Monday, December 1, 2008
Thanksgiving in Dublin
Since Thanksgiving is not an Irish holiday, us Americans searched for ways to still celebrate. Thankfully, the end of group presentations occurred on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, and the end of classes was that Friday. So while we didn't have a Thanksgiving dinner on actual Thanksgiving, we made up for it with a "Black Friday" cocktail party (first picture of girls below) on Friday, followed by a Thanksgiving dinner on Saturday at Jill's place (the remaining pictures). I must say, Thanksgiving dinner was WONDERFUL. A BIG thank you goes out to Jill & Mike for hosting such a large group! Nothing like yummmy comfort food, good friends, and much to be thankful for! With the end of this past week, there are 10 days before the start of exams. That time is thankfully for us students to review (or rather, finally get the chance to hopefully internalize all that was dumped on us over the past several weeks) without any projects or assignments to worry about. Soooo, in honor of that study time, this is me procrastinating by updating my blog! Hope you have enjoyed the updates, as who knows how long it will be before my next blog....
More Miscellaneous Dublin
Here are some more pictures of my life in Dublin. From our MBA classroom, to our "Team 5" group photo, to another beautiful bouquet of flowers from Kevin =)
A Day in the Life of a Trinity MBA Student
In an effort to explain my lack of time spent updating this blog, here's a glimpse into what my life has been like over the past several weeks:
The party was definitely livening up - most of my classmates had arrived, and my attempt at hosting a 'dorm party' was actually not half as bad as I expected. One of the guys had some good dance music going in the corner off an ipod (never mind there was no room to dance in my tiny kitchen/living room), and people were enjoying the food and wine. What a nice concept - a break from studying! As the music played on and the volume of conversations increased, I got consumed by the feeling of relaxation, and enjoyed the company of my new friends in Dublin. Just when I thought everyone was there though, the doorbell rang. I wonder who else was coming? Trying to wind my way through the people to make it to the door, the doorbell goes off again. And again. Jeez, I think, chill out and I will be right there. But the noise doesn't stop...
...and that's when I realize the "doorbell" is my alarm clock going off. It's 6:15am, and I jolt upright, slap off the alarm and collapse back into my bed. No party, no fun, and definitely no relaxation. My eyelids are so heavy from the lack of sleep over the past week, that I fight to stay awake. That fight doesn't last long, and before long I am awaken again by my next alarm going off. This time it's my cell phone alarm (I know myself better then to rely on only one alarm), and I grudgingly stretch out my arm to grab the phone and turn it off. I realize it's no use fighting any more, but I also don't want to move.
At this point, I am SO thankful that I have Kevin to call. My daily phone calls in the morning to Kevin are what eventually give me the energy to stumble out of bed. Nothing like a nice phone call to someone you love that gently eases the waking up bit to the point of being able to make it out of bed without too much pain. Although, I must say that poor Kevin gets to deal with me in a super groggy state for the first ten or so minutes of the phone call...
Once I have successfully woken up and had the pleasure of a nice chat, it's time to make the big decision: do I stumble off to the gym for a bit of a morning workout or pass out again for a quick nap? Today I decide to guilt myself into the gym (come on, I gotta make it sound like I am responsible sometimes), so I throw on the ol' gym clothes and grab my room key, water bottle, and ipod and walk through the cold weather to the gym that is thankfully only across the street. This is where I most likely run into one of my classmates, Elaine, as she is much better at getting to the gym than I am, but it is great to get the day started with a decent workout, a friend to chat with, and some good tunes on the ipod. My current music choice is Lady Antebellum, which I dare say is a rockin' CD.
After a quick workout, it's time to rush back to the dorm, take a quick shower and rush off to class. Thankfully, it's only a five minute walk from my dorm to classroom, which is a lifesaver for me (I have never been a morning person). As I walk in the door of the business building, my first order of business is to head towards the coffee stand for my daily dose of caffeine, supplied by Gary Hollywood, our MBA class's faithful coffee "dealer" as I like to call him (ok, he serves more than the MBA class, but we're there often enough that he knows our names...). A large coffee and chocolate croissant later (usually juggled in hands that are also full with books/readers), I find my way to the second floor, room 2.05, where class is most likely starting in the next minute.
Today it's Tuesday, so our morning class from 9am-12:30pm is Business in Society (a.k.a Ethics), with two groups in our class giving presentations. One presentation is on a case study and the other one on a video. Thankfully, it's not my group's week for a presentation in this class (every group has two presentations throughout the term). The groups presenting do a fantastic job however, and the class ends with a talk by a guest from the 'outside world' on a related topic for the day. The guests are always great, and give considerable value to the discussions in class, which range from corporate social responsibility to ethics to outsourcing. The underlying idea is to be ready to face all stakeholders (i.e. all of society) out in the business world.
