I'm back in the U.S. !!! After a crazy day of traveling (I almost missed my flight back to Indianapolis because my flight from Ireland to Newark was delayed), I finally arrived (luggage and all ... thank goodness) safe and sound. After dinner with the fam, I went to bed pretty early, since I had been traveling for 12+ hours and had been up since midnight U.S. Eastern standard time (boo jet lag!).
While there were times when I was frustrated during my trip (Sabrena and I totally feel into the mid-trip lull where you get frustrated with the culture shock and what not), and while I was excited to be back with my family and friends and be free from traveling the country on a bus and living out of a suitcase, within less than 24 hours of being back, I was missing Ireland already (Especially our 11:00 tea time, Sabrena ... haha !) Overall, it was a fantastic experience and a trip of a lifetime, and while it seemed to drag on a times when I was there because I was removed from the rest of the world, I realize now that it went by too fast (though I think my family, friends, and coworkers here think it didn't go by fast enough).
In addition to all my observations I've written in early posts, I've now had a little time to reflect on my experiences and thought I'd share a few lessons I picked up along the way.
The first is this: compared to Ireland (and, seemingly, the rest of the world), the U.S., from my experience, lacks in terms of having a knowledge of and respect for our nation's history. Everyone that I talked to in Ireland, no matter how old or what profession, could easily explain the history of and the purpose behind why Ireland does certain things the way they do, and they had a pride for who they are and where they come from while being able to honestly admit where improvements need to be made without seeming shameful. I remember making a comment to Sabrena that if this trip would have been reversed, I couldn't have possibly shared all of the same information with Irish visitors to my institution, and I don't think that many could have. Perhaps because the U.S. has been such a melting pot, we haven't kept track of the history of America, but rather of the individuals places we came from. Perhaps the importance of our history just isn't stressed enough - we learn what we need to about it to pass a test in school and then it is forgotten about. In Ireland, history is integrated into the modern times every day. The strangest experience that I had in Ireland was that I was repeatedly thanked by Irish people for being American because "America has done so much for Ireland." I didn't know how to react to this. I personally didn't feel like I had done anything for Ireland, and I wasn't quite sure what my country as a whole had done for Ireland either. I learned during my time there was individual people meant by this, but perhaps if I had known prior to my trip what interactions between Ireland and the U.S. entailed, I would have been able to react to this seemingly undeserved gratitude much better.
This brings my to my second lesson, which is to focus on the positive and not the negative. I feel like I've been reminded about this throughout my life, but Ireland has reminded me of it yet again. I constantly complain about the media in America for broadcasting only the "bad" news without every celebrating any of the "good." As Americans, I feel that many of us are often quick to focus on what is going wrong - with government, with education, with money, etc. - when we could be focusing on what's going right and trying to figure out how to make other things better. I'm sure Ireland has just as many problems as we Americans think we do, but I rarely heard them articulated, and when I did, they weren't presented as problems. Instead, the Irish kept a positive outlook and talked about "areas that needed enhancing," thus putting a much positive spin on issues of concern. At the institutions, they were quick to point out what they were doing right, how far they had come, and credit those who had offered support and growth rather than complaining about lack of funding, slow processes of change, etc. This positivity made for a much more enjoyable experience there.
Thirdly, I've learned that when it comes to a lot of things, there's no dichotomous "good" and "bad;" there's just "different." While the U.S. and Irish higher education systems have many similarities, they also have vaste differences; but this doesn't make one system better than the other, it just makes them difference. The Irish institutions are excelling in ways that the U.S. hasn't, such as with access to education, support for mature students and for students with disabilities, and the involvement of the Students' Union in the governance of the institutions. The U.S. is also excelling in ways that Irish ones haven't, such as with the first-year and sophomore experiences, the student judicial process, and residential education. By studying both systems, one can pick and choose the best of both worlds to enhance their own; I myself have brought back several ideas that may enhance the programs that I work with.
