My Favorite Responses to "I'm from the US"

"Cool...like Harlem?"

"I did a report on Idaho once...ever been there?"

"Do you know the Fallons? They're my cousins"

Roommate: I'm from California

Every Irish person that hears that: duuuuuuuuuude....Duuuuuuuude....*sings OC theme song*

Me: I'm from New Jersey

Guy: Cool, I love the Sopranos

Me: I've never seen it

Guy: I've actually only seen half an episode.....

Tutor (like a TA): Alright, who's International

*raise my hand*

Tutor really slowly: Alright....hmmm, how to explain this.....there are TWO Irelands, ones NORTH Ireland and ones just IRELAND, thats where WE are

(btw, this was for a class titled "North and South Ireland")

Useful Information I Learned Today

In France, "Cool Runnings" is called "Rasta Rocket"

AUSSIE AUSSIE AUSSIE! OI OI OI!

Oh USA, you are really missing out by not celebrating Australia day.

So my friend Kurt announced the other night that he was planning on going to Galway this weekend and anyone who wanted to join him could. I quickly joined the trip and the next day we set out for Galway, which is on the west coast of Ireland. We all had to marvel at the fact that it only took a three hour bus ride to go cross country, pretty mindboggling. 

So we got there and walked down Shop Street, which is basically Galways version of Grafton Street here in Dublin. That brought us straight down to Long Walk (which rumor has it is where my great (great?) grandfather lived) and Galway Bay. It was on the cloudy side of things our first day, but it was still very beautiful. 

We decided to try and find a hostel after going out to the bay because it was starting to get dark out. Heres where we're failures.

So before we left we didn't make reservations at a hostel because "who the heck goes to Galway in the middle of January?" A lot of people do. A lot. As we found out. We went to a hostel and the lady flat out told us that there were no rooms in that hostel and there are no rooms in any other hostel in the city. whoops. We tried a few B&B's and economy hotels but still nothing. 

By the luck of the irish my roommate in Dublin's friend goes to NUI Galway this semester, and had visited our apartment last weekend. While my roommate wasn't on this trip we decided our only other option was to give her friend a call. This friend, Hannah, is now my hero and is welcome at our apartment any time because she graciously let six strangers crash on her floor. 

She also suggested that we head to the "Kings Head" pub, as they were celebrating Australia Day and it was guaranteed to be a good time.

Oh it was.

I met two Irish guys with family in Boston, they were excited to hear I had family there too and we talked about the Red Sox and Patriots and how the rest of my group who are all New York fans are failures. Everyone here is surprisingly up on American Football, many pubs are even staying open late next week to show the Superbowl.

The next morning we woke up to the most gorgeous weather we've had here. After grabbing some crepes we went straight for the bay. Blue sky, sun and sparkling water, it was absolutely fantastic. 

We had to catch the bus back by 5 so after shopping a bit on Shop Street we went back to the bus station. The sun was just beginning to set over Galway Bay as the bus pulled away, adding a nice exclamation point to a very nice mini vacation.

Galway Bay in late afternoon
Galway Bay

This kid was poking this swan with a stick. We watched for about 5- 10 minutes. We then realized that we were all hoping the swan would attack back and left feeling like horrible people

This building had the facade of a church, but when you looked behind it it was just houses. Touche
The Beach
Kurt has a new friend
Long Walk
Swans were EVERYWHERE!

My Goodness, My Rip-Off!

Today my friend Jeremy and I took part in the most over hyped of Dublin rituals, the visit to the Guinness storehouse. Now I had been here before about 5 years ago, but honestly could not remember anything about it. I thought this was odd, considering its a seven story wonderland about beer, but yet there was a blank spot in my head when I tried to remember it. I now realize, that its because the place really isn't that memorable. 

To enter you buy your ticket then head behind a wall into a dark room...nothing too big there. Then random facts about barley, hops and what not are thrown at you from all angles. There are arrows on the floor leading you around various directions that really don't seem to make sense. At one point Jeremy and I walked into a giant barrel and no explanation was given as to why we were there. So we stood in pitch darkness in a giant barrel. Ridiculousness. 

