It's the Americans vs the Germans vs the Japanese!

Retrospective blog post #1: my first week in Ireland

So I arrive in Ireland Sept 21st at about 830 in the morning. I'm met by Don, our program director, and a few other people in the program who were arriving that morning as well. We're bussed to DCU, which is about 10 minutes away from the airport.

I'll admit, first impressions weren't great. I was expecting DCU to be downtown and it wasn't - it's not even in Dublin proper. The girls I had met at the airport were in all different houses so I didn't know anyone who was going to be in my apartment. The apartments are laid out with 5 individual rooms with your own bathroom and a common kitchen/lounge area, but the rooms are all shut off from each other because they're obsessed with fire safety here, and you aren't allowed to put anything up on the walls, so it felt a bit like an insane asylum with all that white. We were to meet our directors in about 2 hours for a quick tour about campus, and in that 2 hours I went a little crazy. I couldn't get my internet to work and I couldn't find my adapter so I was freaking out that I would have to get a new one, and meanwhile would have no way of contacting anyone I knew. My roommate Molly who was already here, was part of the program - from Rhode Island - she helped me connect to the internet, but I still couldn't find my adapter so my battery was running low... I was so overwhelmed.

But me and Molly went to go meet the rest of our group. We had a quick tour around campus which went completely over my head because I had been awake for almost 20 hours at that point. Brian, Don's second in command, then takes us all to Omni, which is a big shopping center, to get sheets and groceries and such. We kinda then split off into groups depending on what everyone needs, we all get phones (which I wasn't intending on getting, but now I'm glad I did), and try to make our way back to campus.

The first week was such a blur of tours and information, that I can hardly remember the details. Dublin is an awesome city, but completely daunting to try to navigate. All the streets go willy-nilly all over the place, and street names only last for about 2 or 3 blocks before changing names. So, completely exhausted by the end of our first week, and thoroughly confused about downtown, Don sends us an email about a trip on our first Saturday out to Causey Farm.
Causey Farm is a working sheep farm turned tourist attraction, and all the international students at DCU were invited to go. Our group (we've started to realize we've got a good group going on, and have become good friends, for the most part) decides to go as well, and we bus out Saturday morning.

It turned out to be a blast - probably one of the funnest days of my life. We all roll up and split into 3 groups because there's about 150 international students. Our group goes to learn an Irish jig first. The girl teaches us the steps... which if I remember correctly, goes something like this: you and your partner are side by side and you're next to another pair, and the four of you are across from another four people, step in 2 3, in 2 3, out 2 3, out 2 3, in 2 3, in 2 3, out 2 3, out 2 3, sidestep 2 3!, 1 2 3, and sidestep back 2 3, in 2 3, out 2 3, swing with the person across from you for 8 counts!, in 2 3, out 2 3, and under the arms of the people in front of you to meet the next four people. And it just keeps going til you run out of rows of people and have to turn around, and when the song ends. And it's really fast! We were all exhausted and laughing hysterically by the end because the only part people could remember was the swinging!

So after that we go to learn how to play the Bodhran, the Irish drum that sits on your knee, and then we make Irish soda bread to go with our meal in the evening. Then we play with some puppies that were running around, head off to the bog to cut some turf, and along the way learn a song about a moose. Then we come back, go milk a cow, and as we're done with that, one of the owners asks if we want to try to catch some pigs? Of course we say yes! Our group happened to be all Americans, Germans, and Japanese, so the guy pitted the three world superpowers against each other in the Olympics of pig chasing. None of us caught any. Those pigs are fast! Then we go off to learn about hurling, an Irish sport that's a little like lacrosse or field hockey... but not. Girls don't play hurling, and it's a really fast, kinda brutal game, but really fun to watch. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AM-kB1e96CA check it out.

After a bunch of cows stampede us while practising our hurling skills, we figure it's time to go eat. All of the international students pile into a hall where we grab our bread we made earlier, and soup and cheese, etc. It was all really good. After the meal we clear all the chairs and tables for a cieli, or session. That's where everyone in the room contributes a story or a song or a dance or a joke, and it's just a big party, because that's the Irish way. At first, everyone is shy, but our group leaders kind of pick up the slack and perform some traditional Irish songs on their instruments - our group leader played the Irish flute, another girl played the accordion, and a guy played the guitar. Most of the nationalities added in something from their country, and at the very end, one of the owner's daughters, maybe about 4 years old, sang "Molly Malone." It was very sweet, and a good end to a great day.

More to come!