At 12:30pm it's lunch time, but my group is meeting in our group study room up on the 4th floor for a discussion on one of our upcoming presentations. We want to map out a plan, as the next two weeks present a harsh reality: a presentation in our Strategy class worth 80% of our grade, coupled with a presentation & report for Corporate Finance worth 30% of our grade, a presentation for our Management & Organization class (30% of our grade), and our final presentation for our Business & Society class (we are presenting on the documentary The Corporation - a 2 1/2 hour video that has to be condensed into a 20 min presentation). Those presentations are in addition to the two assignments for our Quantitative Analysis (a.k.a Statistics) class that tend to take around 8-10 hours to do...each. Not to mention 7 hours of each day are spent in the classroom...
So after our group gets some quick brainstorming in, there's no longer time to get a proper lunch before our afternoon class. As a result, I make a quick run downstairs to my favorite coffee stand to buy a pre-made sandwich and a coke (after all, more caffeine will be needed to get through the remainder of the day). I run back upstairs (ok, so I am lazy and take the lift -er - elevator), and collapse for the remaining 10 minutes of "lunch" time in the MBA lounge, eating my sandwich and flipping through the same fashion magazine that has been sitting on the table for the past several weeks. A few others are collapsed on chairs in the common room as well, savoring any few minutes without thinking about work.
Alas, those 10 minutes fly by, and it's off to class again, this time for Management & Organization from 2pm to 5:30pm. Again, there is a presentation by one of the groups. This class focuses on different managing and organization styles, so we learn about the classic theories by Greiner and Mintzberg. Our break mid-way through the class is spent grabbing coffee again, either downstairs from Gary or upstairs in our lounge where we have a mini kitchen. I believe that all matter in my body that should be made up of water now consists of coffee. But hey, it works!
Finally, as 5:30 rolls around we are released from the prison of our classroom. However, I am still far from wandering back to my dorm room. Instead, it's back up to our study room on the 4th floor for work on the Corporate Finance project, and the Statistics assignment. Oh yeah, and I need to look over the 5 chapters assigned for our Strategy class tomorrow, because that is definitely a class that requires plenty of focus and participation.
At 7:30pm, I get my phone call with Kevin during his lunch break - a welcome relief from the studying/project work. The brief phone chat is enough to give me a bit of a smile for the rest of the day, and also gives me an opportunity to vent out all my stress (once again, poor Kevin!) on the latest dilemma.
Finally, around 8:30pm I decide that's enough of the business building, and I layer back up in my jacket and scarf, and head for home. A quick dinner of a ham sandwich is in order, before I once again crack open the books and review the Strategy material until 11:30pm, at which point I've reached maximum absorption, and not even willpower will allow me to stay up any later. I place a quick call in to Kevin at his work to say goodnight, then I brush my teeth, climb into bed, and try to mentally psych myself up for a full 7 hours of Strategy tomorrow...
....if only I could wake up at a real party this time.....
The party was definitely livening up - most of my classmates had arrived, and my attempt at hosting a 'dorm party' was actually not half as bad as I expected. One of the guys had some good dance music going in the corner off an ipod (never mind there was no room to dance in my tiny kitchen/living room), and people were enjoying the food and wine. What a nice concept - a break from studying! As the music played on and the volume of conversations increased, I got consumed by the feeling of relaxation, and enjoyed the company of my new friends in Dublin. Just when I thought everyone was there though, the doorbell rang. I wonder who else was coming? Trying to wind my way through the people to make it to the door, the doorbell goes off again. And again. Jeez, I think, chill out and I will be right there. But the noise doesn't stop...
...and that's when I realize the "doorbell" is my alarm clock going off. It's 6:15am, and I jolt upright, slap off the alarm and collapse back into my bed. No party, no fun, and definitely no relaxation. My eyelids are so heavy from the lack of sleep over the past week, that I fight to stay awake. That fight doesn't last long, and before long I am awaken again by my next alarm going off. This time it's my cell phone alarm (I know myself better then to rely on only one alarm), and I grudgingly stretch out my arm to grab the phone and turn it off. I realize it's no use fighting any more, but I also don't want to move.
At this point, I am SO thankful that I have Kevin to call. My daily phone calls in the morning to Kevin are what eventually give me the energy to stumble out of bed. Nothing like a nice phone call to someone you love that gently eases the waking up bit to the point of being able to make it out of bed without too much pain. Although, I must say that poor Kevin gets to deal with me in a super groggy state for the first ten or so minutes of the phone call...
Once I have successfully woken up and had the pleasure of a nice chat, it's time to make the big decision: do I stumble off to the gym for a bit of a morning workout or pass out again for a quick nap? Today I decide to guilt myself into the gym (come on, I gotta make it sound like I am responsible sometimes), so I throw on the ol' gym clothes and grab my room key, water bottle, and ipod and walk through the cold weather to the gym that is thankfully only across the street. This is where I most likely run into one of my classmates, Elaine, as she is much better at getting to the gym than I am, but it is great to get the day started with a decent workout, a friend to chat with, and some good tunes on the ipod. My current music choice is Lady Antebellum, which I dare say is a rockin' CD.
