Arcadia Ireland

Today, Arcadia in Dublin welcomed its first Fall 2021 student for the Semester. This Northwestern student will attend Trinity College Dublin for a Semester start programme. She arrives ahead of our University of Limerick group on Saturday and has a chance to enjoy the lovely weather and get to know her new home! Right now, it is 21 degrees Celsius (the Summer has returned) and the locals are very happy after a few weeks of rainy damp weather.

This student did not have to quarantine and dived right into the experience. We took a walk to her local supermarket and through Dublin’s Liberties where she will be staying. She commented a few times on how “old this place felt” and she is right. This part of Dublin is, for many, the real Dublin and is so rich in history.

We walked to the Arcadia Dublin center where we hope to be able to see students throughout the Semester (once things open up for real here). We headed towards Temple Bar and she admired everything that she witnessed along the way. From menus on windows to the clothes people were wearing. We talked about the language and the Gaeltacht areas of Ireland and her “genetic Irishness” that she was proud of!  She had strategically chosen a green striped rugby shirt to try to blend in from day one and she seemed to think that her red coloured hair and pale skin would make everyone think that she was a local. She used the word “craic” in the right way while pushing through tiredness and jetlag. There was a yawn and a frown here and there but she was ready to take on all that Dublin had to offer.

Although we had students here in the Summer, it feels appropriate to say “Its good to be back”!