James In Dublin Newsletter

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Well, the Eagle (that's me) has landed! I've safely arrived here in the Emerald Isle and I couldn't be happier! It's rainy, windy, cold, and expensive but I'm away and having a blast. Of course, I miss you guys back home and all too ;-) . I hope this email finds you all well and good back in the USA where a dollar really is a dollar and not 60 cents.

This newsletter is going to be an occasional note put out by yours truly to try to keep all of you that aren't IM'ing or Skyping me on a regular basis. Speaking of which, you can find all the ways to contact me at http://www.jamesindublin.com/contact. Feel free to call, text, whatever you want and I'll try to respond as soon as I can.

So, what have I been doing?! Other than starting the first two days of classes, it's been an exercise in thriftiness, Guinness, and meeting WAY too many people all at once. Some of my observations thus far: if it's not raining, it's windy; if it's not Guinness it's not beer; the only way to meet people (in a platonic sense of course) is to go "out" - a.k.a. pub/club; the Euro makes my savings look insignificant. If you hadn't figured it out yet, it's expensive to live abroad and the current state of the Dollar puts us Americans at a HUGE purchasing power disadvantage.

Enough complaining. It's been an absolute dream to be here, it really has. Sometimes I have to step back and realize that I'm taking classes thousands of miles away from my best friends, my favorite haunts, and the familiarity of Commonwealth Avenue. I'm sure that the Dublin City Centre will become a new fixture of familiarity at some point it the not so distant future, hopefully, and I'd be more than happy to show it to you if you decide to come visit. Officially I can't host anyone in our apartment but the reality is that there's space enough on the floor and my room has its own bathroom with shower.

Let's go out with a story - this tale comes from the first Saturday we were in country... the 3^rd night since arriving. Our group of 11 BU students were on our way to a pub in Raneleigh, just north of campus. It was latish - for me anyway - at about 10pm. As we walked along the sidewalk as a group, I felt a sharp pain in my arm like someone had hit me with a stick or something - come to find out it was an egg. We were, I was, egged in the first 72 hours of being in this country, which is supposed to be filled with some of the nicest people in the world. Let me tell you, Mr. I drive a car on the wrong side of the road and throw eggs at Americans, we were none too pleased with your mischief. But really... were we THAT obvious to the locals?!

I hope you found this entertaining - remember to sign up with the link to the newsletter for further fun tales and antics. This message will be posted up on the main site, http://www.jamesindublin.com too in case you delete this pretty little message before you get a chance to click the links. There's a sign up box in the right hand navigation of the website as well.

Cheers,

James Connors

International Student Extraordinaire

It's Blowing a Gale Out

Well it's true - the wind has seemingly blown into this strange little country called Ireland where the skies are grey and rainy and the people are strangely happy to talk for ages!  Don't get me wrong, they're more than friendly and that's a great thing but gosh, I see where my family gets it!  In all honesty, it's been a very crazy weekend since getting here and as such I'm a bit tardy with my web responsibilities. Thursday morning was our first taste of what it meant to be in Ireland.  After a long flight over night from Logan (surrounded by screaming babies mind you) we arrived to be greeted by a rather disinterested Guarda (Police office of Ireland) passport inspector who told me gruffly that I was authorized 30 days in the country... this would be only the beginning of the confusing revelations from over the next 4 days.  Finally we met up with the others in our group and collected our bags.  It appears that I packed much less than most of the others (this would come in handy in the next leg of the trip).

Obviously, after baggage comes communication so our group of 8 (3 had arrived at 5am) descended upon the poor Vodaphone store where we picked up sim cards and cell phones.  Speaking of, my new number here in Ireland is +353 87 656 7404 for those of you that are interested.  Next, we were introduced to the weather - POURING RAIN!!  We got soaked whilst waiting for the correct AirCoach to pick us up.  Of course, as soon as we loaded onto the luxury bus, the sun came out... for a while.  We ventured forth to the city center and beyond, eventually coming to the UCD Belfield stop.  Unfortunately, the rain decided this would be the perfect time to start pouring it on again.  We were caught out in the open when the coldest, most bone chilling rain I've ever experienced fell down on our heads.  It gets better - the reception desk decided we looked smart enough so she gave me the campus map... in Gaelic... :-(.

It took us about half an hour to find out accommodations on this campus but we were pleasantly surprised when we did.  My apartment is AMAZING!!  HUGE common room and kitchen (no oven though :-() with each room having their own bathroom and shower.  The beds are tiny but we have ample storage and a nice big desk to work on - things were on the up and up.  The group on campus met up with the off campus kids (they're staying 2km north) at around 2:30 to pick up our student ID cards after which we wandered over to one of two student bars on campus.  Darts, pool, Guinness, and the like were the cure to our travel hangovers and signaled our arrival.  Of course, we decided the campus pub wasn't good enough so we ventured into the city center not really knowing where we were going but knowing what we needed - food and SHEETS!  Luck would have it that we got off the bus at St. Stephen's Green right next to a large mall where we found most everything we wanted.  Then it was back to the dorms and to our beds.  All told, we were up for a good 45 hours and I was BEAT!

