Arcadia Ireland

What an exciting and busy few weeks it has been! Pope Francis visited Ireland, Dublin won the All Ireland Gaelic Football match (yet again), the sun returned for a short while and it felt like July again. Most importantly, however, we began the Fall 2018 Semester at Arcadia University in Dublin!

Our Early start students are practically locals in Cork and Dublin now. The last two weeks we welcomed students going to Trinity College Dublin, University College Cork, Burren College of Art, University of Limerick, University College Dublin and National University of Ireland Galway. What impressed me the most was how good-humoured everyone was.  Jetlag can play funny tricks with the mind but this group were having none of it.

All one hundred and two of them brought such energy, enthusiasm and fun to our two, sometimes three-day orientations in Dublin. They were engaged and interested to learn lots about the culture and the people of Ireland.  They threw themselves into learning the skills of Gaelic games - hurling and football and many said they were eager to get back on a pitch and practice some more!

For me there is always a highlight in orientation and something which makes me smile. This time it was listening to someone try to pronounce the girls name “Aoife” – many pronouncing as A-Oh-Fee”…Of course the Irish would only say “E-Fah”. I mentioned the Irish “Craic” pronounced “Crack” and I got some very funny looks. This, in case you all didn’t know is the Irish for fun! I have a feeling this group are going to bring lots of good old Irish Craic with them through the Semester and Academic Year. Looking forward to a great Fall Semester!