We all met up at 8:45 to go get breakfast at the dining hall. It reminded me of the dorms, but this was definitely better. I get yogurt and oatmeal…delicious yogurt actually. It tastes like the yogurt they make Swirl frozen yogurt out of. It makes me think of Davis and my lady friend.
After breakfast we went into the Student Union where I got a Trinity sweatshirt and a calling card. Then we went up to Grafton Street to run a couple quick errands before class. Our first class was at 10am in the Arts Building. It was like a somewhat simpler version of the Death Star on campus, but we eventually found our class (with the help of a lovely Irish man). Class was very informative today. It was more like an orientation and description of what was expected. We got our first reading assignments and then we were going to have a little walking tour from our Professor, but the weather was too bad. We did find out that we have a weekend to travel this weekend, so a bunch of us are going to head out to Galway. I can’t wait! Although I love Dublin and it has a lot of great sights, pubs, and Trinity is amazing, I am a country girl at heart…I think the most relaxing thing to me is waking up to see beautiful lush green fields, quaint homes, and the Irish ocean in front of me. That is what I am looking forward to. I am so excited to go!
After learning about our chance to go to Galway this weekend, I decided to head up to the tourism center to get info on the best ways to get there, way to stay, what to do, etc. On the way there Lindsay and Megan and I stopped at a place called Leon’s Café and got lunch. We all had an amazing ham, brie, and butter baguette! It was so good! We took our delicious sandwich and then found a lovely little pub called O’Neills to eat and then grab a pint. Megan and I got pints and Lindsay got a half pint. Let’s just say she doesn’t need to drink much to feel it…she will save money that is for sure! It was so nice to just sit down and relax and share a pint while getting to know the girls. They are really sweet and I forsee many trips with the two of them.
After lunch it was already about 2pm so before heading back to campus I went to go buy a converter (which ended up being useless and later returned) and then we got back to Trinity around 3pm. We had to be back to let girls into our room to drop food off. Our professor gave us money to buy food and cook a big dinner for everyone in our program. Since Lindsay and I have the room set up “suite style” we hosted the gathering in our living room. It was really nice having the large living room and kitchen! Rose and Savannah dropped off food and then I was free for about an hour and a half to go to the computer lab, go buy some water, and I began an hour long mission for seasonings. Let me just say that it is exceptionally hard to find typical American seasonings in Dublin. I went into a bunch of small markets and 1 giant one to find it and couldn’t! I was able to get the salt and pepper the chefs needed which was good. Also, I know exactly where the nice market is to get produce and food to keep at Trinity (hopefully I’ll save money that way).
I am finding it particularly difficult to keep costs down here. Even going to the cheaper cafes and restaurants and buying the cheaper items, I am still spending no less than 20 Euro on food, water, and drinks per day. It sounds okay until you remember that 20 Euro is around $40. Bring on the peanut butter and jelly sandwiches…
At 6pm we started cooking at my place for dinner. We cooked up a meal of pasta, chicken, steamed vegetables, roasted potatoes, and fruit salad with desert of ice cream. It was very delicious! And the professor came to hang out and eat with us and get to know us better. We are like a nice little family over here in Ireland. So far everyone is getting along and hopefully it stays that way! I was the cleaning fairy for the night (big surprise there). I did all the dishes as the cooking went along; partly because I like to keep the kitchen clean and partly because we needed the pots and pans. We had to ransack all the kitchens in the student rooms at Trinity to get the few things we had. It is very interesting cooking a meal for 21 people with 4 tiny pots and 2 roasting pans…we did pretty well though. Savannah, Rose, and Devon did a great job with dinner and I have to say that my kitchen is pretty immaculate (so the cleaning fairy did her job too!)
Dinner was delicious and after it was over about 6 of us stayed behind to chat with the professor. He told us funny stories about James Joyce and Samuel Beckett, 2 of the authors we are reading, and it was really interesting. They are very unique individuals and I hope to read more about their personal history after reading their novels. Oh on a side note, we found out that “Waiting For Godot”, Beckett’s play, is going to be performed in the Beckett theater at Trinity. Samuel Beckett was a professor at Trinity for a little while and he has a theater named after him here. We get to see one of his plays performed there! How neat is that!
Lindsay and I went to the computer lab after everyone was gone and checked email and I made a couple phone calls with the calling card I got. Didn’t get a hold of anyone although I tried to time it to where it was about 10:30pm here and only 2:30pm back home, so I’ll just have to try again another time.
Tomorrow we have class at 10am again for a few hours. We will be discussing James Joyce “Portrait of a Young Artist” and an article from our reader. I have some reading to do tonight and tomorrow morning. After class tomorrow we are probably going to go to some museums such as the National Gallery. I am excited to go out on a field trip!
Off to read…
Love you all!
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