Bright Lights, Big City

Sometimes I forget how huge a city Dublin is. It's easy to do, since most of it is fairly walkable and it takes me approximately the same amount of time to get from my dorm to the train station on the outskirts as it would to get from my dorm at Canisius to the center of Buffalo. Size-wise, it's not that big.

But otherwise? It's DUBLIN. Apparently this is a big deal. I forget that it's the capital of Ireland, and also the largest city, so naturally it's inherently important. Since Trinity is also one of the biggest and most well-known universities around, that makes where I'm living roughly like the New York City of Ireland.

Which is why I shouldn't be surprised when people like Patrick Stewart just pop on by for a quick chat with the historical society -- which he did, on Halloween, sweeping in to the room wearing a black Dracula cape and then talking about acting, Star Trek, and his love of Shakespeare for an hour and a half. (That's him to the left -- sorry, it is a little hard to tell, but that's him at Trinity.)

Similarly, I shouldn't be surprised when the Dublin City Marathon, which I expect to include maybe 50 people dressed up as werewolves and restaurants, turns out to include over 11,000 participants, all of whom run right by my front door on the way to the finish.

I shouldn't be surprised to find a kebab place next to a noodle house across the street from a pizzeria and a tandoori restaurant. And all this right down the street from a Mexican restaurant called The Alamo that serves Buffalo wings alongside fries with garlic mayo and cheddar cheese on top.

I've been here a month now, and I have only just felt like I am starting to fully appreciate this city. Sure, it still scares me, and sure, I'm irritated that I can't just walk to bars and clubs like I used to be able to in Galway. Yeah, I hate grocery shopping and having to schelp my purchases in an ostentatiously American backpack about a mile through crowded streets to my apartment.

But still, it's nice to be in a CITY for once, a huge one, where you could see anything, meet anyone, and anything could happen. That being said, I may go for a walk...I hear Jonathan Rhys-Meyers is in town?

It's all political

The last time I was in Ireland, there was no major political debate. We were in the middle of the Iraq War, but we had elected Bush two years before, and the only elections in sight were Senate elections. As a result, I only once was asked about my political leanings, and that was more about the average American's view on the War than anything else.

This time, though, it's a different story. There are Irish students in my program who are more informed about the issues and the candidates' respective stances on them than the majority of Americans I talk to. They've watched the debates, they have studied the political terrain, and they have made their decisions. And they want to know yours, as well.

The Irish and other international students view the declaration of candidate loyalty as a perfectly acceptable icebreaker; Hi, you're American, right, Obama or McCain? I had a very drunk 18-year-old Irish boy lurch up to me in a friend's dorm, declare that Jack Kerouac was an amazing writer, and then slur, "So, Obama or McCain?" The odd part is, he knew which one he wanted to hear.

Ireland has made up its mind about the presidential race, and it should come as no shock to anyone that they want Obama to win. Keep in mind that this is coming from a country where there is a deep-seated inherent racism, and that black jokes are not only accepted here, but considered hilarious and repeated over and over again in pubs to anyone who will listen.

Yet, I've heard nothing about Obama's racial background over here, only that they think he's smart and will have a positive impact on the rest of the world. It says something about the comparative tolerance and political savvy of the rest of the world that neither Obama's race nor Sarah Palin's gender has been an issue in any discussion I've had thus far: it's always about the issues.

I am, of course, generalizing, and I am sure that there are Irish people who would prefer McCain to Obama or who don't care either way. There are also Irish people who don't understand American politics or the American mindset but pretend like they do, and shoot off uninformed and offensive opinions at every turn (i.e. the girl in my class who felt that her visit to San Francisco last year made her qualified to say that America was raping other countries for oil and that she doesn't get why Americans feel proud to have relatives or friends in the military).

For the most part, though, if an Irish person engages you in a poltical debate, they are informed and eager to learn what they can about your opinion and your reasons for that opinion. And good for them; I know quite a few Americans who are not that willing to educate themselves on the political scene of their own nation, even though the outcome of this election will, in some way, change the world.

Sicko

There is nothing worse than being sick while overseas. All the old familiar remedies like chicken soup and Vicks Vaporub are either harder to come by or actually impossible to find. So there you are, in a strange room in a strange city, sick with no way to comfort yourself short of bundling up in a few layers of sweaters and running to the Centra convenience store for some Halls Soothers.

I managed to stave off the typical study abroad cold with the large supply of Cold-eeze I had stockpiled for such an occasion. I remembered my last Irish cold vividly: three and a half months of snivling, coughing, phelmy mess, leaving me feeling half-human and sending me running to the pharmacy for a new remedy every week or so. Luckily, with the help of the lovely Australian pharmacists and some sort of amazing Irish cough syrup, I was able to heal myself enough to drag myself to class.

So this time I arrived in Ireland with two boxes of Cold-eeze. When the first symptoms hit, I popped those pills like they were candy. Two days later, there was no cold in sight, and I congratulated myself on being so proactive as to stave off the disease that could have made my first semester an absolute hell.

