Welcome back everyone!
To kickstart this blog, I figured I would do a recap of my first few weeks in Dublin, talking about the move-in process and some fun adventures I did along the way.
My mom and my uncle flew with me to move me in to the start of this lovely academic year. We took an overnight flight from JFK to Dublin Airport, which meant we landed two days before the start of the Semester-Start Up Program (this is an early start class Trinity runs for students before the semester). This year, HC students were put into very nice accommodations about a 20 minute walk away from campus. Although it would have been nice to live on campus, this accommodation is super nice and also allowed me to get to know other parts of the city well. My biggest advice for those who do this program is to buy everything here, because it is so easy to grab everything you need from home stores like Dunnes and TKMaxx. If you find any of the student packages online that can be sent to your accommodations, do not buy them, because chances are they won’t come in time (unfortunately I’m speaking from experience).
So after we gathered bedding and towels and toiletries despite the package hiccup, we explored the city a little bit, and I prepped for my first week of the Start-Up Program. This week was great, as we learned a lot about Irish history and were taken on a field trip to Trim Castle, which is where my header picture is from! I met some amazing people from all over, including Canada, Australia, and a lot of Americans from various states.
Once my mom and uncle left, my dad and some extended family members flew to Dublin for a very exciting American football game. Notre Dame football was playing Navy at Aviva Stadium in Dublin, and my family ensured that they bought tickets when they found out I was applying to study abroad at Trinity.
On top of an American football game, I went to a concert at the Royal Kilmainham Hospital venue! Back in April, I bought concert tickets to see boygenius with my HC friend doing the same study abroad program. By the time the concert rolled around, we managed to convince a bunch of our friends we met from the Semester-Start Up to also buy tickets, so we all had a blast together listening to some great music at a historic landmark.
I have to say, my first few weeks in Dublin went pretty well. I had never traveled outside of the country prior to this, so it was definitely an adjustment. However, the city is full of such wonderful people and is pretty easy to figure out, as long as you’re open to it. That’s all for now! I have some fun blog ideas planned, so stay tuned to hear more!
Until next time,
Emilee