All explanations began with "as the ancient Greeks taught us.." or "The Egyptians are the true founders of..." making me feel like I was reading my sixth grade history textbook rather than being at the mecca of American tourists in Dublin. 

Perhaps my favorite stop was on the 4th floor where they had the "choice" room. Now i know this is a new addition since I was last here as I surely would have remembered something as hokey as this. There they have you sit down and answer questions about your drinking habits and alcohol facts. Meanwhile messages flash on the walls saying things like "you always have a choice" and "no is an option". This is your last stop before they hand you the free beer.

 

The "free" beer (included with the 10 euro entrance fee) comes in the Gravity Bar which is on the seventh floor. It boasts of panoramic views of Dublin where you can bask in its glory. I was kinda excited for this part, I will go see the city that will be my home for four months, my domain, my kingdom. When I arrived, however, the windows were all taken over by senior citizen travel tours. Once I elbowed my way in I realized that the area the storehouse is in is an absolute dump. We were starring out at industry and construction. Off in the distance we could see the Wicklow Mountains and other areas of Dublin that are more photographable. The true views, however, were pretty lame. 

Holy bitter blog entry Batman! 

It wasn't a wash of a day. It was nice explore Dublin on our walk there. We got a little lost

 at first and then decided to just walk behind a tour bus....led us right to the front door. Afterwards we met some other friends for a pint and traditional music at a pub downtown, so that was nice. Temple Bar, which is a district in town, is hosting a music festival this weekend so many of the pubs had live traditional music. Usually the "live music" is a guy with a guitar covering Oasis. 

We decided to come back here early. I'm going to be going to Galway with some people tomorrow morning, spur of the moment decision, but it should be fun! Look for an entry on that early next week!

The water exhibit was just a waterfall
Jeremy and his celebratory beer

Now thats something you don't see at everyday!

In between the past blog entry and this one I have managed to catch some sort of a cold. Gee, I wonder how I got that, perhaps the 5 straight days I spent in drenching wet clothes because it rains all the time.....irony is today it was sunny and warm!

Anyway, the past few days have been filled with classes and such. Remember when I said I had all of my classes figured out? That was a lie. I now have 4 classes, which is closer to the required 5 than 0 was, but still annoying. Hopefully tomorrow I will be finished registering.

I just got back from hearing Will Ferrell talk, which was pretty awesome. There had been signs up all week and everyone had been wondering whether or not this was a mean fool the Americans trick. The society that was bringing him to campus seemed legit, so I shelled out the 2 euros to become a member and decided that was a cheap enough risk to take. So now I am a (literal) card carrying member of the Literary and Historical Society.

Before I talk about Will, I want to talk about the brilliance of the Literary and Historical Society. First, they get an outside vendor to sponsor their guest. Then, they get the entire school to pay them 2 euros, not to see Will, but to join their club. So their club now literally has thousands of members on its docket (plus a lot of cash!). Then once they get the saps into the room where they are anxiously awaiting Will Ferrell, they announce that this is an official meeting of the Literary and Historical society, so they can honestly say they have an active membership of roughly 2500 people who were in the room. Lets just say I took some notes for how the BMC Squash Club will be run when I return!

Anyway, onto the actual event. I arrived and was immediately impressed with the excellence of the UCD Conference and Events team. Given the giant vortex of crazy that the rest of the school is, I was pretty sure this event was going to be run by frat boys. Not so, the team easily managed to get 2500 people into a room within 30 minutes, got them seated and quiet. Things didn't start promptly, but everyone behaved. Not gonna lie, I was impressed....Princeton CES has some competition if they ever go to the Olympics of conferences.....or so I thought, more on that later

Now, Mr. Ferrell. First came two warm up acts, members of the society themselves who had written humorous speeches. First a girl went up and my inner chauvinist sighed "damn...women are never funny...". Much to my surprise, she was actually really funny, much funnier than the next guy who wrote a few songs about things too obscene to be mentioned on this family friendly blog. Will then came out decked out in Ireland gear, good times. Truthfully he didn't have much to say, he honestly just talked about his trip to Ireland while casually placing in Anchorman references. At first I felt kinda used, but then I realized "did I really want to hear anything other than Anchorman references? Honestly, isn't that the real reason I came here tonight?" so I was happy. He opened the floor up to questions and some people asked some really dumb things, such as "are you sure you're Irish, you look like a Jew".....?!?!?!? He sort of just stared at them looking confused. Someone did get him to sing Afternoon Delight though, and Dust in the Wind. All in all, good times were had by all.

