Dublin Days 1 and 2

After two five-and-a-half hour plane rides, a 50 minute bus ride, and a 20 minute walk, I finally made it to UCD on Monday morning. I've been really busy since I got here, and I can't believe I've only been here for two full days! I haven't gotten the chance to explore Dublin much, but I really like what I've seen so far, I've met some great people, and I can tell I'm really going to enjoy this semester.

When I arrived on Monday morning, I checked into my apartment. Housing here is very different from housing at BC. There are several living areas, and each one is made up of different "houses." In each house, there are apartments, and in each apartment there are rooms for up to 6 people. My living area is called Belgrove, and when I told the RA who checked me in that that's where I'm living, he laughed. Belgrove isn't known for being the nicest living area, and I was a little nervous when I arrived in my apartment and discovered that the shower doesn't turn on and that there were mouse droppings on the kitchen floor. On the bright side, I have a single room and two other roommates (whom I have yet to meet), and we have a kitchen and bathroom that we all share. The kitchen has pots, pans, and dishes, which I'm excited about because so far, I have not been impressed with the food here.

Grafton Street! 

After I checked into my apartment and unpacked, some UCD students took a group of international students to Grafton Street to get things like bedding, towels, adapters for electronics, and other things that we couldn't bring with us from home. Grafton Street is kind of like the Newbury Street equivalent of Dublin, only much cooler. It's about as wide as a one-way street, but cars don't drive on it; the ground is made of bricks and everyone walks along the sidewalks and in the middle of the road. All of the buildings are very stereotypically Irish-looking, there are street vendors selling flowers, and musicians playing Irish instruments line the sidewalks. It really hit me that I'm in Dublin when I walked along Grafton street for the first time. I would overhear people around me speaking and think to myself, "how cool; they have Irish accents!" But then I realized that I'm the one with the accent because I'm finally in Ireland!

Irish accents are much more difficult to understand than I thought they would be. We had to stop a few times to ask someone for directions to the bus stop, and I literally had no idea what anyone said. This is giving me a new appreciation for people who come to America from other countries; if I'm having so much trouble understanding people who speak the same language as I do, I can't imagine being in a place where the language is completely different. Besides the accents, using the euro is the other biggest difference about living in Ireland. There are 1 and 2 euro coins, but not 1 and 2 euro bills. Euros are different shades of blue and pink, and since they can't get me anything in America, I've always viewed euros as a novelty. I almost accidentally spit my gum into a 5 euro yesterday because I thought it was a receipt.

I've spent most of my time the past two days with other people from BC and some girls from Mount Holyoke we met at the airport. It's really nice having people here who are in the same position as I am and are learning their way around here too. The first night we all went to a pub for dinner (and no, I did not have any Guinness - I thought about it but it looked like a frothy version of watered-down chocolate milk, so I decided against it). Last night some of them came to my apartment and we cooked dinner together. I can tell I'm going to become good friends with a lot of these people, and I can't wait to meet some Irish students!

We haven't had any formal introductions to UCD or anything yet, so all of us have been working together to find places to do things like open bank accounts and get bus passes. Yesterday we signed up for the International Student Society and the Erasmus Student Network, which are clubs for international students that sponsor things like walking tours of Dublin, pub crawls, and weekend trips to places around Ireland. All of the Irish students in the international student office were really friendly and helpful (like pretty much all of the other Irish people I've met). Orientation begins later this afternoon, and I'm excited that things are hopefully going to be more organized. It's been fun trying to figure things out on my own, but hopefully this will answer some more of my questions and make things a little bit easier.