I have officially been in Ireland for one week now! I started class at O'Connell House yesterday and class at UCD today. Classes seem like they will be okay. I'm in class a lot less than at Notre Dame. For instance, I only have class at UCD on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. In effect I will have 5 day weekends since Mondays I only have class at O'Connell House at night. Perfect for trips around Ireland and other parts of Europe as well!

Starting classes has kind of been a reality check for me. I've definitely been in tourist mode and not actually thinking about the fact that I will have to do some work here. It also makes me realize just how long I'm going to be here--four whole months!

Well, enough about classes and on to the fun stuff! Saturday and Sunday we got to walk around Dublin more and I'm starting to feel like I've got my bearings. Dublin is a great city. And also great for me as a history major just because there is so much history here. I'm excited to continue exploring the city!

This is the General Post Office in Dublin which was seized by the Irish in the 1916 Easter Rising. They didn't think the British would fire on their own building but the British sailed a gunboat up the Liffey and the building suffered serious damage. You can actually still see bullet marks on the columns.

And of course we've visited a few more pubs. We went to a pub called O'Donaghues on Friday night. The pub was crowded and so we ended up wandering our way into a less crowded backroom where two guys happened to be playing some traditional Irish music. That was exactly what we had been hoping for. Saturday we ate pub grub at the International Bar and watched part of a rugby match (which none of us quite understand yet). Sunday night after dinner at Professor Whelan's house a few of us headed to O'Neills for some more live Irish music. That pub wasn't crowded at all so we had our own little booth. The music was great too and just makes the atmosphere of the pub that much better!

The backroom at O'Donaghues.

Next up on our agenda is more pubs, a visit to the Garda to get my student visa, and a day trip to Howth on Saturday!