The “re-entry” as everyone has been calling it has been a little strange.  I am so excited to be home, in Zionsville and in America.  I tried to note any immediate differences while I was waiting in the Atlanta airport for my connecting flight and didn’t come up with anything extremely significant.  That is until a very friendly young baggage employee helped me get my large, overweight checked bag to the conveyor belt after getting through customs as I struggled with the cart and my two STUFFED carry-ons.  I would not have received that kind of help in Europe – people were not that friendly and it just isn’t a service oriented industry.  He laughed at me and said I had way too much stuff and I was relieved to have help and a friendly smile.  A friend, trying to be supportive I’m sure, said “the realization that we live in the ugliest and most commercialized nation in the world is never a joyful one.”  Well, no one wants to be welcomed back like that.  I think I came back with the realization that there is so much more of the world that I need to see outside of this country, the ways that other cultures live can be vastly different and needs to be appreciated, but also that there is so much of my own country I need to still explore.  I came home to a beautiful white blanket of snow – something I probably never would have seen in Ireland.  And certainly, I could search all over the US and never find the breathtaking rocky cliffs that make up the Emerald Isle but that’s why traveling is so great – you get to see things that your own country doesn’t have.  And then you come home with a greater appreciation for what you do have.  Ice in the water at restaurants.  Snow.  Unlimited texting.  Service (sort of).  Family. 

If I could do it again, I would do it the same.  Of course I’m saying that without insight into what any of the other programs are like but I would enroll directly in Trinity as opposed to IES General Studies.  I had Irish classmates, Irish professors and the opportunity to join the university’s  clubs and organizations.  I would use IES again.  There were other American students enrolled directly at Trinity who didn’t have the comfort of the IES Centre or a great staff that was supportive of any problems we had with the apartment etc.  I felt very independent but at the same time knew that there were people available to help, listen or give advice.  I would go in the fall.  It was so fun to see Dublin and other cities around Europe getting ready for Christmas!  I was able to go through orientation at Trinity with other international students and that way everyone’s school year is starting at the same time.  If I had gone in the spring, things would already sort of be rolling along (clubs etc.).  I would choose Dublin.  I know there are other “bigger” cities to choose from but I think Dublin and Ireland in general are overlooked when people think of Great Britain and Europe.  The landscape is so diverse, you will never get bored travelling even if you never leave the island.  And yet if you do get bored, you’re close enough to the Continent for a cheap flight over to Rome or London or Amsterdam.  If you don’t pick Dublin – at least make sure you get to visit Ireland!

1. Maximum 30 minutes at each pub
2. One pint of Guinness at each pub
3. You have to wear a Santa hat (or some other decorative holiday headpiece)
4. Do not bring your Christmas shopping with you
5. You can switch to “wee ones” (half pints) only after pub 10
6. No getting sick

As the night went on, Justine and I liked the sound of this game more and more.  I had yet to do a pub crawl any way and what a fabulous way to celebrate the holiday and one of my last nights in Dublin.  We decided to do it!  The first thing we did was modify the rules – for the sake of our health and our wallets, we decided to split a pint at each place rather than have a whole one….(ended up being an excellent decision!) with a full pint at 1 and 12.  The next thing we did was plan our route.  This is quite a strategic endeavor because we wanted to make sure to include a variety of pubs we had visited throughout the semester, some new ones that we never made it to but always wanted to see, and end up at our favourites and close to home.  The route is essential because you don’t want to do too much backtracking or trekking it around the city in the cold with your decorative holiday headpieces…..After much deliberation we decided on the 12, set the time and date and set off.  Here’s how it went:

1. The Leeson Lounge – Things are relatively calm at this point.  It’s just me and Justine and our Santa hats.  I’ve been to this pub twice before and once had an invigorating converstaion with some Irish and English people about Rugby, Obama, Ireland and pedophiles (interesting mix, eh?).  It’s a different atmosphere from most pubs and its name truly describes it  best – definitely a “lounge” feel.  We wait here for Greg to join us and head on our way.
2. O’Donoghue’s – We pick up Sally en route to this next pub.  It’s a favourite of Dubliners and we scheduled it early on in the crawl so that it wouldn’t be crowded (around 6pm) because the two other times we’ve tried to go there it was standing room only.  Well, it must always be standing room only because our plan failed and it was plenty crowded when we arrived.  Regardless, we got our pints, took a picture and were on our way…..
3. Doyle’s – This pub is right by Trinity.  We waited here before our big group trip to Galway, celebrated the Toast to Arthur, played more Guitar hero and I had some photography club meetings here.  I love this pub.  We sat at the bar and talked to the bar tender for a while while nursing the Guinness.  On the walk to Pub 4, we’re definitely starting to feel it.
4. St. John Gogarty’s – We’re in the Temple Bar area now (the location of the market I love, the Chocolate Festival, Culture Night etc.), known for being touristy.  We find a seat at a table and wait for our drinks.  This is my first time in this pub and I really like it, especially  because they’re playing my favourite Irish song when we walk in – Galway Girl.  We sing along for a while and things are starting to get more lively with the help of the music.
5. The Auld Dubliner – Luckily was right across the street.  I’ve been here before in September when I met my Rhodes friends for a drink.  There was music here too, a solo guy rather than a band and he was playing more contemporary songs (like acoustic Lady Gaga).  Some lads asked me where I got my Santa hat and I talked to them a while.  They were really interested in if I had enjoyed my time in Ireland.  Of course!
6. The Temple Bar – My first time here.  And halfway done!  It’s a large bar but we get our drinks and sit at a table for a while.  We’re joined by some of Sally’s friends from class, one from Germany and one from Brazil.
7. The Stag’s Head – Another favourite.  I’ve been here multiple times for the live Traditional Irish music in the basement.  It’s really cozy downstairs where they play and I like the mural on the wall that has faces of famous Dubliners.  No music tonight though so we just chat about the semester.
8. The Bank – This was Sally’s choice.  I was a little wary of going in here because it’s very fancy and we were well beyond “classy behaviour” at this point.  We managed to keep it under control and sipped our drinks in our jeans and Santa hats amongst the business people in their suits and skirts out for an after work drink.  Was glad to get out of there, way too fancy!  Though they did have a lovely gigantic Christmas tree….
9. Devitt’s – Now we’ve picked up Victor and Alex on Camden Street who have come from their Irish Class Party.  There’s a lot of singing and skipping going on between pub at this point.  This pub is new to all of us and it’s fairly quiet until we get there. 
10. Whelan’s – Also a favourite.  I celebrated the Dublin half marathon with a pint here, we danced to Europop in their big open room once and of course PS I Love You has scenes filmed here.  I’m struggling to keep my Santa hat on but spirits are high!
11. The Barge – We’re close to home now!  This is where I watched the first Ireland v. France soccer game, came for girl talk drinks with Sally and Justine, and celebrated Victor’s 21st birthday.  They have a DJ and so a series of great dancing ensues.  Sally and I show off the swing dancing skills we have and sing along to the music.  And then it’s on to the final stop…..
12. The Bleeding Horse – Probably my favourite pub in Dublin, close to home and why we decided to end here.  This is where we won our Guitar Hero competition, celebrated part of Halloween, met our Irish friends……I don’t remember a whole lot from this point but we toasted to our 12th glass and a great semester.

Not to worry, we all made it home safely!  I cannot imagine how people stick to the full pint rules but they do it all the time……I even managed to get up the next day, not feeling too badly and hike around Dublin going to all my favourite places on my last day in the city.  Though I won’t be drinking Guinness for a while…..CHEERS!

Imagining Ireland: This Irish Studies course met once a week on Mondays for 2 hours.  We had one main professor and several guest professors throughout the semester.  My class was made up mostly of first year Irish Studies students who are taking all the same classes together this first year.  There were no tests or examinations throughout the course of the semester but we did have to sign in each time class was held.  The final essay topic was given to us fairly early in the semester and was titled Irish Identity: Unity and Diversity.  That was it.  We could pick any topic we had covered previously in lectures (landscape, genetics, literature etc.) or any topic we felt was relevant that hadn’t been covered.  I chose to write on the unifying qualities of the Gaelic Athletic Association and how the selection of sports native to Ireland contributed to Irish Identity.  The requirement for length was 1500 words (they’re big on word counts rather than pages here) and it’s due tomorrow.

