Kilmainham Gaol

Yesterday we enriched ourselves in the Irish culture by visiting Kilmainham Gaol.Kilmainham Gaol has played an important part in Irish history, as many leaders of Irish rebellions were imprisoned and some executed in the jail. The jail has also been used as a set for several films. The jail was closed in 1926 but reopened to the public in the 1980's after an extensive restoration project. The design of the jail was revolutionary for its day because it featured separate rooms for each prisoner. Previously, all the prisoners were put into big rooms together, and were able to receive food and drink from the street. We were told that most of the prisoners in the old jails would be drunk by 11 am each day. In one of the cells there was this beautiful painting by a woman whose husband had been executed for his action in the Easter 1916 rebellion. It was a really cool place to visit, and recommend it as a place to visit in Dublin.

BC in Dublin

Last night I had my best meal since being here. We had a reception of the BC house, which is right on St. Stephen's Green in the middle of the city, and met all the Trinity students and our program coordinators. After a few cocktails we headed out to dinner at a Japanese restaurant. This was my first time having Japanese food and I loved it. We ordered so much it was great. There was about a 30 minute stretch where we had about 10 different dishes come with sushi, dumplings, and scallops and a few bottles of wine too. We then had these huge main courses which were amazing as well, and topped it off with New York Cheesecake. Thanks BC!

Will Ferrell in Dublin

Will Ferrell received the James Joyce Award from the Literary and Historical Society at UCD for his excellence in something. Movies perhaps? I wonder what Joyce would think about him? I really don't know why he got it, but like everything here there was an after party at a Dublin club after. Maybe BC should start doing this too, so when they have speakers come we have after parties with them. I bet Barack and McCain would've been really fun. Anyhow, Will Ferrell actually showed up at the club, stayed for a bit, and then did a lap of the bar which I expected he would do at most.

Today was probably the best weather we've had so far. There wasn't a single cloud in the sky and the campus actually looked nice for once.

R.I.P. Heath (1979-2008)

On behalf of the Country of Ireland we would like to say that we are all deeply saddened by the sudden death of Heath Ledger. With a great role in "10 Things I Hate About You" and "Brokeback Mountain", Heath was a pivotal part to all of our childhoods. I don't know what Jake Gyllenhaal will do in those mountains without him.

No Rain

It didn't rain today for the first time since we got here. That is all.

GIANTS TO THE SUPERBOWL

Had a great time watching the New York Football Giants beat the Packers. There is only one place in Dublin that stays open for the entire game so we walked over around 8 to the Wool Shed which is an Australian bar on the other side of the city. Saw the Pats win again blah, blah, blah. Then the main event finally started around 1130 over here. Most of the bar was made of Americans so it was fun to meet a lot of people from all over. We met up with our buddy Simon, and some of us were being recruited to play American football here for the Dublin City Rhinos so I guess they aren't very good. At half-time everyone left since today was our first day of class, but I couldn't miss the end of the game so I stayed by myself. I ended up meeting a group of people from D.C., and watched the rest of the game with them. One of the them was a BC class of '01 so it was fun to talk to him. It was a great game, and the bar had these two huge projection screens so it was a great atmosphere. Finally got home around 4am, slept for 4 hours and was up at 8 to go to class which was just amazing. Can't wait till the Super Bowl when the Giants can beat the Pats ruining their perfect season.

Cultural Immersion

Last night we hung out with our new friend Simon whom we met while watching the NFL playoff games last week. He plays American Football so he was glad to have people to talk to about it. He invited us out for the night and we fully immersed ourselves in the Dublin culture. He took us to a few pubs and clubs around the city, and then we capped off the night back at his house where they were having a party since there house was being evicted. It was good craic and it was an experience to say the least.

TV Commercials

Boston is home to some of the worst TV commercials, especially those Bob's Discount Furniture ones featuring those annoying Red Sox players that everyone in Boston loves. Well here in Ireland the commercials are much more entertaining and this is just one of many great ones.

UCD

Today we ventured down to the beautiful UCD campus for our orientation. It was pretty worthless, but we went on a short tour and saw some of the campus. It's relatively easy for us to get around since all of our classes are in this one huge building, but getting around it is a little difficult. In order to find your way they have different colored stripes that guide you to each section. I will post some pictures of the unique architecture of the campus buildings soon.

Howth

Today we travelled outside of the city a bit to the town of Howth (pronounced like both). Howth is a small peninsula northeast of the city and is mainly a fishing town, but it does have some amazing cliffs. After some early struggles finding a restaurant and then the correct path we came to the summit of the town after about a half hours journey. Once we got to the top we met up with a few friends that joined us on the rest of our walk. Our friends were actually three dogs that started following us, and stayed with us for about two hours. There were some great sites from the cliffs and everyone had a good time.

Look right then left

As I was warned by my roommate Chris, it is very different having cars drive on the opposite sides of the street and having to look right first instead of left. On the first day there were numerous times where we thought we would get hit. We have also observed that cars and buses do not slow down when they see pedestrians crossing, and if anything speed up. Both cars and buses drive very close to the sidewalks as well, so that is another concern of ours. 

Everyone's Here

I had the pleasure of being woken up by our last roommates arrival, Bob. So once he put his stuff down we figured he would like to see some of the local attractions, so we went to the closest pub down the street. The four of us enjoyed our first pint of Guinness together and then headed off to the grocery store. Our productivity level really skyrocketed yesterday. We even got cell phones so now we can contact each other which is grand. So after we got our cell phones we took Bob to another pub in the Grafton St area. Later we made our first dinner which consisted of some pasta and garlic bread. We had some minor issues trying to turn the oven on, but being four intelligent Boston College students we were able to figure it out. After dinner we met up with the other BC students and went out to another pub and had a good time. To finish off the night everyone came back to our place in an attempt to watch the Patriots game, but we didn't get it but i really didn't care. Line up for today includes watching the Colts-Chargers game, and then the Giants-Cowboys game, and thats pretty much all we'll do today, not so productive.

Good Craic

So we have all settled into our new home for the next few months, and it's going well so far. We almost burnt it down the first day, but we're moving on from that. We did plenty of walking around the city and had a few pints of Guinness along the way. We watched some quality US tv shows after our naps (Seinfeld, Friends, and Scrubs), but we ended up being a little late going out to get dinner. Fortunately I was able to use my american charm and got us some bowls of stew which was grand. We found some other goods pubs last night, and have plenty to choose from. We plan on doing some more exploring today, and might get something done, but probably not.

What a start

What a great start to my trip! I found out this morning that my flight on Aer Lingus had been canceled and I was booked on a North American Airlines flight instead. I have never heard of North American Airlines, so I figured that the crazy Irish just meant American Airlines. The American flight that left at 6:15 would make me go through London, and get me into Dublin around 12:00pm Friday. This meant no longer meeting up with my roomates Greg and Mike since they were both arriving a few hours earlier. Upon arrival to JFK I found out that a North American Airlines does exists, and that everything was practically the same, but they had moved us to a North American plane. The woman at the Aer Lingus desk was even nice enough to change my seat from a regular aisle to an emergency aisle, which meant plenty of legroom. So now I'm just in JFK waiting to be boarded. So hopefully all goes well and I get to meet up with everyone in Dublin tomorrow morning.