Finding Ireland

Good evening! Three full days in Ireland have met me with jet-lag, fifty or so new faces, and the return to a city I’ve been head over heels in love with since our first introduction five (five?!) years ago. With a hazy mind and a boatload of transitions, I’m finally coming to believe that the four months I have been planning for are in the palm of my hand.

After a pasta dinner and tearful goodbye to my family on Monday night, I boarded my flight to Dublin and watched the luminescent Boston skyline disappear. Eventually the lights receded into darkness as we soared over the Atlantic Ocean and I was faced with the realization that I wouldn’t see that skyline for four months. Talk about butterflies.

What should have been a time to sleep—or at least nap—was spent listening to music, dozing in and out and getting forty five minutes’ worth of Z’s, watching an episode of Game of Thrones (to get myself in a medieval zone) and staring out the window as we raced towards the sunrise that was now greeting Ireland. Just before eight in the morning, we descended into quintessential farms and rolling green fields, and into what would be the merriest of welcomes to Dublin: rain. Dark clouds threatened the sunlight I, a zombified sack of sleeplessness, had for some reason hoped for. Not even hoped—expected. It was too good to be true, but it didn’t take away from the sheer glory of those sweeping grasses.

My home for the next four months!

I trudged through immigration and, with my passport stamped, headed through the sliding doors to arrivals, where couples and friends and families stood waiting for loved ones with wide smiles and balloons in tow. I spotted one of our RA’s, Emily, holding a small CHAMPLAIN COLLEGE poster, and dragged my suitcases behind me towards her. About nine other students were on the same flight, and we were taken to our apartments in taxis within twenty minutes of all arriving.

I was the first one into my apartment, and immediately thought unpacking entirely would make the most sense. Just get ‘er done! Then you won’t have to think about it again!

But it took a little more brain power than that. Brain power that was currently in the throes of exhaustion, excitement, and fear. But I pushed through with multiple breaks, including a quick breakfast of my dad’s chocolate chip cookies that I stuffed in my backpack. One of my roommates, Scarlett (also a ginger) arrived, and at noon we joined a group of ten or so other students and the Residential Director for a brief walking tour of local shops and ATM machines. Brief because as soon as we stepped outside, the rain came and didn’t stop for another six hours. It was surprisingly hard for Dublin, which generally gets a handful of showers that are over almost as soon as they have begun.

Scarlett’s mom is in Dublin for the week, and later brought us to a Walmart-esque store called Tesco. We stocked up on groceries and other odds and ends, and she cooked a delicious Irish stew for us that night.

I was in bed by ten that night, and woke the next morning to children playing outside and quiet chatter in Scarlett’s room. My phone told me that I had been granted thirteen and a half hours of sleep! And while I jumped out of bed out of habit for staying asleep for so long, I relished in the fact that I had had one of the best night’s sleep. Why sleep can’t always be as sweet as when you’re jet lagged is beyond me.

Just before one, my second flat mate, Tyler, arrived! The students who arrived on Wednesday were tested when a fire at the Dublin airport broke out. Luckily, nobody was hurt and everyone arrived, albeit a little later than expected. Some didn’t arrive until almost nine that night.

At three in the afternoon, another tour went out further through the city of Dublin. We traversed the southern side of Dublin, which houses the Temple Bar District, Trinity College and the Dublin Castle, as well as a host of shops, restaurants, and pubs. Pointed out to us was the Queen of Tarts, which is a sweets shop, and one that I will definitely be checking out in the near future. And definitely more than once. Having been to Dublin before, it was a sigh of relief to recognize sights and locations. At the same time, it was intriguing to weave through the city in directions that I hadn’t taken before and view the same places from differing angles.

The Temple Bar District

The city's smallest graveyard, located at Trinity College

Trinity College

The original gate to the city of Dublin

Later that evening, I went out for drinks with a few girls in the program at the Brazen Head, officially Ireland’s oldest pub. Three of us walked through the pub’s stone archway into an outdoor, covered room. We were meeting two other girls, and poked our heads into each of the three or four rooms before finding them. The five of us were cozied up by a fireplace, and immediately a waiter swung by to ask if we needed a menu. I ordered my first legal drink, a Bulmer’s cider, and sat at the darkly wooded seats among a young family of three and chatty, middle aged men. The world stood still there; there was no rush to leave, and time stretched on as everyone around drank a little, ate a little, and talked and laughed a lot. And under candlelight and within green walls crowded with pictures and United States’ Police Officer badges, I could have sat for hours.

Just inside the entrance to the Brazen Head, Ireland's oldest pub

We left at the perfect moment; it had rained (would you expect anything less?) and above us stood a rainbow—the luck of the Irish had already found us.

Orientation began today, and has set the semester in motion. The beginnings of life in Ireland are surreal, but beautiful and oh so promising.

Irish luck

"My heart is quite calm now. I will go back." -James Joyce