Arthur's Day

Thursday, September 24th, 2009 was a historic day for Dublin and a celebration like the city had never seen. Guiness, the internationally famed Irish Stout turned 250. The story goes, Arthur Guiness founded the Guisness brewing company on this day in 1759. So, officially at 17:59 people around the world would toast his memory and the legacy of Arthur Guiness. The Guiness family is one of the most famous in Dublin and the Guiness Storehouse continues to be one of the city's most popular tourist attraction. Guiness is drank all over the world and the official celebration called for 30+ music acts in Dublin and more in other cities on each continent.

Although there were 30+ venues around the city hosting official events (which were also broadcast on live TV around the world), there were absolutely no tickets to be found a week ahead of time. Guiness had annouced the probable acts far ahead of time and they included many I would have loved to see including Tom Jones, Paolo Nutini, David Gray, The Kooks, Ravorlight, Calvin Harris and otheras. They did not announce which venue would be hosting which act which made any ticket valuable. Although we did not have tickets, my roommate Hakon and I had planned on going out and seeing as many places as possible. The plan was to start in Temple Bar and work our way back towards our house.

As we walked into the City Centre, the streets were alive with activity. Many people had taken off from work early to make it to a 17:59 show or just hit up their favorite pub. The atmosphere in the streets was alive and electric and most pubs were offering specials or hosting some kind of party. By the time we made it to Temple Bar, it was nearing 17:59 so we were anxious to get inside a pub and get a pint of Guiness for the toast. Despite the crowd spilling out of all the doors, we decided on the Quay's Bar in Temple Bar. It was so crowded the inside felt like a oven and it seemed everyone was at the bar trying to get a pint. The dark, milky Guiness was flowing continuosly from each tap as the bartenders desperately tried to accomodate the crowd. As 17:59 approached, the toasting began and lasted for nearly 10 minutes. We got our pints just in time and headed towards the crowd in the street. The crowd was ecstatic, singing songs and dancing in the street and small square outside the bar. There were old and young people, tourists and natives, all together celebrating a single beverage!

After the toasting, a band started playing in the bar. The crowd in the street intensified, however, eventually starting to smash glasses on the ground! A circle formed in the middle as more and more people threw their pint glasses into the street. Soon there was glass everywhere and time for the Garda (Irish police) to take control. When they drove over the glass, through the crowd, a few ridiculously ignorant people threw their glasses at the car! Needless to say they were arrested seconds later.

We waited at the Quay's Bar until the crowd to disperse before leaving to meet some friends outside the Stag's Head. After the craziness had transpired, Temple Bar had calmed down but was still filled with people. A windy and mostly cloudy day ended with clear skys and a nice colorful sunset. We continued along on our way home meeting friends along the way. By midnight, I was exhausted but had had a full day of events. My roommate Tim who has grown up in Dublin has said that he had never seen the cuty the way it was on Arthur's Day. It was truly a grand day to be in Dublin!

Pictures of my house and neighborhood

Hello,
I have posted pictures of my house and neighborhood on my Webshots account. I also added some pictures to my Around Dublin album. Check them out if you are interested...

http://community.webshots.com/user/tyshuebner

A story about cultural differences

As you may or may not know, I love to cook. I also love Mexican food and have learned to make a few dishes that I am quite proud of. My favorite is probably carnitas which is pork shoulder braised in beer and chicken stock for a long time. Carnitas is usually put in a tacos with onions, cilantro and guacamole.

When I first moved to Dublin, I was determined to cook Mexican food for my roommates. I was a little worried about not finding the right ingredients even though carnitas is fairly simple. So at first I froze the pork while I looked for the right ingredients. After deciding on a date to make it, I put the pork in the fridge to defrost. However, I cannot make carnitas or guacamole without cilantro, it is ABSOLUTELY essential and I could not find in anywhere! I even looked up Indian and Thai food markets on the internet because it is used in those cuisines also. Whenever I asked about cilantro however (at 5+ supermarkets and "specialty" markets), I was looked at like I was crazy! I was beginning to give up home of making an authentic Mexican meal.

So I decided to look up cilantro on Wikipedia. I admit Wikipedia is a guilty pleasure of mine and I know how much the academic world despises it but it is a very handy source of information and many things are cited dirrectly on the web. I came to find out that cilantro is only know as cilantro in the United States and Latin America. To the rest of the world, cilantro is coriander, a very popular spice found at all the major grocery stores I had already been to. At this point I felt like an idiot for not looking this up first but I got a laugh out of the whole situation; me at supermarkets asking for something that was literally right under my nose!

