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.
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