Beyond Dublin

The main objectives of my stay here in Ireland are the following:

1) Survive in an alien (english speaking) country
2) Get back at least a bit of my english I left behind in Bangalore, India 15 years back
3) Tell people "Yeah, Ireland is like my third home"

Number one and two are going on pretty well, number three on the other hand has not gone anywhere, at least till last week. Thats when I decided Ireland ought to be more than just Dublin. My course coordinator Mr. Marcus helped me in that decision when he decided that doing a teambuilding workshop at a place called "Glendalough" should be part of the course. In that way I came out of Dublin, did something for the course and paid alltogether around 0 € for that. Fine deal.

Glendalough

Don't expect me to quote some guides. I'll just write what I saw there. Those ruines on the photo is told to be the remains of some monastry. The monks also built a big tower (which is not visible on the photo) where they used to hide when the angry Celts felt like visiting them every now and then. If you are not really interested in these old stones, then there is nothing much to be amazed about.
Other than that Glendalough has a nice scenery with two lakes coming together at one place. As we had a tight schedule, I didn't see this particular sight, so just attaching a photo someone else took.

Nice, isn't it? We actually went along this lake like for an hour or so. Reminded me of those places where we used to go from school back in Vienna for something called a "field day" (Wandertag in german). A lot of nature as you can see from the picture.
The actual fun-part of the day was unexpectedly the workshop. We were divided into four groups, each consisting of one of our lecturers. Then we were asked to come up with an innovative idea to set up a start-up company. In the first session we did a brainstorming (what else?) and comprised on a life management system. Actually that was only the initial idea, later we detailed it to a system primarly for health care. Therefore you have a device where you can "record" what you buy in the supermarket and what you eat. The system, which will be having your personal health records saved, will calculate the amount of nutrients you consumed and will propose the kind of food you should be eating in the coming days to maintain a certain diet, which was agreed upon before with one of our health consultants. An additional feature of this system would be, that it can inform you about the things you need to buy from the supermarket, as it has all these records saved in the device. That saving process will be realized through partnerships with supermarkets, who provide a kind of electronic bill, which would be transmitted from their system to our device (via Bluetooth for example). Well, and so on and so forth.
Later we had to write a business plan. Now what I meant with fun is that you could just go on thinking of futuristic systems and services, which would make our everyday life a bit more simpler through information systems. We even had the idea of a pen, which would recognize the amount of nutrients in a plate, when poked into the food. With some kinds of sensors it should be possible we assumed (but our lecturer unfortunately gave up on that idea at a later stage).

Well, assuming that the reader may not be interested too much in such technical details I'm moving on. So, that was more or less Glendalough. It was around 1.5 hours by car south from Dublin, so still in the same county.

My next destination was even much nearer, but far more to rave about.

Howth

Many people here told me that initially they didn't know that Dublin was this near to the coast. So they were of course very keen to go there. Me in my arising thirst for travelling naturally joined them as even being an Indian I haven't seen much of a sea or an ocean. That is when we decided to go to Howth, which is a peninsula near to Dublin (around half an hour with the DART, which is the Dublin Area Rapid Transit, or like we simple people would call it, a train).
The sceneries are really breathtaking. We walked around half of the island (not using that other word anymore as it sounds a bit strange to me) just a couple of meters away from the water at a bigger height though. There were no fences at all, so actually it was quite dangerous, like if you slipped a bit on that quite narrow path, you could easily find yourself lying somewhere between the rocks or even in the water. If you ever need to suicide, please do consider this place. You don't even have to jump, just slip a bit.

It was quite a long walk, like about 4 to 5 hours or something. The main thing you could do is just let your camera capture everything which is around you. Even as a bad photographer you were be able to take some good pictures.

As I raved so much about the scenary, i'll just conclude with a couple of pictures I took (supposed to be that good ones I mentioned in the above paragraph).

