First impressions, recollected.

“Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquility.” – William Wordsworth

This is my excuse for why my first post since getting to Ireland is published 2 weeks after my arrival. It doesn’t quite work. The way I misremembered the quotation works better. But it’s never a bad time to quote Wordsworth. I’m afraid poetry’s probably going to come up a lot on this blog. Ireland calls for it though.

Much of arriving in any country at first is about paperwork and logistics. From the outset I will say Ireland is not great at either of these. So the joys of the first two weeks were frequently punctured by petty annoyances. I sat down time after time to write a raging post about Trinity’s inability to do anything. But now, a fortnight in, the paperwork is subsiding (a little), I have a schedule (I hope) and I can say I’ve heard Gaelic. Which is for another post. In short, I can write without getting mad now. So write I shall. Not that it’ll be poetry, or anything.

First Day or Lessons in being alone.

I arrived in Dublin alone with two large suitcases and a sizeable carry on. Getting to my room seemed a miracle. I had visions of myself, sitting on my suitcases, crying in the grey drizzle over an illegible campus map. Instead a young guy at the housing office drove me right up to my place. And it was beautifully sunny.

I was the first to arrive in my 4-person apartment and the only person there for almost a week. Aloneness thus becomes a theme. I went off to explore Dublin. Seldom have I felt so comfortable alone, in a public place. It is true what they say, about Ireland being friendly. It’s difficult to explain why, though. The city is small, much smaller than I expected. It has this way of taking you in, giving you a warm hug and then leaving you to do your thing. I didn’t get lost. Didn’t even have a map. Which is a greater miracle than getting to my room in one piece. Sense of direction I do not have.

Trinity really is in the centre of the city. If you are a reader familiar with Georgetown, which is likely, the area around campus is all M street, spliced with U street, a storey or two higher up. Make sense? The point is, it doesn’t scream city. It screams cozy neighbourhood. It’s fantastic. And full of café’s of all different sorts – an unaffordable weakness of mine. Seriously, don’t talk to me about how expensive Dublin is. Or how irrelevant my initial budget has become.

My first day did not end with walking aimlessly around a new city. But I’ve decided to limit my self to about 500 words per post, in an attempt to not be obnoxious. Hope you’re looking forward to my ever-increasing backlog!