As my time in Dublin has wound down, I’ve thought a lot about what I’m excited to go back to in Texas (driving, Kerbey queso, being able to wear shorts), but I’ve also found that there are a lot of things I’ll miss about Ireland. The theme of this whole experience has been cultural exchange; I’ve learned so much about Irish culture, and I’ve also answered tons of questions about Texas and American culture. So in that vein, I give you ten things Dublin could learn from Austin, and ten things the ATX could learn from the Irish.

Ten things Dublin could learn from Austin:

1. How to make Mexican food. I’ve seen sriracha put on burritos. No. Just no.
2. How to two-step. They actually play a lot of country music here, so they’re already halfway there.
3. What clothes dryers are. Most people do not have dryers here and instead line dry their clothes (which is hard to do when it rains every day) or dry them on their radiators (which is a fire hazard).
4. The correct price for a bus. After having the University of Texas pay my bus fare, the idea of spending nearly three dollars for a bus to take me a mile down the road was hard to swallow.
5. What the sun is. I know Dublin can’t help that it rains every day, but the city could definitely use more sunshine.
6. That the television show Dallas is not an accurate representation of Texas. The top two questions I’ve been asked upon telling someone I’m from Texas are “Does everyone wear those big hats?” and “Who shot J.R.?”
7. That you take tequila shots with lime. Not lemons. It’s a travesty.
8. How to make a PB&J sandwich. Peanut butter isn’t widely available, and when you do find it, it doesn’t look or taste like the stuff we have at home. Grape jelly is also not something the Irish eat, though they make jams in every other flavor imaginable.
9. To drive on the right side of the road. Like ninety-nine percent of the world does.
10. The beauty of a grid system. Navigating downtown Austin is relatively easy. Everything is just numbers and rivers. Navigating Dublin’s City Centre? Not so much.

Ten things Austin could learn from Dublin

1. What a real pub is. Because it ain’t Sherlock’s Baker Street. Pub culture is definitely the thing I’ll miss most about Ireland.
2. That it’s not Saint Patty’s Day. Paddy’s or Patrick’s.
3. The mystical wonder that is Penneys. The single most fantastic store in the wide world.
4. What Guinness really tastes like. You don’t really know until you’ve had one at a bar down the street from the brewery. Or better yet, at the Storehouse.
5. To walk instead of drive. To be fair, Austin is a pretty fit city, and I walk a lot more there than in Magnolia, but Dubliners walk something like 4.5 miles a day on average, just getting to work/school/grocery shops/etc. The distance I walk to school or work in Dublin is about like walking from Lamar to 35, and it’s not unusual to do that several times a day in dress shoes.
6. How to write the date and time. Putting the day first makes much more sense, and using a twenty-four clock keeps you from accidentally setting your morning alarm for 6:30 PM.
7. What being friendly means. I know friendship is our state motto and the South is known for its hospitality, but the Irish have us completely beat. I doubt if there is a country in the world more welcoming of its visitors.
8. That you aren’t actually Irish. Even though your ancestors might have been, you aren’t unless you’ve lived through the hardships the country has had to face, went through the horrors of having to learn Irish in school, and know who the current Taoiseach is (or how to pronounce that word, for that matter).
9. How to sell flights for $15. RyanAir is probably one of the greatest things about Europe. A flight from Dublin to London, if you book it early, is only nine euro ninety-nine.
10. To take a break and have a cup of tea. It really helps to break up the day, gives you a reason to get up and stretch your legs, and generally helps you relax, even if for just a couple minutes. The Irish would probably still take tea if there were an apocalypse on.

St Patrick’s Week

I spent St Patrick’s Day in Dublin. Now, you’re probably expecting that we got spectacularly drunk and everyone sang Molly Malone. But Paddy’s Day for me was, in a word, anticlimactic. I didn’t go to the parade because I kind of hate parades, and I didn’t figure I’d like them any better in a foreign country. I did go out to a bar with some friends, I did wear a shamrock in my hair, and we did have a grand time. But I ended up back home before midnight relatively sober and generally irritated by the obscene number of tourists in the city centre (which was probably the most authentically Irish way to be on St Patrick’s Day anyway).

What was far more fun than Patrick’s Day was Patrick’s Week. See, the Dáil didn’t sit for the entire week, in observance, so aside from two classes and a quick stop by the office to check messages on Wednesday, I basically had another Spring Break. I decided to spend it in the one place I was promised to get sun and warm weather: the Canary Islands.

