Day 14: Classes, more papers and...

Hey Hey,
so this week is a bit busy with getting things organized for upcoming trips or working on our papers so that we can have them handed in on time and completed with time to do other fun things. Today (wednesday) was not too exciting besides working on our papers. :( sorry guys! Plus right now it is pretty much friday morning and I am exhausted and much more exciting things happened.. well.. yesterday that I want to tell you about!

Day 13: classes, papers and the outsiders

Hey guys,
So tuesday was a pretty good, but slightly busy day. It seems to be getting increasinly hard to wake up in the morning. But anyways. There were more classes of literature and economics that was pretty interesting. But even better than that was getting to work on our PAPERS woohoo. Time to start the second paper. Out of 1000 words on traditional irish music I got a little over 600 done! yeah baby!

So that is what we spent the most of our day in classes and then doing research nd preparing out paper. It was smarter to just stay on this side of town because we were going to a performance a little later that night. We went to see the performance that is a one man show by David McWilliams. It was called "outsiders" and it was on the Peacock stage of the Abbey Theatre. It was very interesting, disucssing the main points of the Irish economy and how it has suffered and what really needs to be done to fix it. I thought one very interesting part of that was the discussion at times of how America was so great and had such a great economy and he seemed to put us up on a pedistal at times. But ironically, right now we are not having a great time with our economy and are in lots of debts, not able to get loans from other countries for our debt and all sorts of other messes. But that was just my opinion on it, the Irish may have their own opinion on America, or maybe they do not understand everything that is going on there. Overall, I thought it was a good time and good performance, although a bit long to be cooped up in a hot room without an intermission or anything.

Write more soon! Hope you are doing well. Love and miss you all

Day 12: A new week of classes, Missing Dunkin Donuts and JR's, with a movie called His and Hers to top the night off

Hey everyone,
Phew, I am trying to catch up on my posts! It is hard work trying to keep you all informed of how everything is going so I hope you appreciate it ;) Just kidding I know you all do!

So Today we got to turn in our first paper: Irish History. Mine was about how "Celtic" Ireland is truly today. Pretty interesting, but needless to say I am glad I have one down and only 5 more to go! haha! Classes were very interesting today with Irish History and Politics. But I won't bore you with that. Instead I will tell you how I am missing my Dunkin Donuts and JR. Shack!

As some of you know (amy, mollee, oxana, mom, dad, donny and I am sure a lot more of you) I have grown to LOVE my coffee. And as Amy reminded me when I was telling her how much I missed Dunkin Donuts, "America Runs on Dunkin" and well I know that Samantha Runs on Dunkin!!! By the way, a funny little fact for you. Not only do they NOT have Dunkin Donuts here, but they dont have ANY ICED COFFEE. What is wrong with this world. And if you do want any you have to go to a Starbucks, and starbucks iced coffee can just not compare with DD's. We were trying to figure out why this is and we cam to the conclusion that Ice is a precious commodity over here. They don't put it in a lot of your drinks, at McDonalds (which when we got a little lost yesterday we stopped at, i know i know, terrible) they give you warm water and have to put ice in it. They dont have Ice water... (P.s. at mcdonalds here they also do not have SWEET TEA. I think the world is just against me).

But I will stop my rambling and being the "Ugly American" but hey, can you blame me, those are precious items!
On a different note, our Irish History professor today suggested that we go see this movie called "His and Hers" It was similar to a documentary created by people from the Irish Midlands with all women from the Irish Midlands. It took you through all ages and stages of life. And shows women's relationships with the men in her life, whether it be her boyfriend, father or son. It began with the quote “A man loves his girlfriend the most, his wife the best, but his mother the longest.” Old Irish Proverb. It was really very emotional and a moving love story. It started with young girls talking about their fathers and having to clean their rooms or do chores, going into boyfriends and marriages, then into older love, to widowing and cancer, and after being a widow for many years. It was hard to sit there without having a good laugh, some tears and feeling overall moved by the stories of these women that you feel you can relate with. I have to say that you all should see this, even males because my Irish professor was a male and he said it showed best the true Irish Midlands with honest accents and stories. I fell in love with it!

