Dublin Week

So.... Dublin and I met again!! This was once again an excellent trip for me and the rest of the crew. Flat three of Arboe (where we live in Belfast) started our morning off slow and tired as we had to clean our flat before Nigel and the Derry crew came and got us. We did not only have to clean the flat, but also had to pack up all of our stuff and put them in one room as Stranmills puts other people in our flat when we are gone, but they did not tell us who's flat the stuff was going into until 8AM Monday morning... so everyone had to pack regardless. As the luck of the Irish would have it my room was chosen because it was the cleanest... if I would have known this before hand I could have saved myself some time by not packing my clothes up, but O well what can you do. Nigel then came to pick us up around 10 AM and we hit the road for Dublin in the "beast", this was a long trip because we had to stop a few times for different things, like sunglasses for Nigel because he had grabbed his wife's by mistake. Then we stopped for lunch at a mall, which was a brilliant stop as they had this great bagel restaurant that served gourmet bagels for breakfast, lunch, and supper (most of us had this because we thought it was brilliant), however some of course went with the classic Subway. Of course the bagel did not do me over for lunch, so I had to get a gourmet cookie to go with it. People in the group like to point out sweets to me because they know that I have a huge sweet tooth and can't ever resist them. After lunch we headed to Newgrange, which is one of the oldest sites in the world, and is the oldest site in Ireland and Northern Ireland combined. This site dates back over 5,000 years, and was used as an ancient burial site. The weather was beautiful for touring this site (as it was all week, t-shirts all week, and NO RAIN!!) The group actually got to go inside the hut/cave and look around. Even though the site looks big on the outside it is really small on the inside only about 10 people at a time could go in and see it. There were very low ceilings and narrow tunnels to get us to the burial/ sacrifice spot.I know that it was low ceilings because even I had to duck.  We looked around for awhile and then the tour guide showed us a "light" show. Once a year for nine minutes when the sun rises it will lite the whole cave up, so she showed us how the sun does it with a replica light show, which was a brilliant experience. Then since it was so nice outside we walked around, took some pictures and just relaxed in the fresh cut, extremely green grass. After the tour and such we headed to our accommodations which was at  All Hallows College in Dublin. This was defiantly the best place I have stayed since I have been in N. Ireland and Ireland combined. I had my own room, closet, desk, dresser, bathroom (with a heated towel rack and floor)!! We were also served breakfast everyday so that was really nice. Monday night Nigel took us to a pub close the campus to have supper and a pint if we fancied one. Fagans was where we ended up going which is what I would classify as a fancy pub because the pint was not cheap, nor was the food. When I opened up the menu I almost died inside because all of the items were about fifteen euros or more, so I ended up getting chicken wings and chips (which let me tell you seeing me eating chicken wings is a pretty site). After that we and a couple of my mates just relaxed with talking the crack and listening to some music.

Tuesday brought another extremely beautiful day of weather and learning. We got to experience the city bus for the first time in Dublin, which I would say is a lot like the subway in New York... crowded and always standing. Our first stop of the day was Kilmainham Gaol (jail) which was a place where prisoners of war, or people who were causing problems during the troubles were sent. This place is full of painful memories as many people were publicly executed here. The jail is no longer used, but is instead used as a museum. There are new and old wings to the jail, the new one is used quite often for music videos and concerts as it has a great acoustic system. I felt it quite hard to listen to some of the prisoners stories of how they were executed and why they were, as some of them were often innocent. After this tour we had a picnic on the side walk in the sun. We were all laying in the sun basking it up, when I sat up and saw tourist taking pictures of us, which I thought was really funny. After this we headed to the Guinness Storehouse. This was a really cool experience, as the building does not look like much from the outside, but once you get inside you are totally amazed! There are six floors of stores, pubs, and exhibits. The crew went through the exhibit first and learned about how they make Guinness and beer in general. They had a lot of interactive things for us to look at and do. In the middle of the tour you could take a small sample of Guinness, which most of us did, where you learned how to properly drink a Guinness (you have to use all five senses). Then we continued up to the Gravity pub on the 6th floor, where we received our free pint of Guinness (really fresh and ice cold = Perfect). I had never had Guinness before I came to the storehouse so this was a real experience for me. I guess Guinness is not my favorite beer, but it worked because it was free and I had to walk up 6 flights of stairs for it. The pub had windows all around it so you could practically see the whole city from the top, it was extremely beautiful and not something I will never forget any time soon. We all had to get the Guinness stash from drinking the pint so that was pretty funny to see. The group likes to make fun of me for being so small, so after I said this Guinness is going to take a long time to drink because I ate to much lunch they decided to make that into the joke of the day. "I had lunch so I can't finish my Guinness" #skinnygirlproblems. After we finished gift shopping and what not at the storehouse we headed off to tour the Trinity college library where we looked at the book of Armagh which is pretty close the our program directors heart. The college was really cool, as was the library, there were two floors of really old books and some pretty cool statues. Trinity college also had a big lawn for us to lay on, so the whole group took a little nap on the grassy knoll for about an hour before we headed off again. Nigel left us to find out own supper so me and a mate went and had fish and chips. We decided after we paid almost 9 euros each for this that Dublin is not a cheap city at all. We found that people are very friendly there though because when the two of us were trying to figure out which bus stop to get off at multiple people directed us to the right one, as well as made sure we were off the bus. Tuesday night consisted of relaxation and watching a movie with a few mates.

