Getting acclimated to our new city -- June 22/23

Over 18 miles of walking in two days.  Many neighborhoods and cobblestone roads and lots of sunshine.  And before you say, "oh yay, it's normally rainy in Dublin," I'd take the rain at this point.  Dublin, like so much of Europe, is not set up for "typical" summer weather in the 80s.  With no air conditioning practically anywhere, it is really hot -- we're hopeful that it'll go back to more typical Dublin weather of the upper 60s and low 70s next week. (And, we definitely SO thankful it's not as hot as it is for our friends in France right now -- 111 F -- yikes!)

Monday (6/22) was orientation day for the program.  Our program providers, Big Pond, (https://www.bigpondeducation.org/), did a great job helping us get our bearings.  We did a Dublin 101 class session, and then had a walking tour and a welcome dinner at Market Bar.  

On our walking tour, we saw the famous "Molly Malone" statue.  

Not sure who she is and want to learn more?  Here's a quick overview: https://epicchq.com/story/a-brief-history-of-dublins-mysterious-molly-malone/ 

The welcome dinner at Market Bar (https://marketbar.ie/) was a lot of fun with tapas family-style dining (hard to choose a favorite dish, but I think I'd have to go with the hake -- it's a mild white fish that melts in your mouth).  

On Tuesday, June 23, our class started in earnest.  We did an overview of Social Determinants of Health, the US Healthcare System, and probably my favorite Art and Health.  My co-teacher, Dr. Brady, designed an awesome activity that gets students thinking about what art actually is -- and then connects it to things like music and art therapy, etc.  It also set us up perfectly for our afternoon visit to the Book of Kells (more about that in a minute). 

We only had about an hour and a half between class and our afternoon activity today, so rather than coming back to the apartment, I went scavenging for some lunch.  The first thing I found...was a cookie.  When she offered to warm it up, I was sold.  After that, I just couldn't figure out what I wanted -- so, I ended up going to a part deli, part convenience store called "Spar."  I had a delicious hot cajun chicken sandwich.  

The college professor in me wanted to spend some time wandering and exploring Trinity College today before our Book of Kells tour.  In my head, it's similar to Oxford -- and in reality, it had that same kind of vibe.  Since it was so warm, there were students and faculty and visitors sitting everywhere outside.  One thing that I found kind of odd was that you can't just walk into buildings -- I wanted to check out the library and they were like "nope, students only."  I'm guessing it's because there are SO many visitors to see the Book of Kells that they want to protect the academic environment, but it was kind of odd to me. 

  

So, what is the Book of Kells?  In short, it's an illustrated version of the Gospels.  But, there's a lot more to it than that -- it's an Irish cultural icon.  Read all about it here: https://www.visittrinity.ie/what-is-the-book-of-kells/ .  The books in the Long Room are being cleaned -- so many of them weren't there right now, but that was OK.  My favorite part of the experience was the virtual reality portion that showed a 360 movie of how the Books came to be and the building of the library (think like the Van Gogh virtual exhibit that was all the rage a couple of years ago).    

  

After our time at Trinity College and the Book of Kells, I met up with the family for the evening.  They went to Howth today (where we go on Sunday...so, I'll share my experiences with it this weekend).  We went over to Phoenix Park (biggest urban park in Europe!) and walked around for a little bit and then found a cute food truck park for dinner.  

More class tomorrow morning and then off to a cooking class/conversation about sustainable agriculture!