Can't Help Falling in Love

Well, I am officially a student at Trinity College! Woohoo! I have my student ID, my email (except I can't really get it to work yet, I'll keep you posted...), and I am registered for two classes! I will eventually be registered for more, but like most things at TCD, the registration process is really old, and tends to be a little frustrating for American visiting students.

It's still a bit unreal for me to be walking around Dublin as a TCD student- a lot of kids growing up talk about how they're going to Harvard or Penn or whatever their dream school may be, but for me, that was Trinity. When I first set foot on campus for the with my family in eighth grade, I looked at my parents and said, "I'm going here." Several college apps and years later, here I am. It's even cooler to be at TCD as a Catholic, and as a woman. There have been two separate deans who have declared that neither Catholics nor women would ever be allowed at TCD. Now, 80% of the student body is Catholic. One dean literally said "Over my dead body will women enter Trinity College." He died four months later and is buried in front square, and the first action of the new dean was to admit women- and to this day, we do attend TCD literally over his dead body.

I think the famous alumni factor is still hitting me too-- at Orientation, the girl giving us a tour was talking about different societies we could join (clubs), and just kept talking about "Oh, Oscar Wilde was in Histories, Jonathan Swift was in that..." Oh, of course. No big deal. Not cool or anything. I am pretty sure I'll be joining the Yoga Society, the DU Players Society (the drama society), and Random Acts of Kindness Society. I'm already a part of International Students Society... I don't want to overinvolve myself like I have done at PC, but I have found that it's terribly hard to break that habit.

Another wonderful part of being settled here is seeing family and friends! I had lunch today with my cousin Paula who works and lives right outside of Dublin, and have plans to see her mom and aunt next week. It was so good to see her again (it's been a while), and I had a really fun afternoon. I have at least two other cousins here in the Dublin area, and a bunch more in the West! I'm excited to reconnect with them :). I also have some PC friends in Dublin, Galway, and Cork, and NDA friends in Galway and Dublin... so life is wonderful! I met up with Kathleen Blackney, a classmate of mine from ND, for lunch the other day. I'm so excited to get to see her more often (she goes to Elon... a long way away from PC) during the semester!

So, I hope this novelty factor doesn't wear off... because at this point, I still walk down the street and it hits me: I live in Dublin!! For real!!! Classes start Monday... which is a whole other blog post. I hope everyone's semesters at PC (and elsewhere) are wonderful, and while I'm loving every second of Dublin, I'm missing you all dearly.

Love,
Julia