Continental Europe: This class was the most demanding of my courses but in return I earned 5 additional credits compared to Ireland and Psychology.  We met twice a week for an hour in a lecture-style setting and then for an additional hour each week we were all divided into smaller groups called Tutorials.  A PhD student led these meetings and the topics would be covered in more detail, allowing for discussion.  For the tutorial I was required to prepare a ten to fifteen minute presentation on one of the topics and complete a 2,000 word analysis of three selected documents.  For the lecture class the requirement was one essay of 2,000 words on a prompt I could choose.  Due to the semester long duration of my studies, I miss the final examination in May and so in lieu of that, I was assigned an additional 2,000 word paper on the topic of my choice.  I ended up writing essays addressing the following questions: How did the Franco-Prussian War Change International Relations in Europe and Did Industrialisation and Urbanisation improve Standards of Living in Europe? I turned those in already and have meetings with my professor and tutor scheduled for tomorrow to go over the marks before I leave.

Criminal Psychology: This class met once a week for an hour.  There were no assignments or tests for the duration of the semester and I am turning in my final paper tomorrow.  The requirement is 2,500 words on a specific topic but again because I will miss final examinations in May, I was instead assigned a 4,000 word paper on the same topic.  I chose to write on the following: Determinants of Criminality Reside in the Individual. Discuss. I am also turning that one in tomorrow.

Overall, it was quite strange to not have any sort of assessment throughout the semester or to have any feedback thus far.  I’m just trusting that I’ve attended the lectures on relevant topics and have completed thorough research for my papers.  Right now though the most important thing is that there are 8 days until Christmas, less than 2 days until I leave for home, I’m sitting in my room with a Santa hat on my head and my roommate is singing along to Christmas music waiting for me to do the 12 pubs of Christmas……..(stay tuned for more details – I must go)

With three papers turned in, one in the final editing phase , the last in the beginnings of research, and the countdown to home in the single digits, I’ve gone into tourist mode again.  Anna warned me before she left that time would run out quickly to do all those things I had planned on doing the entire semester.  Well she was right.  So today I decided to visit the Book of Kells.  This tourist attraction is conveniently located right on Trinity’s Campus and is free to students of the College.  Most of my roommates have visited it already, some more than once.  But then again, they’ve all had visitors to show it to as well.  I knew it wasn’t going anywhere so there was no rush to see it – until now.

The Book of Kells is an illuminated manuscript of the four Gospels in Latin.  The calligraphy of the pages was embellished by the scribes who wrote it centuries ago.  It’s very intricate in design and almost no space on any of the pages is left without some attention.  I was able to have a few courses on the designs in the Book of Kells in my introductory classes in August and September and we discussed the interlacing of some of the designs, the significance of the celtic animals and the fancy Greek letters.  Most of this same information is highlighted in the excellent museum display that comes before going in to see the actual book.

In order to get to the book, you need to go into Trinity’s Gift and Souvenir shop to buy your tickets.  I get to flash my green ID card and get in for free – which is nice, especially when they decide to do “maintenance” on the display, which of course they decided to do the one week I’m ready to see it.  Turns out the Book of Kells is not available to see until Saturday but you can still see the exhibit on illuminated manuscripts and the Old Library which contains a facsimile of the original.  Since it was all free and I had time to kill I went to both exhibits and will definitely make it back again next week to see that book.

My favourite part of the exhibit was definitely the Long Room or the Old Library.  (Click for quick photo)  Remember my complain-y post about Trinity’s library situation?  Well, if this had been my library, I wouldn’t have any complaints.  It’s absolutely beautiful and smells like old books.  When your each the top of the stairs to enter the Long Room, the architecture overwhelms you.  The room is very pleasing to the eye and runs 210 feet from one end to the other.  At the end of each row of books, there are marble busts of the likes of Shakespeare, Plato, Socrates and other great scholars.  I feel like studying in there presence would definitely yield more scholarly work.  Students actually used to study in here amongst the 200,000 antiquarian texts, until the new “modern” library was built.

