Ireland: 10 Things I Miss, 5 Things I Don’t

It’s weird saying goodbye twice. Being in Ireland for the semester has had a significant impact on me as a person and has changed me in ways I cannot even begin to appreciate. I can’t really put into words many of the experiences that I have had in Europe… particularly because many of those words would consist of incoherent drunken mumbling. Instead I’ve put together a list.*

* I copied the format from my favorite film blog – Film School Rejects. Sue me.

10 Things I’ll Miss about Ireland

1. The Blackrock Crew – After the past semester, I quite literally have friends all over Europe. I love all of these people. See: Hellogoodbye Blackrock

2. Team America – When I was flying to Ireland, I thought of myself as a one-man wolf pack. But when I got to Blackrock, I met some of the guys in the BU program… I knew they were some of my own. And my wolf pack… it grew by two. So there… there were three of us in the wolf pack. And five months ago when I met the girls, I thought, “Wait a second, could it be?” And now I know for sure, I just added four more people to my wolf pack. Seven of us wolves, running around the city together, in Dublin, doing work and downing pints. So today, I make a toast!

3. The Weather – They don’t call it the Emerald Isle for nothing. Their grass is still green when ours (Boston/Chicago) is dead from the heat/cold.

4. Eurotripping – So much to see, so little time (and money). Next up on the to do list: Amsterdam (again), Brussels, Budapest, Copenhagen, Prague, Vienna, Portugal, Germany, Italy, and Greece. I suppose that there’s always next summer… I hope?

5. Proper pints of Guinness – A full semester of drinking respectable beer, most notably pints of Guinness. Boy, I can’t wait to start downing PBR, Natty, and Keystone! And for the record, 12oz (355mL) cans are weak.

6. The noticeable lack of school administration douchebaggery – One of the most frequently used tags on this blog, prior to coming abroad included “sucks to BU.” To give this one a rant free summation, here are a few things that never would have happened at BU: Blackrock BBQ (no grilling on school premises), pre-gaming in the kitchen every night and Blackrock dinners/parties (underage drinking aside, noise complaints), UCD Ball (liability concerns, funding issues).

7. Karaoke at Wicked Wolf – Valuable life lessons: don’t pick a song the crowd doesn’t know and certainly never sing “Come Sail Away” unless you could make it on American Idol/X-Factor.

8. Insomnia hot chocolate – Ahhh the simple things in life. F you Starbucks, your hot cocoa sucks.

9. Dublin’s Multiculturalism – Sure, I lived at Blackrock, the center of all things ERASMUS at UCD, but even in Dublin so many people were from other countries. Not to say I don’t miss the “pahk the cah”-accent of Boston-metro area, however…

What’s that you say? How could I write a list of things I’ll miss without reference to getting “proper locked”?

10. Dublin Nightlife – I’ll always remember (and miss) grabbing a pint and listening to trad at the Brazen Head or the Temple Bar; getting proper locked at Messrs Maguire, Q-Bar, Murrays, Porterhouse, Dicey’s, Sinnots; and “doing work”/dancing like an absolute clown at Pygmalion, Propaganda at the Academy, Spy Bar, and Copper Face Jacks.

5 Things I Won’t Miss

1. The Euro: Hey Greece – couldn’t your economy have collapsed like… 5 months earlier? That would have been juuuuust tops. Also worth noting: I won’t miss paying 5.95€ for a pint of Heineken in Temple Bar.

2. The Internet at Blackrock: I never thought I would be as violated as I was using the BU Wi-Fi. Then I came to UCD. The proxy settings prevent you from watching any streaming DivX videos – which means that it’s rather difficult to find the TV shows online that are blocked outside of the USA (Damn you, Hulu/Netflix/network TV sites…)

3. Snacks on snacks (or the lackthereof): Let’s just say I’m glad to get back to my 711 Slurpees, Cheez-Its, and burgers that don’t cost 11e.

4. Booterstown Nature Reserve: I prefer my beaches/coastline to not smell like a cross between rotting animal intestines and toxic waste, thank you.

5. Dublin Bus: I thought the T in Boston sucked more than any city’s public transportation I had ever experienced. The Dublin Bus is worse. The #17 bus is hands down the greatest enemy of any UCD student at Blackrock.

Goodbye Dublin (for now), you were a gentleman and a scholar.