We do not remember being this busy the last time we brought students to Ireland, but we decided one of the reasons for this is that the students are really awesome. (Some of the best students I have ever had.) This group is always up for an adventure, to try new things and create new experiences. It's cliche to say that attitude matters, but it is definitely true when traveling. These students make us want to give them more. And we are trying to deliver!
On the weekends I am staying busy making sure that not a single second here is wasted. Ireland sometimes feels like beer and booze tourism, but maybe that is because I was really excited about these parts. For example, there is always an obligatory trip to the Guinness Brewery when here. Definitely a tourist spot with more Americans than should fit into a single place - it's like a Disneyland for stout drinkers, and designed to convert you even if you don't like them. The beer is great here, so the pours of Guinness make the trip worthwhile, but I have to admit I would rather be drinking fresh pints in an "old man pub" than having an American-flag t-shirt ask me if I am liking the beer.
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| Me running from the brewery to find a pub. |
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| The best part is the beer garden on the top floor, with a 360 view of Dublin and a hard-earned pint. |
One of the things booked before we even arrived was a gin distilling class, and it was the alcohol-related thing I was most looking forward to. I really like gin, but I am not as nerdy about it as I would like to be. I needed a three-hour class where I am given lectures about the botanicals and processes, and then provided a still to make my own. (It was as fun as I had hoped, and I took notes. Get ready for lectures when I return.)
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| There was a cool app that let you pick ingredients, and then provided instructions about measurements. |
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| My station with the magic jars. I may have checked Amazon for prices on stills. |
In a previous post I described the game of hurling. Teams across the country are competing in their version of the playoffs right now, and we found an opportunity to go to a game. We cheered for Dublin against Galway, and it ended in a tie. It is, objectively speaking,one of the more exciting sports that I have ever seen. So much scoring, physicality and skill. Also, everyone is an amateur athlete (even the "pros" at the top level), because it is run as a non-profit community organization. They all have day jobs!
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| The stadiums are impressive, and the crowds are fantastic. |
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| To whom it may concern: U.S. sporting events need cheap chicken and stuffing sandwiches. |
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| It was a sunny day. The Guinness was fresh, and everyone brought their families. |
Another impressive thing about Dublin is the transformation and integration from old to new. We visited Pearse Lyons Distillery for a tour and a tasting, and it was an amazing restoration of an abandoned church into a distillery. There are so many opportunities in Dublin for further investment and development, and its seems like the right decisions are being made about how to preserve the past and look to the future.
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| The distillery, with the graveyard still there. The site was a church in the 1100s... 100,000 people are buried there! Part of the agreement for renovating the church was to clean and preserve the graves as well. |
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| The church had been a hardware store and a paint store in the early 1900s. The distillery paid millions to bring the church out of a century of neglect. |
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| Another example of new architecture built on the old (this one near my house). |
Of course alongside the beer and booze tours, my favorite parts of the study abroad experience here are the political ones. For these we must have connections in the country, and the organization we use to book our experiences did an excellent job setting us up with unique first-hand encounters. We visited
the Irish Dáil (pronounced "dahl"), which is the equivalent of our U.S. Congress. It is located in a historic mansion, with many interesting stories about current politics and historical events. I'm not sure how we qualified, but we ended up with an usher (responsible for the day-to-day operation), who gave us a two-hour walkthrough of almost every room. I could not have been more happy with what we all learned, and how respectful and interested the students were.
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| The class outside the Dáil. |
The other required political experience for our class is a two-day visit to Belfast. What a city! It combines the sights and sounds of a major world city along with the still-raw historical scars of a community torn apart by violence. We design this trip to show students how complicated the political world can be, and we know we succeeded when several say to us throughout our day of tours and talks: "I didn't realize how much I would have to process."
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| Even though we describe it before we go, seeing a wall that still actively divides a city is a moving for everyone. |
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| The heroes on one side of the wall are the villains on the other. But the experience appropriately convinces the students that "two sides to every story" does not work here. |
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| The best of the day was a panel of friends who fought and were imprisoned for crimes committed on each side of the conflict. The "terrorists" are now the teachers. |
No visit to Belfast is complete without a trip to the World Heritage Site the Giant's Causeway - some of the most beautiful scenery that any of us will ever see. Pictures do not do it justice, but I am providing them anyway.
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| Our group. |
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| Every angle is a postcard. |
In case you are here to read about the other stuff that goes on - the students have started calling me Dr. Dad, and frequently ridicule me for my lectures, photos, clothing, and jokes. They appreciate my love of snacks, but less so my endless commentary on cultural quirks.
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| Apparently I started a farm, and have a product called a "Pear Picking Porky" |
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| Store name of the day: a vegan food store called "Pretend" |
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