The Old Library is quite antiquated, completed in 1732 but has managed to find its way into pop culture.  In the early part of this millennium, Episode II: Attack of the Clones sparked some controversy with Trinity.  Trinity accused Lucas Films of copying the design of their library for the use of the Jedi Archives in the film.  Trinity had its legal team look into the situation and considered suing but representatives for Lucas Films said there was no connection in their design to Trinity’s.  Coincidence then?  You Decide: Click Here ]]> http://blogs.iesabroad.org/jessica-sprenkel/tourist-again/feed/ 0 http://blogs.iesabroad.org/jessica-sprenkel/thanksgiving-in-ireland/ http://blogs.iesabroad.org/jessica-sprenkel/thanksgiving-in-ireland/#comments Mon, 30 Nov 2009 17:29:50 +0000 Jessica Sprenkel http://blogs.iesabroad.org/?p=6696 It’s been quite a productive weekend.  I know it’s a big weekend in the States, with Thanksgiving and Black Friday and the traditional Christmas decorating happening sometime this weekend.  Don’t think that just because I’m over here, I’ve forgotten any of these traditions – quite the opposite in fact.  I managed to celebrate all of these great American traditions, despite their absence in Irish culture.  Details of each will come in installments – small bites for those of you with short attention spans.

First, for Thanksgiving, we decided to attempt to cook our own meal.  Justine was with her friends horseback riding in the morning and had asked if I would be around to throw the chicken in the oven if they weren’t back in time.  Yes, I would be happy to do that.  We bought a whole chicken because turkey generally isn’t available until Christmastime and the ones that were available were way out of our 11 euros a day budget (we’re at the tail end of the semester, and so the tail end of the funds!).  I went to the IES pie party that I mentioned earlier and ate a delicious piece of pumpkin pie (made by an American, the IES staff was courteous enough to make sure of that!), not as good as Dad’s but good enough.    I returned home and sure enough Justine and her crew were late returning from their horseback trek.  ”Jess will you throw the chicken in the oven, at 350 F, just put it in the pan with some oil.”  Alright, here goes nothing.  I took the wrapping off the chicken and put it in the pan.  I rubbed some oil on it, just like Justine had instructed and then had to resort to Google to check the F to C conversion.  While I was searching I thought it might be best to also look up “how to roast a chicken.”  I certainly was not going to be the cause of a failed Thanksgiving bird.  The instructions were more of a crutch, turns out I had it pretty much under control.  Per ehow.com’s suggestion, I buttered the bird in addition to the oil and salted and peppered it as well.  (Keep in mind I’m alone in the apartment in festive holiday attire with Christmas music blaring from my laptop).  Then I came across instruction 4.  Remove the giblets.  Ok, I thought, I’ve heard of these before in the turkey.  Well I looked and looked for those giblets and after tugging on what turned out to be the neck for a length of time, determined my chicken was gibletless.  All this buttering and seasoning and giblet searching allowed enough time for the oven to heat up and in went the bird.  Two and a half hours, a few bastings, stuffing, mashed potatoes, corn and rolls later and  and viola!  Our first Thanksgiving meal and the table setting paints the perfect picture of our simple lifestyle here.  We served the corn from cereal bowls.  Drank our wine from confiscated pint glasses.  Scooped the mashed potatoes from a tupperware container.  Scraped butter straight from the stick still in its wrapper.  Laughed. Shared traditions.  Basked in our accomplishment.  And ate.

The strike stemmed out of a proposal by the Irish government to cut the public sector budget by 1.3 billion euros.  Workers in this sector include nurses, prison officers, local authority workers and any public services officer.  Essentially there will be no public transportation services, no museums and no school today.  Tomorrow the unions will resume talking with the government, to try to reach a compromise for the bill and even begin a long-term restructuring of the public services sector.  They’ll have to talk quickly though as there are only two weeks until the new budget is due.  

I think this is all very exciting!  Some people here are calling it “[b.s.] and socialism” (my roommate) but I think it’s exciting that a group of workers is standing up against a much more powerful institution and are trying to work something out.  They’re not being violent, simply trying to make a point.  I’m not sure if there will be picketing or protests and demonstrations today but I’ll be sure to keep you updated!  In the meantime, I’ll be having a relaxing morning working on some papers…..happy snow day!

