Church, whiskey, and food...what else do you need?

We've got a long one this time:

On Friday the UCD business international program hosted a trip to St. Michan's Church followed by a tour of the Old Jameson Whiskey distillery and dinner.  If that wasn't enough, it was all free!

St. Michan's was originally built in 1095 and is a part of the Church of Ireland.  Under the church are crypts with mummies, the oldest being about 900 years old (if I remember correctly).  We got to go into the crypts and see some of the coffins and mummies that were exposed when the church believes a stack of coffins fell, opening the lids (it's illegal to open a coffin lid on purpose).  One of the mummies is rumored to give you good luck if you touch his hand so I did just that.  Many of the rooms were locked off and dark becasue they are owned by families and can still potentially be used.  The ones that were open for us meant that the family no longer existed.  We weren't allowed to take pictures in the crypt (although some people think that rules don't apply to Americans so they took pictures anyway) so the one I posted here is from the church's website.

St. Michan's

Mummies

Inside

Next we went to the Jameson Distillery (although the actual one got moved a while ago to Cork).  We learned about the history of the company and how they make the whiskey.  Of course, we got to try some.  The tour kind of reminded me of the World of Coca Cola tour in Atlanta, only less creepy.

The first sip of true Irish Jameson

We then trudged through the pouring rain and got a 3 course meal at Chatham Brassiere.  I had the soup of the day (sweet potato and coconut), pan-fried hake with mashed potatoes, and a warm pear almond tart.  Absolutely delicious!

 On Saturday, the API group headed into town, met up with the other API kids that go to Trinity College and National University of Ireland, Maynooth and we went on a walking tour of Dublin.  This was the first time I had been in town during the day (with the exception of the day I got here and wasn't really paying attention) and it was nice to be able to orient myself a little more.  I feel like I could actually walk around a little on my own now and not get completely lost.  The tour took us around Trinity College and then into Dublin where we got to see some amazing architecture and learn about Dublin's history.

Old Oregon maple trees at Trinity!  The tour guide said I was the first person from Oregon he'd ever had

Christ Church Cathedral

Original entrance to the city

After the tour, we went to Gallagher's Boxty House where I had another 3 course meal.  We got a cooking demonstration from the owner and his executive chef and  learned a little about the history of the potato and how to make boxty.

Boxty pancake with chicken.  SO good!

Cheers

To finish the day, I went out with my new friends from Trinity where we had some Irish coffee.  I have group presentations this week in class that I need to do some work for but other than that it should be a pretty mellow week.  Wednesday is "refreshers" day where all the school clubs try and get you to join so I'm going to look into that to try and meet more Irish people.

Quick Update

Just a brief update:

-Classes started Monday.  So far they don't seem too hard.  It's a little strange having each class only once a week and is going to take some getting used to.  I got into all the classes I wanted/needed.  They are...
>Marketing Communication in the Digital Age
>Management Accounting
>Business Information Systems
>Services Marketing
>From Colony to Republic (Irish history class)

-Have been making a lot of international travel plans lately.  To name a few:
>Going to Amsterdam, Netherlands on the 7th of February for a few days
>Going to Edinburgh, Scotland through the API program on the 15th of February for the weekend
>Probably the most exciting, going with my high school friend Samantha (studying in Florence right now) on the Bus2Alps for part of spring break.  We start in Florence, Italy and over 10 days go to the Czech Republic, Germany, Netherlands, and France as well as pass through a few other countries.  There's a bunch of tours and interesting things lined up for each country.  Should be great!

-Also making my way around Ireland:
>Going to Galway (will be there for my birthday!) and Connemara
>Aran Islands and the Cliffs of Moher (cliffs everyone thinks of when you think of Ireland)
>Glendalough for a day hike later in the semester
>Wanted to try to go to Belfast but there's rioting right now.  Probably not the best idea.

-A few local events as well:
>A visit to St. Michan’s Church and the Jameson Distillery [on Friday this week]
>Cooking lesson and meal at the Boxty House [on Saturday this week]
>Volunteer work with a local organization (Fighting Words)
>Hugh Lane gallery
>Nothing lined up yet, but obviously need to tour the Guinness Storehouse

There's a lot more that I have tentatively planned.  It's going to be a busy 4 months!

This was in a pub the other night.  This guy was amazing and played that fast for about 5 minutes.

A Few Days In

I got to Dublin 3 days ago.  We landed around 8:00 AM Dublin time after what felt like a very short flight.  After going through immigration and customs, I met up with my API resident director (Eimear) and another girl who had also been on the cancelled Chicago flight (Molly).  We took a cab to UCD and checked in to get our student IDs/apartment access card.

Since I missed the first day of API orientation, we had to cram two days into one.  Add on top of that some crazy jet lag and a little bit of culture shock and I was feeling incredibly overwhelmed.  I was glad I wasn't the only one who missed the first day or else I would have felt even more behind.

The rest of the API students joined us (there's 11 in total) and Eimear gave another presentation followed by the group taking a bus into the city centre.  The streets were really busy with people walking around for it being in the afternoon on a Tuesday.  We stopped into Penneys (kind of like a cheap clothes/bedding store) and picked up a few things.  After that we went to a phone store because some of the girls still needed to get an Irish phone.  We then went to this really odd store, Argos, where you look through this giant catalog of pretty much everything that has ever been sold and then you write down the product number on a little slip.  You turn in the slip and pay and then the employees go into the back warehouse and get your item for you.  It seems like something America would have adopted by now.