I began to worry about my self-congratulations, though, at some point -- could I have jinxed my health for this semester? I am a supersitious person by nature, and so I began to worry that I would, in fact, get another cold, a BAD one.

I was wrong. Instead I was suddenly hit with flu-like symptoms: the fever, the exhaustion...and possibly the nausea, which has yet to occur but I'm sure will be coming along shortly. So let this be a lesson to you: Karma kills.

(I promise, you will get all the aforementioned blog entries once I pull myself together -- but right now I am going to curl up in bed with some tea and Oliver Twist and hope I can chase this off before it gets worse.)

Home Cookin'

(Grilled cheese with vintage Irish cheddar and 'red sauce' or ketchup -- American food, Irish style!)

Most college students eat very differently when we are at school versus at home -- even if school is technically our home for that academic term or whatever. School food consists of things in cans, in plastic packages...things that you may need to boil water for, but that's it. There's a lot of spaghetti, a lot of Ramen, and a lot of whatever the dining hall is serving.

Naturally, Irish school food is even stranger. There's the usual switch to the school-type pasta, but I find myself doing things with it that I would never do at school, probably due to the fact that the food Irish people eat, not even including the traditional pub fare and blood sausage you're thinking of, is very different from what Americans choose to eat.

Here, for your pleasure, is a description of some of the most different things I eat in Ireland, most of them with pictures:

Heinz Beans -- They say they're baked, but that's a lie. It's really kind of hard to describe the difference between these beans and baked beans back home, but imagine the sauce from Spaghettios mixed with just the beans from baked beans -- no bacon, no fat, no weird smoked flavor. The Irish and British eat this type of bean on toast for 'tea', a meal I have yet to figure out.

Kraft Light Herb and Garlic Dressing -- Picture ranch on crack. God, it's good. It's like a combination of ranch and maybe ceasar, which they recommend to put on potato salad with 'streaky bacon'. I discovered this in a search for something to dip my pizza crust in, and now I eat it on potatoes, pasta, rice....anything with a starch, and I pull out the dressing. Awesome.

Cadbury Bournville -- I have to admit that the first time I came to Ireland, I thought Green and Black's chocolate was the absolute pinnacle of chocolately goodness. And it is, but the fact that you can actually get it in the US and I just didn't know it has somehow taken the shine off those five-euro bars of organic chocolate. So I've switched to the two-euro Bournville, which is dark chocolate. Just that. Nothing else. A massive 200 gram hunk of marvelous Cadbury heaven. Yummm. It also comes in a drinking chocolate version. :)

Nutella -- I never eat this in the States, and I don't know why. It's really pretty easy to get and not that expensive. Here, though, it's cheaper than peanut butter (which the Irish and apparently the British don't get, by the way -- my Scottish friend demanded to know the other day why in God's name anyone would put peanut butter on a sandwich). It's really best when served on the next thing on this list or crepes, not bread, though you can do it.

Digestive biscuits -- Okay, first know that a biscuit is usually a word for cookie. Now realize that these are not really like cookies, either, but kind of like sweet crackers -- like a graham cracker, actually, but round and thicker. A close relation is the tea biscuit, which has the same concept but I think it's made with white flour and isn't brown. Again, eaten for 'tea', whatever that is, though I usually eat them with Nutella for breakfast or as a study snack.

Walkers Sensations -- Only the best potato chips in the world. These are, as my Scottish friend calls them, 'posh crisps' that come in flavors like Roast Chicken and Thyme, Cheddar and Red Onion Chutney, and my favorite, Caramelized Onion and Balsamic Vinaigrette. And since they don't come in the 'prawn cocktail' variety many other chips here do...I'm all for them.

Ethnic Food -- I don't know whether this is because we're closer to Europe/Asia or there's a greater immigrant population here, but Uncle Ben's (of the rice?) makes bottled Indian and Chinese food sauces like Sweet and Sour and Tikka Masala. And it's not just Uncle Ben's -- it's even in the generic store brands. It throws me, because while usually we do have ethnic food of this sort, it's not really as mainstream (except at Wegmans, but even there you just have bottled soy sauce and satay sauce sometimes, never anything as complicated as Tikka Masala). And they keep it next to the tomato sauce like it's totally normal...but you can't get Mexican food, like salsa or chips, for anything. Go figure. Maybe it's a hemisphere thing.

Good thing I am doing all this walking, or else I'd weigh four million pounds by now. Next time, actually going-out-and-eating-real-meals food :)

Commenting

Hey, everyone --

Apparently there were issues with being able to (or not being able to) comment on the blog. Sorry, I had the settings a little stricter than normal because I had trouble with trolls on my literature blog -- but now everyone should be able to comment, whether you have Gmail or not!

Look for posts coming up about my favorite streets and neighborhoods to explore, as well as eating my way across the city. Any excuse to go out for food, ya know? :P

-- KT