Well now that I just built that up some much, everything else that I have to say about my night of sitting in bed and writing this to you seems pointless. Love you and miss you all! Sleep tight don't let the bed bugs bite! Nighty Night

Day 11: Gaelic Football

Sunday was a lazier day than some. We got up at our own pace and had a relaxing morning working on papers and just getting ready for the week. In the afternoon we went to go see a Gaelic Football Match. That was pretty cool. This picture here is of Dublins Team. The first game was Dublin vs. Meath and Meath won (needless to say being at a field in Dublin, it was not a happy ending). Then the second game was West Meath vs. Louth and Louth won.

This is a picture of the guys playing. So we figured that Gaelic football is pretty much a mish mosh of every sport there is. At times it is soccer, a little football, i swear they have some volleyball the way they are passing. All that and probably more mixed up with aggressiveness makes for an interesting sport.

And of course I had to get my picture taken. How many times am I going to get to see a Gaelic Football match.. ???

This is Megan and I, one of my roomates, looking lovely at the stadium. By the way we found out there were about 60,000 people there that day. CRAZYNESS. When we were just walking to the stadium we thought there was NO way we were ever going to actually get tickets. But surprisingly enough, we managed to and thank goodness because that was an awesome time!

Day 10: Saturday of Shopping, relaxation and world cup!

Hello everyone!

Saturday was a pretty nice day. We all slept in and then decided to go and check out the Temple Bar Market. Turns out that unfortunately it is not much of a market. Much misrepresentation about that because when I read about it online it said there was a lot of foods, cheeses, bread, and all sorts of other yummy stuff. But when we got there, there were only a couple of book seller stands and that was it. So after exploring to make sure we didn't miss the actual market, which we didn't, we went to a store called Dunnes. They have kind of cheap clothing there and we shopped around for a bit. I got a cute shirt, leggings and some sunglasses because it has been unreasonably sunny for Dublin!

Then we continued around the shopping center (Dunnes was located in St. Stevens Green Shopping Center) and just window shopped to see if we could find anything else. We did come across a store they have here called TK Max. We decided we had to check it out to see if it was just like TJ Max back home, and it was. Funny how they change the names up. Then we started to get hungry so we just decided to stop and get a little ice cream cone (a 99, soooo good) because it was late afternoon and we figured we would just eat real food later.

After the 99 it was time to go back and relax, work on our papers and other things and then go out to watch U.S. vs. Ghana in the World Cup. We went to a cute little pub/bar and had some Chips (fries) and nachos while watching the game on a projector. Unfortunately, the U.S. lost :( too bad. So now it was about 10pm here and we decided no going out for the night that everyone needed to work on their papers more and get other stuff done. So it was a relaxing evening for me :)
Love and miss you all!

Day 9: Paper writing, delicious lunch/dinner and Temple Bar

So the morning started off with heading to the library to do a little more research and finish up most of my Irish History paper due monday! woohoo almost one paper down. Then I got to go to a delicious lunch/earrrrly dinner at an Italian restaurant. But we didnt get in there until about 2:15 and the people sat us and we realized it was a relatively higher scale restaurant. Then we realized the kitchen was closing but they still said we could stay. We had no idea what time they really closed at, needless to say everything took so long between salad meal dessert and everything that we didnt leave until around 4 and the place closed at 2:30. haha oh man.

Then it was time to get ready to go out for the night and mingle with some of the locals in the Temple bar area of Dublin. It is really nice there are all sorts of pubs and bars all along this one area competing for your business and all of them packed.
This picture was from when we were walking from pub to pub and I am pretty sure that we visited like at least 5 different places throughout the night. Made the mistakes of walking into some places that were more of an older crowd and it was really awkward walking in so we just left. But this outdoor place at cool lights up so I stopped to get in a picture.

This one is from an 80's bar called Madonna's. It was awesome there. We met 5 Scottsmen in proper kilts and of course we had to take a picture. Lucky for us the picture initated conversation and a fun night of getting to know some new people.

This is from Madonna's as well, we are pretty sure if we understood right all the ladies were dressed up in different superhero costumes (which are hard to see here) for a bachelorette party! Go ladies! And that guy in the front. Dont know who he is he just hopped in on the picture!

This picture is me with one of the scottish guys and he let me wear his hat. Apparently it was a hat that his grandfather wore and I think he said he wore the hat in war and fighting and other things. Very cool, I am glad I got the honor. It was a really fun night and meeting all sorts of new people kept it so interesting!

Day 8: Classes and the Docklands

So, I decided to make two separate posts for the days because last night I was much too tired. Yesterday we went to the Docklands which is just a different part of Dublin. It was a part that was formerly known and not a very nice place to live but has been worked on since the Celtic Tiger (a big economic boom here) and had many projects to change the appearance here. The first picture is of the "harp" bridge. I don't know what its real name is off the top of my head but it was pretty cool!

