Day 2 in Dublin

Day 2: June 18, 2012

            The first day of school… in Ireland. The morning came much too early with class starting at 10:00am. Like usual, the first class is always an overview of what we are going to do and all that really fun stuff. So there are six of us in Irish Film, and then everyone takes Journaling Seminar. Irish Film ended around 11:15 and I still had not had breakfast so I went to an on campus dining hall called Buttery. In my mind I imagine Paula Deen sweating back in the kitchen cooking and baking everything. I was greatly disappointed. It was not a bad little place though, they were clearing up the breakfast food so I just ended up getting a chicken sandwich to go and a VIT-HIT (their form of Vitamin Water).

            We had Journaling Seminar at 2:00pm, which was just another introduction to what we will be doing for the next six weeks. We did end up doing a little journal prompt called Ten Images A Day. We were to write about ten sensory images from leaving home, crossing the ocean, arrival/ first impressions/ landing in a new place. That will come in my next post.

            We did a little grocery shopping after class where I got some breakfast food for the week. A group of us also walked around a little bit and stopped by the tourist center to check some things out. Once we got back I ended up just having a small sandwich I had grabbed at the grocery and chips and bean dip for dinner. It was small, but satisfying for the time being, since we were all meeting up to go to a play at The Abbey Theater. The play was called The House and it was about an Irish emigrant coming home for the summer and wanting to purchase a house from his childhood. It was sort of slow in some parts and ended up being kind of depressing, but overall it was enjoyable. If I had to choose I would have picked the Ireland v. Italy soccer match over watching the play, and I think all of my classmates will agree.

            After the play we all decided to do a little exploring of Dublin at night. It was about 10:30pm on a Monday night, but the streets were more crowded than you’d think they would be for a Monday (it is Dublin though..). We ended up going into this rather large pub called Trinity Bar and Venue. We got a nice little area right up the stairs all to ourselves and we began ordering Jameson and Guinness to kick off the evening. There was a little cover band down the stairs by the bar that was the music selection for the night and they were quite enjoyable. We stuck around until closing time all talking and getting to know each other better. We could not have asked for a better place to do just that.