Freshers' Week and Arthur's Day

It is 5:44pm here in Dublin, on a Sunday afternoon, and I have just woken up from my second hearty nap of the day, third if you count the ten minutes I was awake in bed before rolling over and going back to sleep. However, the fatigue is a good one, one of accomplishment after finishing the Dublin Half Marathon yesterday! Thanks to my race partner Jess, and my crowd of American cheerers who even got a call out for being especially enthusiastic and encouraging, it was really an awesome experience. Needless to say, I will be taking a break from running for the next couple of weeks, and might try some swimming instead to relieve the tension in my knees.

The half marathon was the capstone to a great week of festivities and business. Trinity’s orientation week, known here as “Freshers’ Week”, was held everyday from 9 until 5 in the front square. Every club (they are called societies here) sets up a table and does its pitch, and often try to entice students with free food and candy and worthless stuff (except the salad dressing I got from the Philosophical Society—clutch). Some clubs hound everyone; some clubs do serious judging, for instance, the Japanese club, which stopped only me out of a couple of my friends. I should’ve said “no hablo engles”.

This past Thursday, 24 September 2009, was the 250th anniversary of Arthur Guinness signing the 9000 year lease on the Guinness Storehouse in Dublin. There are some interesting things to point out. A- the original lease was for NINE THOUSAND YEARS. It was obviously to make the point that Guinness wanted his beer to be around forever, but think of the magnitude of that number, and imagine ANYTHING being around for that long—inconceivable (as Vizzini would say). B- Festivities included a Guitar Hero competition, in which my mediocre (at best) video game skills creamed the Irish and won me an iPod docking station. Unfortunately, it has a European plug, so I think I will try to pawn it off online. C- Dublin took to the streets for this “holiday” (in fact, it was promoted as Arthur’s Day” and I nabbed a couple posters as mementos). Everyone raised their glasses at 5:59pm (get it?—17:59 on 24 September 2009, 1759 being the year of the signing). There were benefit concerts all over the world, and tickets cost, you guessed it, 17,59 Euros. All in all, a fantastic day I will always remember, for the community, spirit, and commemoration of Arthur in Dublin.

And then I turned in a paper.

Here are some thoughts I’ve had since moving to Dublin:

• The 40 US dollars in my wallet seem worthless—I would rather have them stolen than 10 Euros because I could actually use 10 Euros, although 10 Euros is worth a lot less than $40.
• Papers are assigned in word length, not page length.
• Living in a city is more convenient than I thought.
• Pretzels don’t exist in Ireland.

More to come.

Seeing the Other Side of the Atlantic

I’ve just returned to Dublin from a fantastic weekend in Galway, a city on the western coast of Ireland.

Yet for how much fun the weekend was, the minute I stepped off the bus I felt an overwhelming sense of relief. Perhaps it was because the three-and-a-half hour ride, though a mere five Euros, was draining and slightly uncomfortable. Perhaps it was because I was ready to take a shower in my bathroom and wash my clothes. Perhaps it was because I was exhausted and was ready to go to sleep.

All these reasons, however, can be lumped under the umbrella of feeling relief when you return home from a trip. And this first trip made me realize the status the wonderful city of Dublin has as my home at this moment in my life. In other words, I am starting to think that I have begun to make the transition from “trip mentality” to “home living mentality.”

To backtrack to my wonderful weekend, I will mention a few highlights:

We arrived Friday night, and stayed at a hostel called Snoozles—perhaps the most convenient location, friendly staff, affordable pricing, and overall appeal of a hostel (even though I was expecting the worst since this was my first hostel experience).

