Student Bloggers

It’s my fifth day in Dublin, but it feels like it has been much longer. At the same time, I’m still very much adjusting to life here. Maybe that’s because so much has been crammed into the past few days. From the hours of orientation at the Arcadia Dublin center to moving into apartments and trying to adjust to life here, it has already been challenging. I, as well as the nineteen others in Arcadia’s Trinity College Dublin program, plus those completing the Dublin Parliamentary Internship, have spent the past few days roaming around Dublin for various reasons. When I’m not doing that I’ve been learning about how to work our apartment washer or heating system or the locks and key codes of our building’s many doors.

Through it all, I keep thinking of one of the most interesting parts of our orientation – learning about the culture and playing of Gaelic sports. We learned to play Gaelic handball, which is like squash if you used your hand as a racquet, Gaelic football, which is sort of like a very challenging version of American team handball, and hurling, which is sort of like lacrosse but with a wood stick shaped like a flat spoon with no mesh pocket. These games were all very challenging, but our group had fun struggling through them together. 

More than just games though, I learned a lot about Gaelic culture from our instructors. For instance, I learned that Gaelic sports have never become as internationally popular as many other sports because Gaelic people refuse to let them become as heavily commercialized as most mainstream sports. Gaelic sports are deeply cultural and are played for a sense of community and for glory, not money. At the same time, Gaelic sports are widely popular in Ireland. Hurling and Gaelic football matches are often better attended than regular football (soccer) matches – even, apparently, the most recent World Cup football match.

The fact that Irish people have these unique sports that they are proud to share as part of their culture, yet don’t share with the world in order to avoid corrupting them with commercialization, says a lot about Irish culture and its complexity. One of the things our instructor told us is that Irish people are notoriously complex. Irish Gaelic does not have straightforward words for “yes” and “no”, and many phrases in Irish cannot be translated directly. But Irish people also tend to be very hospitable and welcoming. In general, they tend to view travelers as “underdogs” and will do anything they can to help them. For instance, the Irish phrase for “welcome” actually translates to “a hundred thousand welcomes”.

This has been my experience of Dublin so far: a hundred thousand welcomes. Besides attending both Arcadia and Trinity Orientations in a period of two weeks, each day brings something new. Whether I’m learning that cheap student violins tend to cost less in Ireland than in the States (I bought one for 160 Euro), that Irish people tend to be fascinated with Donald Trump, or that Irish thermostats are designed simply to keep people from freezing and not much more, it’s been a lot to take in.

I’m hoping that the next week sees me start to establish a routine here, and hopefully learn more about Irish complexity and history as I complete Trinity’s Semester Start-Up Program. I also hope to make some new friends. After all, Trinity welcomes far more than just the nineteen Arcadia students studying there. I’m hoping for many more welcomes to come, maybe even some will make Dublin start to feel more like home.