Clubs & Societies

One of the major advantages of studying at the DCU in Dublin I could make out is that there is never a shortage of sports activities, or more common, social activities. Its really a traditional campus university where everything is located at one place, be it the lecture halls, library, restaurants, super market, bank, sports ground, Entertainment Centre, Bar or heck, we even have our own theatre here! It's called the Helix and its a hell of a grand hall. What you see in the picture is an inside view. From outside it even looks more impressive. During the year they will be showing some really good classical stuff here (don't ask me what).
Anyway, there are a lot of things you could do in your freetime. I wished we had something like this in Vienna.

There are 100+ clubs or societies for any stuff you would wish to do, from Aikido to Yoga, from Cricket to Electronic Music or Fencing to St Vincent De Paul. In most cases all you have to pay is 4 € for subscription and then you are free to join the courses at certain times. Me for example joined the badminton club (which was quite an obvious decision), the cricket club (one billion indians rave about this game, now I at last need to find out why exactly), the karting club (yeah, michael schumacher started out with a small kart) and the film society (which is a real great thing, because you get to watch movies for free in big halls on campus. Or they make tours to other cinema theatres where you only have to pay 2 to 4 € to watch a movie). Some people even joined 8 or 9 clubs, which is quite crazy considering the fact that a week is not going to have more than 7 days.

Today the badminton classes started, at 8 p.m. and went on till 10:30 p.m. Quite strange timings to do sport, but once you start you don't care about the time. As there were a lot of people who joined this club, there were a lot of them present today. So we played for 10 minutes, then had a break, and then played again for 10 minutes and so on. Thats of course not what I expected, but they said after 2 or 3 weeks usually many people tend to stop coming, so you have more time and space to play as long as you want within those 2.5 hours. The next session is on wednesday. First I played with a lady, who was quite obviously a beginner, so even I made a lot of mistakes. But the next opponent was a guy who knew the game. After those 10 minutes play he suggested "perhaps we could play a game next time". And the third guy even asked for my name. Now thats what I call a good impression.

The library on campus is open till 10 p.m. and you can borrow dvds for free. Thats a great service which I used quite extensively in the past 2 weeks. Most of the movies they have are classics, like "Citizen Kane", "Easy Rider", "Seven Samurais" or even contemporary stuff like "Memento", "Donnie Darko" or "Pulp Fiction". They do have some series as well, like "Sex And The City", "24" or "Six Feet Under". Unfortunately as classes have picked up now I don't find much time to watch a movie every evening.

By the way I stopped going to those loud parties (clubs) which I didn't like anyway. Now I'm concentrating more on building communication bridges to some of the people with whom you can have a serious discussion about a movie or relationship issues. Marc for example is a movie-interested person. He even writes reviews in some local magazine at his homeplace in Hannover. But he really shocked me when he revealed that he was not quite aware of the enormous contribution people like Robert De Niro, Al Pacino or Martin Scorcese have made to the movie world. In fact he doesn't have much idea about old movies like prior to the 80s. Now I told him that I couldn't tolerate this height of ignorance and will introduce him to some of the masterpieces of that bygone era. We'll start with one of my most favourite movies, "The Godfather" (or "Il Padrino" as they call it in Italy).

Stephanie from Brussels seems to be someone who has quite a natural and likeable personality. She indeed has some unconventionals but still lavish looks which makes her a damn hot person. Like her 2 front teeth remind me of a lovely rabbit. Some dots under her eyes and on her somewhat big nose. Also, her husky voice sounds extremely intoxicating, especially when she speaks french. Thats like combining butter with spread cheese and nutella; one is creamier than the other. We already talked about being objective in generally judging the capability of women taking relationships seriously. Now the really impressive point here is, Stephanie unfortunately is quite weak in English, its not that easy to communicate with her some non-small-talk stuff like this relationship issue now. But still she managed to voice that wise comment about being objective and not generalizing too much. She is just 20, but seems to have experienced a lot in life (just my personal feeling). Her boyfriend's name is by the way Hubert (pronounced "Übaer").