We made Saturday a day trip to the Aran Islands, or rather one of the Aran Islands, Inish Mor. This was an incredible place to visit, and a certain must-do if you ever spend time in Ireland, especially on the west coast. Hopefully, if you do, you’ll get as nice weather as we did—perfect, sunny, high 60s, a slight breeze, and no rain or clouds in sight. Renting bikes for the day is the way to go, because you can virtually cover the entire island in just a few hours, leaving time for sightseeing. The highlight was parking our bikes and hiking up to an old fort; however, the fort wasn’t incredibly interesting. The real pleasure was the location of the fort, perched at the edge of a massive cliff that dropped straight down 300 feet into the Atlantic Ocean. It was absolutely breath-taking, especially peering over the edge to the brilliant water below. Looking out into the horizon was also surreal, because I realized that somewhere, far out there was New Jersey, and the east coast of the United States. Despite the 3000 mile divide, I felt oddly connected to my friends and family back home.

Sunday was a nice day to stroll around the city of Galway, and we enjoyed a fantastic lunch at McSwiggin’s (many thanks to Sarah for the recommendation!). I also got a run in in the morning, which was clutch because a) I didn’t bring my running shoes for nothing, and b) I needed to get the soreness out of my legs from biking.

An interesting observation about the entire weekend was how much different aspects of the trip reminded me of places I’ve been in the US. Galway is a charming coastal city, full of winding streets lined with brightly painted shops with decorative signs hanging above their doors and flower beds crawling out their windows. It sort of reminded me of a quaint New England beach town—like Edgartown on the Vineyard. The ferry ride to the Aran Islands reminded me of my visit to Block Island with Sarah this summer, although the animals on the island were much less exotic and much more in their wild habitats. Driving around the coast made me think of Maine or Cape Cod, with houses set back from the road and tiers of lawn that are highlighted by stone walls and flowerbeds. Come to think of it, the bus ride to Galway reminded me of driving to St. Louis, passing through farmland and flat fields of Ohio and Indiana.

All this is just to say that new experiences are sometimes not too far removed from past ones in certain independent aspects. It’s easy to fall into comparisons with things and places you are familiar with. But the moment of experience, the amalgamation of all these assorted familiar aspects will never cease to provide you with a new, perhaps tiring, and hopefully wonderful encounter.

The First Week: Sightseeing and Cultural Moments

Please excuse my blogpost-deficit week. As everyone reading this knows, the first week of class hits you pretty hard after a summer break, and especially hard after only having landed three days ago in another country.

Yes, I am still operating on “trip-mentality,” and I imagine I will be for most of the semester. But I am convinced that a significant part of the study abroad experience is taking trips, and doing new things, and not worrying about the difference between an A and an A-. OK, I’ll probably be worrying about that difference, but the point still stands—I have been doing many things this week, seeing sights, meeting Irish people, getting lost in the city, working on my brogue (I wish), all of which I hope will contribute to my experience here as much as my in class work does.

Disclaimer: this post is somewhat long…I suggest taking it in doses.

So you probably are wondering what I’ve seen...

Since my last post, I have:

• seen the Book of Kells: Unbelievable. Some professors thought that we students might be disappointed when we see the manuscript that is so hyped up as a tourist attraction. And, truth be told, it really took a well-predicted day of rain to drive away the throngs of would-be visitors and give me the opportunity to sneak in and see it. But this is a must-see if you come to Dublin, and if you know someone at Trinity, ask him/her to bring you in for free. The Book of Kells is so fascinating—to think that it was labored over, probably under very bad lighting, by so many monks for who knows how many years, and that Rapidographs did not account for the most delicate strokes and details—quill pens did. Some of the interlaced designs are just mind-blowing, and you really cannot imagine anyone these days spending the time to create such a work of art. Look up pictures on Google, and then make sure you are looking at them in the right scale, because chances are, the photographs you see have been magnified many times, and still the detail is stunning.
• visited the GAA (Gaelic Athletic Association) and Croke Park: This was especially interesting for me, because they couldn’t stop talking about how all the players of these national sports (Gaelic football, kind of a cross between soccer and rugby, and hurling, a lacrosse, soccer, rugby hybrid) are amateurs, representing their counties for the love of the game and their country. It triggers a resentment of American sports associations, which most of you probably know I already have. Of course, these Irish athletes aren’t doing badly for themselves; they probably do promotional gigs and make a good deal off those, not to mention the celebrity status of many of them. But these players are really what sports and competition are about, and reminded me of my love for amateur athletics like high school games and the Olympics.
• seen an All-Ireland Hurling Championship: That game I mentioned before? Unreal. Such a brutal sport, played at a pace that rivals lacrosse. The players barely wear any padding either, and must sustain many bruises and gashes during each game. A funny story about this was my and my flatmates’ attempt to find a pub to watch this game in. The hurling championship, we had been told, was the equivalent of the Superbowl in the US. Which made us surprised when we walked nearly ten blocks without finding a pub that wasn’t merely occupied by a couple old men and the bartender. We were looking for rowdy Irish people to get riled up about the game, and we couldn’t find anywhere that had more then five patrons! We came to the conclusion (and are still questioning its accuracy) that people might be hosting their own private house parties for such a match. In any event, we finally did find a pub where there were a bunch of people, and sat down to a great, great final. Unfortunately, Tipperary, the team I have now adopted as my Irish team after only five minutes of watching, was defeated in the final plays, as Kilkenny (now four-time reigning champ) came back and prevented the upset.
• visited St. Patrick’s Cathedral: This is another must-see. There is so much history in this place it is hard to take in all at once. My favorite attraction was Jonathan Swift’s grave, alongside his beloved Stella (took a class on him last semester, and brought things full circle for me). I plan on coming back to an evensong service, because seeing one of the original scores of Handel’s “Hallelujah Chorus” made me realize how significant a place this is for music, church music in particular.
• visited Kilmainham Gaol: This is an old prison, dating back to the late 1700s, and was most famous for being the place where the leaders of the Easter Rebellion of 1916 were executed. It’s really an eerie thing to see a prison—to walk around in cells you know were once occupied by people that were waiting to be hanged, to see the lever that dropped the floor where prisoners were executed. Sorry, grim. But really a historic place, and well worth the informative guided tour.
• signed up for the Dublin Half Marathon: Yes, I was suckered into this, but I am glad someone finally got me to commit, because I have been wanting to run a half marathon for a while now. And what better story to tell than that my first half marathon was in Ireland? Now the training starts though—I run at the end of September!

Hope something in that list caught your interest! So long for now.

The Library

Which of these libraries is real?


If you chose the first one, you lose. It is the second library that is real, and is, in fact, the library at which I will be studying this semester. Now I know, it's no Olin (library at Wash U), but there must be something special about it if George Lucas modeled the Jedi Library in Star Wars after it...(that's the one on the left...good job).

This particular room is known as the Long Room, a massive chamber that houses most of the early printed books and old manuscripts of Trinity College. It is only one wing of three that comprise the Trinity College Library complex--the other two are actually quite modern in design. It is here that tourists come to pay 8 Euro a visit to see the Book of Kells, an illuminated manuscript of the four Gospels that dates back to 9th century. Each day, the page is turned, and it is one of those artifacts that is preserved in a bomb-bullet-proof, humidity-regulated chamber that has an escape chute to the middle of the earth in case of a nuclear war.

I got lost in this library yesterday. It was a fascinating time, actually. All of the wings and floors are connected, but because of the staggering of the construction of each of the sections, there are some crazy passages that lead no where, and thin spiral staircases that you can enter but not exit. It was on one of these staircases that I finally capitulated, and asked a woman how to get out (I was lucky she was there).

I have not yet seen the Book of Kells, but I do imagine there will be at least one day that I decide to brave the throng of tourists. Why wouldn't I? They are paying 8 Euro a visit, and I get free admission with my student card!

In other news, a Dublin pigeon relieved himself on my left shoulder today, perhaps 30 seconds after I walked into St. Stephen's Green, the city park right by campus. No picture for evidence though...