Dublin – With Halloween just over, Christmas is the next holiday to be celebrated and not one day after the tricks and treats were over, holiday Santa chocolates had replaced the Halloween candy on the shelves of our grocery store!  I decided this justifies an hour of listening to Christmas music on my walk to and from Trinity.  On my way to school on Monday (this is November 2), we’re still anxiously awaiting the red cups from Starbucks but several other stores on Grafton street have decorated the store windows with giant Christmas ornaments or Christmas toys.  On Wednesday, I’m anxiously anticipating my big solo trip to Belgium and have to squeeze in a medium run before class for the upcoming half-marathon.  I set out early and on the completion of my loop through a neighbouring town pass our Starbucks and am nearly struck by a truck as I gravitate off the sidewalk and into the street towards the store window.  The red cups are here!  Which also means the seasonal drinks, red aprons, holiday decor and Christmas music are too!  It’s going to be a fantastic day!  And it was, I did the normal class routine and managed to get all set for my trip.  I’m going to Belgium because several of my friends from Rhodes studied in Antwerp for a month last year and haven’t been able to stop talking about it.  I was supposed to also go to Luxembourg to see another friend but that didn’t work out……so I squeezed Paris in instead!  It was a crazy weekend with too little time in each city (no more than a day in each ) but I loved it!

Brussels I’m not sure why, but this is the capital of Europe.  It’s also very old.  The combination of these two characteristics led to an interesting combination of very old, gothic style buildings and a more modern European district.  The two styles were mostly kept separate (to my liking), so that there weren’t big modern sky scrapers in sight of the main square where the beautiful Parliament building is.  Brussilians as I will call them, are in no hurry to have Christmas arrive.  No shop windows, streets or buildings show any indication of the upcoming holiday.  That’s alright though, it is only November 5.

Bruges This is a tiny medieval town, often compared to Venice because of the many waterways that circulate through it.  When I say tiny, I mean I was able to run along the river that completely surrounds the town for less than an hour and end up back where I started!  Probably because of the small town atmosphere, shops definitely showed signs of the Christmas spirit.  Chocolate Santas and snowmen were in the windows next to wooden nutcrackers and nativity scenes.  Also, Bruges is of Dutch origin so those wooden decorations that spin with the heat from the candles were all over the place too!

Paris Oh Paree.  The first place my friend Olivia took me was to Galleries Lafayette because she knew they had been lit up for Christmas.  This is a giant shopping mall, sort of like Nordstrom or Harrod’s.  We were out in the city for the night and arrived to a gigantic display of lights all around the building that made it look like a cathedral.  Once inside, a giant Christmas tree was in the center of the atrium area and it was only once we wandered through the perfumes on the ground floor that I walked underneath the tree and realised it was completely suspended from the ceiling.  No red cups in Paris though…..

Antwerp Much like Brussels, very little Christmas spirit right now.  That didn’t take away from the charm of this city though.  I was welcomed by a gigantic and beautiful train station and a long street of designer shops.  This time when I say designer shops, I don’t mean Gucci, Prada or the like but traditional shops like H+M, Nike, Vero Moda etc. in very ornate and old buildings.

Dublin When I’m gone on long trips like these, I very much consider returning to Dublin the same as returning home and this time more than any other it was true.  I was back in a land where they can understand me and I them.  It was raining and I didn’t care.  I hopped off the bus at the top of Grafton Street and while I was gone it had rained Christmas all over Dublin.  There are big strands of lights going across the streets from one building to the other, every window I passed had some sort of holiday message or theme displayed in them and I nearly squealed with delight.  As I passed Brown Thomas (our version of the big, fancy department store), their windows were covered with black curtains and only small illustrations on the window of wintry scenes and words at the bottom: “Join us for the unveiling of the windows, Tuesday Novemeber 17 at 6 pm.”  It’s a date. ]]> http://blogs.iesabroad.org/jessica-sprenkel/city-sidewalks-busy-sidewalks/feed/ 0 http://blogs.iesabroad.org/jessica-sprenkel/exhilarating/ http://blogs.iesabroad.org/jessica-sprenkel/exhilarating/#comments Wed, 28 Oct 2009 14:25:21 +0000 Jessica Sprenkel http://blogs.iesabroad.org/?p=5632 That’s the only word I can think of to describe this past weekend. Even that doesn’t quite do it. So, I’ll try to tell you about it.