Now I have it: It's a Soap Opera

Socialising is a very important word here. Everyone is doing it, no one can afford to miss it, otherwise he/she won't be having a good time here. So I'm doing it too. Drinking beer, eventhough I don't like beer, going to loud parties, eventhough I don't like the music and trying to look cool with my umbrella instead of having to pretend to dance like the others. I tied my scarf around my neck, so it looks like an oversized tie. Together with the umbrella, used as a mike, I thought it looked quite cool. Audrey, the french girl, took a photograph of mine in that pose, need to check if it looks good outside the camera too.

Audrey Aupoix from Toulouse is one of those several characters I meet here in my socialising sessions. She is a chemist. I used to know some girls in my class back in Vienna who used to be really dumb, but somehow, due to some strange reasons they were good in chemistry (and I wasn't). But Audrey is not dumb, she is more like an adventurer. She came to Dublin already in summer and toured the whole country much before I arrived. As all french people, she has quite a sweet accent. Now I really regret it that I didn't study french at school. Miss Aupoix impressed me only when she borrowed the movie "Apocalypse Now" from the library. (I think otherwise I wouldn't have even mentioned her here). She said she likes the pychological aspect in the movie, not so much the war. Well, a woman who appreciates the pychology in a war movie must have something meaningful to say I guess. Hope I'll get into a deeper conversation with her soon.

Actually there is a lot to say about my life here in Dublin. But I
guess its due to the overkill of new experiences I'm not able to write all about it. A work like this actually needs to be structured, either chronologically, or in different categories (like Dublin the city, the people here, the traditions, the university, other students etc.), but since I discovered this new thing called Blog now, I will just write what comes into my mind and hope for the best that it has some interesting insight for the people reading it. (If it was for strict structuring, this paragraph should be somewhere at the beginning of this entry, right?)

Every story lives through its characters. There are so many different characters here. So far the past three weeks here have been like reading a new book. And there are in fact some clichè characters like in any novel or movie. Like Sven the "Show-off", or Marc, the soft-spoken witty guy, or Stephanie, the husky-voiced freaky girl. (My own role I will keep as a secret, after all there's a limit for psychical exhibitionism). There are many more, hope I can introduce them all to you gradually. I think I'll write a real-life soap opera here. Now thats the idea I just had while writing this here. And I'm a part of this soap.

Claudia is the german girl my roommate Malte is trying to get around, as I already wrote in my last post. Unlike us, she is living on-campus. Thats how this whole affair became quite obvious as we often saw Malte leaving us in order to see Claudia or pick her up from somewhere. Well, but something must have happened in the meantime. Yesterday we all were watching a movie at Sven's place, and you know what? Claudia was sitting on the one side and Malte on the other side of the room. Seperated by two really tall guys and a couch. Now thats really fishy. Today he told me that he won two tickets for a party tomorrow at the Hub (which normally costs 10 €). So I asked him casually who he's going to take with him. You know, really casually, like pretending not to know anything about their small love affair. I was washing up the dishes, and he was drying it (yeah like some 90s couple). So I didn't look at his face when he said "Ich hab mal die Claudia gefragt, keine Ahnung ob sie kommt...". ("I asked Claudia, but no idea if she's coming..."). I'll keep my ears and eyes open for you guys there.

Meanwhile Kylie, my latest discovery in that short list of really good-hearted people, is being seen almost only with Marcus. The last two times I saw her, she was kind of wearing a sad face expression. Couldn't really make out what is worrying her. Unfortunately the chemistry between us nowhere near what it was on the first two, three meetings. She is quite obviously not feeling very well here. For example she deliberately took courses which are assessed through the assignments done throughout the semester and where there is no final exam in january. So she can go back home before christmas and doesn't need to come back for the exams. Yeah, my assumptions are mostly based on careful observations. If possible I'll ask her the next time I see her what she's upto.

