cases that were filled on both sides with rocks and minerals. Yeah, rocks are cool - kind of - and some of them were pretty, but seriously we did not need to spend and hour and half staring at all of them. It might have been a bit more interesting if the professor had been a little enthusiastic and actually explained some of them or something; but no, he just stood there the whole time. First of all, this guy is young and very awkward. He doesn't really speak, which is not like your normal college professor. I mean he is nice, but if he really expected us to learn something, he should have pointed out the key things that we were supposed to be looking at, at least. Then when we were about to leave he asked me what the difference was between sedimentary, igneous, and metamorphic rocks, and I was like uggghhhh, no clue, because I didn't know that's what we were supposed to be looking at. I had spent all my time looking at how pretty the diamonds and gems were, not actually learning anything. haha
So yeah, I guess he caught me. He pointed me in the direction of the 3 sections to go look at. It took me about 5 minutes, and I can proudly say that I know now the difference between the three types of rock. Hopefully I won't forget because I have a hunch it will make it onto an exam. (photo: courtesy of Google) Now you can be experts like me!
After the tour of the geological museum, I had another museum visit to go to, on Kildare St, with a different class of mine. This museum was about a 10 minute walk from the other, and the entire walk I just kept hoping that it was more interesting than the last one. We met at the National Museum of History & Archaeology at about 11:15 am. As I walked up I noticed that the building was much prettier than the other and looked promising. Our teacher brought us around on a little guided tour of the museum and explained all of the important artifacts to us that related to what we had been learning in class. Automatically I knew I was going to get more out of this visit than the last one.
At first we basically looked at old tools that archaeologists have discovered from the Mesolithic and Neolithic ages in Ireland. It was neat to see all the tools made from rocks, bone and wood. It was weird to imagine that people actually used these things because simple items that we take for granted today - like a sharp knife, or drill - were not invented. They also had a display of a burial tomb which had human bones in it. Sad to look at, but interesting none the less. Next we made our way around the the Bronze age section. Apparently this was a time when people really liked to display their wealth. We saw an array of different gold jewelry that was worn way back then. Torcs, bracelets, robe fasteners, it was really fun to look at. Now, I couldn't imagine wearing half the things we saw, but I have respect for the idea that if someone wore these gaudy necklaces they would have been perceived as very wealthy and powerful.
Next we made our way around to look at different swords and shields. We got to see the bones of a viking. They really were massive people, on average they would stand to be almost 7 feet tall. They also had a few human skulls on display that were in good condition, but full of dents and cracks where you can see that they were struck with an axe or hammer or something very hard, causing death. Again, it was weird to look at these things because it brings about a real sense of our history. Those skulls were from a real person. Something very tragic happened to that person, and we are putting him on display looking at him. It's kind of weird. We know nothing about who this person really was, just that he was possibly a warrior of some kind. I don't like thinking about it really, but I kept doing it. Imagine, someday some type of species may collect our bones and teeth and put them on display after we have gone extinct.
The last thing we looked at was definitely the most gut- wrenching. All over Ireland -and many other places- there are Peat Bogs. They are wetland areas that form when plant material is inhibited from decaying fully by the acidic and anaerobic conditions. So basically when anything makes its way into a peat bog it is preserved almost perfectly. Around the Bronze and Iron ages in Ireland, the people began to place their dead ones in bogs as some sort of ritual associated with nature gods and spirits. So yes, that photo you see above was a real human. (I did not take this photo, cameras were not allowed in the museum. This is not one of the preserved bodies I saw, today but I wanted to give an example of just how preserved they were). It made my stomach turn to look at these people. Much worse than looking at just bones. So much detail is still on them. You can see facial features, fingers and toes, hair, teeth, it really was disgusting; yet I couldn't look away. I was so amazed that the acidic water could save so much of a body. Skin had turned to this thick leather looking coating. You could tell that if you were able to touch them they would be hard. As gross as it was it was so intriguing and I learned a lot from this museum. Overall it really was quite a good trip.