Then this was another one of the projects to reinvent the area. We got to listen to a talk by one of the women that works for the Docklands and worked on all these different buildings and it was pretty interesting. Although now, not a lot of the recently planned buildings and sculptures are being followed through with because the Celtic tiger has gone and the economy is in a bit of trouble.

This next one is the "red sticks" also known as the red carpet. It lights up at night and looks kind of like a red carpet. And behind that is a big theater that does all sorts of different plays and stuff.

This was after the Docklands and on our way to class. We saw this man from behind at first and were so confused and then realized what was going on. Oh what people do on the streets to get money. There are always people out there either singing or carving dogs out of sand. lots of interesting things

This was more a picture for my mom. I figured she like I would appreciate a shop like this. Oh trinkets and things, it was so pretty. Just had to get a snapshot of it!

Day 7: Classes, classes, classes, then Riverdance

Hey guys, Sorry I never got to post anything yesterday! I didn't get back until really late and hey I figured better late than never. There would just be more stuff for everyone to read today! :)

By the way: the first two pictures are of my bedroom here. Quite small but I actually don't mind it! and yes, there is a sink in my bedroom!

So Day 7 was Wednesday

and that involved some Irish Peace and Conflict Lecturing and then an E-portfolio class lecture. The e-portfolio is another one of our requirements for classes here. Overall we have six sections of classes and a paper of 1000-1500 words for each. And then also we have an e-portfolio to do for each of the six sections. This means we have to find something interesting to us whether it is going to the National Library and looking at the Yeats Exhibition that is going on now or the Bog Bodies right next to the National Library or many other things, each one related more specifically to each of the class sections. And then we neext to research the topic that we are doing and provide some feedback on our reactions to it and a little research on the actual subject. This only has to be about 300 words and just has to be done before the end of the term here in Dublin. It is actually kind of cool I think. Then we will be able to take all the stuff that we post onto our e-portfolio and make a website out of it!

Well enough about classes, I mean it is called study abroad but it should really be called experience abroad! You know, it is more than just studying it is about first hand learning about a new place and getting to see the culture, having a bit of culture shock, learning things about yourself just all sorts of experiences. Later on wednesday night we got to go to the opening performance of Riverdance at the Gaiety Theater! So cool, I wanted to break out in dance right there! There was also this one section of it that had American Tap Dancing vs. the Irish Step Dancing supposedly from a time when they had recently come to America and it was quite entertaining. Loved the whole thing. After that we spent a little time at the Pav (the pavillion- a place with cheap beer attracting students, on trinitys campus) and then went to another live music pub, which was really great. We got to listen to a couple different groups or individuals get up there and jam out.

On the way to the Pav, there is a classic piece of artwork based off of Molly Mallone ( i think) and she is nicknamed the Tart with the Cart. How lovely. Well of COURSE i had to get my picture taken with her!

Oh well I am so tired it is un-be-lieveable! I am going to have to Finish writing about Day 8 tomorrow. Sleep Tight everyone, I know I will!

Day 6: Second Day of Classes

So, after having a relaxing evening last night it made today go by a little bit easier without as much tiredness. I think that the jet lag is all gone the only terrible thing I think that I have come across is possibly caffeine withdrawl. Terrible sounding I know! I never really thought that I drank a lot of caffeine but I cannot come up with anything else to explain my afternoon headache.

But anyways, today was Anglo-Irish Literature and that was very interesting although, our teacher had to wisper because she was losing her voice so that made it a bit interesting. Then we had Irish Economics. I thought that the economics was going to be very interesting but it was much different than i expected... even though I am not sure what I expected. I have taken micro and macro economics before and neither were too tough for me, but both very interesting. This class seemed to be a mixture of history, politics and the economic ups and downs of Ireland.

I think that up until this class I never realized how much I didn't know about certain topics even after living in the states I may have not been exposed to them as much when it comes to religious issues or some of the information on wars involving the U.S. ( I was never really one for history). But the classes overall were very interesting.

As we all joked, for Ireland being such a "green" place they certainly gave us A LOT of handouts for classes. I think i have a whole book to bring back with me. I don't know what I am going to do with all of it after this.