Friday was our orientation to UCD which included a briefing by the directors and coordinators within the Quinn School of Management, a campus tour in the rain, and a rather tasty bag lunch.  Shopping and pubs were the order of the evening... but we had a bit of a twist.  The first came as we were walking in a large group to the pub in Raneliegh where the off campus people are staying - I was egged... that's right, one of these previously mentioned nice Irish persons decided that I was too good of a target and threw an egg at me.  Luckily it bounced off my arm, struck another person in the back and then broke only after hitting the ground.  Needless to say we were all a bit shocked and didn't really understand what just happened.  We made it to the bar - it was filled to the brim with 40's and 50's (year olds) - and we were immediately met with people carding us.  Unfortunately not everyone in our group is 21 so they wanted us to leave... we were packing up to go when the bar keep came over and asked for our order.  Apparently the owner couldn't pass up 11 Americans looking to spend a few Euro at his establishment.

Later that evening Larry and I had the walk of our lives.  Back in the rain - the cold, drenching rain, we walked back to campus from the pub.  We started at about midnight.  After an hour of walking, it became clear that we weren't where we should have been... we were lost(ish) in Dun Loughaire and we were getting tired.  After finding a map at a local bus stop, we were about 1.5-2 km off track and needed to get over a "mountain" in order to make it back to campus.  Thanks to my superior powers of navigation (haha... that's a laugh) we were able to get back to campus in one piece but not before confronting another danger of the Irish 'burbs - Teenagers.  There was a large gang of teenagers beating each other drunkenly on the same road that we needed to take to get over the mountain.  Being smart, we kept moving quickly without making eye contact and got away.  Well, we thought we had... until we looked back behind us to see a few of the group running after us.  Lucky for us we were able to get away and keep the from catching up but it was a scary experience none the less.

Saturday was our orientation to Dublin from our program coordinator for BU.  This consisted of a monument scavenger hunt all over the city center... in the rain.  Are you starting to see a pattern?  It was fine and fun but we were ready to get back to home since it was already dark when we were leaving... a 4:30...  Before we hit the bus back, we went in search of the 2 Euro store and the Lidl supermarket.  Finding bargains at both, we made our way back home finally and called it a night.  Sunday would be a day of rest until 8 when we found ourselves at a bar watching the Pat's topple the Chargers in the AFC championship.  It was a good day to be sure - rainy, but good.

Today is gorgeous outside - the first day of blue skies and sun that we've had and it's the first day of classes.  It must be a good Omen.  However, when there isn't rain, there's wind and as our UCD coordinator put it, "it's blow'n a gale" out there.  I was almost taken off my feet as I crossed the open field between my dorm and the Quinn building.  In any event, I've been at this for a while and now it's time that I got on to my first class.  I'm hoping that the rain will hold out until I can get out of class so I can get some photos of the campus and such put together and posted up.  Thank you all for your emails and phone calls.  Don't hesitate to get me on one of the connections I listed under the contact page.

8 Hours Until Aer Lingus Sweeps Me Away

That's right, it's now 11am EST and in 8 short hours I will be getting onto the proverbial chariot ready to whisk me away to a new world. I think I'm ready. I've done my homework, packed the bags, weighed out the luggage (It's far too heavy for sure), and said some really hard 'see you later's. This isn't going to be an easy change, I don't think, not having all the things that make everyday "normal." But isn't that the point? Study abroad, in my mind, is all about stepping outside of the normal hustle and bustle - the daily grind. Yes, I'll meet people that might not like me because of my citizenship. Yes, I'm going to have to learn to deal with people driving on the wrong side of the road (that's humor btw ;-) ). All of that is part of the experience. During my semester abroad, I'm going to have the unique opportunity to study at a new school, meet new people, do new things. I won't be condemned to walking along Commonwealth Avenue playing the life or death game of "Dodge Car" just to get to class. I'll be getting a different view of the our country, the world, and all of humanity (if everything goes according to plan).

All that said, leaving is still difficult. How do you say "Goodbye" or "See you in 6 months" to people that you've spent practically every day with? How do you express the sadness and loneliness you'll feel not having them close by? How do you tell them that everything is going to be all right and fine? You can't. It's impossible to express in words all that you wish to say. It's impossible to get that across in a few minutes of goodbyes. It's too difficult a feeling to communicate among strangers and worse - so, you do your best. You make the efforts. You show the intent and try to look at the positives.

At least this time, when I leave, I'll know when I'm coming back - a firm goal to work towards. Please, don't take that to mean that I'll be counting down the days until we leave Ireland because that wouldn't be accurate at all. In fact, I have the benefit of being so swept up in all things Dublin that I won't have much time to stew on these thoughts after I step on that plane.

On the upside, Dublin is in a heat wave at 43 Degrees F, and only light rain forecasted for our arrival :-P. Lots of rain gear and warm clothes will be the staples for fashion these next 6 months - though for my friend from Seattle, this might not be that big of a change.

Once I'm settled in at UCD (University College Dublin) I'll be able to send out a mass email pointing everyone here and updating them on how to get ahold of me while I'm abroad. As for this website, I think It's going to become a regular travel journal of sorts that I update on a regular basis (schedule unknown at the moment) but rest assured, you'll have plenty to read.

Until next time, safe travels to all and take care!

-James