The international program that I’m studying through put together a weekend trip to Northern Ireland for us. What a treat to
1. have everything planned for you including where to eat, what to do and transportation and
2. to stay in a hotel instead of a hostel! The trip included a Black Cabs Tour of Belfast, Whiskey tasting at Bushmill’s Distillery, a trip to the Giant’s Causeway, yet another castle, crossing a rickety rope bridge and a waterfall hike.

I enjoyed all of those things immensely but there are a few moments that will stand out as phenomenal events in my memory. The first happened on the Black Cab Tour. After riding around Belfast with a knowledgeable cabby, seeing the murals of Protestant Loyalists (the people of Belfast who want to remain in the UK) and of Catholic Republicans (the people of Belfast who want a united Ireland), memorials to areas of the city that had been bombed or burned by the other side and driving along the Peace Line, we stopped for a photo. The Peace Line is a giant concrete wall with fencing on top that divides the city into the two neighborhoods. The concrete is covered in graffiti and signatures of people who had been there before, promoting peace. It’s so surreal to me that people still fight like this. I thought it was only something to have read about in the history books, like the Berlin wall. It’s not. It’s still very real and though the fighting has mostly stopped, the people of Belfast have this constant reminder of their past and current hatred of differences.

The feeling I had when I signed the wall was somber. I am such a believer in peace and to be able to sign a wall alongside thousands of others who had left their messages of peace scrawled in sharpie was a powerful thing. It reminded me of the importance of kindness in daily life and not just tolerance in the major issues like this conflict. “One love. One world.”

As powerful as that was, the Giant’s Causeway is the portion of the trip that impressed me the most. We had “horrible” weather and that made it perfect! This landmark is a geographic marvel, created thousands of years ago by volcanic activity in the earth. The day was windy and rainy which you think would have spoiled it but made it all the more memorable. The Causeway is a giant area of rock formations that stick up out of the earth in hexagonal shape. It’s quite amazing the perfect shape that all the rocks take! There’s an area of rocks you can climb up and another area that goes out into the sea, slowly disappearing below the water. I was free to explore at my will but at the mercy of the wind and the rain. I climbed up the front part for a fantastic view of the rocks and patterns below, nearly being blown off the side by the wind (I’m not exaggerating about this!). After sitting on the top for a while, I ventured out towards the water to be closer to the crashing waves. At points I could literally see the wind heading towards the stones from the rain lines on the water and learned quickly to get low as the line approached, or risk being blown over.

At one point I looked over and saw Sally nearly blown over, saved only by her flailing arms. Vic and Alex hiked alongside me closer to the water and experienced the waves crashing on the rocks around them. There was one gust that was nearly the end of me – I would have been the wipeout of the day. Still heading out to the point, I saw the gust coming on the water but it was stronger than I expected and it literally blew me onto one foot and into a spinning 360 degree twirl that landed my other foot in a pool of water, saved by my balance and grabbing onto Justine for support. Fits of laughter ensued and I felt like I haven’t felt in a long time. This is where I have trouble explaining it. Vulnerable? Not really. Alive? Sort of but that’s not quite it either. Invigorated? Maybe that’s the best way to explain it. The wind and the rain and feeling the elements made me feel real and rekindled this young spirit that seems to die in all of us as we get older. I hope she stays.

In the middle is definitely an interesting place to be. On the one hand, I’m relieved to only be halfway done and have so much time in front of me to accomplish even more tourist-y things (Northern Ireland, Belgium, Luxembourg, Killarney, Sligo and London are still on my list of places to visit!). On the other hand, I feel like I’ve been over here, away from things and people very important to me, for a long time and to still have that amount of time to pass until I can run with my dad, walk Sophie with my mama, party with my roommates, seems a challenge. However, I know from past experiences and the wisdom of people who have done this before me, that the time will fly and I won’t want to leave. I also think it is natural to start to take things that surround you for granted and in an attempt to avoid that phenomenon here, I’ve started to really think less about the things I miss from home (people, familiar running routes, texting anytime I want for free, PBJ, an income….) and more about the things I will miss from here. The list is longer than I thought….