But anyways, after that we came back to the apartment to relax a bit and then took a stroll to Phoenix Park which is about a 15 min walk from our place. It unfortunately was not as sunny as yesterday this afternoon, but it was good out there for about an hour and then we decided to call it a night. We came back, made some dinner and now it is time to catch up on school work. I already have a paper due monday and one due next friday! wow!

Wish me luck!

-Samantha

Day Five: First Day of Classes

Ello ello!

So today was not anything to exciting, but it was the first day of classes. Today we had Irish History and Irish Politics! woohoo. The history class was very exciting getting to learn about the beginning of the culture here between the celts and the vikings! quite interesting. I also got to learn a little bit about my history (well really only how to say the last name in irish but still) about my possible link to ireland. MacDonald is the last name that I remember being linked to Ireland but I am not totally sure. I think how you spell/say it in Irish is Mac Donail (son of donald?) But I am going to double check that tonight after mom sends me the family tree!! (DONT FORGET MOM!)

Then it was a break for lunch and I got some delicious tortellini from a little cafe on a side street. Then with a full belly and lots of sun from lunch it was hard to stay awake in the politics class. Although once I finally regained consciousness it was quite interesting. And lets just say there is lots to learn in that class. I don't know how I am going to do it!

Well for me it is time for bed once again so I can be fully awake in my studies tomorrow! Sleep tight everyone!

Love and miss you all

Day Four: Lost in Howth!

Well it is good evening for you and definitely good night for me. It is way past my bed time at around 11:35 pm here. Especially after a long day of hiking up a mountainside at Howth in Ireland. Phew, but that was not all of our day.

Today started out a little later than the others because we all decided we needed to sleep in a bit! So around 10:30 we headed out to town and picked up where we left off on the 24 hour tour bus. We decided to take it around once more so we could better orient ourselves of everything in Dublin. This way we could go back and see some of the sights later, as some of them were better for rainy days. I mentioned in the last blog most of the places that the bus took us so I will not go through that again. But after we took the 1 1/2 hour loop around Dublin we got off nearest to where we were going to take the train to Howth. Unfortunately, three of us girls walked to the wrong station first and then had to hoof it back to the right one in ten minutes. No worries though, we made it on time :)
Then we actually took the DART train to Howth and first saw the small marketplace they had there and I personally got a delicious nutella and banana crepe from the stand. It was YUUUUMMMYY and really filling. Then it was time to go and feed some seals. I did not put any pictures of them up here but they were fat as all get out because the sit up near the shore area similar to the photo to the left, and wait for people to throw buckets of fish down at them. Lazy seals! But it is quite neat, one of them knows how to wave and flap its flipper to you. As you can imagine that one is a bit plumper because people throw more fish at it so it will wave. Too bad the other seals didn't learn the tricks!
Then we started on our gorgeous hike up the mountainside. You can see some of this in the two pictures of the scenery below. Let me just say, from down near the pier where we were, it did not look as intense as it was. But like the pictures show, there were plenty of cliffs and one wrong step and you were goin in! So if you look at the map that is the first picture you can see the whole area of Howth. I am going to try and upload another one with our almost exact route on it (which will probably be nearly impossible because we dont even know what route we took for the second half of the hike). Well thanks to Genevive our nice tour guide for the day. She took us to the Summit, which is labeled on the map and from there on, six of us wanted to continue down the mountainside on our own and make some stops at other really interesting places along it. Genevive and one of the other students (Ilana) decided to head back straight down the mountain and make it back to the six thirty train back to Dublin. Needless to say we started around 3 on the hike and they were only heading off around 5:45 or so.
As we continued on we thought we knew where we were going. But soon found that our map was TERRIBLE. Massively terrible and did not show all of the trails or roads or anything! Most of what we were trying to achieve on our way down was lost! We wound up going too far down then hiked back uphill a little on different paths, got send in different directions by people that supposedly knew what they were talking about. Turned off the right path and found the other one lead to a golf course so we decided to make some history with our names carved into a tree. Then tried to get back on the right path, but god knows where we even were at this point. We thought we found the Rodadendron trees (however you spell it) but apparently we were still wrong and took the wrong path still. This lead has half way across the OTHER side of the mountain and at this point there was no turning back.
We finally got off the trail after crossing over a golf course and being able to see where we wanted to go miles and miles away and where we were when we were coming IN on the train from the trail! But alas, we made it to the castle that we wanted to get too. And at this point of it being almost 7:45 I don't think any of us cared! We finally (with some help of smarter locals ;)) made it back to the train station and got on the first train back into Dublin Finally getting home to our apartments (after another 3o min walk) at 9:30! Lets just say, I am now going to get off the computer and go to bed. See you tomorrow!

