A Day in Dublin
It is hard to define a typical day for me, as most every day brings new surprises here in Ireland. However, since we’ve been back in Dublin, we have settled into a bit of a routine. We typically have class four days a week. We alternate between classes in literature and film, and the schedule varies a bit depending on which class we have.
When I have lit class (typically Monday and Wednesday), I wake up around 7:55 AM, get ready, and leave my apartment by 8:45 to head for the bus stop. Then I take the 46A bus into the city. It’s a fairly long bus ride, and traffic is generally horrendous, especially because of all of the construction going on in Dublin right now. I take the bus from University College Dublin, which is in a suburb south of the city, up into Dublin and across the Liffey into North Dublin. Class begins promptly at 10:00 in the Irish Writers Centre. We students sit in a semi-circle in a pretty typical classroom, discussing literature with our professor, who spends his school year teaching at Boston College. Most days we discuss until about 11:15, take a quick coffee break downstairs, and then resume around 11:30. We’ve been fortunate enough to have guest speakers many days, including novelists Paul Murray and Sally Rooney, journalist Mark O’Connell, and politician and James Joyce scholar David Norris. We typically end class by around 1:30 and are then free to go have lunch.
When I have film class (typically Tuesday and Thursday), I typically get up around 7:30 AM, go for a quick run, get ready, and leave my apartment by 9:00. I take the 39A into Dublin to an area just south of the river—thankfully, the journey is a bit quicker. Class begins at 10:00 and is held in the basement of the Brooks Hotel in a private cinema room. This room is ideal for our class since it enables us to sit in comfy seats and watch films on a big screen. Class is led by a Northeastern professor. Typically, we begin by watching a film. After the film, we often will take a break for lunch (typically for about an hour), during which we are broken up into small groups to discuss different themes from the film. Afterward, we reassemble and discuss as a whole class. Class is supposed to end around 2:00, but this varies—some days, we are out considerably earlier, but on other days, we are there until 3:00.
On weekdays after class, we sometimes have the day free to ourselves. On these days, I will often explore the city with a few classmates, walking around popular areas like St. Stephen’s Green or O’Connell Street. Often, though, there are scheduled group activities. A few of the activities that we’ve had include visiting museums such as EPIC (the Irish Emigration Museum) and the Little Museum, seeing a show at the Gate Theatre, touring Glasnevin Cemetery, going to a farm out in the country, and trying our hand at Gaelic games. These activities are always fun and are a great way to learn more about Ireland’s history and culture.
I typically return to my dorm at UCD by early evening. One of the downsides about UCD is it is a bit outside of the city, so once I return at the end of the day, I rarely venture back out into the city. Typically, I’ll work some on my homework, which is usually pretty light, just some readings or Blackboard postings, and then make dinner. One of the advantages of staying at UCD is that we have kitchens. I’m no great cook and I am working with limited tools and ingredients, so my meals generally haven’t been incredible (I’ve been eating a lot of pasta), but they’re certainly enough to sustain me (and they’re cheap, too). After dinner, I’ll often hang out with some of my classmates in the common room of one of our apartments.
