A little bit of everything

Hello Family and Friends,

So I told myself I was going to start a blog while I was in Dublin so everyone could see what I am up to. I've been here nearly a week and I feel like I should get started on it!

Today is Tuesday, which means I have no classes today! Hooray!

I flew out of Logan International Airport in Boston last Tuesday at 6:30 pm and arrived in Dublin just before 5:30 am. After going through customs, myself and 9 other students I am living and learning with found our bags and met Stephen, our program director/ science teacher. Stephen set us all up in taxis to get back to our apartments which are located on the south side of the River Liffey, which cuts Dublin into two halves. We live just around the corner from the Brazen Head, Dublin's oldest pub and Christ's Church, a major landmark.

My roommates in Dublin are all great girls I go to school with. Here's a picture of us on our first night. From left: Emma, Kate, Casey and Me!

The next morning we met with Claire, our head resident, who took us to breakfast and to a grocery store then downtown to set up our cellphones, provided by Champlain College so we don't get lost! We had the rest of the day to ourselves and were able to unpack.

We were invited to a dinner that evening to meet some of our teachers, though since the trains were not running due to inclimate weather not everyone could make it. All of them are professionals in their fields and work in addition to teaching. Most of them live within an hour of the city!

Later in the night was a fellow student's birthday so we found a local pub near our house and took her out for a few drinks. There was a great band playing and the bartender seemed entertained by us all.

On day 2.5 we met up with Stephen again and Lilly, who does far too many things to list here but she orders things we need or want like desks and yoga mats. She picks up our mail and makes us breakfast sometimes. She also does a lot of planning for field trips that are required by our classes and helps us find the best deals on flights or train tickets, even where to rent bikes and the best places for picnics. Really, she does everything.

We spent most of day 2.5 going over policies and asking tons of questions and getting lots of helpful information. As one of the two Resident Assistants in Dublin we were also given some information about when we would be expected to be available and at the academic center.

After our session with Stephen and Lilly we got to take a walking tour of historic Dublin, which we actually live right in the middle of! Our tour guide was a cute Irishman named Patrick, who showed us the old city wall and how the streets we walk on now used to be a moat! He also explained that Lord Iveagh, a member of the Guinness family, was very philanthropic and helped to build the neighborhood after it was destroyed.

Here is a picture of him carved onto the outside of the fish and clothing market:

Patrick also had Katherine volunteer to pronounce the Gaelic street names, she got a few right but we all got a laugh out of it!

Here they are together:

Then Patrick took us inside the old city wall to Dublin Castle, which is beautiful and old and rich with history. He told us about the Queen's quarters and the plays they used to put on for her there. He also showed us where the soldiers slept and where they put the enemies heads on stakes to warn everyone. Lovely. Patrick also told us how Dublin got its name. By the coach house at Dublin Castle there used to be a great pool of water that after being filled with, let's call it "stuff", scraps of food, dead animals etc became black. In Gaelic 'black pool' is "Dubh Linn" and that is how the city, and this blog, came to be named.

This is a picture of the chapel at Dublin Castle:

That evening several of us went to the Brazen Head with Claire for a pint and met a few new friends who showed us a great dance club called Copper's Face Jacks. We danced and sang and laughed and met even more new people and lost track of time until the club closed at 3am!

We were up the next morning to go to Howth, which is not quite an island, just off the coast of Dublin to the north a bit. But Dublin had just experienced more snowfall than it had seen in almost 40 years (a whopping 2 inches!) Stephen felt that taking a group of students to an island of cliffs that were now covered in ice was probably not the safest idea.

So instead we went here:

To the Guinness Brewery at St. James' Gate not a far walk from our house.

The tour is self guided so we were able to take our time wandering up the 6 floors through the tasting lab, where you are taught to probably experience Guinness. The building itself is shaped like a pint glass through the center, starting with the smallest floor on the bottom and gradually building up.

This is a picture of me on the first floor learning about hops and how it grows:

The second and third floors explain the brewing and fermentation processes while the fourth explains how and where it travels. The fifth floor is dedicated to the history of Guinness advertising and the sixth floor has a small restaurant and an area where you can leave a message for people to read and read messages others have left. On one wall there is a giant quote that says: "Home is not where you live, but where they understand you."

After the 6th floor you ascend one final staircase to the Gravity Bar where you can enjoy a 360 degree view of Dublin, the mountains outside the city, Howth and even a small bird sanctuary I am dying to visit! Stephen pointed out everything he could to show us and the bar mistress was shocked that we had just come from a place (Burlington) where there were 30+ inches of snow!

Here is Stephen, Lily and myself enjoying our pints of Guinness right from the brewery, which is honestly the only time I have really enjoyed it:

After all of this adventuring we were so exhausted and finally able to rest on Sunday, but we managed to get up anyways and go shopping downtown where they have some great deals on Henry Street. Sunday night we relaxed and had a small dinner before turning in early for classes on Monday (I'm serious).

Monday was the beginning of classes for me and I got to meet my Northern Ireland history teacher. A woman named Kelliann Nic Maoileoin. But we just call her Kelli (thankfully). She is from Cork, and has been an archeologist for 30 years. The class is almost 3 hours long but we spent the last 40 minutes taking notes on the best and worst pubs in Dublin. I think I'm really going to enjoy this class!

So, as you can see, Dublin has been quite a whirlwind so far but I love everything I see and can't wait to venture outside the city either for class or for pleasure.

My roommate Emma and I are discussing going to the Dublin Zoo this weekend and a friend of ours is taking the DART (Dublin Area Rapid Transit) to a place just north of the city to buy a guitar so I may join on for that day trip as well.

More to come, love you all!

Cheers!

Annie