In the end, the meal was delicious, even with Irish ingredients. It turns out, guacamole and carnitas both taste really good with coriander. My roommates Hakon and Raoul loved the carnitas and my Mexican food craving was satisfied, proof that home is never far away. Most importantely, I got to share a little bit of my culture (Ok, so I'm not Mexican but Mexican food is a big part of my life and hey, I made it) with my roommates. Maybe I will think of opening up a Mexican restaurant in Dublin called Cilantro someday...

Pictures

Hey everybody,

It looks like posting pictures directly to my blog is pretty time consuming so instead, I am using my Webshots account to create albums from Dublin. I will try to take more and more pictures but I have 3 more months here so there is plenty of time. A few of the albums match up with my blogs so take a look!

http://community.webshots.com/user/tyshuebner?vhost=community

Let me know if there are any problems with the link.

Tyson

An Adventure

The weather was incredible this last weekend. We actually had 5 days of sunshine which is very nice for Ireland. Each day I woke up late and walked downstairs and out to our patio to find the sun smiling down at me. Not a bad way to wake up!

So in deciding to take advantage of this beautiful, a few days last week, my roommates and I went to St. Stephen's Green to enjoy the weather and people watch. St. Stephens Green is a well known park near the City Centre that is always brimming with people walking through to Grafton Street (a VERY popular shopping strip lined with all kinds of stores and shopping malls) or simply sitting in the grass. Due to the abnormal weather, the park was filled with all sorts of sun-worshipers working on their tans (which to me is a joke, I mean, it's Ireland, these people are WHITE (just kidding :-) (kind of)). After working on our own tans, we would wander through the City Centre streets stumbling upon coffee shops and indoor markets. The more I walk around the City Centre streets, the more I come to love Dublin. Despite all the confusing street patterns and crazy drivers driving on the wrong side of the road, this city is very charming!

A sunny day on the canal in front of my house

After waking up on Sunday to more glorious sunshine (and beginning wondering if all the stories of rainy Ireland were myths), I decided to take advantage of the day and head out to find the beach. I brought my camera also and some pictures should be attached to this blog (if I can get it figured out). My roommate Hakon accompanied me after realizing his beloved Liverpool (an English Premier Football (Soccer) team) wasn't playing on our TV. We went without really consulting any maps which is best when you aren't in a hurry. We figured all we needed to do was walk west.

The first thing we came across was an ENORMOUS stadium under construction called Landsdowe Stadium about 20 mins west from our house. The stadium was impressive but even more impressive was the mess that was being made in the adjacent canal. The canal was filled with construction waste and debris and was a shinning example of Ireland's reputation as the biggest polluter in the EU. This book I am currently reading (Chaos at the Crossroads by Frank McDonald and James Nix) goes into this side effect of the Celtic Tiger economic and development boom. I remember reading about how following their admittance to the EU, Ireland was sighted for 85 violations of EU environmental policy! The stadium is set to be the largest football stadium in Dublin (the 83,000 seat Croke Park is designated for the Gaelic Games exclusively) and is part of the final leg of the Celtic Tiger period.

After walking past the stadium, we were in Irishtown, a very blue-collar neighborhood on the west side of the city. I enjoyed seeing a different neighborhood and a different side of the city outside of own own "posh" Ranelagh village. It gives me a new perspective and more down-to-earth feeling for the city. A lot of the row homes in this era looked to be straight out a Charles Dickens' Industrial Revolution era novel! Ok, I realize Charles Dickens wrote about England so lets say a James Joyce novel (although different time period). We'll go with Oscar Wilde then!

Anyways, this was turning out to be quite the exploration so we decided to enter a very inviting pub we noticed along the way. We were both immediately satisfied with our decision upon entering to find a beautifully decorated and engaging space and a small group of intense Liverpool fans watching the game. To Hakon's enjoyment, Liverpool was dominating scoring 4 goals by the end of the day. Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures because I didn't want to advertise my touristy-ness in front of some hooligans but I have a feeling we will be venturing back to this pub.


After leaving the pub, we continued to explore the neighborhood and came across a large park. We figured it would eventually lead us to the beach and it eventually did bring us to Sandymount beach! The beach is long with wonderful views of the mountains to the south. There were large, posh homes and apartments along along the water, as one would suspect. I'm sure you could come up with a formula to represent real estate price in regards to distance to this beach as I have noticed this in many of the places I have gone.