Fourthly, my experience on my study abroad trip only reiterated that student affairs is a small profession, and introduced the idea that it's a small world now that we are globalized. Bill, a Ph.D. student on my trip, happens to know 2 of the professionals who I used to work with in orientation at Purdue. Suzanne now works professionally with a woman who was a graduate assistant for the orientation program while I was at Purdue. Stephanie and I had met each other in Atlanta this spring where we happened to be assigned to the same volunteer spot at ACPA and then ended up going to Ireland together. Wes went to undergrad with some of my friends from high school. Colleen, who now works for an institution in Ireland, knows almost all of the people I work with currently and has sorority sisters from my hometown. I met a woman in the airport on my way home to used to work for a company that a company I interned for in undergrad outsources too, and knew my former supervisors. It seemed as though every day the world got smaller and smaller. At the end of the trip I appreciate that Pam reminded us "to take care of each other," as we would all be growing professionally together and may need to rely on one another sometime. I also appreciate that Tony said that our group gave him "hope for the future of student affairs;" it was nice to know that someone believed in us.
I know that I will continue to reflect on my trip as time progresses, and never forget about it for the rest of time. I hope that I get the chance to walk the streets of Galway, bike the Aran Islands (ok ... maybe not), peer over the Cliffs of Moher, and visit the other sites of Ireland again one day (perhaps with some of my family or friends that have ties there), and maybe even explore other countries too (Pam and Tony ... you may see me in Scotland!). Till then, it's back to the "real world." (Jenn ... we'll be at Moe's soon !)
Monday, August 4, 2008
Jesus had blonde hair?!
(Note: This post is for Thursday, July 31, 2008.)
Today we had our last institutional visit at Trinity College Dublin, the oldest college in Ireland. Trinity is set in the heart of Dublin, with the city sprawling around it. While none of the original buildings survive, many of the buildings date back to the 1700s, and those are breathtaking. It was a short day on campus. First we met several of the student services staff, all of whom were similar in position to those we had met on other campuses. We then took a tour of their new sports complex before taking a very educational tour of campus, led by a professor of philosophy who himself was a graduate of Trinity. (Interesting enough, this man lives on campus, as he is also part of the judicial board, and happens to live in the same room where a former professor was shot by students after they were shot at by him - the most rebellious event ever to occur on Trinity's campus). This man was extremely knowledgeable about Trinity's history, and had a sarcastic wit to him as he described various aspects of the campus buildings to us.
The tour ended with a trip to see the Book of Kells, often regarded as Ireland's finest national treasure and held on Trinity's campus. The Book of Kells is an extremely detailed and illustrated translation of the 4 gospels, created in the year 800. The book was separated into the 2 separate volumes and encased on Trinity's campus, allowing visitors to view the first pages of each gospel. A hall showcased large, illuminated reproductions of other pages, since visitors cannot flip through the actual books themselves. Something interesting that I immediately noticed was that all of the pictures of Jesus Christ (and similarly, other saints and disciples) depict him as a man with curly, blonde hair. This just happened to catch my eye because all pictures that I have ever seen as depictions of nearly anyone of importance from biblical times, particularly Jesus Christ, show them all as brunettes.
The tour ended in a BEAUTIFUL library (which an arched, wooden ceiling that I would like to have replicated in my home one day) where 2000 of the world's oldest books are stored. (Something interesting about Trinity ... it holds a copy of any copyrighted written work in the EU since the early 1800s.)
After our trip to Trinity, most of the group dispersed to do some shopping for the rest of the day. We then had our farewell dinner at the Purty Kitchen. Prior to dinner we all meet in the dance club in the upstairs area of the Purty Kitchen to fill out some evaluations, receive our group pictures, and end with some "icebreakers" where we all got to share our favorite memories from the trip. It was fun to recap everyone's experiences, and to hear from Pam and Tony how impressed they were with our group this year. Dinner was great - we had wonderful service and food, and got to listen to a very impressive musician play his guitar and sing throughout our time there. Sadly after dinner we said our goodbyes, and now Sabrena and I are packing to return home tomorrow. The end is bittersweet ... I'm excited to go home to see friends and family and get back to a "normal" routine, but I am sad about leaving this beautiful country and such great people at these institutions. It's definitely been the experience of a lifetime!