After a quick workout, it's time to rush back to the dorm, take a quick shower and rush off to class. Thankfully, it's only a five minute walk from my dorm to classroom, which is a lifesaver for me (I have never been a morning person). As I walk in the door of the business building, my first order of business is to head towards the coffee stand for my daily dose of caffeine, supplied by Gary Hollywood, our MBA class's faithful coffee "dealer" as I like to call him (ok, he serves more than the MBA class, but we're there often enough that he knows our names...). A large coffee and chocolate croissant later (usually juggled in hands that are also full with books/readers), I find my way to the second floor, room 2.05, where class is most likely starting in the next minute.
Today it's Tuesday, so our morning class from 9am-12:30pm is Business in Society (a.k.a Ethics), with two groups in our class giving presentations. One presentation is on a case study and the other one on a video. Thankfully, it's not my group's week for a presentation in this class (every group has two presentations throughout the term). The groups presenting do a fantastic job however, and the class ends with a talk by a guest from the 'outside world' on a related topic for the day. The guests are always great, and give considerable value to the discussions in class, which range from corporate social responsibility to ethics to outsourcing. The underlying idea is to be ready to face all stakeholders (i.e. all of society) out in the business world.
At 12:30pm it's lunch time, but my group is meeting in our group study room up on the 4th floor for a discussion on one of our upcoming presentations. We want to map out a plan, as the next two weeks present a harsh reality: a presentation in our Strategy class worth 80% of our grade, coupled with a presentation & report for Corporate Finance worth 30% of our grade, a presentation for our Management & Organization class (30% of our grade), and our final presentation for our Business & Society class (we are presenting on the documentary The Corporation - a 2 1/2 hour video that has to be condensed into a 20 min presentation). Those presentations are in addition to the two assignments for our Quantitative Analysis (a.k.a Statistics) class that tend to take around 8-10 hours to do...each. Not to mention 7 hours of each day are spent in the classroom...
So after our group gets some quick brainstorming in, there's no longer time to get a proper lunch before our afternoon class. As a result, I make a quick run downstairs to my favorite coffee stand to buy a pre-made sandwich and a coke (after all, more caffeine will be needed to get through the remainder of the day). I run back upstairs (ok, so I am lazy and take the lift -er - elevator), and collapse for the remaining 10 minutes of "lunch" time in the MBA lounge, eating my sandwich and flipping through the same fashion magazine that has been sitting on the table for the past several weeks. A few others are collapsed on chairs in the common room as well, savoring any few minutes without thinking about work.
Alas, those 10 minutes fly by, and it's off to class again, this time for Management & Organization from 2pm to 5:30pm. Again, there is a presentation by one of the groups. This class focuses on different managing and organization styles, so we learn about the classic theories by Greiner and Mintzberg. Our break mid-way through the class is spent grabbing coffee again, either downstairs from Gary or upstairs in our lounge where we have a mini kitchen. I believe that all matter in my body that should be made up of water now consists of coffee. But hey, it works!
Finally, as 5:30 rolls around we are released from the prison of our classroom. However, I am still far from wandering back to my dorm room. Instead, it's back up to our study room on the 4th floor for work on the Corporate Finance project, and the Statistics assignment. Oh yeah, and I need to look over the 5 chapters assigned for our Strategy class tomorrow, because that is definitely a class that requires plenty of focus and participation.
At 7:30pm, I get my phone call with Kevin during his lunch break - a welcome relief from the studying/project work. The brief phone chat is enough to give me a bit of a smile for the rest of the day, and also gives me an opportunity to vent out all my stress (once again, poor Kevin!) on the latest dilemma.
Finally, around 8:30pm I decide that's enough of the business building, and I layer back up in my jacket and scarf, and head for home. A quick dinner of a ham sandwich is in order, before I once again crack open the books and review the Strategy material until 11:30pm, at which point I've reached maximum absorption, and not even willpower will allow me to stay up any later. I place a quick call in to Kevin at his work to say goodnight, then I brush my teeth, climb into bed, and try to mentally psych myself up for a full 7 hours of Strategy tomorrow...
....if only I could wake up at a real party this time.....
Visit to Howth
My last official blog left off right before the Bank Holiday weekend, when I took advantage of the extra day off for a little trip up to Howth (pronounced HOEth) with one of my fellow classmates, Kellyanne. Howth is just north of Dublin a bit, and is easily reached via DART (the Dublin version of BART for you nor-calers). Howth is a quaint sea-port town, with some absolutely lovely views. However, as it is on the coast, it tends to get a bit windy - and we were definitely a tad cold! And true to Ireland weather, it was pouring when we first got off the train, only to quickly have the weather change, and find us busting out our sunglasses... (see pictures below). After a little walk around the town, we grabbed a bite to eat in a pub (good seafood there for sure), then headed back to Dublin for some more good ol' fashioned study time once again. In the almost three months since I have been here, this is the only trip outside of Dublin (with the exception of the family visit to Skeheenarinky at the start) to date!
Here are some photos from the trip:
Here are some photos from the trip:
Making Up For Lost Time
I want to thank any loyal friends who continue to badger me about my lack of updates on this here blog, but the badgering is finally paying off! I will attempt to fill you in on the happenings over the past month, but I dare say it will be more sparse in comparisons to some of my initial blogs. The key events will be highlighted in separate postings for ease of reading, so enjoy!