Dublin Zoo

Last night didn't end up being as much fun as it should have been. We went to the "party" that the school put on. It was at a club so there was lots of drinking and dancing. I find it rather weird that when we go out, it's like being back home because they listen to all of our music. I mean, don't get me wrong I love hip-hop and dance music, but for some reason it's not what I'm into for over here. I would much rather sit in a pub and listen to live bands that actually play Irish music. It makes me feel like I'm getting to know the culture a little better. So the club scene in Ireland is basically the same as the US, except the guys look a little more gay because they are European and what not.
I got to try my first Slippery Nipple at the club, which was delightful. I know there are a bunch of different ways you can make them, but here it was a shot of Sambuca and Bailey's Irish Cream. Basically tasted like I just ate a black jelly bean, which are my fave, so it was very good. Props to the bartender, because he was the on who suggested that I try one =)
Today I got up early and went to the zoo with Amber, Bonnie, and Louis. It was a bit chilly to be walking around, but it was so worth it. I hadn't been to a real zoo in a long time, so it was nice to see all the different animals. Lots and lots of monkeys, a lion, tigers, you know the normal zoo animals. Unfortunately they did not have and giraffes or zebras like they had promised, which made us a little upset.
We were lucky enough to witness something that not every person sees on an average trip to the zoo. As we were looking at this cage of monkeys Louis pointed out that one of the male monkeys was playing with himself. haha we didn't believe him at first, but we looked and sure enough the friggen monkey was jerking off. haha. I had no idea that they did that, but it was really really funny and very gross at the same time. The look on his face was priceless.
As we were walking around the park, we noticed a little boy standing next to a hut by himself. I thought it was odd because he couldn't have been more than 3 years old. He was so cute but looked so sad, we didn't really know what to do, finally we went up to him, and he told us his mommy left and kept telling us he was lost. Just as we were about to call the office we saw his family way down the walkway. He was so happy and ran to them. So yes- we kind of saved his life. The shitty part about it was that his family didn't even really look concerned at all. I would be freaking out if I turned around and my kid wasn't there, especially in a crowded zoo in the middle of a city, ya know?

Tourists

Today we had our walking tour of Dublin. Our whole group basically just screamed "we are not from Ireland!" All of us in our sneakers with our cameras, huddled around in a large group taking up the whole sidewalk. It was a little funny, sometimes you just have to enjoy being the average tourist. This is the tour we were supposed to go on last week that got postponed. In all honesty it would have been a lot more helpful last week than it was today. By now most -if not all- of us had already been where they brought us, so it was basically just a pointless walk in the cold. 5 degrees Celsius and I haven't the foggiest what that is in Fahrenheit but if I were guessing I would say maybe 25 degrees? It definitely felt like we were back home. Other than today it has been relatively nice, in the high 40s. A nice treat from leaving 10 degree weather. Any way we walked around Trinity campus, which is actually really pretty, then we made our way around to Grafton St, the Temple Bar area, Dublinia (the Dublin Castle), and the City hall. We didn't really go inside anywhere, just walked by and heard some history on the locations. It truly wasn't the most exciting tour I've ever been on, but it was free so I guess that makes it okay.
The worst part about the tour was that, even though it wasn't until 2 pm, all of us felt like utter garbage because we got mangled last night. Too many shots of vodka and glasses of wine before we even left the apartments. Obviously, we went to the Pale again. We just love it there. Aimee is one of the bartenders and she is our favorite. I found out what the tasty orange drink was from the other night. It is called a Super Split and is made of Captain Morgan and Club Orange. Named after an ice pop that it tastes like. Literally so good, probably my new favorite drink. There was lots of signing and dancing and laughing from what I remember... but too many drinks led to a very blurry night and a painful morning. It was good craic though. haha.
We actually ended up back at the Pale once already today. After the tour a bunch of us went there to get food. The sandwiches were surprisingly good. Tonight we are going to a "party" somewhere I guess. Another college is throwing it, and they have invited our small college to join them. The other college is made up of foreign students from around Europe, so it will be a chance for us to mingle with some people our age that are roughly in the same position as we are. Should be a good time. And I've got to get ready for that now. Adios.

Ugghh Classes, really?

