It has officially been one month and I expected to have transitioned into the Dublin lifestyle a little more than I have. By this point I expected: the jetlag to be over, to have caught any of the common colds going around the area and have recuperated, to have found a place to call “mine,” and to have made some new friends outside of Champlain.
To a degree, this has happened. It took a few days to get on a normal sleep schedule, but that was the worst I heard someone experience. The cold: it’s gone around and only a precious few are still fighting it. A place to call mine is definitely Bewley’s on Grafton Street. I love going up to the James Joyce Balcony and if you get there at the right time, it’s a perfect place to read a book. Bewley’s is a very popular café that used to be a tea room years ago that hosted writers like James Joyce, Samuel Beckett, Patrick Kavanagh, and Sean O’Casey. If you do go, get one of their desserts. The tiramisu and carrot cake are to die for! If you never get the chance to visit yourself, you can have a sneak peak and a virtual tour here.
Some students have joined gyms as a way to “claim” a place, or go for runs in Phoenix Park. Another place I like to go is to sit in St. Stephen’s Green and read. Others in the past have joined church groups or started volunteering for programs like Fighting Words.Meetup.com is a great tool to find club and groups, but if there is something you’re interested in doing, the staff and faculty at Champlain will help you find a place to go.
But it has been hard to make new friends. It’s been hard when it rains to be motivated to get out of the apartments. I feel I get in a mindset where I think It’s okay. I have a whole semester to explore Dublin. This is false and already a month has gone by. Luckily, Champlain has been wicked helpful in providing students with activities to prevent exactly this. As talked about in previous posts, many of the classes have gone on fieldtrips to museums around town, like the Hugh Lane Gallery, the Garden of Remembrance, and the National History Museum. A lot of the classes try to utilize what is available at Trinity College, having gone there to look at the library collection, and the geological museum. Last weekend there was a trip to the Stag’s Head for a weekly comedy show. For a few hours we got free entertainment and ice cream and were in the company of other Dubliners.
There was a day trip to the Hills of Tara, which even though I wasn’t enrolled in the class, I was allowed to go. Almost all of the trips are open to any student, and like the Hills of Tara trip, many professors bring some of their other students from different colleges. It was a great chance to meet some other American and French study abroad students. Along the same idea, Stephen McMahon, the Writing in the City professor, is establishing a scrabble tournament with his students at Rathmines College as yet another tool to get Champlainers out of the apartments and to meet others.
If worse comes to worse and you find yourself in the apartment a lot, stay in the city center after class and ask a faculty member a place they’d recommend going, even if it’s just a stroll through the Iveagh Gardens for some fresh air.
Images courtesy of visitdublin.com (Bewleys), Stephen McMahon (WRT class in front of the statue in the Garden of Remembrance), and Emma Crockett (Iveagh Gardens- I didn’t have my camera when we went).
Abbie Clark
Professional Writing Major, Champlain College, Class of 2013