Today we had our last institutional visit at Trinity College Dublin, the oldest college in Ireland. Trinity is set in the heart of Dublin, with the city sprawling around it. While none of the original buildings survive, many of the buildings date back to the 1700s, and those are breathtaking. It was a short day on campus. First we met several of the student services staff, all of whom were similar in position to those we had met on other campuses. We then took a tour of their new sports complex before taking a very educational tour of campus, led by a professor of philosophy who himself was a graduate of Trinity. (Interesting enough, this man lives on campus, as he is also part of the judicial board, and happens to live in the same room where a former professor was shot by students after they were shot at by him - the most rebellious event ever to occur on Trinity's campus). This man was extremely knowledgeable about Trinity's history, and had a sarcastic wit to him as he described various aspects of the campus buildings to us.
The tour ended with a trip to see the Book of Kells, often regarded as Ireland's finest national treasure and held on Trinity's campus. The Book of Kells is an extremely detailed and illustrated translation of the 4 gospels, created in the year 800. The book was separated into the 2 separate volumes and encased on Trinity's campus, allowing visitors to view the first pages of each gospel. A hall showcased large, illuminated reproductions of other pages, since visitors cannot flip through the actual books themselves. Something interesting that I immediately noticed was that all of the pictures of Jesus Christ (and similarly, other saints and disciples) depict him as a man with curly, blonde hair. This just happened to catch my eye because all pictures that I have ever seen as depictions of nearly anyone of importance from biblical times, particularly Jesus Christ, show them all as brunettes.
The tour ended in a BEAUTIFUL library (which an arched, wooden ceiling that I would like to have replicated in my home one day) where 2000 of the world's oldest books are stored. (Something interesting about Trinity ... it holds a copy of any copyrighted written work in the EU since the early 1800s.)
After our trip to Trinity, most of the group dispersed to do some shopping for the rest of the day. We then had our farewell dinner at the Purty Kitchen. Prior to dinner we all meet in the dance club in the upstairs area of the Purty Kitchen to fill out some evaluations, receive our group pictures, and end with some "icebreakers" where we all got to share our favorite memories from the trip. It was fun to recap everyone's experiences, and to hear from Pam and Tony how impressed they were with our group this year. Dinner was great - we had wonderful service and food, and got to listen to a very impressive musician play his guitar and sing throughout our time there. Sadly after dinner we said our goodbyes, and now Sabrena and I are packing to return home tomorrow. The end is bittersweet ... I'm excited to go home to see friends and family and get back to a "normal" routine, but I am sad about leaving this beautiful country and such great people at these institutions. It's definitely been the experience of a lifetime!
"To live is to change, and to be perfect is to change often." - John Newman
(Note: This post is for Wednesday, July 20, 2008.)
This morning we were up bright and early and off to University College Dublin (UCD) (not DCU ... ohmigosh, all these schools are confusing!), where the great and wonderful Colleen was our host for the day. (Jenn ... she is great!). I had heard a lot about Colleen through several of my coworkers who have met her at various FYE and IFYE conferences over the years, and I had been using much of her work for my research paper for this class, so I was excited to meet her. Little did I know that we would have so much in common! Turns out that Collen is from Lafayette, IN (I went to undergrad in West Lafayette, IN), and went to undergrad at Butler where she had several sorority sisters from my hometown of Seymour (which many people from Indiana have never heard about unless, like Colleen said, they know of John Mellencamp).
