I have now been in Ireland for a full four days, and it is incredibly hard to believe I was on a tarmac in Windsor Locks, Connecticut just last Friday. Despite the fact that I haven’t even started my internship, I have felt quite overwhelmed at times, and am really glad that we had a few free days to get settled into our new life in Dublin. I am currently writing this on Tuesday evening getting ready for my first day of work tomorrow, feeling much more comfortable about my time here, but getting used to living in a new country can be quite difficult.
One thing that had made the transition to life abroad a lot easier is the general friendliness of the populus here in Ireland. When I was telling friends and family about my upcoming trip this was something that was mentioned a lot, but it didn’t click with me until I finally experienced it. Despite it being around 5 AM local time when I landed, I was greeted with dozens of cheery smiles and warm welcomes from everyone I interacted with when I got off the plane. I was one of the first three people on the trip to arrive in Dublin, and our cab driver gave us a hilariously honest and informative tour of the city as we made our way from the airport to the UCD campus (everything they say about the dry humor is more than true as well). After getting settled in and exploring campus for a bit, I was super excited to find a basketball court just a short walk from our campus. Surprisingly, the weather has been great so far, with just a scattered shower here and there and very comfortable temperatures.
A friend of my parents had told me that during a trip to England in his teenage years, he played a few pickup basketball games and he and his brother were by far the best on the court, despite minimal basketball experience. I am consistently one of the lesser players when playing pickup with my friends at Bucknell or at home, and was exited to show off my natural American talent here in Dublin; however I was quickly humbled by some very skilled young Dubliners. One highlight of this basketball experience was meeting another exchange student from Germany, Max. That night was the Champions League Final, arguably one of the biggest soccer/football matches of the year, where an underdog team from Germany, Borussia Dortmund, was taking on a heavily favored Real Madrid team. Dortmund happens to be one of my favorite teams as they have had a lot of American players on their roster over the years, so a few Bucknell students and I decided to meet up with our new friend Max to watch the game in Dublin City. Despite the Dortmund loss, it was really fun to hang out with another student who had been in Dublin for a while and knew his way around.
Unfortunately, most of Sunday was lost to recovering from jet-lag and a late night, but we did get a nice tour of campus and a few more games of basketball. I also used the free day to try and familiarize myself with the bus system, making my way to the quaint coastal town of Blackrock and back fairly easily. It was really nice to get into a more regimented flow of tasks on Monday between our first class and a trip to the EPIC Emigration Museum. As someone with Irish heritage, it was really cool to get a pretty thorough background of the Irish diaspora across the world. The museum was very cool, but the whiplash between tragic stories and cool facts was definitely throwing me off a bit, and I wish that we got a more thorough understanding of the factors that lead to so much turmoil on the island. Our tour guide was incredible though, and one fact I was really shocked to learn is that all athletes within the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) are unpaid, despite some Hurling and Gaelic Football matches drawing crowds upwards of 80,000 people.
Great start to the Blog Cole.
Great kick off to your weekly blog! Very engaging and informative. Glad you got to explore Blackrock a little too. Looking forward to hearing more about your internship next week.
Your blog was very informative and I enjoyed hearing what you have been doing while in Dublin. I am looking forward to your next blog. Thanks for sharing this with us, Cole.
Good to hear from you. This is a great time to be in Ireland, weather wise. You’re related to the Carberrys (horse racing fame); the Ryan’s and the Adairs (they were from Northern Ireland), and remained loyal to the King of England. That was many years ago. Hope this goes through. Love, Grandma Van
Thanks for the comment! I just learned how popular horse racing is here, I didn’t know it was such a big deal. I will definitely ask around