First Days in Dublin

I arrived in the Dundrum neighborhood on the south side of Dublin yesterday and met my host family, the Mitchells. They are an extremely welcoming family of 4 who immediately made me feel more at home. The parents are Dorothy and Dave, and they have two boys, Jonathon 19, and Matthew 16. They also have a long haired cat, Lola. Some of you know cats aren't my favorite, but I'm warming up to her and she is warming up to me. The first night we had a delicious beef stew and boiled potatoes, quite the Irish meal. We also watched a tv show called Father Ted which I found pretty funny. It is a satire about the Catholic Church in Ireland and while I was able to understand most of it, they had to explain many inside jokes that only someone who grew up on the island would understand.

Today was the last day of Trad Fest at the Temple Bar area of Dublin. Trad Fest is when all the pubs and bars in Temple Bar have live traditional Irish music and it sounded like great craic (as a Dubliner would say). It was near impossible to coordinate travel into the city center with other students because we're spread out at this point and no one has a cell phone yet, but as soon as I got on the Luas (train) i saw 3 other students on the same car headed to the Trad Fest. We went to Oliver St. John Gogarty's and it was a great time. Good music and a few pints and then it was back home for dinner.