Over the past few days nothing special has happened, as far as exploring goes. The first week/weekend had us all pretty burnt out, so some relaxation and many hours of sleep were vital to our sanity. We have done so much walking since we arrived. My poor legs have never hurt as bad as they have these past few days. I've been trying to avoid the American cliche of wearing sneakers, but they really are the only thing comfortable enough to walk that far in. So here I am rocking pumas in a world of stiletto boots and penny loafers.
Classes have started and although the thrill of being in a new place is still there, we are being brought back to reality by having some responsibility again. Currently I am enrolled in 5 classes. One of which I am in the midst of trying to change. My courses are: Early Irish History, Cultural Immersion through Irish Literature, Environmental Earth Science, Celtic Tiger and the EU, and Nonprofit Social Marketing. As of today I have been to all of them except the marketing one which I have tomorrow.
The classes here are somewhat different from those that I have experienced in Burlington. All of my teachers have mentioned that they want to get us out of the classroom and out into the world to physically show us what they are talking about. They plan to take us on field trips frequently, some in Dublin and some outside of Dublin, which I am very excited about. It is weird, because I actually am more interested in these classes than ones I have taken at home. Never before have I been excited about history, but for some reason learning how Ireland was discovered is very entertaining.
OKAYYYY time for me to be a bit of a nerd:
In one of my classes today we read a very strong poem. It was about the tragedy of the Irish language (Gaelic) being lost. I never really thought about it. But the Irish were forced to give up their language for commerce, so that they would be able to trade and communicate with the rest of the world. The poem we read is called 'A Grafted Tongue' by John Montague. and goes as follows:

Dumb, bloodied, the severed
head now chokes to
speak another tongue:
As in a long suppressed dream,
some stuttering garbled ordeal of my own

An Irish child weeps at school
repeating it's English.
After each mistake the master
gouges another mark
on the tally stick
hung about its neck like a bell
on a cow, a hobble on a straying goat.

To slur and stumble in shame
the altered syllables of your own name:
to stray sadly home and find the turf cured width
of your parents' hearth growing slowly alien:

In cabin and field, they still
speak the old tongue.
You may greet no one.
To grow a second tongue,
as harsh a humiliation as twice to be born.

Decades later that child's grandchild's
speech stumbles over lost
syllables of an old order.

After learning about it, and reading the poem it made me realize what a shame it is that they were forced to give up what they were first used to. The language is beautiful and so melodic, it makes me feel bad for them that they had such a hard time holding onto tradition. The part saying how people even had to change their own last name makes me sad. many people are proud of their roots and a name can say a lot and that having to be altered into an Anglo-Irish version is rather degrading. It's like English speakers saying your language it too hard to understand and you are not worthy of us learning how to really pronounce it. So instead your name is 'this'. Aren't we such great people?
Anyway.. that's enough nerdiness for one day... it's getting late and we wanna catch a bit of open mic. To the Pale we go. Cheers!

Settling In

Sat. Jan 15, 2011-

Today we finally got some resting time. Orientation was supposed to take us on a walking tour around Trinity Campus and Medieval Viking Dublin- the Oldest section of Dublin and that which we live in- however, the tour was postponed. Amber and I took this time as an opportunity to get some grocery shopping in. The school would not be buying us dinner tonight so we were on our own.
The shopping experience itself was much different than what we are used to. It took us about 20 minutes of walking up and down the isles in Tesco (which is about the size of our local Cumberland Farms) to finally find pasta and tomato sauce. Everything was in strange spots and the packaging was a little misleading. They have different brands than we do in the US, so the colors you would normally be looking for that you associate with a box of Barilla penne pasta wasn't there. Instead you find a red bag of pasta with some name that means nothing to you. Being broke-ass college students who only want to spend money at the pubs, we did the safe thing and bought the cheapest brand of everything we needed. To our surprise the 95 cent Oak Lane discount ketchup wasn't half bad. We also checked out Centra and Lidl, two other small grocery stores that were equally confusing. We decided to leave the butcher, market, and bakery for another day because it was getting late and figured that was something else that needed a lot of time.
After dinner a few of us made our way to The Brazen Head. We had all heard quite a bit about it, being that it is the oldest pub in Ireland. It was built in 1198. damn. You can tell by looking at it that it is very old. It looks a little funny because it is the shortest building on the block and really stands out. James Joyce made a reference to it in his classic book 'Ulysses', which helps to show that it was a popular place to hang out even back then.
Anyway, we didn't really know what to expect for the inside once we got there. The building seemed very nice. The walls were stone, it was dimly lit, and just being in there made you feel like you were sent back in time. There were locals playing live music in one room and in another there were people sitting down having drinks. The place was packed, but not necessarily the kind of people that we wanted to hang out with. They weren't kidding, it was the OLDEST pub in Ireland. It seemed like the average age of the crowd was about 60. We figured we would make the best of it, order one drink and chill until we thought of somewhere else to go. When we were sitting I started chatting up the 4 older people sitting next to us. They were very friendly and gave us some tips on where to go and where not to go. Just as they left 2 younger men came and sat with us. They were excited to learn that we were from America and couldn't stop enthusing about how we needed to see the west of Ireland. Apparently that's where all the craic is. They were both drinking this orange drink that looked delicious. They wouldn't tell us what it was called but insisted that we "lap it in". It tasted exactly like an orange creamsicle. It was so good. According to them it had more alcohol than anything else at the bar. This was hard to believe because it tasted so good. Hours passed and soon we had to say goodbye to our new friends because the pub was closing. Here's to hoping that maybe we will run into them again! Cheers.

