I have spent some full days in Dublin and seen many things until now so bare with me while I tell you all about it.
The very first thing I noticed was what once a friend of mine, Octav, told me: „Irish people are so nice that you are consciously being careful not to upset them with anything at all”. They answer all of your questions smiling and if you don’t know where you are supposed to go or where you are, they accompany you until you’re in the right place. I’ve not met any exceptions yet and I got lost many times in DCU (Dublin City University). The thing about this university is that all its faculties are in the same place. There’s the Business School, Faculty of Engineering & Computing, Faculty of Science & Health and the Faculty Of Humanities & Social Sciences (I study here). Each building has a letter on it ( from A to X, no B ‘cause it was torn down). There’s a big library, the HUB, the Helix, Health Centre, International Office, Student Advice Centre, two restaurants, a shopping centre etc. and music surrounds you at all times.

So I arrived in Shanowen Hall, the place where I’ll be staying until late January, with a private bus along with two volunteers from DCU, 2 Germans and 2 French. I got into my apartment, checked and read everything I found and big surprise! All the plugs required 3 pins cables and thus all my technology was left unplugged until the next day when I bought two adaptors with 8 Euros each. Never ever come to Ireland without adaptors!
Students studying at DCU and living on campus have everything they need 500 m around. There are three supermarkets, an 11 screen cinema, McDonald’s (very expensive- one filet o’fish costs 6 Euros), KFC, pharmacy etc. and many other juicy stuff. While shopping I noticed that the shops have no schedules, later on I found out that clothes shops close at 6 pm and the others are open until 9 or 10.

When it comes to buying fruit, they sell them by piece. Do not buy Irish apples unless you like extremely sour things. Ketchup has no information of being sweet or spicy on them and most are peppery. There are no one piece salamis only cut into pieces (pretty expensive). When it comes to beer … it is not cheap. If you buy it from a supermarket you get it with at least 1 euro a can and when you want to drink in town, 500 ml is 4 Euros or more. A thing to not be forgotten: wherever you wanna go to an organized party or in a pub, you must have your school ID with you and in some cases your usual ID too.
I have never seen so many blonde and red-haired people in one place. They are everywhere! Most of the Irish students are small, only about 10% of them are tall. What I noticed while talking to the teachers or coordinators is that they are extremely physically active; they’re here and there and everywhere. They move like bees. When you have a question, eyes g row bigger and their mouth is always largely open. I don’t know exactly how to put this in words. It’s like when you’re amazed about something…well that’s their usual face expression.

The Irish accent is the most obvious when it comes to people over 30 (except professors). Today a plumber came to fix something in the apartment and I understood about one word he said –“Ok”. Students live in 3, 4 or 5 room apartments, each with their own bathroom, shared kitchen ( with all the utilities included) and living room. Still you don’t get bed linen, duvets etc. because of hygienic purpose. There are no internet restrictions and the download/ upload speed is good- 5/3 mb per second. I live with three other second year Irish students. The rent is about 500 Euros a month any campus you choose to stay in. There’s the DCU campus and a private one. I’m in the private one. An interesting thing about the official campus is that students are picked randomly. —

Had I not come to Ireland I think I would have never witnessed a no smokers’ party. I don’t know yet if they are not allowed to smoke in a club or just were not introduced to cigarettes yet. There were us, the international students and the fresh ones. Irish people are so open-minded that gay couples had no inhibitions when it came to kissing in front of the others. In order to interact the Students’ Union themed the party -“Lock and key”. Each girl received a lock around her neck, while each boy a key. The aim was to find your “match” and win all kind of prizes.

Irish people are all about socializing. This part was also obvious at the official opening of the year. I was in a big amphitheatre encircled by about 1000 new students. Perfect surround sound! The moment the first professor began speaking everyone else stopped talking. They weren’t about fancy clothes, but casual ones. A nice fact about the Irish is that each time they have to introduce themselves or start a new discussion, they tell a joke or a personal funny thing. The guys on the stage ended the stories with an ethical sentence. For example, quoting: “After each dinner I like to drink a glass of wine. One night my daughter and I discussed about alcohol. I told her that drinking two glasses of wine is ok, three you get dizzy and if you reach 5 you are officially drunk. One hour later she came to me and said: Mom, you had a glass of wine on Monday, one on Tuesday, one on Wednesday… Does that mean you are usually drunk by Friday?”. She continued with the following sentence: “we all see things differently, we all see life differently”. Another teacher kept mentioning that “this is a friendly university; we are here to help you develop”. The police (Garda) held a speech, then the Health and Safety officer and in the end, the headmaster appeared. He began with “all of you turn on your mobile phones, take a picture and send it to one of your friends telling them: I made it. I’m here!”. He was all about motivating the new students with lines like: “Don’t settle for sitting in”, “Imagine your ideal life”, “You are the boss of you”, “dream big, take responsibility and go for it”. He interacted with the students all the time, telling jokes and asking them questions they then answered. The last one to speak was the Students’ Union president. The least dirty word he said was “boobs”, imagine the rest.

What I most liked about the Irish educational system is the fact that they have clubs and societies one can join for 4 Euros and receive credits for. Club refers to any sport you can imagine from: aikido, archery, canoe, hiking, rugby to Frisbee or hurling, while are societies include: Debating, Drama, Astronomy, Poker, Home and away, Media Production etc. . An interesting thing that one can do is to join a host family programme which consists of meeting an Irish family that shows you their customs, invite you to lunch and then take you to a football match. Haven’t done that yet but I will.
During the first couple of days I walked with my eyes widely open and what struck me first was the multitude of messages written on boards and present on all pillars. Messages like: “Vote NO! The Lisbon treaty is bad news for workers”, “It’s simple. We need Europe. The choice is yours.” When it comes to health I was amazed to find out that for a regular citizen seeing the doctor once costs 60-70 Euros and if you’re a student, it’s 10. As I was saying, the Irish are so into socializing that if you ask a policeman (they patrol all round) to escort you somewhere, he will do just that and have a nice conversation with you all the way.

The only thing I do not especially like is the always cloudy and windy weather with a maximum of 17 degrees for a few minutes per day. And maybe if I had a driver’s license, I wouldn’t enjoy driving on the right side. But overall this is a great place to be!
Tomorrow trip to the middle of the city…stay close. To be continued;)

Laura M