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Published: January 12th 2011
Dublin01
river liffey early in the morning on first dayDublin so far!
So I arrived in Dublin about 5 days ago with my 2 gigantic suitcases and no clue where to go. I hopped on some bus and finally found my way to Trinity only to get lost several times within the new campus on my way to my apartment, still with my gigantic suitcases and on
cobble stone.
After a much needed nap and a bit of unpacking I started to explore. I only immediately needed bedding so I asked a local cop where I could find some. Not only did he help me find the cheapest he knew of but he walked me to the street the store was on so I wouldn't get lost! That's only been the beginning of the endless Irish hospitality.
After finding some food and my bedding, I managed to find my way back to Trinity for another much needed nap... that I woke up from at 7 pm the next day, oops!
During the few days I had still before orientation I continued to explore a lot on my own which really helped to understand the area. I've only been here five days and already I have a
Dublin02
me in front of the river liffey pretty good feel of the major roads and major places of interest. As I didn't know much about food yet though, most of my meals were sandwiches and coffee at the plentiful spars or centras (kind of like cvs except also with a cheap deli inside).
Orientation The first night of orientation was a pizza/wine meet and greet. The second day was full of tours of the campus, library, surrounding area, etc. followed by a literary pub crawl in the evening. They drink a lot here. At each pub there would be a different literary significance, for example James Joyce or Jonathan Swift, and everyone would get a drink. At the first pub I had my very first Bulmer's Irish Cider and have found my irish drink of choice!
During the next few days we've had intro to Ireland courses on various topics such as the Irish civil war, modern Irish history, Ireland economics, architecture, art, and so forth which has proven very handy as I didn't realize how little I actually knew. In between and after lectures though they've taken us on random trips such as the GAA where they play all their sports and have
Dublin03
ha'penny bridge, used to cost half a penny to cross a sporting museum, to a play, and on Friday they're taking us to a town called Glendalough!
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With respect to getting used to things, I definitely have my apartment almost finished. I have the bedding, a cell phone, hangers, and I finally found the grocery store 2 days ago so I've been cooking my own breakfasts (a lot of porridge, toast and marmalade, and looots of tea) and dinners (lots of cheap pasta and frozen meals haha). I know the roads a little bit but the most confusing thing so far is probably the names / pronunciations for everything. For example, the town glendalough is pronounced glen-duh-lock. And the name ciaran is keer-in. Nothing is pronounced how it's spelled so consequently I am ALWAYS that American girl butchering pretty much every name and word.
The ones I have picked up on are
bloody or
fooking instead of really (i.e. this coffee is bloody hot), if something is really cool it's
brilliant, and little things like hoover is vacuum, bins are trash cans, and the most obvious that chips are nothing like the lays.
That's pretty much all I have for now but as I do
more I will try and keep updating this!
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Grandma Sue
non-member comment
FANTASTIC
Lauren!!! That was wonderful!!!!! Sounds like you are IN!!!! Loved hearing from you.....can't wait for more! The pictures are awesome too..... Are you warm enuf??? Love ya babe........... Gma S:)