After
seven weeks of living at UCD, four castles, a couple pints of Guinness,
and 8-10 five-day bus passes later, I would like to believe that this
is the culmination
of “settled in” for the semester.
One measuring stick I’ve used is just the weekly routine I’ve managed to find.
I’ve
gotten into the habit of buying my 2.40€ large coffee at the Arts Café
before rushing off to my classes. A couple times a week, I get to run
around campus listening
to FM104- Dublin’s Hit Music Station- admiring all the magpies before I
end up outside the Bus Hanger in Donnybrook across from the bastion of
Leinster rugby at Kielly’s pub, where on occasion I’ll catch the odd 6
Nations Rugby match between Ireland and whatever
minor opponent we’re playing during the week. Monday nights are times
watching the weekly Drama Society shows in the bottom of the Newman
building, Tuesday nights are alternated between rehearsal for La
Revencha de Romeo y Julieta with the Spanish Society and
spending time with Film Society watching the best cinema to come out of
Ireland. Wednesdays will be my ever-improving attempts to make dinner
(after burning pasta the first time, it gets easier) with friends in my
Glenomena apartment, followed by a trip downtown
to explore the pub culture and whatever excitement we can find for the
week (thus far, Porterhouse Brewer has the best selection, Grand Social
has the best feel, and the Bernard Shaw has the most unique approach
with their Big Blue Bus featured in the back).
And occasionally, there are times spent exploring the stacks and stacks
of works in the library and sporadically getting work done in
preparation for the doom-inspiring midterms.
My
room is accumulating posters of the slowly encroaching European culture
(see the Doctor Who-inspired Dahalik blue prints), letters from friends
also studying abroad,
and the dozens of free maps collected from my weekend adventures (great
decoration and mementos!) But it really comes down to one thing to
determine if I’m settled in or not: I have to continually fight the mess
that somehow keeps spreading across my room like
creeping ivy.
After
a few trips to more rural parts of Ireland like county Donegal, I’m now
able to pick out a Dublin accent against the more rural ones. Although I
still am unable
to speak indeterminably from the next person, I like to pretend that
stepping off the bus and saying “Cheers” makes me that less noticeable
than the next person stepping off. Or maybe it’s that European jacket I
bought on a recent shopping trip to Kilkenny
(also, there was a castle) that will somehow help me become invisible in
the city of Dublin.
I’d
like to say I’m keeping a balance between spending time exploring the
city and finding a foothold here at the university, but there’s so much
to do here! The Body
Exhibit is featured at the north end of O’Connel street, and I have yet
to get to the Wax Museum, Dublin Castle (which I had to write about
recently in a paper about the Silken Thomas rebellion, giving me more
inspiration to venture out there), the Writer’s
Museum, and a seemingly non-ending list of other places. I think I would
considered myself settled in, but it would take at least a couple years
to operate on a normal schedule and get everything done. If this is how
comfortable I feel after 7 weeks, I can’t
imagine what it will feel like in May when it’s time to go home.
And yes, I’ve even started drinking Tea.
No comments:
Post a Comment