Now I mentioned earlier that UCD CES was fantastic, they then lost all credibility at the end of the performance. Will was going to sign some autographs and shake hands, a team member went to the microphone and said, "Uhhh, if you want an autograph, just come forward" cue thousands of people throwing chairs aside and crushing towards the front. I stood in line for a few minutes and then when I realized I was actually moving backwards I called it quits and headed back to my apartment.

One Week In

Good morning!

I've officially been here a week, can't decide if that week went super fast or super slow...

Anyway, had a nice weekend exploring the city a bit. On Saturday we went to O'Connell Street, which is a main road in town, and did some window shopping. The rain was ridiculous though, so we stopped in a pub for some traditional food and a soccer (excuse me, football) game. I had Irish Stew which was fantastic and really filling, I didn't need to eat for the rest of the day! By the time we got back to school my jeans and shoes were so 

soaked, they're still drying out. Someone told me about some cheap water-proof boots in town, so I need to pick some of those up. 

Then yesterday we walked down Grafton St, which is a pedestrian mall type street with lots of european shops and great architecture.

 Someone had a book that listed the top 10 pubs in Dublin so we decided to check them out. I was worried they were going to be really touristy and full of Americans with the same guidebook, but the two we went to were really small and cozy with a lot of locals. They had names that reminded me of Harry Potter, such as the "Stags Head". One of the pubs had been built in the late 18th century and still had the original bar. The ceiling looked like tin but was actually paper mache...awesome.

We came back last night to find that all of the Irish students had finally come back to the University. Needless to say its very different than my school back home. As I turned the corner into my dorm's quad I heard a group of people chanting "CHUG CHUG CHUG" then a lot of screaming. I located the source when a window flew open and then contents of the chugging flew out the window. I stopped and thought "ah....so THIS is college". Something tells me they don't hold "hall teas" here. 

Classes begin today. I woke up at 7:30 for my 9 am class (lets not get started on how I am NOT looking forward to a 9 am class on Mondays) to discover that it was still pitch black outside and the wind was so strong I was afraid my window was going to break. So I went back to bed....I woke up at 8:30 realizing that yes, I did have to go to class today and no, unlike back at home my buildings are not right outside my window so I should factor in some travel time. By travel time i mean 5-10 minutes....but still, not used to factoring that in. 

Pretty Irish Building

Dublin is home to the elite Foot Locker School of English

AHHHHHHHH!

Good lord today was confusing.

So last night a few people came over and I was introduced to perhaps the greatest party game in history, spot got (I think?). Now I'm going to warn all of you that you are about to judge me. Go ahead. Basically you have to recite a poem and if someone catches you messing it up they get to draw a spot on your face with a burnt (but cooled) wine cork. 

 Exhibit A

Good fun.

Anyway, today was not quite as fun. Woke up and tried to organize classes. Then ran over to get my student ID. This was without a doubt the most disorganized set up I've ever seen. I entered a classroom where every other international student was basically standing in a pack, gradually shifting forward towards two guys with laptops. These guys were having a grand time cracking jokes about everyones pictures, talking everyone up and taking forever with each card. I got my card with no problem, but one guy that I was with fell victim to the ever present Irish wit that I've seen here so often. Just as he sat down for his picture to be taken the ID card guys asked him a question about something. When he looked away from the camera to answer they snapped his picture and started cracking up. They refused to take another and now his ID card has a picture of him looking up at the ceiling with a confused look on his face. Fantastic.

I then began my journey to settle my classes. I went over to meet with the international advisor and waited in line for about a half hour. When I finally reached the front of the line she closed the door in my face and said "Closed for lunch, come back later!". COME ON!

