There's Poetry in a Pint of Guinness

Another lovely weekend spent in Dublin!

Friday a large group of us headed into the city centre on an excursion to the world renowned Guinness factory!

We took the bus into town and then walked about 35 minutes out to the edge of Dublin near Pheonix park. It took us a long time to get there because we walked around the whole property (which is rather large!) before coming across the entrance. We walked around, learned about the ingredients, the process of brewing the beer, and the history behind the family, and of course enjoyed a "free" pint at the top of building in the Gravity bar. It was a great day, and a delicious pint!

Fun fact: When drinking a Guinness, first take a small sip and swish it around your mouth. Then take a deep breath and take a large sip and when swallowing, breath out through your nose! You will taste the poetry! It is sweet and savory!

Apparently Guinness tastes the same everywhere and it is only a myth that it tastes better here in Ireland. Guinness is also brewed in various places around the world, however, I like to believe that it does taste better here!

Today we headed off to Newgrange! It is a tomb about an hour away from Dublin! It is magical and incredible. It's not every day that I stand in a 6000 year old tomb built by people from the neolithic period with graffiti from the 1800s. Below is a picture of the entrance where the sun shines into the chamber on the winter equinox. They demonstrated this using "faux" light and it was amazing, I can only imagine what it is like with the sun!

Ireland is full of crack

Although the official language of Ireland is Gaelic (or Gaeilge or Irish), only 2.7% of the population speak it. Sadly, this beautiful and challenging language seems to be dying off. With that said, there are still many words that are commonly used in everyday conversations. Throughout the city there are many signs that are dually written in Irish and English.

This past weekend I had my first experience with the Irish language and unfortunately it was the source of a lot of confusion. A few of us were out at a pub and we began talking with a Irish couple. They were so excited to see our enthusiasm and curiosity about Ireland. They began the conversation with "are you having a lots crack?" As you can imagine we got very nervous, replied with a serious NO. They then seemed to be confused because what sounded to us like crack (drugs) was actually craic, the Irish for fun.

So here is your very own Gaelic lesson! As you will quickly notice, there isn't much rhyme or reason to their spelling! The words often sound incredibly different than how we would pronounce them!

Gaeilge = Gaelic

Slainte (slancha) = cheers

craic (crack) = fun

Mac Leinn (maclane) = student

Bialann = cafeteria

Leobharlann (yaurlan) = Library

mna = ladies toilet

fir = mens toilet

an lar = city centre

Bale Atha Cliath = Dublin

Garda = police

(I had to omit some accents, but this is the gist of it)

So there ya go, some useful Irish words!

Classes are going well. Last night I had my first Art History class, which is actually a music class. It is fantastic! I am learning how to play the bodhran drum and the Irish tin whistle.

The drum is played by holding it vertically on one of your legs and supported by holding your hand behind the skin of the drum. You hold the stick in the other, similar to the way you would hold a pen. When hitting the drum it is important to only move your wrist up and down rather than your whole arm. This probably sounds confusing but don't worry, I'll provide demonstrations when I get back! It is the best three hour class I could ask for! Just be prepared for me to come home with a drum! I am looking forward to sitting in pubs and listening to copious amounts of traditional Irish music.

The Irish whistle is just like the recorder that we all had to learn when we were in elementary school! By the way, does anyone know why almost every person at some point in their schooling has to learn the recorder? It's more difficult because we have to learn which finger corresponds with the correct musical note, but nevertheless it is a great time!

My other classes are also great! or grand as they often say here! Just grand!

This weekend two students are turning 21, so there will be lots of birthday celebrating!

Here are the tentative plans!

Friday: Guinness Storehouse

Saturday: Dun Laoghaire (Dun Leary) It is a coastal town south of Dublin and Howth.

Sunday: Dublin Castle

Ps. Thank you all for following and keeping up with my life here in Dublin! It's amazing how technology can make me feel close to home when I'm over 3,000 miles away!

First Weekend in Dublin!

Dublin is fantastic. This to the left is my dream house I found in Howth!

I have been incredibly busy with orientation meetings, trips to the city centre, multiple pub crawls, and class.

Here is a run down of my adventures this past weekend:

Thursday- After a very smooth plane ride, we arrived in Dublin and were transported to Dublin City University. I am living on campus, in an apartment with 9 other people. The living arrangements are very convenient and well maintained. I have a lovely view of the public park across the road. After meetings and a couple of naps, a few of us ventured out into the city centre to explore, eat and drink. We stumbled into Maddigans, an old pub where we ate fish and chips and drank our first pint. I wasn't brave enough to order a Guinness, so I settled with a Smithwicks. We hit another pub afterwards called Fitzgeralds. It's an old pub, with a cozy booth in the corner where the 8 of us hung out, had another pint, shared many stories and laughs. It was a fantastic way to get to know one another, and very Irish.

Friday- Part of our orientation involved a treasure hunt throughout the city. It was a great exercise to get acquainted and explore the city. After our treasure hunt we shopped around the city and decided to try out some more pubs! We asked a local to suggest us a few of his favorite pubs and we hit Hairy Lemon where I did have my first Guinness! It was smooth and delicious!! This pub had a couple levels, many nooks and crannies to sit in and many young Irish locals. From there we moved onto O'Neills, the 300 year old pub (give or take a couple years) and from there we headed into the famous temple bar area. We stumbled upon Fitzsimons a 5 story pub/bar/night club. It is a great place full of young people and live music! Here we met Susan, a graduate of DCU! She gave us great advice about Dublin and where we should and should not go.

Saturday- A group of us traveled outside of Dublin to Howth (to pronounce, rhyme with boat and add an "h"). It was about a 30 minute bus ride to this lovely little village. It is rather touristy but nevertheless beautiful. It was my first time seeing the Irish Sea and my first time seeing another area of Ireland. We ventured around, went through this beautiful cemetery,

trekked up steep path, found an old radio museum, walked down a pier, and ate smoked cod fish and chips at the Bloody Stream. It was a delicious meal in a cozy, candle lit, corner of the pub. The inside walls were painted stone, there was a fireplace, and many locals. Saturday evening nearly every student in the program (40 people) went out! It was great to be with so many people as we are all still getting to know each other. We all ended up at Fitzsimons again and danced the night away!

Sunday- The day of rest!!!! Sunday Colleen and I intended to rest and get settled into our apartment and go grocery shopping. This soon became a very long and tiring excursion. Most of the students in our apartment decided to come with us and we started off to the grocery market in the wrong direction. After asking for directions we soon realized we took a 1/2 hour detour in the wrong direction! We finally made it to the Omni Shopping Park where we shopped at Tesko! A large grocery market! I filled my large backpack with groceries and trekked home! It was one of our fellow apartment mates 21st birthday, so we had a birthday party and again went out into the city to celebrate. Once again we met more locals and danced the night away!

Monday- Today we had our first class: History of Ireland with Caroline! It was fantastic! Caroline is a Ph.D student here at DCU. She is originally from Galway and she is young, energetic, and a wonderful lecturer.

Tomorrow we have Contempory Irish Society and Art History: Music. There is some talk about learning how to actually play traditional Irish instruments! Grand!

So far, so good. I'm thoroughly enjoying myself here in Ireland. It is a great place!

Here are some photos of the events from above!

Church ruins in the Howth Cemetery.

View of the harbor in Howth