All Settled In...

I have been in Dublin almost a week and for the most part am all settled in. I know my way around school, have found the cheapest places to buy my groceries and am starting to be able to make my way around the city without having my nose in a map. I get along with my two roommates really well. Natalie (goes to Purdue and is in my major, but we are just becoming friends here) and I share a room and then Jorin (born and raised in Sweden, but parents are from China) lives with us as well. We are all very different, but I have been able to find common ground with both of them and I am looking forward to getting to know them better.

During the week I meet with professors, decided which classes I would be taking for sure, and then went to class. This weekend, thankfully I got to explore a bit and see some really amazing things. Thursday was defiantly the highlight of my week since I got to see one of my favorite musicians, Damien Rice, play in concert and then went to the same Pub that he was at! I know I have already shared this with some of you, but I was pretty excited about it and it was kind of by chance that I got to go.

On Friday night it was culture night in Dublin, so many historical sites and museums were open late, and were free. Natalie, Jorin, a French girl (I don’t remember her name, but she was very nice), and I went around and saw a bunch of stuff. We first went to the National Art Museum and saw many beautiful paintings and also got to see an Edvard Munch exhibit. He is a very famous artist that did prints and it was amazing getting to see the originals. Next we went to see The Book of Kells at Trinity College library. For those of you who don’t know what this is, it is the 4 gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) written in Latin and embellished with these beautiful symbolic drawings. It was all written/drawn on calfskin and was done in the 9^th century. The Library at the college was amazing as well. It houses over 200,000 manuscripts and books, has really high arched ceilings, is all made out of really beautiful dark wood, and has the ladders that you would imagine in a really old library. Unfortunately I couldn’t take pictures there. After this we went to see St. Patrick’s cathedral, which is massive, very intricately designed and decorated, and very old. Saturday Natalie and I went to see Dublin Castle as well as Christ’s Church and a few other places. The castle was really neat, but is more like a palace than a castle. It had a lot of history behind it and was very lavish. Today parts of it are used for government offices and such things. We only got to see the outside of Christ’s Church, but it was still very neat.         

This morning I went to church with Jorin. She goes to a Chinese church and I liked it a lot, but I kind of stood out because I was the only white person there and I was a bit taller that most people. I am used to standing out and being stared at after being in Zimbabwe though. I will probably go back, especially since it is nice to go to church with someone else rather than on your own. After church we wandered around the city center, which is a touristy area with lots of shops, people, and street musicians. I love being here for so many reasons. Of course I love the adventure of being in a new place and experiencing a different culture, but I also love how old everything is here and all the history behind things. I also love the diversity of the city, how you can walk, ride a bike, or take public transport everywhere, and how easy it is to travel to other countries. I look forward to traveling around Ireland in the near future, as well as meeting more new people and building friendships.   

I am having some trouble posting pictures, but I will try to put some up in the near future.