In Dublin Fair City, Where the Girls Are So Pretty...

FRIDAY

In the morning, I finished unpacking and met a few more of my suitemates. All of the BU students in the program here are living together in suites of ten people, 5 rooms of 2 occupants. We all made our way to town together, a huge group, and bombarded the Vodaphone store. An hour later, we all walked out holding our new phones- the cheapest and simplest available, exchanging numbers and figuring out what Topping Up meant. We met for our second group excursion next to the Garden of Remembrance, which is absolutely beautiful. The plan for the day was the scavenger hunt the program director, Mary, had planned, and while we all grumbled about it initially, it turned out to be an incredibly fun afternoon. We broke up into teams and ran around the whole city. We saw so much more in the daylight with set destinations and directions to follow. It was like watching a film trailer; I saw glimpses of places and areas I’m surely going to experience more of as time wears on here, just enough to make me want to come back for more. Some of these included St. Stephens Green, Trinity College, the Temple Bar area, and lots of pretty side streets. Everything is cobblestones, bricks, colorful doors and signs, crooked buildings just straight enough, new buildings somehow not out of place; it is all quaint, mysterious, old, and yet vivacious and new. And everything is green.

We return with the other teams to go over the answers and have a question and answer session with Mary. One of the answers was a statue of Molly Malone we had to find, and Mary asked us if anyone knew the song. Having sung that song every single summer around the bonfire at Canandaigua Lake with my family, I raised my hand. I was the only one. And she asked me, for two points to my team, to sing it. Mortifying? Absolutely. I said no at first, but at the protest from my team and the help of another girl, I did it. A few kids on the trip loved it so much they had me teach them, and they have on more than one occasion belted it walking down the city streets. While some locals undoubtedly find this annoying, quite a few have joined in.

So, Dad, that’s for you. Next time I’ll teach everyone the Rising of the Moon.