Thursday, October 23, 2008
On A Blustery Day...
Greetings from lovely Ireland!
So today I got a taste of the good ol' winds from back in Davis - I almost blew over while walking to class this morning! Craziness! Then, combine the wind with the drizzling rain, and boy was the weather exciting today. Amazing how quickly one's wardrobe can change when moving from California to Dublin...haha. I mean, don't get me wrong: I still wear tank-tops..............just under A LOT of other layers! And scarves are my best friend =) The BEST part of the day today though (and actually, today was quite nice minus the weather), was coming home at about 5pm to a BEAUTIFUL bouquet of roses from none other than my boyfriend!! Kevin, you ROCK =) A picture of the arrangement is below:
At any rate, the past week and a half or so has been fairly crazy. My small group made a presentation on Tuesday in our Business in Society class, and that consumed pretty much all last week, Saturday, and then all Monday again. I was so incredibly worn out last week from lack of sleep and stress that come Saturday, I passed out at 10:30pm, not to awake until 10am Sunday morning. However, I awoke Sunday with a fever and a stomach ache, so while I indeed woke up at 10am, I promptly went back to sleep until 2pm...at which point I sat up for a bit and then went back to sleep again until 6pm. I think I was tired! And somehow I managed to sleep throughout Sunday night again, at which point I was fairly rested and ready to go for Monday's classes. Man, this MBA stuff sure takes it out of you.
The purpose of our group presentation was to go over a case study we had been assigned, which happened to be a case study on the Tobacco Industry in the U.S. In addition, we had a guest lecturer - one of Ireland's most famous smokers and a very experienced economist/politician. Let's just say by the time we finished the presentation and got around to question/answer time, he doesn't hold back opinions! It all went pretty well though, and I am SO glad it's over. One down, only 4 to go....before Christmas that is!
This weekend is a "bank holiday" weekend, which means we get a three-day weekend! I am going to try to use this weekend as a great way to chill out a bit more, maybe take a short day-trip somewhere outside of Dublin, and then of course get to work and start moving on the next assignments/group projects that are still looming out there.
I hope everyone is well back home, and here's a quick shout-out to my dad - I hope your back continues to get better!!
Liz
Sunday, October 12, 2008
More Pictures
Finally, Pictures of My Dorm Set-Up
Ok, I promised these a while ago, but here at last are the pictures of my humble abode! As I finally found clothes hangers, I was able to organize my room sufficiently enough to take pictures =)
So here goes:
Hallway leading to my room
My awesome double bed
My Room
Looking back towards my door
The sink area in my room
My closet of a bathroom
The sink and even smaller closet of a shower in the bathroom
So here goes:
Hallway leading to my room
My awesome double bed
My Room
Looking back towards my door
The sink area in my room
My closet of a bathroom
The sink and even smaller closet of a shower in the bathroom
First Week of Classes
Okie dokie, as much as I wish I had as many good stories for the first week of classes as I do from Orientation week, the reality is that most of my time this past week involved sitting in our classroom or reading hundreds of pages of textbooks.
Here's an outline of the classes we are all taking:
- Quantitative Analysis/Spreadsheets
- Corporate Financial Management
- Business in Society
- Management and Organization
- Economics for a Global Market
- Accounting and Financial Management
- Personal/Career Development
Each class is 3.5 hours long. Yup, that's right. Almost 4 hours in the classroom per subject! That means often we are covering 2-3 chapters of each text every class. The schedule is mostly 9am-12:30pm for the morning class and then 2-5:30pm for the afternoon class. Thursdays we only have an afternoon class, and often on Wednesdays we have more career development classwork as opposed to regular courses. Furthermore, while our weekly schedule is fairly consistent, it is not entirely so. And for those of you Davis grads (or other folks on the quarter system), if you thought 10 weeks was short, our classes only last for 7 weeks. We have a "reading week" at the start of November for folks to play 'catch-up' on reading, and then a week and a half to study for exams before they start (which is the only improvement over the non-existent 'dead week' at Davis).
The first week was successful, albeit with many cups of coffee consumed. Most of the classes involve group projects, and our class has been divided into 6 groups of 5-6 people (we had one addition to the class this week, so we have 31 people total) whom we will work with on all group stuff for the remainder of the term. Each of our groups have our own "office" as it were to work on projects or to simply study in. Our offices are all bunched together on the 4th floor of the business building, and we have a lounge area in the middle as well for chilling out when time allows. To complete the package, we have our own copier/printer and kitchen! Wooot! Hey, it's all about the simple things in life.
Since Thursday classes did not start until 2pm this week, a group of us went "for a drink" on Wednesday afternoon. The Core 4 teamed up, deciding we would not be out late this time, because even though we did not need to be in until 2pm, there was still plenty of reading and group work to be done.
So, Core 4 is apparently not good at obeying our own plans.