Sun Jan 16, 2011
More resting and grocery shopping during the day today. But the night was fun. The sports scene in Ireland, not so much like it is in the US. Here they don't care as much for football or basketball it is mostly about soccer and rugby and other Irish sports. So for me its a little troubling because I miss my Celitcs =( its a bummer. Not being able to see Marquis a few times a week really makes me sad. Now, tonight was one of the playoff games for the NFL, Patriots vs. Jets, and I'm not into football as much as basketball, but many of my friends are. And being around American sports makes me feel at home. Luckily we found sports bar that was showing the game so we decided to make the 25 minute trek to get there. Even though I'm not really into it I consider myself a Pats fan, and Louis and some of his friends are all Jets fans. So it was pretty interesting watching it with them, until the Pats lost. That wasn't so good. The adventure was worth it though. The bar was really crowded and everyone was having a good time. Maybe we will go back sometime.

Welcome to Ireland

Wed. Jan 12, 2011 -
As my airplane began its descent into Dublin Airport, it started to hit me that once this plane landed, I would not be going back to the US for quite some time. For one small second I started wishing that the plane wouldn't land, but instead turn around and head back to what I already know. My initial thoughts were that I wasn't going to be seeing my friends and family for what seemed like forever, and wasn't so sure if I was ready for that. The uneasy feeling soon subsided and I was overtaken with adrenaline. I couldn't wait to get through customs and out of the airport to see what Ireland actually looked like.
A faculty member of Champlain College Dublin, Stephan Robinson, had been waiting for us in the terminal. He explained that we were going to be taking cabs back to our apartments and led us outdoors. To my pleasant surprise it was not raining, like I had expected. It was still only about 9 am but it looked like it was going to be a nice day. Much warmer than the large snow storm we had barely avoided in New York.
A taxi pulled over and four of us accompanied by our large suitcases hopped into the back of a van. The driver was very friendly and seemed genuinely interested in why we were in Ireland. He had a great sense of humor and made sure to point us in the direction of a few pubs he recommended. As I was looking out the fogged up window, it was hard for me to adjust to the way it looked. Cars were passing us on the wrong side and it seemed as though everything was upside down and ass backwards. It didn't help that the driver seemed to be going about 10 mph faster than he should have been on the narrow streets busy with traffic and pedestrians. I was right, the driver slammed on his brakes and not knowing what was going on I turned my attention away from the beautiful buildings and toward to woman who was now laying halfway on the sidewalk and halfway on the street. We had hit her! Thankfully, she was not hurt and got right up and continued walking like nothing had even happened. Hence, lesson #1 be verrrrrry careful when crossing the street because unlike the US pedestrians do NOT have the right of way and the people drive like ass holes. haha.
Finally, we made it back to our apartment building. We were met outside by our Head resident, Claire. She gave us our keys and sent us on up to our rooms to unpack and get settled. The rest of the day was ours to do as we wished. Amber and I being very jet lagged opted to stay in so that we could rest and be ready to adventure the following day.