So after coming back she sent me to the geography department to figure courses out, they sent me to the programme office who sent me back to the international advisor. She then told me to go home. COME ON!

I think I finally figured out my schedule on my third try. Lets hope considering classes start on Monday. On the bright side I met a lot of new friends waiting in the neverending line for the advisor.

I don't have  many pictures yet, but here are a few to give you an idea of the people I'm meeting

Day...3? 4? Where the heck am I?

Alright I see the eco-friendly entry wasn't as popular with the crowd...thats cool. Those of you who sent me "greenify your facebook page" invites after that entry...very funny, haha, my friends are all comedians.

Anyway, what I thought was jet lag earlier in the week appears to have just been exhaustion. Today I felt jet lag. I woke up completely confused as to where I was or why I was here. I went to orientation where I went on a tour of campus. The tour guide had a voice that not even a cat could hear so really I just walked around campus in the rain making up my own explanations for what each building was. Next week should be interesting. I came back and fell asleep for somewhere between 2 and 4 hours. The days seem longer here, I can take a 4 hour nap and still feel like I have plenty of time...thats going to change once classes start I can imagine. 

After my nap some friends came over and we engaged in the traditional sharing of  favorite youtube videos, Megan had told me this would happen and wouldn't you know it it did. Charlie Bit Me and George Washington were big hits. 

Last night we went out to the Temple Bar area which is a district of the city with trendy bars and stuff....very touristy as well but whatever. Interesting observation, Europeans love the song "Soulja Boy" but don't really know the dance (I'm one to talk..) so instead they just sort of flail...I look forward to watching them again. 

Tomorrows goal is to figure out classes....UCD is very disorganized and I'm really confused as to what I'm supposed to do. So tomorrow I will figure that out and hopefully I won't end up in quantum physics or something like that by accident....

Here's looking at you, Al

One thing is for certain, Al Gore would be crying tears of happiness if he saw me right now.

An average day last week would consist of me getting up, and moseying into a piping hot shower. I would then stand in said shower for an average of 20 to 30 minutes, a mixture of waking up, warming up and soaping up. I would then emerge from the shower to a new towel, not reuse one of the 30 that I had scattered around my bedroom, and dry off. Then I would either watch hours upon hours of television or some other electronic device,  before wandering downstairs to eat a pre packaged meal and drink a few sodas that while recyclable, would probably end up in the trash instead. It goes without saying that I would be turning on every possible light in the house while all this was going on. Next I would get into my car and drive the 3 blocks to the grocery store where I would use as many plastic bags as possible for my items. I would also try and hit as many animals as I could on the way home....thats a lie. My night would end with me maybe taking another shower or a bath...just because. I would then make sure the bathroom light stays on throughout the night...just in case I forget where it is even though I've lived in my house for 21 years, and falling asleep to the television or a movie. I am single handily responsible for global warming.

NOT ANYMORE

I now make sure I turn off all lights when leaving rooms, that costs money. I also must limit my shower to no more than 10 minutes...or rather the shower limits that for me with its abrupt shut off of warm (note not hot...just warm) water. I walked the 20 minute walk to the supermarket today with my reusable shopping bags. When our hands started to blister on the way back we took public transportation. My one towel is being reused rather than stuffed behind my bed. What now Al Gore, I am no longer your scape goat, you can no longer guilt trip me into doing your bidding...Ireland has instead forced me at gunpoint to be more ecologically friendly.

I'm still blasting my heat. It's cold....and it will hurt the wallet...but dammit it feels good.

Day 2, Part 2

I just hung out with a bunch of other Americans....80% of them were from New Jersey. Hooray? Just for a lark I mentioned Bruce Springsteen, that got a bunch of people going. Study abroad? yeah right.

Day 2

Wow, I'm excited so many people checked in to read the blog! Anyone who knows me knows I love to talk about myself so that was a great boost to my ego. Keep it up!

Yesterday I mainly settled myself in. A roomate arrived and we oriented ourselves with the university and went to meet the study abroad advisor. The building where most of the offices and classes are in is so big that there are lines painted on the floor leading to the different sections. You pick a color and follow it. The one we chose led us to an elevator but failed to tell us whether to go up or down. We went down and ended up in a boiler room. Haha, very funny Ireland.

