We woke up bright and early for our Keynote Speaker and introductory classes. The only thing that killed my “first day of school” buzz was the fact that the Keynote Speaker could have been speaking Japanese and I would have been more interested. He spoke for an hour and a half about how each course relates to one another in the grander scheme of life; all I could think about was how my twitter timeline was slow because it was 4am in the States. After the midmorning snooze fest we went to our one-hour introductory courses. We first had Irish Art, taught by Fiona Gavin and Jenny McCarthy. For the first half of the course we learned about Early Irish Art and the different iconography, motifs, and symbols. The second half consisted of paintings and the history behind the story, whether it was a political statement or evoking of a certain feeling. The professors are characters and the class seems to be really interesting. The most exciting part of the course will be the field trip to Dublin on Saturday! After Art, we went to our Representing Ireland: Literature and Film class. The professor, Sean Rider, is from the University of Alabama, but is incredibly smart… I know, weird. Just kidding. The whole purpose of the class is to understand how “Irishness” is portrayed throughout time in Literature and Film. We are required to read Yeats Poetry, Irish plays, Dubliners by James Joyce, and The Butcher Boy by Patrick McCabe, while also watching four films: The Quiet Man, The Butcher Boy, Kisses, and The Dead. It seems like a very time consuming class but will be worth it in the end.
For lunch we decided to go to a quaint Tea Room called The Light House. It is beautifully decorated and has seating both inside and outside (perfect for a beautiful day) and all of the food is home baked and vegetarian! It was a darling place and the food was YUMMY! I had spinach salad and a cheddar potato wrap that actually melted in your mouth (7 euro). We were sad to leave that nice restaurant, but had a few more hours to kill before our last class.
We decided to have a full-fledged grandma day and go to the Cupàn Tae Room and have a spot o’tea in the afternoon. There were grandma floral decorations everywhere and the place was a bit crowded; we soon found out why! The tea was delicious. We got Chocolate Infusion, Elixir of Life, and Black Christmas tea to try. The Chocolate Infusion tea sounded better written in the menu than actually tasted; the Elixir of Life was my favorite and is also very healthy for the body. We didn’t want to leave but had to go back to campus to get our books for the semester. The library on campus is incredible. There are tons of books all of which are very accessible and organized. We found the books that we needed with little trouble and proceeded to the entire summer program’s Welcome Dinner.
When we arrived, they handed us free drink vouchers… yes, my school has a bar and they give us free drinks SO a.k.a its better than your school. We hung out for a while then began to wonder where the food was. Supposedly, there was a room in the back that had tables and food while some people spoke but we missed the whole thing. The silver lining was that somehow, we got the reputation of collecting the free drink vouchers so we had plenty for everyone. The free drinks and no food was not a good combination so we sent boys to grab us some extra platters of food. We were the last people in there just hanging out with the professors. We eventually left when all the drink vouchers and food were gone. Our night was filled with great music and dancing at The Front Door Bar. What a grand day!
For lunch we decided to go to a quaint Tea Room called The Light House. It is beautifully decorated and has seating both inside and outside (perfect for a beautiful day) and all of the food is home baked and vegetarian! It was a darling place and the food was YUMMY! I had spinach salad and a cheddar potato wrap that actually melted in your mouth (7 euro). We were sad to leave that nice restaurant, but had a few more hours to kill before our last class.
We decided to have a full-fledged grandma day and go to the Cupàn Tae Room and have a spot o’tea in the afternoon. There were grandma floral decorations everywhere and the place was a bit crowded; we soon found out why! The tea was delicious. We got Chocolate Infusion, Elixir of Life, and Black Christmas tea to try. The Chocolate Infusion tea sounded better written in the menu than actually tasted; the Elixir of Life was my favorite and is also very healthy for the body. We didn’t want to leave but had to go back to campus to get our books for the semester. The library on campus is incredible. There are tons of books all of which are very accessible and organized. We found the books that we needed with little trouble and proceeded to the entire summer program’s Welcome Dinner. 
When we arrived, they handed us free drink vouchers… yes, my school has a bar and they give us free drinks SO a.k.a its better than your school. We hung out for a while then began to wonder where the food was. Supposedly, there was a room in the back that had tables and food while some people spoke but we missed the whole thing. The silver lining was that somehow, we got the reputation of collecting the free drink vouchers so we had plenty for everyone. The free drinks and no food was not a good combination so we sent boys to grab us some extra platters of food. We were the last people in there just hanging out with the professors. We eventually left when all the drink vouchers and food were gone. Our night was filled with great music and dancing at The Front Door Bar. What a grand day!