Computer Issues

So I broke my AC adapter. My father's advice before I left was "don't panic," so immediately I panicked. It was kinda like Apollo 13 because immediately I turned off anything that would use up the power quickly on my laptop. I brought the screen brightness down, closed programs, and set the mode to power saver. I then went about finding a new power adapter. This was harder than you would think.

I called Dell UK first. They said that they would order a cord for me after being on hold for about 15 minutes. When I asked if I could possibly get that cord with an American plug, they transferred me to Dell US. This would have been fine had Dell US not been closed Sunday. I then tried to find a computer lab on campus, but everything is closed on Sunday. It's about 1 pm now, so 7 am in Chicago, and calling home was not an option. Instead I went on a walk to the seashore with Brittany. Hey, I'm in Dublin, who cares if I can't charge my laptop?

I taped my cord together with electrical tape. Of course it's green.

The shore was about 2 miles away from the residence halls, so roundtrip was about two hours. We walked to the village of Booterstown. It was a lot cuter than Dublin Bay, which was just rather dirty. It was a beautiful sunny day and got my mind off the computer dilemma.

When I got back I called my father and just decided to buy the European plug; after all, I have a dual converter :) When that was done I went to work trying to somewhat fix the plug. I got to a point where I can charge the computer while holding the plug in place, so my laptop is still somewhat functional until the new adapter gets here, which they tell me will take ten days! It's being shipped from the UK, so how long can that really take?

Right now I am on a computer in the UCD lab. One thing I did not expect coming to Ireland was that the keyboards would be different. They are not significantly different, but when I was typing my email address from motor memory I got mclairefisher"gmail.com. The " and @ are changed! A few other keys are also changed, and of course they have symbols like £ and the euro sign, which right now I cannot figure out how to use.

I have my first class in about an hour, so we'll see how that goes.

Sightseeing

Today we went sightseeing up north near the River Liffey. We looked like complete tourists considering I was reading facts out loud from my guide book and Brittany was looking at a map. We also take pictures of everything; everything is so beautiful though and that's why I thought I would share some pictures with you. I believe you can click to make them larger.

The Post Office. This is the scene of the beginning of the Easter Uprising and an Irish "Alamo" because it was the scene of a boody five day seige.

Statue of Daniel O'Connell. For those of you who didn't know, I too am an O'Connell. My great-grandmother was Effie Viola O'Connell. Daniel O'Connell basically attempted to free Ireland from the English. As you can see from the size of the statue, he is kinda a big deal.

Looking over the Liffey from the O'Connell Bridge.

More Liffey

 

Christ Church Cathedal. More amazing in person.

How adorable is that? All the lamp posts look like this.

Dublin Castle

In my opinion, a very moving statue of justice on Dubin Castle. She is not wearing her blindfold and instead admiring her sword. According to Rick Steve, this shows the ugliness of the Irish-British situation.

Sorry but I was facing to sun so the picture is rather dark, but this is St. Patrick's Cathedral.

Laura, Brittany, me, Stacy

It was a great day of siteseeing! As they say in Ireland, it was good craic-craic, pronounced like crack, is gaelic for fun. Tonight we hit some pubs downtown. Actually, my friends are having "savage craic" right now at a nightclub with some guys we met, but I came back to campus around 1:30 with Stevie, another girl from U of I who just arrived today from Milan and was a little jet lagged. I'm still slightly uncomfortable at bars, so I'm not quite ready for Irish nightclubs with guys we just met. Baby steps.

Tours

If you are curious, here is a tour of my apartment:

Stunning view from the sitting area. It's even more beautiful in person.

Does this building look familiar? It's the Quinn Business School which we think looks exactly like BIF.

Today after some more advising and orientation we went back to the city centre to explore a bit and buy more things to settle in. Here are some pictures from the trip:

This is a building in Dublin that was pretty. It has an arcade of shops inside.

St. Stephen's Green used to be a medievel commons but now is a park in Dublin.

Most of the houses in Dublin are brick and have colorful doors. When I ride the bus into the city centre all you see are rows of brightly colored doors. I had to get this one as the bus was stopped.

Typical Irish pub. Note the Guinness logos and Irish flag.

Tonight I am just staying in, along with my travel buddies. It had been a long couple of days of just settling in and getting used to the city and school. We have also gone grocery shopping everyday. It's so weird being in the store and not seeing familiar brands on the shelves. I wanted peanut butter but there was no Skippy, Jiff, and Peter Pan. I did however find a jar that said "american style." I do not know what that means because I went with the cheapest brand. Things are very expensive here. 1 euro equals approx. 1.5 USD. The only time I didn't buy the cheapest choice was when I was buying chicken tenders; that could be iffy.

Dublin Fact of the Day: The population of Dublin is 1.4 million.

Contact Information

Hey everyone and thanks for reading my blog. I so enjoy writing it and I hope you enjoy reading it. Here is my contact information for the next four months.

Phone Number: 086 351 2125

Address:

Marjorie Claire Fisher
Roebuck Hall
House 1, Apartment 18, Room 1
UCD- Belfield
Dublin 4

I was telling my father, it doesn't even seem like I live in Dublin until I almost get run over by a car by looking the wrong way when crossing the street.

Day One

I made it through my first full day in Ireland! Today was a day full of orientation with the college, but we managed to have some fun too. It was even sunny!

I met a new friend today. Her name is Jen and she is one of Stacy's roommates. She goes to UBC in Vancouver and is from the Yukon. She has these Yukon mittens too, which are like Uggs for your hands. Jealous.

At 10:00 we had a meeting to discuss the events for the next two days. Afterwords we had a light lunch of sandwiches, tea and coffee with the other international students. We could also sign up for the International Student Society for two euro and they organize trips and other cultural things throughout Ireland.

