It crazy to think that we’ve officially reached the halfway point of our trip to Ireland. It’s hard to tell if a summer at home would be flying by like this summer is. The combination of amazing field trips, interesting activities, and time spent with new friends is making all the hours feel like minutes. On Friday night, I joined my coworkers from my internship for dinner and drinks at Hawksmoor in Dublin’s City Centre. This was a great experience where I could get to know my coworkers on a more personal level in a more informal setting than our office. It was a chance for me to learn a lot of the key differences between life in Dublin. From things like tv shows and popular music to more complex issues like cost of living and university, I took away a great deal of information.
Something I should have paid more attention to during this dinner was the warning my boss gave me about how busy the city was going to be this weekend. This past weekend, the city was filled with people coming together for three nights of Taylor Swift, the LGBT pride parade, and the GAA Football All-Ireland Senior Championship. Even at eleven in the morning on Saturday we could see just how crazy the city was getting. Once we finally arrived at our destination we were treated to an afternoon of traditional Gaelic games. The whole program went against each other in a game of Hurling and Gaelic Football. Each sport was like playing an American sport but with slightly different rules. Hurling was very similar to lacrosse, with some aspects that made it feel like baseball. And Gaelic Football was just like soccer, but you could use your hands. Despite the weather, the afternoon was very fun and was a great team bonding exercise for the whole group.
Before I left for Ireland, I told a security guard at my old summer job back home that I was studying in Ireland for most of the summer. The one thing he wanted to hear about when I got back was how Guinness got its distinct chocolate-brown color. On Monday, I learned why this is the case when we visited the Guinness Storehouse: where the founder of Guinness, Arthur Guinness, signed the lease for 9,000 years. This museum was completely different from what I anticipated it would be. Instead of touring through the real factory to see how Guinness is brewed, the museum was made up of artistic renditions of the four ingredients used to brew Guinness. When we got to the part about how Guinness was brewed, I learned that the barely in Guinness is roasted at the same temperature as coffee beans, hence why coffee and Guinness have the same deep brown color. With half the trip down and half to go, I feel like I am truly starting to feel like a part of Ireland. And I can’t wait for this weekend’s trip to Belfast.