Eimear, Molly and me then headed back to UCD while the rest of the API students stayed in town.  I got back to my apartment, unpacked, and tried to stay awake as long as possible to adjust to the time (I think I made it till about 6:30 PM).

Waking up in the morning, I already felt a lot better.  The API group met again for another little lesson on how the school system works followed by a campus tour (pictures to come once I take some).  The API group went to the "international lounge" and we all signed up for 2 international student organizations.  One of them was hosting one of the things you have to do when you're in Dublin...the pub crawl.  A little later was the first UCD welcome meeting.

UCD Orientation

At 6:30 that night, the API group headed out with about 300 other people (supposedly the biggest pub crawl ever of this kind) to the city centre.  After some confusion because of the massive amount of people, we got into The Workman's pub where we got a free pint (I partook in a pint of Bulmers, a delicious Irish cider) and started to socialize.  I was most happy to learn from a German girl I was talking to that she did not know what the Jersey Shore is and she did not know who Snooki is.

After that, we hit up four other pubs: Trinity bar, O'neils, The Mezz, and Porterhouse.  I liked all of the pubs but my least favorite was probably The Mezz.  It was sort of a small, loud, grunge bar although it was still fun.  Three of them had live music which was awesome!  The pub crawl was supposed to end at a nightclub but we were feeling tired so decided to get a cab back to UCD.

The first pint

Trinity

O'neils

The Mezz

Today there is more UCD orientation and we need to go to an actual grocery store.  So far, I'm absolutely loving Dublin.  I was a little worried after the first day but now I'm really happy to be here!

Chicago, we have a problem

I'm writing this unfortunately not from Dublin.  I'm in Chicago.  It's 16 degrees and kind of snowing.  I'm going to try and keep this as positive as possible.

Lies

The flight from Portland to Chicago went well.  It was about 4.5 hours and I got there with around 1.5 hours until the flight to Dublin.  After being incredibly overwhelmed by a new airport (and a very confusing one at that), I finally found out where I was supposed to be and got to my gate.  The scheduled departure time was 7:15.  I checked in with my passport and got my boarding pass.  There were a lot of kids my age (all sounding like they were studying abroad as well with different programs) and some older people.  An announcement was made that there were some mechanical problems with the plane and that we would be delayed until 8:15. 

About 10 minutes later without any announcement, the scheduled departure time changed to 9:00.  We were given free $10 vouchers to spend in the airport.  Almost all of the food required going back through security so I settled for the driest $9.50 chicken salad sandwich I've ever had.

At about 8:50, twenty minutes after we were told we were going to board, the intercom came on and announced that our flight had been canceled.  Oh fun!

After receiving a hotel voucher for the night, all the people that were supposed to be going to Dublin waited outside for the hotel shuttle to come and pick us up. 

It was COLD.  Luckily, Colorado has prepared me for the worst.

So I'm now sitting in my hotel room eating my free $20 worth of dinner.  I would much rather be 3 hours away from being in Dublin, but hey, what are you going to do?  I have to call in tomorrow to try and figure out when I can get on a flight.  Supposedly Aer Lingus is bringing in another plane.  I'm hoping I can get out of here by tomorrow.

 

My favorite part about this experience was being around people from Europe.  A lot of the people on the flight are going home and many of them have Irish accents.  Hearing people talk with Irish accents got me even more excited to be in Ireland.  It was also interesting to watch how the Europeans dealt with this major inconvenience.  Often times I see Americans go crazy when something wrong happens.  The Europeans knew the situation sucked but nothing could be done about it so they tried to make the best out of a bad situation.

Not exactly the start I was hoping for but it is what it is.

Let's try again tomorrow...Dublin, here I come (cross fingers)? 

Pre Departure

A couple of people have told me that they want periodic updates as to what is happening when I'm in Dublin, so for the maybe 3 people who will read this, here we go!

Let the packing commence

It's Saturday the 12th and at this time tomorrow, I will be in the air on my way to Chicago followed by a flight to Dublin.  I'm going to be "studying" at the University College Dublin which is just a very short trip from the city center.

The first week is devoted to orientation.  My first couple of days are with my study abroad program, API (Academic Programs International) and the last half of the week is orientation with the actual school.  I direct enrolled so I'm going to be taking classes with other Irish and international students.  What classes am I taking?  That's TBD.  I don't find out what classes I got into until I get there which is a little stressful.  I gave the school a list of my top 10 module (class) choices and am hoping to get into the top 5.

I'm going to be living in a university owned apartment.  I get my own room and share a living space with 3 other students.  I don't know anything about my flatmates yet except that they are not in my abroad program.

I'm a little stressed about the long travel day.  The only time I've been to another country was when I was 9 and the family went to Mexico.  Going to school in Colorado has made me feel like a domestic travel pro but this whole international thing is making me a little uneasy.  One of my goals for the trip?  Don't get deported.

If anyone wants to stay in touch, my Skype name is david.snell19.  I'm also going to have my iPhone on wireless.  If you have a smartphone and download the app "Viber" we can text/talk for free (pretty much the coolest app ever) or we can still iMessage if you have an Apple device.  Email and Facebook also work quite well.

There will be none of this in a few months

Goodbye USA!  Ireland, here I come!