Settling into my plush seat in the back corner of my bus back to Cork from dublin. I've gotten a combined ten hours of sleep maybe in the last three nights, so this is totally welcome. My friends are sitting in front of me, and I know once I start talking to them I'll never rest. So I'm being the typical antisocial kid in the back of the bus, oops.
Despite having no phone, I did manage to find people to hang out with in Dublin (shocker amirite?). I ran into a girl from my program in subway of all places. She, her roommate, and I wandered the streets of downtown for like an hour before we ended up back at our hotel. Outside, both my roommates and two other girls who'll be in limerick this fall were waiting for a hop on hop off tour bus. I joined them and after a few minutes' wait, we saw the very last bus of the night speed past us and sprinted onto it. It was so late that all the stops on the tour like kilmainham gaol and the Jameson distillery, had already closed. The tour was still fun though, since we were on the open air top deck of the bus, the sun was setting, and our bored tour guide rattled off any joke that came to mind.
We rode through phoenix park, which was absolutely divine, and swung by the Jameson distillery too.
After we got off the bus, the five of us went to an Irish dance and music show that was going on in our hotel. Even though ive heard irish music my whole life, the live experience far surpassed my expectations. I really enjoyed the dance part too. The music and routines were more diverse than I expected; it went beyond the kicking and traditional Irish music that I always associated with Irish dance. Overall, a fun night until my roommates and I passed out in our room at 11. Well, they did-I tossed and turned . For a few hours before I finally gave up and went for a run along the River Liffey.
The next day, we had 6 hours of orientation sessions about academics and student life in ireland. The monotony of meetings as broken up by a trip to an actual GAA facility where we learned about Gaelic games. We got a basic overview of Irish football and hurling rules as well as some of the historical context behind the sports. The irish are particularly obsessed with their games right now as the all ireland Irish football and hurling championships take place this month. We went to the fields to try both sports for ourselves, where I kicked myself in the face with an Irish football about five times. We also did a little hurling and already, a big group of us are planning to hit the pubs for Sundays All Ireland final.
After partaking in such a traditionally Irish pasttime, I and ten or twelve people in my program continued to celebrate Irish culture..with two hours at a Malaysian karoake bar near our hotel. The songs were cheesy, the guys embarrassed themselves, and it was a great time. We planned to go out afterwards, but enough people wanted to get a good night's sleep that we decided against it. Still, the twelve of us packed into one of boys' rooms, played some music, and talked for a while.
The last few days, I've hung out with five guys, two from NU, and four girls pretty consistently. During our orientation today, we were the typical crowd in the back of room making jokes and laughing out loud the entire time. They seem very friendly and we've started messing around with each other and there's some inside jokes and stuff. Knowing that I'll be living near and travelling with such laid back, funny people has definitely made me feel better about this semester.
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