I flew out Thursday, and, after some delays due to air traffic controller strikes, landed that afternoon in Gran Canaria. The hostel was amazing. It was a block from the beach and had the best atmosphere of any place I’ve ever stayed. Thursday night, everyone from the hostel went out for tapas night, which I highly suggest we start having in the States. Basically, a bunch of places in the city serve tapas with a beer for two euro every Thursday.

I don’t have much else to report from Las Palmas. I spent every day laying out on the beach, got horribly sunburned (though it’s now faded into a tan and I’m currently the least pale person in Dublin), ate a lot of cheap food, and drank a lot of cheap beer. I can’t stress that cheap thing enough. Everything on the island is incomparably inexpensive. I bought a six pack of bottles for less than three euro. I ate lunch every day for less than four. A taxi from on end of the city to the other was six, split between four people. The most expensive part of the trip was airfare, and it wasn’t even that much.

I’ve tried to learn something in every country I’ve visited, but the biggest thing I learned in the Canaries was that I’ve picked up more Spanish than I previously realized just by growing up in a state so influenced by a Spanish-speaking culture. Unfortunately, as I also learned, most of the Spanish I know is directly related to Mexican food, making me just about useless in Spain. Unless, of course, you want más cerveza, por favor.

When in Rome

Spring Break came early for everyone in my program, as we finish school about three weeks before all my friends in Texas will. I spent my week off in Italy with my friends Mariah, Francesca, and Bret.

Before I tell you anything about what we did, let me take a moment to impress upon you how absolutely beautiful Rome is. You trip over monuments and gorgeous churches and all sorts of breathtaking views. Most of the city centre is comprised of narrow cobblestone streets filled with little shops and restaurants. There’s an overwhelming amount to see and do. It’s all even prettier at night.

We flew in late Monday afternoon, so our trip really started on Tuesday. We saw the Trevi Fountain, which is indescribably gorgeous. We saw the Pantheon, which is topped with the last remaining Roman built dome in the city. We went to Piazza Navona and Piazza di Popolo and Villa Borghese and saw a million other things I can’t even remember but of which I took plenty of pictures. And we didn’t even scratch the surface of the city.

Wednesday we went to one of the four branches of the National Museum. The highlight of that was seeing the Quirinal bronzes, specifically the Boxer, which was cast around 330 BC. I’d studied the piece before, but to actually be in the same room as it, six inches from it, was an amazing and strange feeling.

We also, you know, just happened upon the Column of Trajan, as well as the Vittoriano, which is the largest marble monument in the world. We took a tour of the city centre afterward, saw the Spanish Steps and several gorgeous churches, including St. Ignazio, which has an amazing fake dome painted on to its ceiling. We saw the Pantheon again (by the end of the trip, it would be nearly commonplace).

Thursday Fran and Mariah went on a day trip to Venice while Bret and I stayed in Rome and visited another branch of the National Museum at the Baths of Diocletian. We also stumbled upon Saint Mary Above Minerva, which just happens to house Michelangelo’s Christ Carrying the Cross and feature Bernini’s Elephant and Obelisk in its square. (Are you getting how full of history the city is?)

Friday we went to another country and toured the Vatican. The Vatican Museums were incredible, especially because they house Laocoön and His Sons, one of my favorite sculptures. I have a ridiculous amount of pictures from the Museums that I’ll be uploading later.

St. Peter’s Basilica was unbelievable. The arches stand six stories high. I can say that to you, but you don’t really understand the magnitude of that statement until you’re standing in the building wondering how in the world you could’ve ever lost at Jenga when someone else built something that gargantuan and beautiful. You could spend an entire day just seeing all there is to see in that one single building.  Obviously, the altars are all incredible, and of course, it’s filled to the brim with priceless works of art.

We also went to Castel Sant’Angelo, which was originally the mausoleum of Hadrian and later the castle used by the Pope in case of attack on Rome. There was a lot of interesting history and the structure itself was really neat, but the most impressive part was the view from the top. It was the most breathtaking view of Rome I saw while I was there.

Saturday was probably my favorite day, but also the most exhausting. We started off with a morning tour of the Colosseum, which was fantastic because we got to go into some parts, like the basement and the upper deck, that are normally off limits to visitors.

