Dublin, Day 1: Settling In

Not much happened on my first day in Dublin. We packed up to leave, then bid a fond farewell to London and a not-so-fond farewell to the Albert Hotel. We had a bit of an adventure trying to get all 70 or so ASU students checked in, but fortunately we arrived pretty early. The flight was short--only about an hour.

When we arrived in Ireland, the thing that struck me the most was that the signs all had Gaelic as well as English. I wasn't sure if this was just at the airport, but having seen more of the country, it's clear that this is a bilingual nation. Gaelic is everywhere. I've learned a few words just by reading signs. Amach is exit, aras (with an accent on the first A) is building, bialann is restaurant, Atha Cliath is Dublin, an lar is city center, garda refers to the police (gardai is plural), slan is goodbye, etc. It also seems that the adjective may come after the verb, as in Spanish (and probably a bunch of other languages--Spanish is just what I'm familiar with). At the very least, the UCD restaurant sign also says "Bialann UCD".

Our housing here at University College Dublin is pretty nice. We all have flats with a kitchen, common room, and bathrooms, as well as our own private bedroom. It's nice to have my own space and a kitchen conveniently nearby. Also, I like climbing just two flights of stairs instead of about six. There's a grassy area just outside, and I've tossed around a frisbee and kicked around a football with some of the other students. I'm rooming with two of the communications girls, who are pretty cool. I've really been enjoying getting to know them. The one disadvantage of our housing is the location. UCD is pretty far from the city center -- it's a 20 minute bus ride, and the busses only run until 11:30 pm.

The first night we got here, we ate dinner at the restaurant on campus. Later that evening, I went to the on-campus pub with my roommates. We played some pool. Unfortunately, the balls were smaller than ones you'd normally see in the States, and they didn't move as I expected them to. Also, they weren't numbered and only had red and yellow. After making some jokes about how the balls in Ireland are smaller, we attempted to play. It took us a really long time to finish the game because we couldn't hit anything in.

I wonder if getting drunk would actually help?