Day Three

Today was a mixture of getting up early and mainly exploring. We got to see st. sevens green again, and were down in that area of the city stopping to find another pretty park called Iveagh Gardens. After stopped to get lunch in a small little nook bar/pub (that is what most of the restaurants are here, either bars, pubs, or cafes). Then we met up with the whole group (all 7 of us) and got a 24hour pass hop on hop off bus tour!

That was pretty nice because we got to get a better sense of where everything is in the city! Some of the places we got to see on that was trinity, Nassau street, temple bar, Dublin castle, st patricks cathedral, Guinness Storehouse, Museaum of Modern Art, Old jameson Distillery, the Liffey River Cruise and other cool things. It pretty much went all around different parts of Dublin.

Then we got off and went to the Street Performance World Championship. That was really interesting I got some videos of a guys throwing flames, knives and other cool stuff. It was a pretty neat thing to see. Then we traveled all across Dublin and found the markets and stopped there to pick up some veggies for dinner and walked all the way back to our apartments and rested a little. Then it was time for dinner and we made pasta with onions and peppers and it was delicious.

Today was a LOT of walking. Apparently that is more of the Dublin lifestyle and it is really nice, but you have to get used to it. It is even more walking that in Philly and definitely more than in CT.

Overall I am loving it and am getting to know my way around pretty well! Love you and miss you all!

First Real Day

Hey everyone!

WARNING (not all of these pictures were from this day some are from day three was well, I just messed up! )

So it was my first real day here yesterday, it is Saturday morning now, and it was busy but a lot of fun. Yesterday we had orientation all day pretty much but had some time to search around during lunch and after dinner. So I met lots of ppl yesterday that are going to be around to help us out between the study abroad coordinator in Dublin, Elizabeth, to the guy that can help us do pretty much everything that we want, Tony, the IT guys including Eddy and lots of other people!

during a break we got to go to one of the great coffee and tea places because as you could imagine we were all practically falling asleep before lunchtime and I got the most beautiful latte, I will put up a picture! Another girls was a Swan! What a piece of art.

Then there was more lecturing and then it was lunchtime! We got to walk around and see what there was near us and we decided to go to Peters Pub and pick up something cheap. I got this tuna and mayo sandwich on brown bread that was delicious. Oh and I forgot to mention the crisps over here (aka chips) are sooo different, mine were malt vinegar and sea salt I believe or they have onion and cheese. De-licious! Then there was more talking and orientation stuff, booked our flights over to London and went out to a lovely dinner at Odessa.

Odessa I got some awesome duck for dinner, my first duck ever! Then we wandered around to walk off a giant dinner for about two hours. Came back to the apartments, picked everyone else up that had to take their missing luggage back, and then went out to a local pub to get a taste for the atmosphere here.

Overall it was a good day and exploring was definitely the best part!

FIrst Day and I am exhausted

Top of the morning to ya!

well really it is my bed time here in Dublin, London and it is only about 6pm over there in the states. I got in with my flight pretty much on time and didn't have too much of a hassle getting through customs and immigration and everything so that was grrreat! I am soo tired because I could unfortunately barely fall asleep on the plane :( yuck but i did get to see parts of Avatar and Leap Year because sleep was nearly impossible. But i know I will make up for it tonight.

Today we pretty much just got settled in to our rooms and then got a mini tour of the city to see where to do some grocery shopping, good local restaurants, pubs, clothing shopping, and other necessities. That was pretty much the whole day and then we went to an early dinner at a restaurant and bar called "the church" haha of course they would call someplace here that. It apparently used to actually be an old church, now turned into bar, but the fish and chips I got were de-lish!!!

Ok well that is enough for now. I am so tired I need to make sure I can get up in the morning for our orientation! Grand!

-Samantha

Pre-Departure

Hello Everyone,

So I have not actually left for Dublin and in five weeks London, but oh how much fun packing is. How are you ever supposed to know exactly what you are going to need, condensed into two suitcases, for three months worth of traveling, school and whatever other exploring I will be doing. Nearly impossible.

Well I am positive that it is going to be a blast going to Dublin for the first time ever and going back to London. This time I will really get to explore and have a better feeling and even more amazing experience!

Can't wait I will be off in about 22 hours!

-Samantha