While in appearance UCD is not my favorite campus, it is my favorite in terms of the people that work there, and how much I am able to relate to what they do there. UCD, I would say, of all the schools we've been to, is right up there with UCC in being the most closely aligned with what we do in the States in terms of student affairs. The morning started off with a talk from Marie Murray of Counseling, who seemed to be a phenomenal woman. She gave us an introduction into UCD students, and, I think, a lot of insight into the field of student affairs (despite that she, and the majority of her colleagues, do not have a background in student affairs). I particularly liked that she started off saying, "Students direct my work;" a point which she reiterated on several occassions. She quoted John Newman (founder of UCD, and author of Idea of a University) in saying, "To live is to change, and to be perfect is to change often;" sort of driving home that there's always room for improvement and change in the work that we do, and that students should guide both. Coming from a counseling standpoint, she really opened our eyes to the questions that we must consider when dealing with students' transitions into and through college. Though seemingly common sense, I was intrigued when she discussed that too often we forget to ask students the right questions, or to ask for their input or opinion; which is so true. Marie combats this by always ending her sessions by asking, "Are there questions that I should have asked you that I didn't ask, and are there questions I asked that I shouldn't have," which is a small trick that I think any student affairs professional could use when meeting with students. Marie, like the other counselors we have met with here, reiterated issues for UCD students surrounding alcohol use, mental health, and suicide, and discussed much that most of the students who come to see her come to discuss a variety of relationship issues. When discussing these issues Marie said, "Only those who can feel have the ability to love intensely and to be hurt intensely," as she discussed how mental health issues, including suicidal thought, can taint the "feel factor" of students, which I found interesting. I also found in interesting, and quite coincidental, that Marie discussed issues of parents of 1st generation students (though UCD, like other Irish institutions, typically don't pay any attention to parents), when she said that 1st generation parents struggle with balancing being happy for their students because they want the best for them and dealing with losing their students to something they could never have (and interesting point for those of us who are interested in working with parents and/or 1st generation students). Finally, when asked about her perceptions on faculty involvement in students' lives and their cooperation with student affairs, Marie echoed something that was often discussed in my classes this past year when we talked about bridging student affairs and academic affairs; she stated, "Academics [faculty] want students to succeed, but as the pressures on them increase [processes for tenure, publication, research, etc.], it's more difficult to help students with issues they don't understand [such as mental health issues, transitional issues, etc.]." She (and later Colleen as well), also commented on how academics don't always understand the impact they have on students, and that it's our duty, as student affairs professionals, to remind them of the great impact they can have on their students.
We then had a lecture by Fr. John McNerny of Chaplaincy on Newman's Vision of a University, which for being written in the 1800s is remarkably representative of what we as student affairs professionals hope for our campuses and our students today. (I look foward to hopefully finding the time to read his book). I was admittedly surprised as Fr. McNerny discussed Newman's foward thinking on integrating learning inside the classroom with learning outside the classroom, and empowering students to spread that learning to the greater society for the good of the whole community. Perhaps of U.S. student affairs professionals read his vision they would have a "new" spark from some "old" ideas on how to accomplish what we are trying to accomplish with our students.
Collen then utilized her presentation from IFYE this year on "What's Unique About the Irish First Year Experience," to discuss with us the transitional issued of first year Irish students. While I had already seen and utilized this presentation, I still found her talk interesting, and was particularly intrigued by a few key points she made. Firstly, she explained to us that unlike the United States, in Ireland it is much more prestigious to attend a "public" unversity [i.e. one funded by the "state (country)]. This is because students can attend these institutions free (while have access to greater services), whereas they would have to pay for a private institution. This was interesting, as in the U.S. the concept of "prestige" tends to equate to money ... the more money, the higher the prestige. It is still odd to me that, as Colleen said, "undeclared students to not exist." While I understand it now, it's still hard for me to fathom being admitted into higher education soley based on the the score of a test, and while the advantages and disadvantages of the system have been explained to us at each school here, I respected that Colleen put explained it in terms of retention (which we could all understand), saying that as demand for majors fall, LC points fall, which means bringing in weaker students into programs, which in turn brings on a major retention issue when students can't succeed in their coursework.
We then had a student services fair, during which I spent the time talking to Jenny, who oversees that New ERA program, an access program for students who are low-income, first-generation students who come from disadvantaged schools (and often communities) and whose parents are not of a professional class. Having worked with POA at Purdue and TRiO at USC, I was interested in hearing about the services that UCD provides for these students, and impressed with what they have to offer. I was particularly impressed that services are not only offered to students who enroll in UCD, but that the New ERA program also targets students in primary and secondary education in order to get them interested in and prepare them for college. (While some TRiO programs in the U.S. interact with high school students a bit, it is rare to see colleges taking an active stance to start working with students from elementary school foward to ensure their academic success.)