1. Public Transportation – Dublin, and Ireland for that matter, has been so easy to get around. The country as a whole has a great rail and bus system that can quickly (relatively), and easily get you from coast to coast. I’ve seen all the coasts of the island without having to get on a plane, spend a lot of time traveling or spend a fortune. Galway, Cork, and Ennis were all trips I took for a quick weekend trip. Dublin also has a fantastic public transportation system and I’ve finally used all aspects of it except one. Buses, the DART (a train that goes to the countryside surrounding the city), and the Luas can get you anywhere within the city. I’ve taken the DART to several places for great hiking and day trips (Malahide, Howth and Kildare). Memphis and Indianapolis severely lack a comparable transport system. True, it could be that I haven’t really had to utilize mass transit in either location but I really will miss the ease of travel here.

2. Markets – There are so many markets here! I love going just to browse but often I end up buying things too. The Moore Street Market sells flowers, fruits, veggies, meat and spices for so cheap! I’ve stocked up on tomatoes, apples and bananas there before. The Temple Bar Market is only on Saturdays and has everything from a book market to a designer market to crepes to hot chocolate, cheeses, oysters and apples. It’s all set up on the cobblestones by the river too and the vendors are much friendlier than those on Moore Street! I’ve gotten hot chocolate, cheese, fajitas and muesili there. The Harcourt Market is closest to me but is only open on Thursdays. It’s great for full meals but has some jewelry and linen stalls as well. We’ve made it a Thursday tradition to browse the stalls (this one has the most sampling of treats and the guy who sells nuts will let you taste all of them!) and buy our lunch there and head to a park for a picnic! I’ve had a falafel wrap and Indian Tikka chicken wrap so far but there are so many more to try! The Ranelagh market is a little further south of us, closer to where the boys live, and has a nice mix of baked goods, nuts, meats, and fruits as well as hard to find treats (cookie dough!). I love the atmosphere of the markets and just looking at all that I could be buying…..I may become a frequenter of the Zionsville Farmer’s Market!

I’ll go ahead and throw my shallow nature out there first.  Ugly.  Gray.  Uninspiring.  1970s architecture.  Did I mention ugly?  Walking into the library, I get the feeling I’m heading into a subway station, surrounded by concrete slabs that might as well be covered in graffiti.  Once inside the library, the design is much the same.  Cold, almost prison-like and maybe even bomb shelter-esque.  I’m not sure if it’s just part of the feeling 1970s architecture emits or if it was an actual strategy employed hoping that students would be more likely to stay focused in such a dreary place.  I was quite productive.  Uncomfortable, but productive.

Secondly this library is quite uptight.  When we’re together there is a strict “zero fun” policy.  No food, no drink, no talking.  These rules are so strict that as leaving the library – heading out of the “no food” zone, I was instructed to put my unopened sandwich bag away (“Hello?! No food in the library – put that away!”) for the three steps I had to the outside world.  It’s not just the employees of the library that are uptight but the students as well.  Just today I was browsing for a book when I ran into a comrade and he asked me how things were going.  Not half a second later I literally felt all eyes on us in a very effective silent attempt to get us to shut up.  We weren’t even being loud, whispering of course.  I cut my response to him short and ducked behind the safety of a shelf of books.

Speaking of books (and this is the one true legitimate problem with this library, I can adjust to the others), you are not allowed to check a majority of them out.  That’s right.  It’s less a lending facility and more a storage facility.  This aspect of the relationship is terrible because it just forces you to spend more and more of your precious time in the dreadfully ugly and uptight space trying to read the one copy of the book assigned to your whole class.  There are a few books available for “lending” as they call it but due to the nature of the courses here, with the suggested readings, you are one lucky duck if you get the yellow-stickered copy of the book.  

It’s a strained relationship to say the least.  I never thought I’d say I’d be glad to get back to the library at home but I can’t wait.  Regardless, if my biggest complaint here throughout my entire two months abroad is about a trivial relationship I have with a building….I must say Dublin should be high on your list of destinations!

I promise a much happier post next week as I return from a holiday in the south of Ireland!  Until then, Cheers!