let's catch up!

I'm sorry it's been so long! The last 4-5 days have been so hectic, amazing, exciting, and adventurous. Let me go day by day and just update you on the basics!
Sunday: I spent the day learning the bus system, went down to Dun Laoghaire on the water front. I walked along the whole boardwalk, went to a bookshop, and then met up with some girls from my program to go to the beach. I ALMOST jumped in the Atlantic ocean. Got in about to my knees and then chickened out! Oh well. The Sunday and Monday I was feeling a little lonely because everyone else in the program has roommates from our program in their host family home stays. I felt kind of alone and isolated. But that quickly faded. 2 girls live within 5 minutes of me on one side and 2 boys within 5 mins of the other side. So now I'm feeling much better and very happy!
Monday: We started classes with an orientation and tour of the campus. I'm attending the Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design, and Technology or IADT for short. There's a really cute pub nearby where we've been eating lunch. Monday we also began classes. I'm taking an Irish Cinema and Film class. Our professor is awesome and very knowledgeable. We will be talking about Irish film in the sense of how foreign directors (American, British, etc) portray the Irish and how the Irish portray themselves. We are doing film reviews and lots of discussion. Then I have a long lunch break and then a literature class which centers around Irish folklore, myth, and legend. We read a few stories each night. We relate the history of Irish literature (oral and written) to Irish history. Extremely interesting. Monday we went into Dublin and looked around downtown (in Ireland instead of downtown you just say in town). We had coffee and then headed back home. Dublin is about a 20 minute train ride from where we live around Dun Laoghaire. The train is called the DART. Monday night a bunch of the kids from the program went out to a pub and got to know each other better. There was a big thunder storm which is rare for Ireland but was really beautiful!
Tuesday: Class again, lots of reading and discussions, very fun. After school a few of the boys and I (lads and I we would say here) went into Dublin by DART. We walked across the River Liffy and around the Temple Bar area of Dublin. Temple Bar area is really artsy, young, and fun. There are tons of galleries, coffee shops, pubs, shops, and second hand clothes stores. We got some traditional.... Mexican food :) and then the lads and I went to the National Leprechaun Museum. Yes this is a real place... It was so fun. We had a great tour guide who was hilarious. We learned all about the history of Leprechauns. There was also a huge room with larger than life furniture so you feel like a small Leprechaun. It was a really awesome (slightly child-centered) and very interactive museum. Then we took the DART back to Dun Laoghaire. We went home for dinner and then headed down to the beach to hang out with most of the kids from our program. We ended up walking about 3 miles home since the busses stoped running at 11:30 (23:30 here).
Today (Wednesday): We headed into Dublin really early with our whole group and our professors. We toured Trinity College which is in the center of Dublin. It was built in 1609 and is absolutely gorgeous. The architecture is unbelievable. Up till the recent economic crisis, colleges in Ireland, including Trinity were virtually free to Irish citizens. Now it costs some money to attend but certainly not like our college system. The professors toured us around the city center, showing us all the famous streets so we can get our bearings. We had lunch and then went over to Dublin's stadium: Croke Park. This is home to the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA). The GAA is in charge of Gaelic Football (soccer but with different rules including picking the ball up and serving it almost like a volleyball) and also Hurling, which is in my mind like a mix of lacrosse, baseball, and cricket. Both are very exciting to watch and very intense. The two sports are closely intertwined. My favorite part about the GAA is that it is all amateur and based on community clubs. Kids start playing the sports when the are really young (5-7) and then advance in their community club up and up until maybe they make it to Croke park. The teams never go pro. There's a team for each county and they compete against each other. It's so great because there's such a sense of community and national pride. On Sunday, we are going to a Hurling match! It's a really big deal here and we are going to get really into it, team colors, facepaint, and lots of yelling! The match is Killkenny vs. Galway. Kilkenny has won 4 years in a row so we are rooting for the underdogs- Galway. We toured the GAA museum and the whole stadium. We got to go in the team dressing rooms, the top VIP boxes, and even the team lounges. You have to understand the GAA sports are a HUGE deal in Ireland. Extremely huge. I'm so excited for Sunday. I started to get a bit cranky and tired and hungry, as did some of the others. So we headed home and the bus and by foot and since then I've been sleeping and relaxing. I'm about to go read some Irish mythology and then hit the hay.

I cannot believe what an amazing time I'm having here. I have met such unforgettable people even in these few short days. I cannot believe how much we have been walking, sometimes up to 5-7 miles a day without sitting around or stopping. I'm not complaining though, my legs are going to be so strong! It's crazy how little Americans walk! Everyone walks and using public transportation here. Bus and train and feet! All the buses are double decker. They are so fun but a little nerve racking! The streets are SO narrow and the buses make such sharp turns! Tomorrow I have class in the morning. Then our group is going to play Rounders, a traditional Irish game which I don't really know about yet! So we will see. We are hopefully going to do a Northwest vs. Midwest(eastish) match. Northwest will clearly win. :) Virtually everyone in our program is either from Oregon or Michigan. I'm obviously not and another girl is from Indiana but we are the ONLY ones! So crazy! After class and the game we are all going into Dublin to explore the nightlife.

I am having a mind blowing- whirlwind time! I miss you all and I'll try to update more frequently and less lengthily! Hope all is well back in the states or wherever you are!

Loves-J