It was also interesting to learn of an interact with several Student Advisors at UCD, a position which doesn't exist at other institutions in Ireland. While these people are what we in the states might refer to as academic advisors, many of them also take on a variety of other student services jobs that may be a single position at institutions in the states, such as orientation, retention and tutoring, etc.
In the afternoon we were given a campus tour by a great student who I learned was from Nigeria, went to undergrad in Russia (where he had to do all his exams orally in Russian) and wa now attending graduate school in Ireland for mechanical engineering. Once our tour was over, several of us went to check out the bookstore where an employee gave Sabrena some scones that had fallen on the floor and told her she could feed them to the swans outside, so several of us headed out there. The swan that I was feeding sure liked me when I had the scone, but the second it was gone, the swan decided that I was a tasty treat too and attemped to eat my foot three times (apparently it was still hungry).
Tonight we went to dinner at the Oval Pub, which was the worst dining experience we've had in Ireland. The manager and the wait staff were rude, the food wasn't great, and we were charge 3.10 euro for a very small bottled water. As others headed out for the night, Lorraine and I headed back to the hotel. I had a great time hanging out in her room with her talking about school and work (she gave me some inspiration about pursuing a Ph.D. ... maybe I will do it someday). Tomorrow we're off to Trinity - our last institutional visit before we go home. It's a short one, so Sabrena and I are looking foward to doing some souveneir shopping afterward. :-)
This morning we were up bright and early and off to University College Dublin (UCD) (not DCU ... ohmigosh, all these schools are confusing!), where the great and wonderful Colleen was our host for the day. (Jenn ... she is great!). I had heard a lot about Colleen through several of my coworkers who have met her at various FYE and IFYE conferences over the years, and I had been using much of her work for my research paper for this class, so I was excited to meet her. Little did I know that we would have so much in common! Turns out that Collen is from Lafayette, IN (I went to undergrad in West Lafayette, IN), and went to undergrad at Butler where she had several sorority sisters from my hometown of Seymour (which many people from Indiana have never heard about unless, like Colleen said, they know of John Mellencamp).
While in appearance UCD is not my favorite campus, it is my favorite in terms of the people that work there, and how much I am able to relate to what they do there. UCD, I would say, of all the schools we've been to, is right up there with UCC in being the most closely aligned with what we do in the States in terms of student affairs. The morning started off with a talk from Marie Murray of Counseling, who seemed to be a phenomenal woman. She gave us an introduction into UCD students, and, I think, a lot of insight into the field of student affairs (despite that she, and the majority of her colleagues, do not have a background in student affairs). I particularly liked that she started off saying, "Students direct my work;" a point which she reiterated on several occassions. She quoted John Newman (founder of UCD, and author of Idea of a University) in saying, "To live is to change, and to be perfect is to change often;" sort of driving home that there's always room for improvement and change in the work that we do, and that students should guide both. Coming from a counseling standpoint, she really opened our eyes to the questions that we must consider when dealing with students' transitions into and through college. Though seemingly common sense, I was intrigued when she discussed that too often we forget to ask students the right questions, or to ask for their input or opinion; which is so true. Marie combats this by always ending her sessions by asking, "Are there questions that I should have asked you that I didn't ask, and are there questions I asked that I shouldn't have," which is a small trick that I think any student affairs professional could use when meeting with students. Marie, like the other counselors we have met with here, reiterated issues for UCD students surrounding alcohol use, mental health, and suicide, and discussed much that most of the students who come to see her come to discuss a variety of relationship issues. When discussing these issues Marie said, "Only those who can feel have the ability to love intensely and to be hurt intensely," as she discussed how mental health issues, including suicidal thought, can taint the "feel factor" of students, which I found interesting. I also found in interesting, and quite coincidental, that Marie discussed issues of parents of 1st generation students (though UCD, like other Irish institutions, typically don't pay any attention to parents), when she said that 1st generation parents struggle with balancing being happy for their students because they want the best for them and dealing with losing their students to something they could never have (and interesting point for those of us who are interested in working with parents and/or 1st generation students). Finally, when asked about her perceptions on faculty involvement in students' lives and their cooperation with student affairs, Marie echoed something that was often discussed in my classes this past year when we talked about bridging student affairs and academic affairs; she stated, "Academics [faculty] want students to succeed, but as the pressures on them increase [processes for tenure, publication, research, etc.], it's more difficult to help students with issues they don't understand [such as mental health issues, transitional issues, etc.]." She (and later Colleen as well), also commented on how academics don't always understand the impact they have on students, and that it's our duty, as student affairs professionals, to remind them of the great impact they can have on their students.