We walked for a long time along the beach until we decided to head back and explore another neighborhood. This neighborhood called Sandymount could not have been more different than the first one on our journey. It was filled with mansions and extravangant Georgian rowhomes. There are also many embassies and consulates within the mansions and Georgian rowhomes including Hakon's Norwegian embassy. Once we realized where we were by finding a recognizable major road we had a long walk home. In all, we were out walking for a good 3 1/2 hours but it was all worth it. I'm sure we will go on many other adventures like this in the future!

A panoramic view of Sandymount Beach

Wake Up Call

It did not take me long to realize how expensive living in Ireland was going to be. After all, my first cab ride cost me 30 euro. Sandwiches and hamburgers at cafes can cost 10-15 euro and even McDonald's costs as much or more here in euros what it would cost in the States in dollars (1 euro=1.47 dollars). I have made a few choices to cut down on my expenses but it can be tricky. Groceries are still pretty expensive but I do save on food by not eating out. I am also riding my roommate's bike to class instead of taking the bus which can be as much as $5 or more a day. I am still looking to travel while I am here but instead of the more exotic places I was thinking of going (Majorca and Grand Canary Islands being two of them) I am looking into the more attractive 50 euro or less fares to Paris, London or Germany.

These things are helping but I still cannot help but feel like the Irish have much more money than I do. Many of my classmates have vacationed in Thailand or the US (San Diego is a favorite) for weeks at a time during the summers without working! This seems crazy to me because my summers have always been focused on work and it made me wonder how they could afford it. I'm sure part of it has to do with their parents and the recent economic boom known as Celtic Tiger (needless to say, those days are over with the current recession).

However, during a discussion with a classmate today, I was informed that the Irish pay close to nothing for an undergraduate college education. Many students simply go to school for free while many others pay as little as 1,600 euro per year. Post-graduate education is different although "mature" students (over 25 I think) like the student I spoke with today pay nothing while the average cost of grad school for others is around 5,000 euro per year. This is way higher than the out-of-state tuition I pay in Illinois and significantly higher the 100,000K+ for med school in California Ben has told me about. Getting into this conversation made me realize how expensive education is in the U.S. and made me depressed to think about the debt myself and other American college students will have hanging over our heads for years. It also gave me a different perspective on the lives of the students at my school, UCD (University College Dublin), whose parents only need to pay for their accommodation (and sometimes not even that) and books while American parents save for college from birth. It kind of makes me wonder why education is so expensive in the U.S. Are there too many colleges? Maybe; my fellow classmate told me fewer people in Ireland take advantage of free college education whereas in the U.S. everybody goes to college somewhere. Is our education really worth more? That I'm not sure either.

Anyways, this rant does have a point. It gives me a new appreciation for my degree and my education and motivation to get the most out or it and put it to best use. And I do not mean to say that the Irish are any less appreciative of their education but rather it was somewhat of a shock to find out how lucky they have it.

The Sunday Game - The Ancient Sport of Hurling

Posing in front of the hurling statue (the flags show the colors of Kilkenny and Tipperary)

Yesterday, my roommate Hakon and I witnessed a notable team sports feat that we had little to no knowledge of coming into Ireland. Kilkenny Hurling became only the second team in the 125 year history of the Gaelic Athletic Association to win the All-Ireland Senior Hurling Final, an exciting sporting event few outside Ireland are familiar with, for the fourth time in a row.

When I first arrived in Dublin, my cab driver from the airport to my hotel pointed out Croke Park, a massive stadium just north of the River Liffey that holds close to 86,000 spectators. He told me the stadium was solely used for the tournament of the Gaelic games, which includes Gaelic football and Hurling, two sports I knew nothing about. The Gaelic games, he explained to me, are the pride of Ireland and involve these two ancient sports that are only really played in Ireland. The most impressive thing about the games is the pride involved. Each of the 32 counties has a team for each sports and the participants who are skilled athletes in their own right play for pride alone. That's right, these athletes participate in these brutal sporting events (more on that later) without being paid a dime. Tough to believe coming from a country where a MLB pitcher who throws maybe once a week can make $25 million a year. In this aspect, the Gaelic Games are inspiring to say the least and the fact that the players play for fun and for pride is displayed emotionally by the participants after each win or loss.

