I am SO exhausted. Jet lag definitely caught up with me last night and we had an intensely busy day today - meaning 12 hours of non-stop madness. So I am positively POOPED.
I had my confirmation interview with my supervisor of the law firm I am going to be working in. It sounds great, and I'm really excited to start working. It's small (about 8 desks in the office) but I'm not really worried about that. If anything, that will be better for me to really get some hands-on experience in the field. It sounds like I'm going to help research a lot of the cases that are going to court, as well as observing different kinds of court activities; including some criminal cases, human rights (!!!) cases, civil, etc. Even though the laws are different, I think that this will be really valuable professional experience. So....I'm excited.
It was super hard trying to find where everything was though...it was our first time in the City Centre so we got lost A LOT. Went in the opposite direction of everything way too many times. But after we kind of got oriented with the area we were in, we were much more comfortable. I even took some pictures of the city!
This is a picture of the Daniel O'Connell statue...it's a major landmark and it's really pretty! I'm still trying to figure out the history behind it...all in good time.
This is the O'Connell bridge right next to the statue. The Liffey river separates the North and South part of the city - postal codes north of the Liffey are odd numbers, and those south of the river are even.
I LOVE this. This is the Dublin Spire. It. Is. HUGE. Of course this doesn't do it justice...but man, I love it. It's less than a block away from the O'Connell statue. I think it's so awesome. And obviously it is a good landmark to keep track of where you are. My work place is right next to the statue and the Spire, which is fantastic because so far I'm most familiar with that part of the City, and so far I think it's the coolest.
After my interview I had some time to look around a little bit, and I found this really awesome book store. And I found an amazing book, Great Irish Speeches. This is me with the book. I'm really excited...obviously.
Along with my one credit of internship I'm also taking two credits of Independent Study to be transferred back to CSU while I'm spending my two months over here. For those two credits I have to write a rhetorical analysis of an Irish political speech that is 20 pages long. And this book is PERFECT for that. It has really great speeches from important Irish political figures such as: Daniel O'Connell, Charles Parnell, Mary MacSwiney, both women Presidents of Ireland Mary Robinson and Mary McAleese, and also a JFK speech that he gave in 1963 when he came back to Ireland. It even comes with a CD of some recordings of the speeches! YAY! As a Communication major, this is right up my alley. I'm so excited to read it (as soon as I get some time). I think I might write about the first woman President of Ireland, Mary Robinson and her speech, "Come Dance with me in Ireland." From the little I read today, it was her inauguration speech. So, definitely a good starting point for my paper.
So far I'm REALLY liking Dublin. Compared to the US, it is a pretty small city, but it is still a city. There were people everywhere today, all the cars are driving on the wrong side of the road, the taxi drivers, bus drivers, and local pedestrians all freak me out on the road and I SWEAR someone is going to get run over while I'm watching. We also saw a bunch of fire trucks go by today, and they call it the "Dublin Fire Brigade." What a cool name!! I love it. There are also double decker buses that are awesome (I need some new adjectives), and little houses in the city that are so cute with different colored doors. It's just adorable. And everyone is just so fashionable! And I mean everyone! It's really cool! Everyone from young kids to older adults, everyone dresses really great - so it was super fun for me to people watch today.
For dinner, EUSA (the people sponsoring this program) had a welcome reception for us at The Brazen Head, which is Dublin's oldest pub. That was really awesome because we had a free three-course meal while an older Irish man was telling us really cool Irish folklore stories. It was an awesome experience!
Anyway, that's about it. I need to go to sleep, I am exhausted. Tomorrow we are taking it easy during the day and then going out tomorrow night for one of the girl's birthdays! We are going to a gay bar! I CANNOT wait. That will be way too much fun.
Well, until then!
;)
