After our morning lectures we had an introduction to the controlled chaos of course registration for international students. Unfortunately, Trinity lacks a centralized registration system akin to AU's online portal, so students must travel to each individual Department to find out their procedure, courses offered, and times. This is the case, because only recently were students allowed to take classes outside of the Department to which they were accepted. However, everyone left our History Department registration (held since the academic portion of SSP is run by it) feeling stressed out and overwhelmed. They required a separate sheet, and a commitment to a class without even knowing the course times of other departments (fortunately every other department I would visit on Thursday would be significantly more lax). I blame the ensuing panic for our delay in going grocery shopping.
Once everyone ran around and failed to find the Departments they were looking for, we gathered ourselves, calmed ourselves, and vowed to figure out the class registration system tomorrow. Although, one minor success was grabbing the sheet from the international office as proof of residence for an account at Bank of Ireland. Nevertheless we went off to find the Tesco by Goldsmith to finally go grocery shopping. But before we would shop, we spent took one "last" opportunity to buy lunch - this time at Abrakebra - a food-fast joint that sells all manner of burgers, quessadillas, and other grilled food on the cheap.
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| Looking for Tesco |
Tesco had nearly all the modern conveniences of a Safeway or a Giant, including numerous self-checkout machines... except for plastic bags (my roommate later informed me that Dublin had de facto banned them with a 30 cent tax per bag). Fortunately, most of us had brought our backpacks and were able to hold the rest (also fortunately this was s a rare store that accepted American Express). Unfortunately, Sean had not, and his milk shot through the bottom of the bag, spilling all over the floor by the cash register. On the way home he fatally dropped one of his bags of spaghetti, but in true Irish kindess an old woman offered him a plastic bag to carry his surviving food.
Back at Goldsmith, we went our separate ways and set a time to meet at our usual spot in the building's quad to meet the SSP group for the Abbey Theatre. After spending some time on gchat and catching some quick sleep, I proceeded to cook my first dinner in the apartment. There was nothing glamorous about it, some chicken and potatoes - though I failed to soften the potatoes without the use of a microwave.
After meeting up with the gang and the SSP students, we went to the Abbey Theatre - the National Theatre of Ireland - which is just across the River Liffey. Noticeably absent were the 13 SSP students in the Arcadia abroad program, who had both seen the play during their earlier orientation, and had warned of its mediocrity. Settling in with low expectations, and a Guinness from the Theatre bar, I was more than pleased with the performance of Arrah na Pogue (Arrah of the Kiss). It was a melodramatic story involving betrayal, love, and love lost in the Wicklow Mountains south of Dublin. To give a sense of the comedy, one of the main actors, who was wanted for conspiring with the French, was named Beamish McCool, there were three small trampolines embedded in the floor, and one character ran around with a fake sheep the entire time.
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| At Arrah na Pogue |
Following the play, we broke off from other SSP students who were headed to the touristy Temple Bar district (where clubs stay open long past 11pm). Before we would eventually join them, we went back to Goldsmith to meet Kathryn from AU who was not participating in SSP but who had arrived the day before. With a couple others deciding to call it a night, the rest of the gang proceeded to find the Mezz pub the other SSP students had gone to. Besides the high prices (a pint of Guinness was 5 euro!), it was an interesting experience, with a definitive reggae themed band.
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