We had a very long day today: orientation part I. We woke up at 8 (we figured the water situation out) and had to be at the IES center by 9:30. The apartment still had a dilutedly pungent smokey smell when we woke up from the oven the night before. We sat in sessions until about 4:15 in the afternoon. Everyone was dying of jet lag by the end, but the IES people are all very down to earth so it wasn't torture, just long. Plus there were many breaks in between and I met most of the other people on the program. It's a great group.

After orientation we walked down to Grafton street, which is adjacent to Trinity's campus. Grafton looks like many urban streets in Europe. It reminded me of a street in Istanbul called Istiklal, with similar stores and the same genre of corny street performers, but with all the pubs and Trinity college around the corner it definitely has an Irish uniqueness.

Seeing Trinity College for the first time was truly breathtaking. Walking onto campus from Grafton, it felt almost like walking into a quasi ancient-Rome, quasi colonial English city. The campus is marvelous, and all of my stalking of it on google maps (click on the "A" on the map for street view) does not come close to portraying how magnificent it actually is. I'm so glad I can say I am going to school here for the semester.

We had an IES program dinner for all of the participants at a restaurant called Chatham Brasserie. It was an all expense paid meal including a free glass of wine. We got to meet the IES staff, who are all lovely, and met some more people on the program. Everyone had such a unique background. I ordered a "smoked black pudding" appetizer, which turned out to be sausage (pudding is a nice euphemism). The people at the table didn't understand how I'll be able to not eat meat for the semester, and I don't know either. Supposedly the only kosher food in Dublin is contained on one shelf in one convenient store in some sketch part of the city. No surprise there.

Here are some of my first somewhat respectable photos:

My apartment-mate Brad and our front door

The canal, our most useful landmark and our guide to the IES center

The beginning of Grafton street

Anyway, that's day two!