The Celtic Tiger

I have officially been in Ireland for two whole weeks!! And I have accomplished one week of classes! All of my classes have gone smoothly except for one thing...The Celtic Tiger. Some of my professor's have mentioned it and I didn't want to make a fool of myself by asking so I did what any sensible person would  do and I googled it.

My new motto:
 "It's sometimes better to look like a stupid American than to open your mouth and prove it"
I'm not saying Americans are stupid, but I have learned that we are very self-centered in the way it has become habit to consider the US as the center of the universe.

While I have been walking around Dublin being very wary of any real tigers, the Celtic Tiger in fact refers to the economic boom in Ireland that took place between the 1990's and early 2000's. This boom also took place under 21 years of female presidency.... I am loving Ireland more and more everyday.

In other news, I have begun to immerse myself into UCD student life by joining the "Erasmus Student Network" (ESN) and the UCD Ladies Field Hockey team.

ESN takes exchange and study abroad students on trips around Ireland while engaging in the Irish culture.    This weekend they are taking us on a hiking trip to Howthe, which is a little marine village north of Dublin. In two weeks, ESN is going to Galway. Fun stuff.

The Irish National Hockey Center at UCD. 

Hockey practice started on last Friday night on the National Hockey Center turf, which is on the UCD campus. The girls are really nice and it was so much fun to play my favorite sport on a national field. As a goal keeper I can see communication becoming a minor issue as I can't really say half the girls extremely irish names i.e. Aoife, Orlagh, Eadoin. They also call a few things a little differently like a "draw" is a tie, "pitch" is the field, and so on.
Thursday nights they also have "social" hockey which is the comparison to our pick up version of hockey. Basically just a non-competitive, play for the fun of the game atmosphere.



In addition to on-campus involvement, the girls and I have been doing some sightseeing in Dublin. On Saturday we went to Dublin Castle, The Christ Church, and the National Gallery of Art.
The Dublin Castle tour was really cool. I learned a lot about irish history and got to see some medieval ruins.
Callan and I had to visit the National Gallery for our class Dublin and it's Museums. I got to see art work done by Van Gough, Picasso, Monet...not that I am a huge art person but you hear about these famous artists who lived hundreds of years ago and then you see their paintings are still intact and it's quite remarkable. Pictures weren't allowed in the gallery so you just have to go there and see it yourself!

Part of Dublin Castle

Dublin Castle Courtyard

Stained Glass from Christ Church

It's hard not to feel invincible during such an exciting experience. Having never been out of the states with the exception of Canada you just want to do everything before time runs out and you have to go home. That invincible feeling sort of left this weekend after coming down with one of the worst colds ever. I have been sick since last week but I didn't slow myself down till this weekend when I had a low grade fever of 100 degrees, mucus pouring out of my brains, and aches all over.
I bought some meds at the pharmacy or what they call the "chemist". Most of the drugs come in plastic boxes and the quantity is very few. On Monday morning I went to the on-campus doctor to discover I had a sinus infection plus an ear infection in my left ear.....so gross. So for the next 5 days I'm on penicillin 3 times a day plus ear drops.

Drugs in high security plastic boxes

Moral of the story the Celtic Tiger bites.