After that was grocery shopping. We walked about 25 minutes to the Tesco where we searched for anyhing that was even slightly recognizable. I got a "traditional Irish stew" which contains lamb, carrrots, and potatoes but have yet to try it. I also have yet to try the milk here and am keeping my fingers crossed. The worst part about shopping was carrying all my groceries home, which took about 45 minutes.

We then went to another session for all "study abroad" students, which are basically all the Americans. We had a lesson about culture shock: how to identify and treat it. We talked about the difference between the US and Ireland. Under the Ireland side there were things like PS I Love You, U2, and Collin Farrel. As far as US, we had obesity, and natural light (both sunlight and the cheap beer). The study abroad office also throws an "Irish House Party" for students during the year. It includes irish dancing and they say that if you do a good job they will buy you a pint.

Next was finger food and wine. I still can't get over the fact that a school is serving alcohol. On the other hand, the girls from Australia and Canada can't get over the fact that we can't legally drink until 21.

Tonight we went to the Dublin city centre. Here were some of the sites:

The mall. It was built to look like a steamboat going down the Mississippi (according to our UCD guide yesterday)

"Happy Christmas" in Irish (according to some guy on the street trying to raise money for an organization called PAWS)

Temple Bar area-many pubs are here, along with Temple Bar, which we went to tonight

Temple Bar was pretty decent. They had live music which consisted of songs including "Take Me Home Country Roads," "Hotel California," and "Blue Suede Shoes." Two girls I was with got pints of Guiness. Did you know that a Guiness should take at least 2 minutes to pour? Jen got Jameson whiskey and Brittany got cider, so our table was pretty much typical Irish drinks.

You know something great about the Irish? They just start conversations with you. Some guy started one by telling me that my hat looked like a tea cozy. He then wrote down a list of bars to go to while here. Even people checking me out at the store ask me all sorts of questions and are super friendly. Love them!

I need to go to bed now considering it is 1 am GMT. I hope to go into the city centre again tomorrow and have all sorts of great pictures for you all!

Claire

Dublin fact of the day: The MGM lion was born in Dublin Zoo.

Claire Has Arrived!

I write to you today as a new woman; one who has not only flown thousands of mile away from her home to study for the next four months, but one who fit all the things she would need into two suitcases weighing less than 90 lbs total. It was an amazing feat.

Right now I'm writing from my new bed in Roebuck Hall waiting for my mom to get home from work so I can call. It has been an extremely long day but an exciting one! I arrived at O'Hare around 5 pm with the paparazzi in tow (actually it was my mom with a video camera and my sister with her camera). And yes, I did cry a little at the airport. Not surprising, I know. I boarded the plane and was off!

We (Brittany, Stacy and I) landed in Ireland around 9 am local time. From there we had to go through immigration and customs, board a bus to take us to the UCD campus, and haul our suitcases up to our dorm. This was no easy task. The dorms were on the opposite side of campus and it was completely uphill. Yeah, we felt the burn.

We had then planned to go to a shopping tour put on by the school at 2:00. I, of course, fell asleep while unpacking only to wake up at 1:55. I didn't have an alarm because my cell doesn't work here. I did catch the tour where Brittany and Stacy informed me that they had banged on my door for ten minutes before giving up (we were supposed to walk to the tour together).

Going into the city centre of Dublin was amazing. There are so many old buildings and the lightposts have shamrocks on them. We went down Grafton Street, which is a pedestrian street with all the shops on it. I will have to post pictures of it later (I forgot my camera in my mad dash to get to the tour).

I ended up buying some things I needed to get here at Dunne's, which is kinda like a Sears with a grocery on one of the floors. We also got Irish phones.

While on the tour we met this girl named Laura from Australia. She was super nice and turned out to be one of my roommmates! Laura, Brittany, Stacy and I then made grilled cheese because that was the only thing we could think of to make without a pot or an oven.

Tomorrow I have a lot of orientation things to do but soon I'm going to have to go back and get more groceries. Currently I only have a box of something like Honey Nut Cheerios. Being in Ireland I wanted Lucky Charms but the didn't have any.

Here are some pictures of the common room which has a sitting area and a kitchen:

Next time I post I will try and have more pictures of all the beautiful buildings in Dublin and my room as soon as it's decorated,

Claire

Lists, Lists, Lists

Less than 9 days to go! I fly out of O'Hare 7:30 pm January 12th to begin my Irish Odyssey.

The theme for the next 8 days is lists. Right now I have four lists on my computer: things to do, things to do before I get to Ireland, people to send postcards to, and people to see/schedule. Yes, "Things to Do" and "Things to Do Before I Get to Ireland" may seem like the same thing, and maybe they are. "Things to Do" includes general things like get a hair cut and give Luke birthday card (we have a birthday card to travels between us which sings "Mr. Roboto"). "Things to Do Before I Get to Ireland" includes tasks that if not completed will make my stay in Ireland difficult, for example making sure I have all of my immigration documents in order and exchanging currency. Yes, my hair cut is important, but not as important as paying my UCD tuition.

In the upcoming days, I hope to make another list of things to pack. Perhaps also a list of things to take advantage of while I'm in the United States including family, Hulu, Pandora, and sunshine. One can never have too many lists.

Seeing various people is basically my schedule. I am going to miss everyone so much that I am packing as much friend time as possible. I'm also having a Bon Voyage party on Friday if you want to stop by!

Sorry for the lack of adventure, but once I get to the Emerald Isle I will have plenty of stories,
Claire

PS: I'm set up my Skype account. I believe it is just mclairefisher, like my email address.