At 3am Thursday morning when I finally made it back to my room after another night out of drinking and dancing, I was determined to not do that again in the middle of the week. Suffice it to say that I spent Thursday morning sleeping off the night before instead of doing additional reading. But hey, I still got 8 hours of sleep!
The week ended with plenty of reading being accomplished, one totally boring class (in one of my favorite subjects unfortunately - corporate finance), one thoroughly exciting class (global finance), and boat loads of reading to do over the weekend. But don't worry, I spent Friday night actually doing work and relaxing instead of going out again.
For the weekend: I spent time doing laundry and reading. And watching a video for a class. And more reading. Don't worry, there are pictures of my reading list for the upcoming week attached, along with my stack of books to read. Yay for school!!!
My stack of school books (accounting book not included)
My desk gets a little messy in the midst of studying...
End of Orientation Week
In the game of life, it's amazing how quickly time tends to pass by when there is seemingly not enough time to accomplish those things of which you intend. For instance, I knew I was overdue at writing a blog post, but it never occurred to me until I just signed on that it had been practically 2 WEEKS! Wow. Apologies to those who kept waiting for more pictures to pop up =) Since plenty has happened since I last wrote, I will break up the events into multiple blogs for easier reading.
Ok, so things are starting to fly by already. I can't say I'm surprised, but time always seems to catch us slightly off guard at times. In the time since I last wrote, we finished our orientation week in grand form (note the use of the word "grand" - a very Irish thing to say) by going "out for a drink" on both Thursday night and Friday night. Now, Thursday night being the first of my "nights out" with folks in my program, I wasn't about to be the first to go home. One has to ensure one's social status is properly acknowledged (i.e. I don't want to be the boring one). So that ended with a group of us out until 1:30am dancing at a bar called Whelan's. Someone even had to let another guy crash on his couch since too much alcohol had been consumed (hey, at least our class looks out for one another!). Now, come Friday morning, we had to be back in the classroom at 9am for a library and campus tour. Let's just say a few didn't make it in for the tour (in their defense, the ones who skipped the morning session had gone to Trinity for undergrad work, so the tour was pointless), and those of us who did carried a large cup of coffee along...
All week folks talked about going out on Friday night. By Friday morning, a good group of us decided we were a little tired, but we might go out "for a drink" with the other folks but then call it an early night. We ventured to the Pav (short for Pavilion - the on-campus pub serving cheaper beer than places around town) for our drink, ensuring that we ate some food this time (we somehow left that essential part out of Thurs. night's adventures). I would love to say I was responsible enough to only have "a drink or two." It's amazing how quickly one forgets one's promises of a few hours earlier.......
At this point I figure it is necessary to describe the Pav in more detail. From the outside, it is a great building, with outside decks overlooking College Park (which allows for enjoying a drink outside in the lovely weather....er...the couple times of year it's not raining at least...). Enter inside the pub, and suddenly it's packed with students, some of which I feel like I could babysit (note: drinking age is technically 18 here, but NO ONE cards). The Pav serves a selection of drinks (and thankfully food), including 6-packs of Heineken and 6 packs of Bavarian. The key is that it is cheap, so most people are not drinking the beers on tap so much as the cheap canned beer. On this particular Friday night, it was the end of "Freshers Week" - the week before classes start and all the clubs/organizations are getting people to join up (those Davis grads, think tabling on a massive scale). Friday night, a Toga Party was sponsored by the student union, taking place at the Pav. So our night out involved the group of us grad students trying to stand in a circle talking (with our backpacks tossed in a pile in the center) while constantly getting bumped by drunk people in togas. I do believe the movie Animal House was mentioned at one point, and the scene inside this pub definitely fit the movie. The other fun side affect of being here: the bathroom. And by the bathroom (or toilet as they say here), I mean the LONG line to get there. At least I had a lovely chat with another grad student from Africa while waiting. Of course, as I get to the front of the line, some other Americans emerge from the stalls, hear me talk, and ask me where I'm from. They then asked (in a drunken state I might add) if I was a fresher. Thank goodness I could say no! It was also about this time I was thankful I remember all of college....without any blackouts. The fun part about watching everyone going crazy in their togas is that it provided us with several laughs, along with a rather cheap top hat that somehow we ended up with - most likely dropped by some fresher. Our group adopted the top hat, and I now have several funny pictures of virtually everyone in the group wearing the hat (a selection of the pictures are attached).
Ok, so now that the scene at the Pav is painted, a rather large group of us were still out at 11pm when the Pav closes, it was only logical that we would move the party to another location. Those of us living on campus took the opportunity to drop our bags off in our rooms before heading back out. I honestly can't tell you the name of the place we went to (hey, I'm bad at names), but I know I can find it again. At this point, there were a good 6-8 of us left, 4 of us having been ones out the night before as well (resulting in the label of the "core 4"). We grabbed a booth here at least and spent the next coupla hours talking, learning how to flip the top hat onto our head in a suave way, and eating cheap takeaway pizza (note: in Ireland, "takeaway" means "to go") to supplement our pizza from the Pav earlier in the night. By 3am, the pub was closing, and the group of us made our way home. Thank goodness, as I was about to fall asleep in the booth I was so tired!