We then had a lecture by Fr. John McNerny of Chaplaincy on Newman's Vision of a University, which for being written in the 1800s is remarkably representative of what we as student affairs professionals hope for our campuses and our students today. (I look foward to hopefully finding the time to read his book). I was admittedly surprised as Fr. McNerny discussed Newman's foward thinking on integrating learning inside the classroom with learning outside the classroom, and empowering students to spread that learning to the greater society for the good of the whole community. Perhaps of U.S. student affairs professionals read his vision they would have a "new" spark from some "old" ideas on how to accomplish what we are trying to accomplish with our students.
Collen then utilized her presentation from IFYE this year on "What's Unique About the Irish First Year Experience," to discuss with us the transitional issued of first year Irish students. While I had already seen and utilized this presentation, I still found her talk interesting, and was particularly intrigued by a few key points she made. Firstly, she explained to us that unlike the United States, in Ireland it is much more prestigious to attend a "public" unversity [i.e. one funded by the "state (country)]. This is because students can attend these institutions free (while have access to greater services), whereas they would have to pay for a private institution. This was interesting, as in the U.S. the concept of "prestige" tends to equate to money ... the more money, the higher the prestige. It is still odd to me that, as Colleen said, "undeclared students to not exist." While I understand it now, it's still hard for me to fathom being admitted into higher education soley based on the the score of a test, and while the advantages and disadvantages of the system have been explained to us at each school here, I respected that Colleen put explained it in terms of retention (which we could all understand), saying that as demand for majors fall, LC points fall, which means bringing in weaker students into programs, which in turn brings on a major retention issue when students can't succeed in their coursework.
We then had a student services fair, during which I spent the time talking to Jenny, who oversees that New ERA program, an access program for students who are low-income, first-generation students who come from disadvantaged schools (and often communities) and whose parents are not of a professional class. Having worked with POA at Purdue and TRiO at USC, I was interested in hearing about the services that UCD provides for these students, and impressed with what they have to offer. I was particularly impressed that services are not only offered to students who enroll in UCD, but that the New ERA program also targets students in primary and secondary education in order to get them interested in and prepare them for college. (While some TRiO programs in the U.S. interact with high school students a bit, it is rare to see colleges taking an active stance to start working with students from elementary school foward to ensure their academic success.)
It was also interesting to learn of an interact with several Student Advisors at UCD, a position which doesn't exist at other institutions in Ireland. While these people are what we in the states might refer to as academic advisors, many of them also take on a variety of other student services jobs that may be a single position at institutions in the states, such as orientation, retention and tutoring, etc.
In the afternoon we were given a campus tour by a great student who I learned was from Nigeria, went to undergrad in Russia (where he had to do all his exams orally in Russian) and wa now attending graduate school in Ireland for mechanical engineering. Once our tour was over, several of us went to check out the bookstore where an employee gave Sabrena some scones that had fallen on the floor and told her she could feed them to the swans outside, so several of us headed out there. The swan that I was feeding sure liked me when I had the scone, but the second it was gone, the swan decided that I was a tasty treat too and attemped to eat my foot three times (apparently it was still hungry).
Tonight we went to dinner at the Oval Pub, which was the worst dining experience we've had in Ireland. The manager and the wait staff were rude, the food wasn't great, and we were charge 3.10 euro for a very small bottled water. As others headed out for the night, Lorraine and I headed back to the hotel. I had a great time hanging out in her room with her talking about school and work (she gave me some inspiration about pursuing a Ph.D. ... maybe I will do it someday). Tomorrow we're off to Trinity - our last institutional visit before we go home. It's a short one, so Sabrena and I are looking foward to doing some souveneir shopping afterward. :-)
The craic was mighty !
