Enough of the excuses on to the blog post proper!
The family that I am staying with is called the Cootes. They are Frank, Shiela, Fran and Jacqui. They are around 60 or so and their daughters are 27 and 30. At first I was not certain about how things would work out (I had previously heard that they were hard to socialize with) but so far things have been good. Shiela does not work and Frank does delivery work of some kind. To my surprise I found out that they are not Catholic, but are Church of Ireland (the equivalent of the Church of England or Anglican) so they are not the stereotypical Irish family. I live in a suburb by the sea called Glenageary and it is a typical Irish suburban area for the most part. There is a Catholic church and a local pub up the road and to get to the seafront it is a 20 minute walk down the hill.
In general things are not too much different here, but it is the little differences that throw you off. Take heating for example. I don't think I can remember being in a centrally-heated building other than a supermarket or bookstore since I have arrived. It is all about the fireplaces and radiators. Another thing is how much smaller everything is. Refrigerators, stoves, washing machines, you get the idea; they're all tiny compared to American sizes.
My commute from my house to school isn't too bad. I just take the DART (Dublin Area Rapid Transit) into the city center and walk for 20 minutes. The nearest station is a five minute walk from my house and the train is generally clean. Taxis are pretty expensive and the bus system never takes you exactly where you want to be, but once you get lost a few times you figure out how to work it. The actual building that classes are held in has some pretty amazing plaster moldings on the ceilings and walls that I will have to take more pictures of. (I had shot a video of the whole building but...you know)
My group is full of pretty laid back and easy to get along with people. Most of them come from the east coast such as New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts, but there are two people from California as well.
The other day the group was split into four smaller groups and we were told to do a scavenger hunt through different areas of the city. I didn't think it at the time, but once my feet stopped throbbing from walking so much I realized that it was a great way of not only learning the layout of the city, but a good way of learning about the history of the city as well.
So now on to the pictures!