And you think the story ends there.
Three of us in the MBA program live in the same campus building, and since all three of us were out Friday night, we walked home together (Trinity is in the center of the city, coincidently where all the restaurants/bars are, so everything is within easy walking distance). At such a late hour, we figured it would be better to walk through campus to our building (which happens to be just outside campus, but connected through a walkway above the street) than through the streets of Dublin. However, to get onto campus (which is surrounded by stone walls/buildings) we had to enter through the main gate which is closed at midnight to all but those who live on campus. Since the main gate is closed, we had to walk up to the gate (wooden gate in the middle of the stone wall), which at night like that resembles walking up to a castle wall. Having never needed to enter this late before, the three of us (who were entirely sober I might add at this point) are laughing at the situation. A small knocker is on the door, so we rap the knocker a few times. Nothing happens. We are giggling at this point because we are literally rapping a knocker on a wooden door to be let into campus - it all feels very Harry Potter-ish. So we rap the knocker louder this time, and a security guard answers and promptly asks if it's our first year living on campus. Wow. Well, the answer was yes, so he proceeds to give us instructions on only knocking once as someone is always there, but all we can do is try to stifle our laughs since we are getting lectured like 18 year-olds, and to be honest, we sure felt like it at the moment! After producing our ID to prove we lived there, we finally were admitted and got to walk through a very quite and peaceful campus (finally, no tourists wandering around!) to our rooms, where finally, I passed out.
Oh beautiful sleep!
Me in the top hat with a Heineken
Me with Rhett and Fiona
Eoin, Eoin, Andrea
Crazy Freshers and Jill in the top hat
Ok, so things are starting to fly by already. I can't say I'm surprised, but time always seems to catch us slightly off guard at times. In the time since I last wrote, we finished our orientation week in grand form (note the use of the word "grand" - a very Irish thing to say) by going "out for a drink" on both Thursday night and Friday night. Now, Thursday night being the first of my "nights out" with folks in my program, I wasn't about to be the first to go home. One has to ensure one's social status is properly acknowledged (i.e. I don't want to be the boring one). So that ended with a group of us out until 1:30am dancing at a bar called Whelan's. Someone even had to let another guy crash on his couch since too much alcohol had been consumed (hey, at least our class looks out for one another!). Now, come Friday morning, we had to be back in the classroom at 9am for a library and campus tour. Let's just say a few didn't make it in for the tour (in their defense, the ones who skipped the morning session had gone to Trinity for undergrad work, so the tour was pointless), and those of us who did carried a large cup of coffee along...
All week folks talked about going out on Friday night. By Friday morning, a good group of us decided we were a little tired, but we might go out "for a drink" with the other folks but then call it an early night. We ventured to the Pav (short for Pavilion - the on-campus pub serving cheaper beer than places around town) for our drink, ensuring that we ate some food this time (we somehow left that essential part out of Thurs. night's adventures). I would love to say I was responsible enough to only have "a drink or two." It's amazing how quickly one forgets one's promises of a few hours earlier.......
At this point I figure it is necessary to describe the Pav in more detail. From the outside, it is a great building, with outside decks overlooking College Park (which allows for enjoying a drink outside in the lovely weather....er...the couple times of year it's not raining at least...). Enter inside the pub, and suddenly it's packed with students, some of which I feel like I could babysit (note: drinking age is technically 18 here, but NO ONE cards). The Pav serves a selection of drinks (and thankfully food), including 6-packs of Heineken and 6 packs of Bavarian. The key is that it is cheap, so most people are not drinking the beers on tap so much as the cheap canned beer. On this particular Friday night, it was the end of "Freshers Week" - the week before classes start and all the clubs/organizations are getting people to join up (those Davis grads, think tabling on a massive scale). Friday night, a Toga Party was sponsored by the student union, taking place at the Pav. So our night out involved the group of us grad students trying to stand in a circle talking (with our backpacks tossed in a pile in the center) while constantly getting bumped by drunk people in togas. I do believe the movie Animal House was mentioned at one point, and the scene inside this pub definitely fit the movie. The other fun side affect of being here: the bathroom. And by the bathroom (or toilet as they say here), I mean the LONG line to get there. At least I had a lovely chat with another grad student from Africa while waiting. Of course, as I get to the front of the line, some other Americans emerge from the stalls, hear me talk, and ask me where I'm from. They then asked (in a drunken state I might add) if I was a fresher. Thank goodness I could say no! It was also about this time I was thankful I remember all of college....without any blackouts. The fun part about watching everyone going crazy in their togas is that it provided us with several laughs, along with a rather cheap top hat that somehow we ended up with - most likely dropped by some fresher. Our group adopted the top hat, and I now have several funny pictures of virtually everyone in the group wearing the hat (a selection of the pictures are attached).
