Start of Some Classes and Stuff

I am taking the Semester Start-Up program, which is a 3 week class taught by a bunch of TCD lecturers and profs (they're not professors for a while, that is reserved for the biggest and the best) about the cultural history, art, architecture, and literature of Ireland. It's all about Understanding Ireland. I'm pretty sure I won't "understand" Ireland in 3 weeks. First day of really class was today. We learned about the weird-ass geography of the island, the architecture of TCD, Jonathan Swift, and Maria Edgewood. My initial review of the class is mostly positive. We have some papers to write, so that's a downside. We are at campus all day, and that's a mixed blessing. I'm tired when I get home, but I'm getting to know the City Centre more. So, it's grand. Grand is what the Irish say when they don't want to put in the effort to say how they feel. As our professor Micheál told us, you are grand when you get a promotion AND when your mum dies.

My flatmate Ethan and I have noticed that we are starting to add a little Irish accent to some of our sentences, usually questions. I'm convinced I won't come back with and "accent," but maybe I'll be able to do the accent on command.

Ethan, Victor, and I went to the grocery store for the first time yesterday. Groceries are different here, that's for sure. First of all, we couldn't figure out how the hell to get a cart. They're all chained up and we needed to put a coin in to use it. I thought, if we have to pay just for using a cart, I'll haul everything in my hands. Well, a 13 year-old Irish kid was smarter than us and took one of Ethan's 2 Euro coins (we thought he just disappeared with the money) and came back with a cart. It's a deposit that you get back when you chain it up again. We were at Aldi, the discount grocery place we have back in MN. The quality of food there is better than the US, but there are some things you most definitely need to stay away from there.

I am on a search to find some good coffee beans over here. It will be much cheaper just to make it in my room. Problem is, I have no idea which places are good. I heard Cafe Sol sells plastic-y food, so that is probably a no go, and I wouldn't buy beans from Starbucks in the states, so HELL no here. Also, no real coffee place I've been in yet sells brewed coffee. You can get an americano, which is just fine with me, but it's strange to me. Meshuggah on The Loop does that.

Appliances in Ireland are from another planet. The toilets flush strangely, almost like driving a stick-shift compared to the automatic transmission of American toilets. Ours broke yesterday. I took my keys (as a screwdriver) and scotch tape (for everything else) to MacGyver my way through it, but not even that would help. IES got a guy over here today and it works great now. One of our showers essentially drips water on you. No pressure at all. As long as I avoid it, I will be fine.

Not that I'm unhappy here. I love it, these little things are just very noticeable to me. It's lively. Dublin is new and exciting. I am at a fantastic university that is so interesting for so many reasons. There are the politics (it was a sin for Catholics to go to TCD without permission from when UCD was founded til 1971), the archaic way everything happens there (but it works, just different), and the great academics. It's right in the thick of things in the city. Today I left campus after class and explored mostly north of the Liffey. Flatmate Greg and I went over O'Connell bridge, went by the Stiffey on the Liffey (it's a contraversial spire tower that some people really hate/don't understand. I'm fine with it, in fact, it's pretty sweet up close), the General Post Office where the Irish declaration of independence was first posted (there are still bullet holes on the front), Henry Street. We went by Temple Bar, but it was so damn weird that we kept walking on past. I did see some sweet street art on the north side:

I like the monkey. This was on an abandoned building facing the Liffey on the northside east of the Ha'Penny Bridge.

New low? I like that, because I HATE the new Green Day stuff.

Here are a few touristy shots:

The Ha'Penny bridge. Not that fantastic, but historical. Crosses the Liffey.

Sphere Within Spheres. One in a series of these sculptures in the world (TCD, UC Berkley, Vatican, UN, DC), it is sweet. It also spins, although they say not to tell all the tourists (what am I right now then?!?) because that would be a lot of spinning and probably breaking.