On the road to Dublin

So, apparently we have to keep a blog during our time abroad. I arrived in Ireland yesterday and will be staying here for at least four and a half months. I had to get up quite early because my plane left at 11 a.m. and I don’t live close to the airport at all. My journey started without any problems worth mentioning. I met my two travelling companions Lisa and Luuk at the airport in Eindhoven and from there on we travelled together to the Saint Patrick’s College in Dublin where we will be taking classes. At first we had a difficult time figuring out which bus to take and where to get out, as the transport system here isn’t at all similar to that in the Netherlands. When we finally arrived at our destination we noticed the college was abandoned. It felt weird because I had expected it to be very crowded and filled with students. Then we met our student adviser, Owen, who is himself a student here. He explained to us that most of the international students would arrive on Sunday and Monday. Asked where all the Irish students were, he replied that pretty much all of them go home to their parents during the weekends since they’re here on weekdays. So that gave us the opportunity to explore the college, the nearby city centre and other facilities that the school offers in peace and quiet. Then, slowly but surely other students arrived and since we were the first ones here, we got to meet them one by one. Most of them were very eager to meet us and sit with us in the common room. Others just went to their rooms and stayed there. We hung out with a small group of students (approximately 10 or so) in the common area yesterday, playing games, secretly drinking beer and telling stories about ourselves. Lisa brought this silly game from home which required us to be physically active in order to win. Maybe that’s why I lost both times..
At nightfall we all went to our tiny bedrooms and we agreed to meet up in the common room the following morning to explore whatever we could find on walking distance from the school. We went to the city centre to get a first impression of Dublin. The streets were crowded and the buildings had a beautiful, rather typical architectural style. After visiting a few shops we went to a pub. After all, it is Ireland we’re talking about here. We had a great time there and ever since we have been to many pubs. I even took up a great new hobby: collecting (stealing) coasters from Irish pubs. I already have eight so far. They all will look marvellous at my new place when I return for the Netherlands.
So, what’s life on campus like? By now, I’ve got quite used to living here. We are living here with approximately 35 international students from all over Europe and the U.S. This weekend, the Irish students whom we will be living with also arrived. So far, we haven’t really spoken to them that often and I feel like there are two separate groups being formed right now. The international students on one end, and the Irish on the other. This will probably change over time though. The international students are really great, I feel like we’re really starting to become good friends. We cook and eat together, go out together – rather often, and are discovering Ireland together. Because our bedrooms are so tiny and crappy, we mainly all just hang out in the common room.
What else did we do this week? Let’s see, we were taught the art of hurling, which is a really popular sport in Ireland. At first sight it looks like a combination of baseball and hockey where you can score goals in soccer goals and rugby poles. Most of us totally sucked at it but I think we were also fascinated by the sport and we’re definitely going to practice often to master the skills required to hit the balls for more than 10 yards and to actually make the ball land at the place where we were aiming. Also, we are going to buy tickets to see a professional hurling game because unlike how it went down with us, it actually looks really amazing when people actually know how to play. Furthermore, we were introduced to Irish folk dance. A few third year students were given the task to teach us but they struck me as quite unfamiliar with the ways of the Irish folklore. The whole thing was just a laugh, with our instructors only knowing half of the steps rather than an actual lesson. We all had a great time though and that was probably the most important thing.