First Weekend

Well then, I though I would throw another update onto here. We are pretty much settled in now. Dave has been a great cook so far and we have made the majority of our own meals. On Friday we had our second Orientation where we picked our classes, talked about some cultural stereotypes, and met the two coolest policemen or "garda" ever to exist. The Garda in Dublin are very laid back and don't carry guns. You can even see them walking the beat around town. They are very approachable and friendly people. It makes me a bit jealous that we have to deal with cops that can sometimes come off as overwhelmingly authoritative but I guess it's just a difference of culture (one particular difference that I prefer here).

After our orientation we filled out our registration for the semester. I have class Monday to Wednesday and am taking 3 courses focused on the Northern Conflict, Celtic Mythology and Legend, and Irish Language and Culture. They should be fun and it really gives me a lot of time to travel if I so choose. Dave, Joe, and I then left to check out the local gym (which they signed up for and I'm saving my money on) and hit up the phone store too. Grafton street is unbelieveable. It is a pedestrian only cobblestone street lined with stores and musicians. It really shows how international the city has become.

We later hit up a local grocery store and brought home potatoes, rice, dinner rolls, and some juices to make ourselves some dinner. The chicken seasoned with Italian dressing was delicious.

After dinner, to all our surprises, we individually passed out even though we all planned on hitting up Comans pub (the local pub in rathgar). We decided to just call it a day and save our energy for the following Saturday.

Saturday: Saturday we rode the Luas for the first time and discovered how ridiculously easier it was to use then to walk. It cost about 3 Euros round trip to St. Stephens Green for the entirety of the day. We rode it from Milton and walked from St. Stephens green, through City Centre passing the Temple Bar along the way, and all the way to the Old Jameson Distillery. We took the tour which basically explained every single step along the way into making Whiskey. Yes, this is how we are spending our money for educational purposes... so at the end of the tour they give you a free sample, to which my room mate can't drink yet with his medication, so I got two. Afterwards we got a late lunch at a cafe downtown, to which I advise against requesting a "soda" because they looked at me funny until I said "Coke?". The Chicken, ham, cheese, and tomato panini I got was absolutely delicious. It was a lot of fun walking around downtown, as I saw an irish band making fun of two girls from denmark because of their funny questions.

Later in the evening we went to Portobellos Pub because we saw it was broadcasting NFL games. We watched the Ravens vs. Titans and a few others from our program showed up as well. We had a pretty good time and left to catch the Luas back before it stopped running. On a side note, I don't know who/what/when checks the luas tickets. We bought them at a computer terminal and no one checked them once the whole time during the day. A sign on the wall said if you are caught without one you have to pay 45 eruo, but we never saw someone check once. Very strange.

Later in the evening I had a 50 minute phone conversation with every single person at Helen's 18th birthday party, Happy Birthday!