Day 2: Gettin' Acclimated

(Side note: Far too jetlagged to post yesterday. Basically just got settled in at our homestay, met Ann (our homestay mother who made us wonderful meals), explored around Killester (the “suburbs” of Dublin where we lived), and fell asleep while watching Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter with Ann. )

Home Sweet Home!

First things first. When people say, “it’s a short walk,” it usually means a lot farther than you think. But I’m okay with that. One of the things I absolutely love about Dublin so far is that everyone walks. Everywhere. And uses public transportation. The people are friendly (we would know, we had to ask for directions a few times. Dumb Americans…). As such, my feet are killing me but my heart is happy. 

All in all it was a great day. Started off a little rocky. Knowing we’d have to take the train into the City Centre at 9, Shannon and I set our alarms for 8. So of course we woke up at 8:30. And by we I mean Shannon, myself, and our homestay mother (or grandmother, to be decided) who also overslept. Great move in the first day. But, as we’re learning there’s never an Irish meal that does not include tea, so we sat down and had a full breakfast before running to the train station to catch the train (which was delayed by the way, crisis averted). 

Lunch at the Duke

Anyway, our itinerary for the day included an orientation at our school, the Centre for English Studies (or CES), tour of the “campus” (which is really 3 buildings), free time to walk around, shop, and get lunch (went to a pub called the Dukes and my first “Irish meal” was a toasted turkey sandwich on wheat (how original.), and then a walking tour of Dublin given by Sean Finnegan (not an Irish name at all). Beautiful city. Can’t wait to go exploring more. Goal of the week is to find a hip little coffee shop that I can sit and work on my Honors project in (#nerdstatus).

Temple Bar

Exploring around Temple Bar

First Guinness

 Dinner was fantastic. We had a group dinner at the Brazen Head (complete with a million pieces of silverware and 3 courses. Oh you fancy huh?).  I had water (because I basically live on that), a Greek salad, Guinness beef stew, and apple pie for dessert. Afterwards, went to check out the apartments and then hit up the Temple Bar area for a bit. It was surprisingly hoppin’ for a Tuesday night. Go Irish. Settled in at a place called the Old Storehouse where there was live music. The two guys performing (one on a guitar and the other rockin’ out on a flute. Yes, he made it look manly) asked everyone where they were from. It was pretty neat being in a bar with people from Paris, Canada, Costa Rica, Switzerland, Germany, South Carolina, etc. Felt very cultured as I drank my very first Guinness from Ireland. (Note to readers over the age of 21: definitely better than back at home! It’s a lot smoother and less bitter I think). The guys performing overheard my name being said and so naturally changed part of a song from the name “Nancy” to Meghan. So basically I was serenaded in an Irish drinking love song. Again, so cultured. After hanging out for a bit longer, we made our way back to Tara Station to hop on the DART (Dublin Area Rapid Transport. Kinda like the Metro in DC). Props to Bremen Clark for actually figuring out which train we needed to be on. 

Went home to Ann waiting up for us to hear how our day went. She’s the sweetest. Time for bed. Classes begin in the morning! Night, everyone!