I cannot believe I've already been in Dublin for almost 2 full weeks now and completed my first week of classes (No class on Friday's for me... YAY). This past week has been full of new experiences and many "opportunities"!
On Sunday, Ellen and I went to the city centre to worship at Christ's Church Cathedral. It was such a beautiful service and a gorgeous building. The church had a very similar set up to Westminster Abbey in London, England, and Ellen and I had flashbacks to watching the royal wedding on TV last May! The church itself was apart of The Church of Ireland which is considered Anglican. Ellen and I were not able to figure out the exact difference from this church to our home churches, but the service itself was like a mixture of a traditional Lutheran and Catholic service. We figured this out due to the fact that I am apart of a Lutheran Church and Ellen is apart of a Catholic Church at home. The craziest part of the day was that the coffee and tea for fellowship was served in the crypt underneath the church. It was kind of weird... but also really cool. They had so many different relics and other historical items, and the show The Tudors used the church and the crypt to film parts of their show. After church, we headed to Brick Alley Cafe for brunch and a hot chocolate. I had a delicious vegetarian traditional breakfast with a classic hot chocolate... it was amazing!! One of the best cafes we've been to so far. They had such a diverse menu with over 30+ flavors of hot chocolate! The rest of the day was spent buying groceries and getting prepared for our first day of school.
First Week of School = Interesting, Fun, and a little Confusing...
Monday: My first class of the day was at 12 pm - a big difference from my usual morning schedules at ISU- but I went in early to get coffee/tea with my new friend from New Zealand, Ciara. It was super fun getting to know her, and I think it helped me to relax for my first day! My first class at UCD was Early Ireland: Celtic Civilazations; however, my professor did not show up until 15 minutes before class ended! The only reason I was still there was because I was trying to get some reading done in my book, Angela's Ashes (a sad, but good book so far!!). Then I headed to my second and final class of the day, Plants and People. The rest of the day consisted of watching Netflix, doing laundry for the first time, and having the "opportunity" to work on scholarship essays.
Tuesday: My first class on Tuesday was Intro to Crop Science. My module coordinator (teacher) went over the course syllabus during class, and I am really looking forward to learning more about agriculture in Ireland and the EU. My tutorial for Early Ireland was right after Crop Science. Before this class, I was extremely confused as to what a "tutorial" was but discovered that it's just a smaller setting of the class where we discuss and go over things taught in the lecture. I am also really excited about this class, but I think it might have the heaviest work load! After that, Ellen and I had a very eventful evening. We attended a Breakfast Club event for the International Student Society and got free ice cream from the Student Union for Raise and Give (RAG) Week during the afternoon. Then during the evening, we had the opportunity to go to the International Buddy event, and we were able to attend the Céilà night. Céilà night consisted of traditional Irish music and mini dance lessons to teach us traditional Irish dances. It was super fun, and I was able to meet a lot of really cool international students. After that, a group of us headed over to The Clubhouse to watch The Battle of the Bands. We had a great time!! The second band of the night was a heavy metal band, and they were so amusing to watch... we all really enjoyed their performance!
Wednesday: Ellen and I finally had a class together today! We are in Fundamentals of Horticulture together and I am so thrilled. Don't get me wrong, I have really enjoyed getting to do my own thing these past few days, but it has been so boring not having someone to talk to before class! I've really been struggling with connecting and forming relationships with the Irish students because it feels as though they already have their own set of friends and are not looking for more. Obviously this isn't the case for each student, but it is quite intimidating. I discovered that I have Fundamentals of Horticulture twice on Wednesday's and no other day of the week which is one of the many things that I found interesting about my class schedule. I also had my second lecture of Early Ireland today which was really fun because we started digging into some of the history of medieval Ireland. On Wednesday night, Ellen, Sara, and I went to The Clubhouse again for round two of The Battle of the Bands. The bands on this night weren't quite as good as the night before, but it was still really fun. We even made friends with these three boys from UCD. They were really friendly and gave us loads of good places to check out in Dublin.
Thursday: On Thursday morning, I realized that this was officially my last school day of my first week of school in Dublin! (Casual shake of the head by my loving boyfriend at this point... he is not amused by my labeling abilities!!) Time has really flown by in these past couple weeks! For classes on Thursday, I had Intro to Crop Science and Plants and People. Both lectures were very interesting, and I am really excited to learn more from each course that I am in. While in my two lectures, I felt like I was the only student taking notes. It seems as though note taking isn't very popular here! The evening was spent at Whelan's, a pub in the city centre, with Ellen, Pascale, Ciara, and myself. It was such a fun and relaxing night. The part of the pub that we were in even had a fireplace which added a cozy element the I absolutely adored. While we were there, Ciara got me to try a Rum and Cola which had an interesting but kind of good taste, and I had another shandy which is slowly becoming my signature drink. We chatted for so long at the pub that Ellen and I had to take a taxi home because we missed the last bus back to UCD. What a night!
Friday: First day of the weekend for me! Ciara, Ellen, Ellen's friend Ellie, and I all went to Howth for the day. Howth is a small sea side village that has some great hikes and good food choices. We spent quite a bit of the day there walking around, taking in the scenery, and enjoying the atmosphere. We begin the journey on Howth walking along the pier taking many pictures of the coast, the sea, and the adorable seals that were swimming in the harbor looking for leftover fish. While the island was quite beautiful, it was very cold and windy, so we decided to take shelter and have some hot chocolate and lunch. We got hot chocolate from Il Panorama, and it was extremely rich, thick, and exceptionally good. For lunch, we ate at Waterside restaurant, and I had chili over rice. My dish reminded me of home because my mom always makes rice whenever we have chili. After warming up, we headed to the Cliff Walk. It was absolutely beautiful. I was so impressed with the rugged cliffs and green mountainsides. I was so impressed that I had to Skype my dad to show him the amazing terrain. The green loop took about 2 hours since we stopped a lot along the way, but it was totally worth it. We were able to take some really amazing photos, and I can't wait to share them all with you! The train ride home was silent. We were all so tired from our trip to Howth that we all practically fell asleep on the train. Once we arrived back at campus, Ellen and I ate dinner and reenergized ourselves and headed to the city centre to meet Pascale and Abby at the pub. We ended up going to Peader Brown's which was a really nice spot. I got a ... you guessed it.... shandy. I am starting to think that this will be my go to drink this semester! For those who may be confused, a shandy is half beer and half sparkling water or lemonade. I really enjoy the taste as I am not a fan of beer yet.
This week was full of fun adventures, new experiences, and some major adjustments to get used to. The craziest thing to me about classes here is that most of my "modules" are in different rooms on the different days that I have the class/module and sometimes at different times of the day. The schedule will definitely take some getting used to, but I am so excited to finally start my college experience here at UCD.
As usual, I'm adding some more photos to my page tonight so be on the look out for those!
*Weekly Tea Trivia: The Camellia sinensis tea plant can produce tea for 50 years.
Of course I had to throw in a fact dealing with plants... I am here to study horticulture!!
Cheers,
Anna