Day 1 in Dublin

I arrived at the Dublin airport at 8am, having slept the whole flight since dinner (courtesy of a sleeping pill that still hadn’t quite worn off by landing), picked up my luggage, and as I walked out into the airport, Grainne, my host Rotarian, my waiting for me holding a sign with my name on it. She and her husband, Herbert, generously welcomed me, loaded up my suitcases, and took me back to their house where there was a bed waiting with my name on it. On the way back, we compared notes on how they previously lived in Holland (Herbert is Dutch), Herbert had worked for a time in Sioux City, Iowa, and they’d both spent time volunteering in South Africa. Amazing how in this globalized world I felt like I had as many shared experiences with this new couple I’d just met than some of my neighbors in Iowa.

I got a few hours of sleep, then Grainne had arranged for me to meet Shannon, another Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar studying at Trinity, to walk around town and get my bearings for the afternoon. I asked around to people on the streets for the bus stop, caught the bus into town, found Shannon, and she took me under her wing – walking me through the campus, showing me the accommodations office so I could get started finding myself an apartment and put an add out for a roommate, giving me a card with the steps I would need to take to get my immigration documents in order, and then shopping for a cell phone, hair dryer and straightener that work in Irish electric outlets. Quite the accomplishments in just 3 hours.

At about 5pm she asked if I’d eaten (I hadn’t) and we went to a pub in Temple Bar – ironically, one I had visited with Elyse and Emily two years earlier when I’d come to visit them over Thanksgiving. I ordered a beer and Irish breakfast and we talked and listened to the Irish music, played by a live band. Shannon was an Irish dancer growing up, so when a couple of Irishmen next to us who thought everything in America was “AWESOME!” (always said in conjunction with a fist pump) tried to teach us to dance, Shannon stole the show and had all the tourists in the bar taking pictures of her.

I was about ready to turn in by that point, so pulled out my new temporary address, found the bus stop, and a very kind woman named Maureen told me she could be my aunt for the moment so I could stand with her at the front of the line to board, and she even went to the effort to get off the bus two stops early and walked me half way back to the house to make sure I found my way there ok – and I did. So very kind of her.

I let myself in, chatted with Grainne and Herbert, who got me set up on the internet, and turned in for a good night’s sleep before tackling what would become a week of apartment hunting, class registration, and lots of paperwork ahead.