Big news today! After searching around for a week now, I found a place to live & signed the lease today!! It a studio apartment with a main livingroom/bedroom, kitchen, and bathroom in the village of Ranelagh, south of the Dublin city center. It’s still part of Dublin, but Ranelagh is the name of the neighborhood, kind of like how in DC the neighborhoods have different names. I’m very close to the Milltown Park campus where I’ll be taking most of my classes (by Dublin standards that is – about a 25 minute walk, shorter if I hurry), a 5 minute walk to the Luas train that goes into the city center to get to the main Trinity campus, and Christen’s house is right on my walk to class, so we can walk in together. It’s a quiet neighborhood, which should be good for studying, and the room isn’t large, but there is just enough room to fit a single inflatable mattress on the floor in case I have any overseas visitors in need of a place to stay. And now I can finally unpack and start to feel like I’m living here!
I do have to say, though, to any Rotarian hosts or future Scholars out there, having a local host for the first few days makes all the difference in the world. Moving to a new country where you don’t know anyone can be a scary experience (ok, I knew two people in advance but still). Having someone to talk to and ask cultural questions is amazingly helpful in those first few days and I am sooooo grateful to Grainne and Herbert for taking me in for the week while I got myself settled. Irish culture and American culture may not seem so different, but comments like, “Oh, it’s great craic!” (pronounced “crack”) can be confusing if you don’t know that craic is an Irish term for great fun or news/gossip or good time and don’t have someone to explain it to you. I’ve moved abroad before and worked for two years in the field of study abroad, so I knew what to expect in terms of culture shock to some extent, but that doesn’t necessarily make it any easier. Host families do – especially since Grainne and Herbert have both moved to other countries themselves.
I also went to my first Dublin Central Rotary Club meeting tonight and met some more club members. Ironically, there was an abnormally low turnout and high number of American visitors such that Americans actually outnumbered Irish at the meeting. Martin, the president, said it was part of his master plan to make me feel welcome and at home there. It’s quite a young club – I think Martin told me the average age is about 37. It’s a little different than the Ames Noon Club – no singing and since it’s an evening meeting, they serve wine and pop rather than a meal, but they’re very active and we had a great discussion of the effectiveness of various forms of international aid (emergency, charity, and multilateral), specifically to Africa. There was a perception in the room that Americans don’t know what’s going on with the draught in east Africa, which I would refute, but please leave a comment and let me know what you think. The US is a large country so hard to make generalizations. In any case, great conversations all night, and Martin kindly dropped me off at Herbert and Grainne’s for my last night with them before my move tomorrow.
Have I mentioned lately how wonderful Rotary and Rotarians are? I’m so thrilled to be a part of this club and the whole network!
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