My hands-down favorite part of the whole week was the next tour we took. First, it took us to the catacombs. There are actually nearly seventy catacombs in Rome, and the one we went to was one of the largest, about thirteen miles long in total. Most of the remains are gone, thanks to grave robbers who sold the bones back to churches by claiming that they were relics, but we did see a couple fragments in some of the chambers we went into, which was super creepy.

The second leg of the tour was to the Basilica of San Clemente, which is probably not the first place that comes to mind when you think about churches in Rome. The thing that makes the church so special is what’s underneath it. In the 1950s, the Irish Dominicans who occupied the church heard water coming from underground. So they decided to excavate. They ended up finding another basilica buried beneath the current one. What they didn’t find was water, so they kept digging. Underneath the second basilica, they found a mithraic temple with a tunnel leading all the way to the Colosseum. Even further beneath that was a Roman coin mint destroyed in the fire of 64 AD.

The last stop on the tour was at the Capuchin Crypt. If you’re unfamiliar, it’s a series of rooms decorated with the bones of 3,700 Capuchin monks. It was simultaneously the creepiest and most interesting place I’ve ever visited. The bones themselves are less creepy than the several mummified monks standing among the remains of their brothers. Even with the fact that it’s all made of human bones, the crypt is sort of beautiful, in a really, really macabre way.

Sunday we got lunch and one last gelato and flew back to Dublin. As fantastic as Rome was, it feels good to be back in Ireland. It’s kind of a funny feeling when you start thinking of a foreign country as “home”, but Dublin is definitely becoming my second love.

After Austin, of course.

The West and the North

Since I last blogged, quite a bit has happened.

First was Limerick. A group of us went and stayed with one of our Irish friends. I don’t have a ton to report from there. It was mostly a low key weekend. We did a little bit of sightseeing, a little bit of going out, but mostly we just hung around and relaxed, which was a pretty nice change of pace from Dublin City.

We also took our midterms since I last wrote. It’s kind of easy to forget that I am actually here for school and do take classes. Midterms startled me because I realized how much I’ve learned about Ireland since getting here. I know so much more about the history, politics, economy, society, and literature of the country, and I’ve only been here two months.

Today, I got back from a weekend trip to Belfast. It was a pretty incredible experience all around. If you don’t know, Belfast is on the island of Ireland, but it isn’t part of the Republic of Ireland. In fact, six counties of Ireland form Northern Ireland, which is part of the United Kingdom, along with England, Scotland, and Wales. Friday night, after we got to Belfast, we attended a lecture about the murals of the city. I had no idea that they were such a huge part of the culture of Belfast, but after the lecture and a tour of the city today, it’s very clear how important they are. The murals are usually meant to make political statements and mostly painted by the Republicans and Unionists, two groups that want a united Ireland and to remain part of the UK, respectively. Paramilitary branches of the two groups have often taken arms against each other, with groups like the IRA and UVF accounting for much of the violence and terrorism during the Troubles. We looked at the evolution of murals over the past hundred years, and it was really interesting to see the subject matter of the two different groups’ murals and how it changed during conflict and ceasefires. We took a coach tour of the city today and saw murals from both sides, of which I have pictures that I’ll post later.

Yesterday, we went to the Giant’s Causeway, which was on my list of things to see in Ireland. It was breathtaking. The Causeway is basically a collection of basalt columns, steeped in the legend of a giant named Finn McCool who is said to reside on the Antrim Coast. I took a lot of photos, but they don’t nearly do the formation justice. If it isn’t on your bucket list, it definitely should be.

Tomorrow, I leave for Rome, where we’ll be for six nights. But more on that later.

Planes, trains, and automobiles

Last Thursday, I became the first person in my bloodline to set foot in Scotland in over 350 years.

Thursday night we flew into Edinburgh, which is one of the most beautiful cities I’ve ever visited. It’s situated on and surrounded by rocky hills. It’s right on the water. Every building looks like it could be a castle. There is an actual castle, of course, which we visited on Friday. Edinburgh Castle overlooks the city of Edinburgh. It’s a gorgeous old place, and most of the original structures are still standing. We got to see the Scottish crown jewels and visit Saint Margaret’s Chapel, as well as see some of the interior rooms of the palace.

We also went to the National Gallery of Scotland, which was amazing, partly because The Three Ages of Man is hanging there. (I swear to God I saw The Rape of Europa, too, but I can’t find anything saying that it’s also hanging there.) There are tons of other great works there as well, including Monets, Van Goghs, and Rodins.