Today I had my first presentation in class by the way. As its brave blood running through my venes I volunteered to do the first presentation. (Yeah, go on, release that ugly word from your tongue you call such people who volunteer. I don't give a shit). I presented five news items of the last week in the technology field. Went through a lot of boring articles in Cnet.com, New York Times and BBC until I found some articles worth mentioning. The course coordinator, a really smart chap, was satisfied (thats what he said, no idea what he thought though. After all we are like 10 people in the course, out of which only 3 are Irish. So all the other ones, including me, are more stumbling than speaking English). I personally would say I could have done better if I had prepared myself a bit better. Talking free may be a real "do" in the list of dos and donts of a presentation, but if there are some languages issues like in my case, its probably better to write down something before. Well, the next presentation will be a much professional one, as I have to summarize an academical paper together with someone else. That ones going to be a tough one. But what they say? The tough ones die harder? Ha.

P.S.: Any bad words you find in my writings are under artistic license, so no need of complaining about them (or even overanalyzing which emotion the author may have felt when writing it).

The Good, The Bad And The Ugly Traditions

I have to correct myself. The Irish are quite crazy people. In the first week, that is the orientation week, there were a couple of "games" conducted by the Students Union. Some really weird games. The first time, it was a Monday, we all met at the Hub. Thats kind of the entertainment center on campus. You have a bar (!!) there, pool billiard, video games, many couches where you can just sit and talk and relax. And on that Monday evening there was a party in the bar. Now here is a photo of a game they played.

Those two typical Irish-faced guys did a striptease on the stage, with some screaming women sitting on their chairs right in the middle, asking for more. And you see that white thing on the belly of that guy, yup, thats exactly what you think it is.
No, don't worry, just kidding. Its cream. Those women rubbed those guys up with that cream. Later, you don't see that on the photo, there was also an innocent banana involved...

Anyway, this was just an introduction to the general mentality of Irish people. The clichè is proven: They'd do anything for a pint of Guiness.
My first drink in one of those thousand pubs in Dublin was of course a Guiness. An ugly black mire tasting like some cocktail that went wrong. But as I'm no regular beer drinker, I didn't care much. Just gulped it. After all, its not just some beer, its part of the culture. You need to go through the good, the bad and the ugly traditions.

The place where I live is quite a grand place, a students residence named Shanowen Square. We have 12 blocks here, like A1, A2, A3, B1 etc. I'm in D2, apartment number 79. Now, since i've never lived in establishments like these, I wasn't quite sure what they would consist of, and when I reached here, I was impressed. I never thought that we would have forks, spoons, plates, microwave, toaster, waterheater, hoover, ironing machine, ironing-board etc. etc. The whole apartment is completely equipped. Only needed to buy food when I arrived.
I haven't made pictures of my room yet. Its small, but cozy. Only the bed is a bit small, as I was used to sleep in a big bed for the past 3 years. Now when I turn around I have to be careful that I don't fall from the bed.
The greatest thing about this apartment is not that its only 5 minutes away from my college (thats only the second-greatest thing), but that each apartment has its own bathroom. Anyone who was forced to do your very personal things in a bathroom where other people do the same know what I mean. Its a relief.

There are three other fellows in my apartment. Malte, the german, Angela (you pronounce it >>Ankchela<<) from Spain and Lorna from Ireland. Malte is studying business, speaks exactly the way you expect a german to speak, but is quite a nice guy actually (eventhough we are not of the same wavelength). He listens to metal music (that says it all I guess) and plays soccer. Now he is trying to talk a girl named Claudia around. Wishing him all the best.

Angela is a language student, trying to become an interpreter. In the first week I hardly saw her, as she way hanging out with the spanish people, trying to get used to the new environment I guess. Anyway, then I met her accidently in our kitchen (after all she must eat something), and talked a bit. Nothing really interesting as far as I remember. Somehow a dreary character. Unfortunately.

The first week we were only 3, only after that Miss Lorna from Mayo (that's a state in Ireland) arrived with her mother and food for 100 € from Tesco (I saw the bill lying on the table). She is studying nursing, 3rd year now. As I already wrote in my last (german) post, she has a great figure, an average face (the Irish are generally not very lucky with their faces. The guys all look more or less like Wayne Rooney) and good manners. She is very friendly and always speaks very relaxed.