Ok, so now that the scene at the Pav is painted, a rather large group of us were still out at 11pm when the Pav closes, it was only logical that we would move the party to another location. Those of us living on campus took the opportunity to drop our bags off in our rooms before heading back out. I honestly can't tell you the name of the place we went to (hey, I'm bad at names), but I know I can find it again. At this point, there were a good 6-8 of us left, 4 of us having been ones out the night before as well (resulting in the label of the "core 4"). We grabbed a booth here at least and spent the next coupla hours talking, learning how to flip the top hat onto our head in a suave way, and eating cheap takeaway pizza (note: in Ireland, "takeaway" means "to go") to supplement our pizza from the Pav earlier in the night. By 3am, the pub was closing, and the group of us made our way home. Thank goodness, as I was about to fall asleep in the booth I was so tired!
And you think the story ends there.
Three of us in the MBA program live in the same campus building, and since all three of us were out Friday night, we walked home together (Trinity is in the center of the city, coincidently where all the restaurants/bars are, so everything is within easy walking distance). At such a late hour, we figured it would be better to walk through campus to our building (which happens to be just outside campus, but connected through a walkway above the street) than through the streets of Dublin. However, to get onto campus (which is surrounded by stone walls/buildings) we had to enter through the main gate which is closed at midnight to all but those who live on campus. Since the main gate is closed, we had to walk up to the gate (wooden gate in the middle of the stone wall), which at night like that resembles walking up to a castle wall. Having never needed to enter this late before, the three of us (who were entirely sober I might add at this point) are laughing at the situation. A small knocker is on the door, so we rap the knocker a few times. Nothing happens. We are giggling at this point because we are literally rapping a knocker on a wooden door to be let into campus - it all feels very Harry Potter-ish. So we rap the knocker louder this time, and a security guard answers and promptly asks if it's our first year living on campus. Wow. Well, the answer was yes, so he proceeds to give us instructions on only knocking once as someone is always there, but all we can do is try to stifle our laughs since we are getting lectured like 18 year-olds, and to be honest, we sure felt like it at the moment! After producing our ID to prove we lived there, we finally were admitted and got to walk through a very quite and peaceful campus (finally, no tourists wandering around!) to our rooms, where finally, I passed out.
Oh beautiful sleep!
Me in the top hat with a Heineken
Me with Rhett and Fiona
Eoin, Eoin, Andrea
Crazy Freshers and Jill in the top hat
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
As Orientation Begins...
Hello friends and family!
Well, I have officially moved into my dorm room at Trinity College and am no longer living out of my suitcases (for those of you lucky - or unlucky - enough to see my crazy suitcases, you'll understand my enjoyment for ditching them!). However, in my shopping extravaganza to obtain the necessary items for living (i.e. bedding, toiletries, cooking utensils, etc), I seem to have a problem locating clothes hangers of all things. Sooo, while I thankfully have drawers under my bed for most articles of clothing, all my jackets and other attire needing to be hung up are still currently slung over my chair or stacked in a pile on the floor (hence the reason you will not see pictures of my room up here yet...but I do promise they will come soon). The good part about living in the middle of a city: you get exercise walking everywhere. The bad part: you walk everywhere. I did give in at one point during my shopping trip and grabbed a taxi back to my dorm since carrying pillows, a quilt, sheets, and towels got heavy after 2 blocks. Don't worry, it's the only time I've given in to the taxi route so far.
Ok, so the good part about the dorm: location, location, location. It takes me no more than 5 minutes to walk to class every morning. The school gym is across the street (on my way to class). There's a small grocery store half a block away (literally). In between the grocery store and my building is a fantastic Catholic Church. Sooooo, you will not hear me complaining about the living situation really. Oh, and did I mention that my dorm room has a double bed?? I think I am getting spoiled for dorm life.
While classes do not start until next Monday (6th of October), orientation started yesterday for the MBA program. Thanks to the good ol' Irish and their sense of time and providing information, I had no idea until I showed up yesterday at 9am what orientation would entail. I figured it would be a little bit of the ol' "getting to know you" deal with the class and the department folks, with a little team building thrown in for good measure (there are only 30 students in the class). Reality: I was in a classroom until half six (that's Irish lingo for 6:30...PM). AND, we were assigned two case studies to read overnight, in preparation for Tuesday's class on "how to use case studies." It was the first day of orientation, and I stayed up until 12:15am reading the darn articles. And I need to clarify for those who are aware of my procrastination skills: I wasn't procrastinating. The best part of the case study reading: the part that took 90% of the time to read wasn't even discussed. We watched a video put together regarding the study that was used to tell us how to analyze case studies. Grrrrrr.
Ok, now that I'm done venting, here's a bit about my class:
*A little over half are from Ireland (all but about 2 are from the Dublin area)
*5 Americans (one guy from San Fran, and the other girls are from Michigan, NY, and Boston).
*1 Nigerian
*1 South African
*2 Japanese
*1 Chinese
*1 Spaniard
ummm, I think I caught all the nationalities there, but if I forget one now, I'll make up for it later. All in all, 30 students.
I believe that this stage I am the youngest person, but there are one or two people very close to my age. Overall, the average age is probably right around 28-30, so it is still fairly young. Having some folks knowledgeable about Dublin is great, as we get to go to different places around campus for lunch that I probably would never figure out otherwise.