One of our neighbors stopped by last night to say hi and told us to watch out for lights and music because that meant PARTY. That would be great except for the fact that I entered a light coma at around 8pm. The last thought that ran through my freezing cold head was "Wow, this must be what the Pilgrims had to deal with" because it was still DAMN COLD. When I woke up at 4am however, the only thing running through my mind were the lyrics to the Canadian pop group B4-4 classic, "Get Down", so lord knows what happened during the night. It was nice and toasty warm though, thanks heater.

This morning my roomate and I headed into the city to pick up basics, she needed sheets and stuff and I needed someone to keep me awake. (side note, I have notoriously awful jet lag, basically I'm exhausted 24/7 for the first week). That introduced us to the Dublin bus system, very efficient. I bought a pillow because the one they gave us here is about as thick as my sweatshirt. I was proud of myself for buying a pillow but as I stood at the bus stop starring at the time table, pillow stashed under my arm, I realized there must be a giant red, white and blue arrow over my head with neon lights flashing AMERICAN!

We got back and found another roomate, also cool. Some other Americans from the building next door came by and we went to lunch. Very nice, felt popular. My jet lag was at a peak though and I'm pretty sure they thing I'm an anti-social snob who laughs at inappropriate moments due to the fact that i basically spent lunch starring off into space and laughing whenever I realized I needed to get into the conversation.

After coming back to the flat for awhile and settling in (read: Light nap while others were productive) we went back into the city for a pint. How cool does that sound...come on, you know it sounds cool.

We went to a pub that I can best describe as an old mans bar. Not too many youngins there but oh well, they served alcohol. More importantly they had heat. So we hung out there for awhile. Then took the bus back, not so efficient at rush hour, it is here that I see the merits of Septa. 

Now we're cooking dinner and then taking it easy. One roomate came in from California this morning and god knows how long she's been up. 

Keep up the comments. Let me know if you have any suggestions for things to do/people to see!

I can't feel my toes

And I'm here!  

The flight over was excellent! I hate flying but this one was only about 5 hours which is pretty awesome. I met some other Americans on the plane who are also going to school here this semester, so that was pretty cool. I got off the plane in the biggest haze ever. I couldn't even figure out what day it was. After three tries I finally found the taxi station and got a cab. We then had a hell of a time finding my building as its tucked back a little. So to pass the time we discussed Brittney Spears. 

Warren, the cab driver, seemed to think that fault lay with Kevin Federline. I told him he was wrong and that KFed was actually coming out on top in this situation. Apparently they're getting told different information over here and Kfed is still a failure. Who knew! We then discussed Nicole Richies choice of baby name, he approved and thought it was "cool" but was a little confused as to how she was a celebrity. I kept it to myself but thought that he had no place to talk considering how big Jordan is over here.

It was weird to see Dublin at rush hour. It was still dark at 8 am. Now I havn't seen 8 am in awhile, but I'm pretty sure its not usually dark. That will take some getting used to. Also, crazy amount of Sprinters (vans) my inner account rep got kinda giddy at the sight of dozens of Sprinters going throughout the city. 

Once I got to my dorm, the housing office was closed, again my inner account rep turned on and I thought "someones a failure" but within 20 minutes someone came hustling down the path and welcomed me. So all was forgiven. 

My apartment is FREEZING. And electricity is highly regulated here (damn hippie Europeans) so we have to be careful about what we leave on and off. I think I figured out how to turn on the hot water with help from my sister. Yes I frantically e-mailed my sister wondering if she knew how to get hot water...shes good for something. 

I'm still completely out of whack but I'm going to try and get things set up.

One Week!

Alright, officially one week from tonight I will be in the air to Ireland. GAH. 

I'm not sure if anyone reads this blog...other than Sarah's one comment....but audience participation time is here! Any suggestions for things to do while in Ireland/Europe. Where have you always wanted to go? Where do YOU want a postcard from (ps if you want a postcard send me an e-mail with your address)?

My laundry pile grows higher, and the time to pack all of it gets shorter....