Wednesday was our day to visit parliament, so that meant getting dressed up and talking to the big shots. We met with three different representatives and talked to them about their goals, and how the plan to bring peace and reconciliation to Ireland and N. Ireland. We were supposed to meet with four politicians, BUT there are 11 girls and 1 guy in the program so all of the girls had to use the toilet at once, and as luck would have it there was only one, so Nigel had to cancel one of the meetings. Jackson and Nigel timed us, and it took 22 minutes to get 11 girls through the toilet. So that is a new standing joke at every place we stop at now. At parliament we got to sit in on sessions of their Senate and House of Representatives. The day ended early for us as we got done at 2 PM, so me and two other mates grabbed some lunch and then explored Dublin for the better part of the day, which consisted of sitting in the sun a lot and soaking up those rays. That night I and a few other girls decided to check out the Temple Bar district which is a very popular part of Dublin. We ended up on a pub called Buskars which had live music, the music was so good that we stayed until the band was done at about midnight. This band played all American classics so we were all very happy students. I and another girl went to talk to the band to find out where they were from and as the Irish luck would have it once again o the main singer was from Anoka county Minnesota!! We once again got to experience how expensive Dublin is with the cab ride home which cost the 5 of us 12 euros total, which is a lot of a cab over here.

Thursday was probably the best day this week for me and many of my mates... well all except for two that were really sick with food poisoning from something they ate the night before. Nigel took us to Glencree Peace and Reconciliation Centre which is a lot like Corrymeela, where groups can go to work out peace and find a comfortable and shared space for each other. We talked to the directors there who filled us in on how they are working with N. Ireland on reconciliation steps. They provided us a brilliant lunch of soup and bread with different types of toppings. Then begin it was once again a nice day the crew played some soccer  which was a really fun, we played for about 2 hours. We played monkey in the middle for a long time which was a lot of fun because if the ball was kicked to high in the air we would just play with it like it was a volleyball. I really struggled with this game because I used my hands to much, like if the ball was coming at my upper body I would just grab it, which was breaking so many soccer rules. Also when I was in the middle I would whip out my basketball skills, get down in the defense position and get that ball... this epically failed for me when Nigel had the ball, what happened was a complete freak accident, as I was going for the ball I kind of tripped right as he was kicking the ball. So as all of you are probably guessing right now YUP I did get a nice kick of the soccer ball to the face, as well as some foot (Nigel did not think I was that close). I thought it was so funny, but Nigel felt really bad, and the rest of the group was in complete shock because I was laughing so hard I was crying and they could not tell if I was crying for real or not. Let me tell you a soccer ball to the face is not the best feeling in the world, but it did make for a great story. There were a few other incidents in the games that we played as well, such as we missing the ball when I went to kick it and I laid myself out on the ground. The day continued on to Wicklow county where we walked around a brilliant lake and took some time to take pictures and chill out. We all spent the evening relaxing and watching a movie once again.

Friday is when we packed up and headed back home. We spent most of the day driving around Nigel's hometown area. This was a much anticipated day for many of us because we were all dying to know Nigel's role and place in the troubles. As we expected we heard his story, all I can say about it is that I am shocked and not surprised in many ways. But getting to know someone who was closely involved with the troubles has changed my way of viewing a lot of things here and at home. As I returned back to Arboe 3 I realized that the week had gone by extremely quickly, as well the program is quickly coming to an end, which is a very sad thought for me in many ways. This would be because I have grown to love the country, my group mates, and have learned  so much about myself.

 Cliff in Wicklow County

 Hill in Wicklow County

 Ducks that I was obsessed with once I found them

 Emily and I

 Newgrange

 That hill in the center is an a hill that a tunnel in Newgrange leads to.

 Rock in front of Newgrange

Here are some beef cows for the AG lovers out there. When I see livestock I really start to miss home.
Well this week I will be working all week and preparing for my Spring break trip to GREECE. Which I am extremely excited about!!! So look for the next post after that.