Arcadia Ireland

When I was applying to study abroad in Dublin, all I wanted to know was what an average day would look like. Join me on a typical Monday at Trinity College Dublin!

9:00: After staying up much too late to read an entire book that I didn’t start until midnight (not for class, though, so it’s fine), meaning I get much too little sleep, my alarm goes off. I wake up. I spend twenty minutes on TikTok and then another twenty wondering if I have enough time to go back to sleep before class. 

9:45: I do not have enough time to go back to sleep. 

9:46: I get out of bed. 

10:00: After getting ready for class as fast as humanly possible, I grab my bag and head down to the bus. 

10:05: I sprint across the street, fulfilling my daily exercise quota, and just catch my bus. I spend the next fifteen minutes listening to ABBA before arriving at Trinity with plenty of time to grab a quick breakfast at Costa Coffee before class. 

11:00: My first class of the day—a tutorial (small-group discussion section) for British Romantic Literature! Today we’re discussing The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. 

11:45: The tutorial ends. Before my 1 p.m. class, I look for my friend who’s always on campus today so I can say hi, but she’s gone home between her classes. I eat lunch at the Buttery (the dining hall) and take a quick walk around campus, listening to more of this morning’s ABBA. 

1:00: My next class, Painting in Europe in the Long Renaissance, begins. The lecture is on Michelangelo—always a classic. I take extra-detailed notes today, as I can’t be shown up by the intense note-taking of the girl to my left. 

1:49: Painting in Europe ends, and I speed-walk to my 2 p.m. lecture, U.S. Poetry Since 1945, which is located just off campus. 

1:56: I make it to the classroom, and I’m a few minutes early! I sit in my favorite seat and wait to learn more about Gwendolyn Brooks, the poet we’re discussing this week. 

3:50: Class ends. I have nothing else planned for today, so I take the bus back to my apartment. I try to finish my readings for my only class tomorrow, but then a friend back home messages me and then I fall down a rabbit hole of very interesting articles that are very irrelevant to the British Romantic poets I should be learning more about. I do not finish the readings.

6:07: Dinner!

6:40: I finish eating and finally restart my reading. It’s completed by 7:30. I should have done it earlier. 

7:40: I decide to watch a movie, then get ready for bed early to try to fix my sleep schedule. It works! By 10 p.m., I’m all tucked away in bed with my laptop to finish planning a trip to Copenhagen to visit my sister, who’s studying abroad there. 

10:05: She doesn’t pick up the phone. I text her five times with potential flight details before remembering she’s probably asleep. I watch an episode of Killing Eve to finish my night. 

11:27: Time for bed! I go to sleep in a good mood, ready to get up and have a fantastic day tomorrow.