(Note: This post is for Tuesday, July 29, 2008.)
Today we left our beautiful hotel in Cork, bound for the last leg of our trip in Dublin. Luckily the trip from Cork to Dublin was one of the smoothest (despite longest) we've had, as we got to travel some roads that were less than a year old and not quite so hilly as those we've been traveling. Since we spent all morning traveling, we didn't have much time to to sightsee once we got to Dublin, so a group of us quickly dropped off our belongings and headed to the Guinness Storehouse for a tour (and a free Guinness).
Upon entering the Guinness Storehouse you see embedded in the flooring a copy of the lease for the building which when signed was to last for 9000 years! While Guinness has been certainly surviving since then, it's crazy to think that they still have 8000+ years to go on their lease! The Storehouse is also designed as the largest pint glass in the world - it would take 4,000,000+ pints of Guiness to actually fill it. After exploring the Storehouse (including the history of Guiness and how it is made), we ended at the velocity bar, which is the highest point in Dublin, where we got a free pint and a 360-degree view of the city (luckily it was sunny while we were up there, so we could see pretty far!). I also finally discovered what people are talking about or what shirts means when they say "the craic was mighty." Apparently "craic" or "crack" in Ireland, Scotland, and Northern England means "fun or lighthearted mischief, often in the context of drinking or music." In Ireland when people ask, "What's the crack?" or "How's the crack?" it doesn't refer to drugs as it does in the U.S., but rather, "How are you?" or "How have you been?"
After the Guinness tour, we headed to St. Patrick's Cathedral, but were disappointed when we found out there was a service in progress and we therefore couldn't go inside. We got some pretty pictures of the outside though! As we were all hungry by this point, we all stopped by a pub on the way back to the hotel, where some of us has the biggest pieces of fish we've ever seen and the best chips we've had on the trip (I swear, we're becoming experts on french fries we've eaten so many!).
Now we're back at the hotel, and I am so exhausted I can barely keep my eyes open and it's raining outside, so no sense in going out. Tomorrow we have a LONG day at UCD, so I'll suppose I'll head to bed early tonight.
Today we left our beautiful hotel in Cork, bound for the last leg of our trip in Dublin. Luckily the trip from Cork to Dublin was one of the smoothest (despite longest) we've had, as we got to travel some roads that were less than a year old and not quite so hilly as those we've been traveling. Since we spent all morning traveling, we didn't have much time to to sightsee once we got to Dublin, so a group of us quickly dropped off our belongings and headed to the Guinness Storehouse for a tour (and a free Guinness).
Upon entering the Guinness Storehouse you see embedded in the flooring a copy of the lease for the building which when signed was to last for 9000 years! While Guinness has been certainly surviving since then, it's crazy to think that they still have 8000+ years to go on their lease! The Storehouse is also designed as the largest pint glass in the world - it would take 4,000,000+ pints of Guiness to actually fill it. After exploring the Storehouse (including the history of Guiness and how it is made), we ended at the velocity bar, which is the highest point in Dublin, where we got a free pint and a 360-degree view of the city (luckily it was sunny while we were up there, so we could see pretty far!). I also finally discovered what people are talking about or what shirts means when they say "the craic was mighty." Apparently "craic" or "crack" in Ireland, Scotland, and Northern England means "fun or lighthearted mischief, often in the context of drinking or music." In Ireland when people ask, "What's the crack?" or "How's the crack?" it doesn't refer to drugs as it does in the U.S., but rather, "How are you?" or "How have you been?"
After the Guinness tour, we headed to St. Patrick's Cathedral, but were disappointed when we found out there was a service in progress and we therefore couldn't go inside. We got some pretty pictures of the outside though! As we were all hungry by this point, we all stopped by a pub on the way back to the hotel, where some of us has the biggest pieces of fish we've ever seen and the best chips we've had on the trip (I swear, we're becoming experts on french fries we've eaten so many!).
Now we're back at the hotel, and I am so exhausted I can barely keep my eyes open and it's raining outside, so no sense in going out. Tomorrow we have a LONG day at UCD, so I'll suppose I'll head to bed early tonight.
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