Saturday, we went to see Holyrood Palace. The building itself is stunning on every level. The architecture is amazing. Every room is filled with all sorts of ornate furniture, intricate tapestries, centuries old portraits, and antiques of all kinds. I think perhaps the neatest part about Holyroodhouse, however, was getting to see the chambers of Mary Queen of Scots. It’s surreal to know that historical figures like that were in the same room, probably stood in the same spot as you.

Saturday evening I took my first real train ever to Glasgow. Glasgow had a lot of the same pretty buildings and such that Edinburgh had, but the city itself gives off a more artsy vibe than Edinburgh. In Edinburgh, you might go see some historical sight. In Glasgow, you’ll go to see an art installation or a concert. We went to the Kelvingrove. The building itself is a piece of art. Inside, there’s a ton to see, and most of the exhibits focus on Scottish history and culture, which made it all the more interesting to see. We were also accidentally at the opening of the Hard Rock Glasgow, so that was cool.

Sunday night we slept in the airport, which was an adventure to say the least. We caught a plane back to Dublin, landed around 8 AM, and took a cab directly to school. It was a fantastic trip all in all, the delirious haze of Monday aside.

The next few weeks will consist of laying low back in Dublin, but the end of the month brings a trip to Belfast and a week in Rome, about which I cannot even begin to express my excitement. More on that later.

Lovely day for a Guinness

This past Friday, I finally got around to touring the Guinness Storehouse. It’s pretty much an essential destination when you’re in Dublin. The whole thing about the Irish drinking Guinness all the time is definitely more fact than stereotype. And why shouldn’t they? After all, Guinness is good for you.

The museum in one of the old brewery buildings, which was used as a fermentation plant until the late ’80s. Inside, there’s an atrium in the shape of a pint glass, which they tout as the world’s largest. If filled, it would hold over 14 million pints of Guinness. The whole place is interactive and is far and away the most engaging museum I’ve ever visited. The first floor takes you through the ingredients and how they’re harvested and processed. This includes what I can only describe as a giant sandbox full of barley and an indoor waterfall. Then there’s the art gallery, where the paintings talk to you and tell you the story of Arthur Guinness and the Guinness family. There’s a whole floor dedicated to advertising on which you can star in your own Guinness poster. Of course, there’s the tasting room, where you’re taught how properly drink a Guinness, and the Guinness Academy, where you learn to pour the perfect pint.

Best of all, though, is the Gravity Bar, on the top floor. It’s a big circular room with floor to ceiling windows. There’s probably nothing quite as Ireland as drinking a Guinness you poured yourself while looking at panoramic views of Dublin City. Except maybe having a pint at the oldest pub in Dublin, which was what we did next.

Thursday, I leave for a weekend in Scotland with some of my friends from my program. More on that next week. I’ll post all the the Guinness Storehouse pictures soon. In the meantime, I may go have a pint; it’s a lovely day for a Guinness.

Sláinte!

A week in the life

The past week has been pretty busy. Monday we had class as normal. Tuesday we toured Leinster House. Wednesday I met my TD. Thursday I had work. Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, we were in County Wexford.

I’ll start with Tuesday. The Dáil is the Irish analogue of the House of Representatives. It’s the lower house in the Oireachtas, which is the Irish legislature. The Dáil is the more active house and has 166 members. Along with the Seanad, or Irish Senate, it’s located in a place called Leinster House. Leinster House is in the middle of Dublin City. It was built by James FitzGerald, 1st Duke of Leinster. It was originally a residence, but has since been converted to accommodate the chambers of the Dáil and Seanad. It’s a truly beautiful building, and the interiors are breathtaking, but I’m unfortunately not allowed to take pictures.

Wednesday, I met with my TD and started my internship. A TD is a member of the Dáil. I’m technically not supposed to talk about who I’m working for or what I’m working on, but I will say he’s very nice, and I think I’ll be doing some really rewarding and fun work over the next three months.

Friday we left for our homestay in County Wexford. It’s in the southeastern part of Ireland, and it’s beautiful. The town we stayed in, Gorey, was right near the coast. My friend Josie and I stayed with a fantastic family: a travel agent named Janice and her nine year old daughter Alannah. They were so welcoming and made us feel right at home. Yesterday, Janice took us to Wexford Town, down the coast. Wexford is an adorable little place. It’s an old town with narrow streets and cobblestone and beautiful 18th century churches rising above them. We spent a few hours looking around (and discovering that tours of the buildings have to be booked in advance) and then went back to Gorey for the night. Today we went to the beach. It was gorgeous, like something from a postcard. I’ll have pictures of both Wexford and the beach up tomorrow.