Roommates: only one other girl has moved in at this time, her name is Kate and she is from the East Coast, so a fellow American. She is getting her PhD here, and also got her Masters from Trinity a couple years ago, so it is excellent to have another American who is used to navigating Dublin!
Well, that is the update for now, but I promise to get some more pictures up soon of my room and perhaps more of the school where I will be spending plenty of time....
Turns out that I will be able to come home to CA for Christmas though, so I am excited about that!! Woooot!
Take care everyone, and until later-
Liz
Well, I have officially moved into my dorm room at Trinity College and am no longer living out of my suitcases (for those of you lucky - or unlucky - enough to see my crazy suitcases, you'll understand my enjoyment for ditching them!). However, in my shopping extravaganza to obtain the necessary items for living (i.e. bedding, toiletries, cooking utensils, etc), I seem to have a problem locating clothes hangers of all things. Sooo, while I thankfully have drawers under my bed for most articles of clothing, all my jackets and other attire needing to be hung up are still currently slung over my chair or stacked in a pile on the floor (hence the reason you will not see pictures of my room up here yet...but I do promise they will come soon). The good part about living in the middle of a city: you get exercise walking everywhere. The bad part: you walk everywhere. I did give in at one point during my shopping trip and grabbed a taxi back to my dorm since carrying pillows, a quilt, sheets, and towels got heavy after 2 blocks. Don't worry, it's the only time I've given in to the taxi route so far.
Ok, so the good part about the dorm: location, location, location. It takes me no more than 5 minutes to walk to class every morning. The school gym is across the street (on my way to class). There's a small grocery store half a block away (literally). In between the grocery store and my building is a fantastic Catholic Church. Sooooo, you will not hear me complaining about the living situation really. Oh, and did I mention that my dorm room has a double bed?? I think I am getting spoiled for dorm life.
While classes do not start until next Monday (6th of October), orientation started yesterday for the MBA program. Thanks to the good ol' Irish and their sense of time and providing information, I had no idea until I showed up yesterday at 9am what orientation would entail. I figured it would be a little bit of the ol' "getting to know you" deal with the class and the department folks, with a little team building thrown in for good measure (there are only 30 students in the class). Reality: I was in a classroom until half six (that's Irish lingo for 6:30...PM). AND, we were assigned two case studies to read overnight, in preparation for Tuesday's class on "how to use case studies." It was the first day of orientation, and I stayed up until 12:15am reading the darn articles. And I need to clarify for those who are aware of my procrastination skills: I wasn't procrastinating. The best part of the case study reading: the part that took 90% of the time to read wasn't even discussed. We watched a video put together regarding the study that was used to tell us how to analyze case studies. Grrrrrr.
Ok, now that I'm done venting, here's a bit about my class:
*A little over half are from Ireland (all but about 2 are from the Dublin area)
*5 Americans (one guy from San Fran, and the other girls are from Michigan, NY, and Boston).
*1 Nigerian
*1 South African
*2 Japanese
*1 Chinese
*1 Spaniard
ummm, I think I caught all the nationalities there, but if I forget one now, I'll make up for it later. All in all, 30 students.
I believe that this stage I am the youngest person, but there are one or two people very close to my age. Overall, the average age is probably right around 28-30, so it is still fairly young. Having some folks knowledgeable about Dublin is great, as we get to go to different places around campus for lunch that I probably would never figure out otherwise.
Roommates: only one other girl has moved in at this time, her name is Kate and she is from the East Coast, so a fellow American. She is getting her PhD here, and also got her Masters from Trinity a couple years ago, so it is excellent to have another American who is used to navigating Dublin!
Well, that is the update for now, but I promise to get some more pictures up soon of my room and perhaps more of the school where I will be spending plenty of time....
Turns out that I will be able to come home to CA for Christmas though, so I am excited about that!! Woooot!
Take care everyone, and until later-
Liz
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Back in Dublin, More Pictures
Thursday (Sept. 25) finds me back in Dublin. I left the McGraths in the morning after a lovely week of visiting (Mom, Dad, note my use of the word "lovely"--I'm slowly adjusting). My past few days have been spent reading books for pleasure and visiting with relatives. A total of 3 pints of beer (on separate nights) were consumed, as well as a few glasses of wine. All in all though, a much needed restful break before the craziness of school starts.
Below, as promised last time, are more photos from my adventures. Enjoy!
First 2 photos: from the City of Cork on my bus trip around the city.
Other places around Skeheenarinky:
Left: driveway to the McGraths
Below: Sights around Skeheenarinky
Left: the view from my bedroom window at the McGraths's
Below: Mores shots from around Dublin
Below, as promised last time, are more photos from my adventures. Enjoy!
First 2 photos: from the City of Cork on my bus trip around the city.
Other places around Skeheenarinky:
Left: driveway to the McGraths
Below: Sights around Skeheenarinky
Left: the view from my bedroom window at the McGraths's
Below: Mores shots from around Dublin
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
