Annie and the Chocolate Factory

This week I stayed in Dublin and got the chance to cross a few things off my "Dublin bucket list." I have a little less than a month here, and I can't believe how quickly the semester has gone!

Leinster House

On Thursday I went on a tour of the Dail (pronounced like "doll"), which is the lower houses of the Irish Parliament and is located in the Leinster House in Dublin. I went with my BC class, and we got a private tour from one of the security guards. He showed us around the different chambers, and we even got to meet a senator! She was there when we walked in, shook all of our hands, and in typical Irish fashion, said, "You're all very welcome to the Dail." We weren't allowed to take pictures inside the Leinster House, which was a shame because it was beautiful. In the Senate chamber, there are chandeliers made from Waterford crystals, and the entryway has very ornate gold-leaf patterns covering the walls and ceilings. I've been doing my best to keep up with Irish politics since coming here, and seeing the Leinster House and learning about how the Irish government works definitely makes everything I've been reading and watching on the news make a lot more sense. The lower houses of the Irish government are fairly similar to the bicameral legislature in America. The Dail is more akin to the U.S. House of Representatives; it has 166 members and is directly elected every five years under a proportional representation system. The Dail is seen as the most dominant branch, and it has the power to nominate the Taoiseach, which is the Prime Minister and pronounced like "tee-shock", approve the budget, approve declarations of war, and ratify treaties. The Seanad, or Senate, is also located at the Leinster House. Its powers are loosely modeled on those of the British House of Lords, and it is seen as the weakest branch of Irish government. There are 60 members of the Seanad, and they only have the power to delay the passage of bills; they cannot veto a bill outright. Senators are not directly elected, but rather appointed in a few different ways. Eleven are chosen directly by the Taoiseach, so the Taoiseach usually enjoys a majority since the Dail must approve his or her nomination. Ireland also has a president, a deputy prime minister, and a supreme court, so the way government works here isn't all that similar to how it works in America because there isn't the same separation of powers and system of checks and balances. After the tour, our teacher took us to a hotel across the street from the Leinster House for a drink with one of the members of the Dail. I couldn't decide what shocked me more: that BC paid for a pint for all of us, or that a politician joined us!

Friday got off to a great start as a friend and I toured the Butlers Chocolate Factory, which is about an hour from UCD by bus. Butlers has a few chocolate shops around Dublin and Europe in general, and their chocolate is amazing (but not as good as See's)! We watched a film about the history of chocolate, got to see a timeline of important events in chocolate's past, watched chocolate being made and workers decorating the handmade chocolates that Butlers sells, and of course, learned about the history of Butlers, which was founded in 1932 by Marion Butler. The highlight of the tour, though, was the copious amount of chocolate that we were given. We got to try white, milk, and dark chocolate, toffee fudge, milk chocolate truffles, and orange crunch truffles. At the end of the tour, we got to go to the "experience room," where they were playing the Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory movie soundtrack and we got to use melted white chocolate to "glue" chocolate decorations onto a giant milk chocolate bear!

As much fun as the Butlers Factory was, it was kind of hard to enjoy. After we had been there for about 10 minutes, my friend got an email on her phone from BC telling all students to stay inside because of safety issues connected to the Marathon bombings. During the entire tour, we weren't really paying attention because we were too busy trying to find a news article explaining what was going on and trying to text our friends at school to make sure they were okay. For this entire semester, I've never questioned my decision to come abroad, but on Friday all I wanted to do was go back to BC. I know it seems weird that I wanted to go back when all of this was going on, but I couldn't handle being so far away from my home and not knowing if everyone was safe. I felt almost guilty for being abroad. Why did I have the freedom to tour a chocolate factory, visit the Irish Parliament, and travel around Europe when my friends couldn't even leave their dorm rooms? It didn't make sense; it wasn't fair. And nobody here seemed to care. Nobody was talking about what was happening in Boston, and none of my roommates or other European students I know seemed to understand how afraid all of us from BC were. My friend and I spent the remainder of Friday watching the news and reading articles online, trying to make sense of all of this. I couldn't sleep until they announced that the police caught the suspect, and when that happened, I was overwhelmed with gratitude and relief. I've always loved going to BC and been so grateful to have the opportunity to go to school there, and I know I'll return in the fall with a deeper sense of appreciation than I ever had before. Boston is a beautiful, wonderful, and incredibly strong city, and I know it will be even more so after last week's events.



The rest of my weekend was very low key. On Saturday evening I went to mass at the chapel on campus, and today a friend and I went to Fixx Coffeehouse, which is our favorite Dublin coffee shop, to do homework. Fixx has a welcoming and relaxed atmosphere, baristas that draw pictures in the foam on your coffee, and, best of all, a free library! The walls in the back of the shop are lined with bookshelves, and they ask that if you take a book you either put one in its place or make a small donation. The last time I went I picked up a copy of Sherlock Holmes, and when I finished that, I put it back in exchange for a short story collection. Since classes at UCD aren't as rigorous as they are at BC, I've had a lot of time to read for pleasure, which has been awesome.

While last week was pretty laid back, albeit stressful, this week will be much busier. Tomorrow night is UCD's annual International Ball, which should be great craic (the Irish slang for "fun," pronounced like "crack"). I have a final essay due on Wednesday and a final exam on Thursday, which probably won't be too much craic, but that's okay because I have Barcelona to look forward to this weekend!