Discovering Dublin

Hey everyone! Welcome back to my blog lol...

So to follow up from my last post I will start with Saturday the 19th :) My group and I decided to go see the Book of Kells located at Trinity College in down town Dublin. I don't know about you, but I had never heard of this book before and neither did some of my friends so we felt compelled to visit it. The weather was pretty nice for Dublin...clowdy and cold, but hey, no rain! We paid 8 euro (a student rate) to go in this museum which was actually quite small. There were blown up images of this book which was made in the early 800's and is very intricate with art and the way it was bounded together. They showed video clips of how they made the book and it was actually pretty amazing to watch. After viewing the book of Kells in its holding place the stairs led us to the "long room" which is actually a huge library complete with statues of famous people's heads, wooden ladders, an incredibly high ceiling, and books generations older than myself. Bellow are a few pictures that I got offline because you are not allowed to take photos inside...

After the book of Kells my friends and I were starving so we went walking down the streets of Dublin to find the cupcake shop that Sarah and I had previously found. First we had to stop in McDonalds, Mackers, or whatever other nick name they came up with to get a quick "real" bite to eat lol. The cupcake was so satisfying! Jenny got a group photo of us all eating our cupcakes but I currently don't have it to put up. We wanted to have an authentic Irish meal while watching live music so we walked around looking for a cheap pub in temple bar when we stumbled upon the Old Storehouse. This place was reminded me of the pub in P.S. I love you because there were two young guys performing in the corner singing modern rock/alternative songs with an Irish twist. We all sat down and ordered our first Guinness in Ireland :) Sadly it took that long for me...anyway, we had the best vegetable soup ever! It was the perfect day for soup as it was freezing outside. The atmosphere was just what we wanted: relaxing, calm, warm, and pleasant. Finally when we were done eating we walked around the streets by the bridge. It was a great way to see the city on a clear evening. We walked along the river crossing bridge after bridge zigzagging to get views from both sides. My friend from Ontario, Jenny, had a professional camera and was able to take some amazing photos on our night walk! We saw the bridge shaped like a harp, the train bridge, a building with puzzle pieces painted on it, and some other cool architectural designs. Below are some pictures from our walk... :)

***please don't take offense to the "tim is well gay" graffiti...we just found it funny because it sounds too polite to be used as graffiti!***

The following day was Sunday the 20th and was spent going to Tesco, the local grocery store, getting food to fill our apartments and ingredients for our "family dinner" that night. We made tacos!!! It was fun going to an Irish grocery store buying Mexican food materials lol...very strange. But regardless of our struggle, we were able to make some pretty good tacos! I had so many groceries that not only was my Ikea bag completely full, but I had to use more bags AND get a taxi because we had walked all the way to the store and my hands nor arms could hold the weight any longer...after a block. It worked out because we just put everyone's groceries in the trunk and went on our way. We originally were going to head to Dicey's again, but we were so tired and had our first day of classes the next day that we decided to have a quiet night in.

First day of classes...miserable...jk. SO...I woke up super early so I would have plenty of time to get ready and leave for class, but I was over confident about the whereabouts of my classroom...I could not have been more wrong. I went in to this building thinking it was where I needed to be but in fact I was in a completely wrong building and took forever to find the correct place. I ended up being 15 minutes late for my first day and rushed in to find that my teacher was not Irish, but Australian lol...he was even wearing board shorts!! The class was pretty interesting but stuff I already knew. What a different experience from San Jose State...usually back home everyone is fighting for a spot in the class and nothing is taught on the first day. My lecture was one hour and fourty-five min long but luckily is only once a week...same with every other class I have haha. I am quite a fan of my schedule...

The rest of the week was pretty uneventful as we all were getting ready for our classes and having low-key nights in, except of course on Monday. The first day of classes each semester is called Black Monday...one of the biggest nights of the semester! My friends and I decided to pre-game and hang out in our friends apartment first, then go out to Dicey's after. The security was SO tight that getting in to the dorms they had to watch you swipe your card and sometimes even looked at the picture to make sure you belonged...they also only had one entrance open so everyone would flow in and out of one place. After playing a loud, hilarious, and one of the most interesting games of Kings Cup we hopped in some taxis and went off to Diceys...mistake. It was incredibly crowded beyond belief. How we were able to stick together is still an amazement to me. Trying to go to the bathroom was literally a battle. Girls and guys being shoved every which way and the lady in the bathroom yelling at girl for not making her trash in to the bin. It was a crazy crazy night and we wanted to leave within 30 min, but decided that we had paid already and wanted to get our money's worth. How we all got home is an interesting story..at least for my friend Mike. Most of us just cabbed back, but when Mike second-guessed his decision to stay he tried to walk home. From the temple bar. At night. Alone. He had our friend Sarah txting him directions until his phone died..After walking around for an hour or more he made his way back to Dicey's and split a cab with some random Irish people. My version doesn't do the story justice. Anyway so that was our Monday night...but like I said, it is one of the biggest nights of the semester and the rest of the week was spent sleeping, going to class, and preparing for new lectures.

Some of my Friends and I are taking a class called Ireland Uncovered which teaches us about Irish history, archaeology, language, and overall culture. I am excited for our field trip in a couple of weeks!

Today we went down town to get some items for tomorrow...Australia Day! We have the flags, vegemite, green and yellow jello-shots, sausage and bread. We still need face paint, balloons and some other last minute items. We are planning on celebrating in Sarah's apartment in the early afternoon, hopefully with some back yard cricket, and then going to the Australian Pub down town called Woolshed. It should be a pretty fun day :) Then Sunday is our friend Megan's birthday. We are already beginning to plan our Spring break! First we are going to do a road trip around Ireland for the first half, then come back to Dublin for St. Patricks Day! My friend Jenna who is studying abroad in England just booked her ticket to come visit! The day after st. Patricks day we are going to make our way to Berlin, Prague, and Budapest over the whole rest of spring break.

Well I should get back to planning, but as promised...here are some pictures of my room (not completely up to date now that I bought 3 posters)