Thurs. Jan 13, 2011-
Today is the day we get to explore! The entire group of 40-something students met up and walked over to our academic centre, which is a convenient 30 minute walk away from our apartment. ugghh. The walk seemed to take forever. Once we got there we met Lilly another faculty member of the CC Dublin section. Stephan talked us through the orientation, mostly telling us what to expect and the plan for the semester.
After a few hours and lunch they set us up in groups and sent us on a scavenger hunt around the city. This was interesting because Dublin is very large and it gave us a chance to really get out there and see what it has to offer. After getting very mixed up with directions, my group found ourselves looking at a statue of a woman with a wheelbarrow, hoping it was one of the items to cross off our list.It wasn't. Although it wasn't a waste to check it out either. The man sitting at the base of the statue quickly caught our attention. He was sitting with a woman who was playing the Bodhran, and Irish drum. The older man was very sweet and explained to us that the woman was Molly Malone, then he proceeded to sing us the classic Irish song "Molly Malone" that was written about this woman. After he sang to us, he turned on his speaker to play us a different song, this jig had no words, was much faster paced and seemed to be seriously Irish. The man began dancing and held out his hands for someone to join him. A few girls shyly declined and when he reached for my hands my first instinct was to back away as well. But, this was an opportunity to break out of my shell and try something I normally wouldn't. As this whole Study Abroad experience for me is about trying to become more confident and enjoy the cultures of other places, I had to join him. <- Photo Credit : Kaisa Jarrell. Before I knew it we were holding hands and he was leading me in circles and swirling me around. I had absolutely no idea what I was doing, but it was so much fun and I would do it again if I had the chance.
Later that night Champlain decided to buy us all dinner. We went to a fancy restaurant that attracts a lot of attention in Dublin, called the Church. It was huge and beautiful on the inside and out. They had reserved the entire downstairs for our group. It was nice for us to be able to relax altogether after a long day of walking around Dublin. It was there that I had my first legal alcoholic drink in Ireland. =) After dinner a smaller group of myself and friends went to a pub for some more drinks. We ended up at a place called the Pale. It was a small pub and besides us there were only 2 or 3 other people. Nonetheless it was a good time. It is close to the apartment, the drinks are cheaper than other pubs (5 euro long islands! hell yeah!), and the staff was very enjoyable. It is likely that this will become our regular spot. The girl Aimee who works there was really funny. She thought we were crazy, or "mad" for taking shots. I guess that the Irish mostly stick to their beers and cocktails, not so much straight liquor like all of us Champlain students are programmed into liking. After feeling pretty good at the Pale it was time to head back to the apartment to rest up, because Friday was going to be filled with just as much excitement. By now I am beginning to pick up on the accent a bit. We have noticed that everyone, whether they have an accent or not, says Ireland like they are replacing the 'a' with a 'u'.. and many other things.

Fri. Jan 14, 2011-
The alarm sounded and I dreaded to get up. Maybe all of those drinks were not as necessary as I had thought? Actually, I take that back, yes they were. We were all up and ready to go bright and early. We had to be at the academic centre at half of 8(8:30.. picking up on the lingo :p) so we had to leave by 8. They fed us breakfast, blabbered on about boring stuff like what the classes were going to be like because unfortunately we do have to take some, fed us lunch, and then we were off to see some more great things. We headed toward the train station or the DART (Dublin Area Rapid Transit). From there we were heading North to small coast side village called Howth. Steve, Lilly, and Claire (faculty) went with us but once we arrived they told us we were on our own to do what we please and we were responsible to get ourselves home by 6 so we could all go out to dinner again.
First of all Howth was gorgeous. Just as we arrived a beautiful rainbow covered the sky. The first rainbow we had all witnessed here. Unfortunately I didn't get a pic of it. A small group of us decided to hike the mountain to see what we could find. About half way up the sky grew very dark. In the distance we could see the rain coming in across the Irish Sea. Within minutes we were all soaked. It was pouring buckets and terribly windy. Half of the group decided they were going to ditch the rain and hit a pub, but the rest of us were determined to get to the top. We figured the rain would pass shortly anyway. We continued hiking up stairs the were built into the landscape and long dirt trails until we came to a a point that flattened out. The rain had stopped. The sky was clear and the sun was peaking through. We were not satisfied yet though. We saw a peak higher up and set that as our destination. It was not easy to get to. We basically had to rock climb to make it up and with every step I became more worried about just how we were going to make it down! Once we made it up the view was worth the trouble. About 3/4 of the way around was ocean and the other 1/4 was green hills. It was breath taking. I couldn't believe how beautiful Ireland was. Howth is just outside of the city and yet it is so so different. This is just the beginning, seeing the view from their made me so much more anxious to see what else this country has in store. After making it down safely we stopped by the beach where we found a dog who was lost. We named him Retarlo and he was a sweetie. He followed us around for a good while, then we had to part ways at the pub. We bought a round of drinks and laughed hysterically about the "lava" we had found. We made it back to the city just in time to head to dinner with the rest of the students. We went to the Dandelion to eat and there we were met by a few of our professors so that we could mingle and get to know them. When dinner was over our group made our way to the Pale for another night of drinks and craic (means fun but pronounced "crack" that's why we have such fun with the word; hence the title). We are all slowly becoming more comfortable with one another, as some of us in the group really did not know each other before coming to Ireland.