The best part of the weekend, I think, was getting to see what day to day life in Ireland is like. Gorey is small, comparable to Magnolia, so seeing how people live there brought Ireland a little more into perspective, both in how it’s different from the States and how it’s similar. I loved getting to know Janice and Alannah, as well, and I hope to keep in contact with them. All in all, it’s been a good week. A new one starts tomorrow.

Gaol House Rock

Yesterday we went to Kilmainham Gaol. “Gaol” is a old funny way of spelling jail. Kilmainham is a super interesting 19th century complex in which many an Irish revolutionary was kept. 

Probably the most heartwrenching story we heard on the tour was of Joseph Plunkett and Grace Gifford. Plunkett was part of the Easter Rising in 1916. After the revolt failed, he was sentenced to death. He asked to be allowed to marry his sweetheart, Grace Gifford, before he was executed. Just a few hours before he was put to death, they were married in the chapel of the prison. Only the couple, the priest, and the soldiers acting as Plunkett’s guards were present. After the ceremony, Plunkett was taken back to his cell. Gifford was allowed to see him one more time, for just a few minutes, before he was executed by firing squad. She never remarried.

Plunkett’s story, and the stories of the other men executed after the Easter Rising, helped shaped public opinion and eventually led to the creation of the Irish free state. 

It was also really interesting to learn about the conditions of jails in the 1800s, the crimes for which people were incarcerated, the demographics of the Irish prison population in the 19th and 20th centuries, and the significance of reformed jails during the period. During the famine, some people even purposefully committed crimes because they knew they would at least be fed in jail. Young children were also frequently jailed for crimes like theft.

We also visited the decorative arts and history branch of the National Museum of Ireland. The exhibits really painted a clearer picture of how the Irish have lived through different periods. There were exhibits on silverwork, coins and medals, school books, even furniture and clothing. (I always find the latter two particularly fascinating because unlike a sculpture or a painting, they’re actually used and worn and have to serve a function apart from, but still in harmony with, their aesthetic.) It was very interesting to see the balance between outside influences from places like Britain and America and the Celtic traditions of Ireland. 

I should have pictures from the Kilmainham Gaol and the National Museum up on Facebook in the next couple days. Tomorrow, we’re going to the Dáil to get our staff badges and a tour of the complex. More to come on that.

Fashion

This week we’ve been in our orientation program for IPA, which will finish up in the middle of next week. As part of such, we’ve met our other classmates (there are six other students who didn’t come through Arcadia) and our professors. We’ve also gotten to hear from a couple guest lecturers to get us up to speed on the current political climate in Ireland and the legal history of the country. The crash course in Irish politics should be helpful when we go to the Dáil and at very least give us the tools to begin understanding the issues with which we’ll be dealing.

I probably could (and as a student of sociology, probably should) talk about the interesting social and political consequences of the influence of the Catholic church on Ireland or how the socioeconomic structure and current economic state makes so much more sense given the particular historical context of the state. But I’d rather talk about clothes. Georg Simmel might be proud of me.

One thing that’s struck me in the past week and a half is how well everyone dresses here. It’s not acceptable to run to the store in your sweats. No one goes to class in athletic wear. Everyone is always sort of done up. Except they’re usually wearing running shoes. Every day on my way to school, I see dozens of women in pencil skirts, nylons, and Nikes. Now, I assume they have dress shoes in their bags, and given how much walking Dubliners do, the practicality is perfect clear. It’s still rather funny, though, to see someone dressed in all black and grey business attire and pink Adidas.