To the cab driver, I pretended to have a general idea of the sports; Gaelic football is like rugby mixed with soccer and Hurling is like field hockey. However, it was only later in anticipation of the Sunday Game (the Hurling final) that I became acquainted with the game of hurling via YouTube. There is a great three-part video series explaining the rules, skills, scoring, etc. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AM-kB1e96CA).

Generally speaking, hurling is like a mixture between field hockey and lacrosse. It is played with a flat stick made of ash somewhat resembling a much wider version of a field hockey stick. The field is about 1 to 1 1/2 times the size of a soccer field and at each end, there is a goal topped by two goal posts sort of like American football goal posts. There are 15 players to a side; usually 6 forwards, 8 defensemen and a goalie. The players try to score goals by hitting the ball past the goalie, worth three points, or point by hitting the ball through the goal posts. This is much easier said than done because the gameis full contact (think ice hockey-like checking) and the sticks are used to hit oppenents as often as hitting the ball (think lacrosse). The players can use their hands to catch and pass the ball but cannot carry the ball in their hand for more than four steps. They may carry the ball on the stick or bounce it on the stick while running. This all makes for a very exciting full contact sport that is loved in Ireland.

Before I even knew what hurling was, I was told by my friend Richie to try and get into a pub as close to the park to watch the game as possible so I could have a better idea of the importance of the final event. Hakon and I left our house around 12:30 on Sunday for the 3:30 game to try and make our way down to the stadium. Despite the miserable, pouring rain, the route from the historic O'Connell Street down to the stadium was packed with fans of both teams proudly displaying their colors. Along the way were souvenir vendors selling (soaking wet) team apparel, flags and other novelties. We were still blocks away from the stadium when we decided to turn around and head back up to O'Connell Street because fans were spilling out the pubs around the stadium onto the sidewalks, some trying to escape the rain and others trying to enjoy a pint. Instead, we found a quiet pub on O'Connell called Murrays serving up a Thanksgiving-like buffet of meat and veggies smothered in gravy. This was perfect because by the time the game started, we had a great seat in front of the tele and a (more than) full belly.

Part of the Sunday Game crowd

The game was an exciting back-and-forth match between Tipperary and Kilkenny counties. There were many big hits, impressive shots and lead changes throughout the game. Despite many great attempts by Tipperary in the second half, the two sole goals, worth three points each, did not come until very late in the game and were scored by Kilkenny when it seemed like they did not have a chance of coming back. These goals and the outstanding performance of their goalie gave Kilkenny their fourth Senior Hurling Championship in a row.

Watching the game and being a part of the crowd in the pouring rain gave me an idea of what a proud country Ireland is. Although Ireland was once a much larger nation before the massive outmigration waves, they have done their best to preserve the elements of their culture that make them different from the rest of Europe (the Gaelic language which is everywhere is another great example). Although these elements of their society may seem minor in the big picture, they give Ireland its own identity and the Irish people something to be proud of. As a visitor to Ireland, I am very interested in the culture that exists here and the differences between Ireland and the United States and learning from those differences. This is one of the reasons I am taking a beginner's course in the Gaelic language which is offered for free at UCD. I think to come to Ireland or any foreign country for that matter and not seek out both cultural differences and similarities is a terrible mistake that many tourists make. Understanding these differences and similarities, on the other hand, can be beneficial in helping you appreciate others and even inspire pride in your own culture, even if that culture is not thousands of years old. This is a big part of my experience in Dublin and something I will no doubt touch on in later posts.

Blogging from the Emerald Isle

Greetings from Dublin, Ireland! A number of you have received updates from me regarding my arrival and finding accommodation in Dublin City. In case I have not updated you recently, I have found a place to live about 20 mins walk outside the City Centre, which is the place to be in Ireland. My official address in 25 Dartmouth Walk, Ranelagh, Dublin 4. The way an address works here is House Address + Street, Neighborhood or Section, County + Postal Code. It is a very modern, 5-bedroom house in one of the more "posh" postal codes in Dublin. My roommates are all young and from all over the world. They are Tim, an Irish accountant whose father owns the house where we live, Nick, a South African working in Global Branding for Vodafone, Hakon, a Norwegian student also studying at UCD, and Raul, an Italian who I have not met yet because he is in Italy at the moment.

Instead of sending e-mails every time there is something to report, I am starting this blog to let you know my thoughts on Ireland and my experiences here studying abroad! I will try and post pictures occasionally as I take them but I don't always remember my camera. I am not yet sure how often I will be posting but I will try and do them frequently because I have a lot of thoughts on the culture and the city itself! Hope you enjoy them!

Tyson