I’ve also found the greatest store known to man. It’s better than Kohl’s, and if you know me, you know how I feel about Kohl’s. It’s called Penneys here in Ireland, Primark in the UK, and it’s fabulous. Everything is dirt cheap, which I think is partly due to the fact that they don’t advertise. I got a scarf, a pair of shoes, a blouse, a party dress, and a pair of sweat pants for under €30 (a little over $40). The shoes were like half of that. All the clothes also look really good, too. Anything from Penneys could be mistaken for something from Forever 21 or H&M, easily. They have a great selection of basics. If you like one dress or blouse or scarf, it likely comes in five other colors. They have a fabulous range of sizes. The store is organized by type of clothing (jumpers, pants, jackets) rather than by collections, which makes it so easy to find what you’re looking for. Literally the only bad thing about the place is that it’s like a two mile walk from my apartment, but then again, that’s probably a good thing or else I might spend all my money there. Before I left, my mom told me not to fall in love and stay in Ireland; if I never come back from Dublin, it’ll be because I don’t know how to get home all the clothes I bought at Penneys.

Tomorrow, we’re going on a bus tour of the city and visiting some of the more touristy landmarks, so I should have more to talk about, as well as some pictures, after this weekend.

Thieves, drunkards, and politicians

The last few days have been crazy.

Saturday, I got a charge on my checking account for $682 from Amazon UK, right after my mom had put $700 in my account. My first thought was that my card was stolen, but it was still in my wallet. I talked to one of the other girls here about it, and she said the same thing happened to her when she was still in the States, and her bank thought it was related to the Target fiasco. Either way, my bank had to cancel my card in order to process the fraud claim. They’re refunding the stolen money, but it might take up to a week because the charge has to come out of pending status before they can issue a refund. Meanwhile, my new debit card is being sent to my parents in Magnolia, who will then have to send it out to Ireland. 

Before I left, my parents had gotten me a few American Express traveler’s checks for emergencies. I thought this qualified as an emergency. Finding a place to cash those puppies was another trick and took a bunch of phone calls and one very long walk to O’Connell Street. But more on that in a second.

After spending an hour on the phone with Wells Fargo Saturday night, I went out with some of the other people in the program to a pub in our neighborhood. And you guys, Irish pubs are fantastic. They’re basically everything good in the world. Firstly, I can get into them without a cover. Secondly, I can buy alcohol in them. They play the music just loud enough that it’s fun but not so loud that you can’t talk to other people. It’s not so crowded you can’t breathe. You can sit down. You can dance. They play music popular in America, but not just current Top 40 hits or auto-tuned club music. Saturday night they played Queen. They played Journey. They played the Spice Girls. They even played Hal Ketchum. (I almost fell out when I heard Austin country music in a Dublin pub. I don’t even think I’ve ever heard “Past the Point of Rescue” at Midnight Rodeo.)

But it gets better. No random guys try to grind on you at pubs. There’s no line at the bathroom. They play NFL games on the TVs. The liquor is stronger. The Guinness is cheaper. Last call is at 3 AM. 

Yesterday passed uneventfully and was spent almost entirely trying to figure out my financial situation. Today, we had a meeting with the director of the Institute of Public Administration to talk about our internships and classes. We finally found out just what exactly the IPA is. Essentially, it’s the public affairs school of University College Dublin, but it’s also part of the Irish treasury department. So they have students trying to earn Bachelor’s degrees, but they also provide certification and training programs for civil servants, as well as conduct research for the treasury. We’ll be taking three classes (one over Irish literature, another over the history of Ireland, and a third over Irish society and politics), mainly with other American students studying abroad in Dublin. We’ll have class one and a half days a week and spend another two and a half or three at our internship. We’ll be matched with either a TD (a member of Dáil Éireann, the lower legislative house, analogous to the House of Representatives) or a Senator. Ireland is a small country, so we’ll likely be the only “staffer” in our representative’s office, and will probably be dealing with more local issues than would someone in the office of a US Senator or House member.

After the meeting at the IPA, I went off on a quest to cash my traveler’s checks. I ended up walking a little over two miles up to O’Connell Street. I finally got my checks cashed, and then decided to have a look around Temple Bar. I ended up touring Dublin Castle, which was beautiful. The tour was incredibly informative, as well, and I feel a little more in touch with the city after learning about its origins. I took a lot of pictures, which I’ll upload soon, along with some pictures of my apartment.

Despite all the drama with my debit card, I’m having a fantastic time in Dublin. My favorite part so far is how absolutely nice everyone is. Anyone and everyone will start a conversation with you, and they’re always genuinely interested in what you have to say. I think I have a bit of added novelty being from Texas. Everyone Irish that I’ve met has had a bunch of questions about what Texas is like.

Tomorow, we start our first day of classes at IPA. Next week, we start our internships. I couldn’t be more excited about all the opportunities the next three months will bring.