This first week has been amazing! We have done so much in such a short amount of time that it feels like I have been here longer but at the same time I still can’t believe we’ve been here for a week already!
On Thursday we went to 2 more site visits. The first one was called the Outhouse, it is a LGBTQ community resource center in Dublin. They had a cute cafe and a really cool exhibition in the basement that reflects anightclub that was the first gay club in Dublin. The CEO talked to us about what the Outhouse does and disability can tie into it as well.
Then we took a bus to Deaf Village which is a community resource center for the Deaf. It allows the deaf, hard of hearing, and hearing people to gather in an accessible community center. It has most of the Deaf advocacy programs in Ireland housed in one area. It has a gym, pool, chapel, cafe, and more. I thought it was really cool that the chapel provided services in ISL (Irish Sign Language) and actually had Peace written in ISL on the stained glass. The lady that gave us a tour was hearing but grew up with deaf parents, deaf grandparents and a deaf brother. It was interesting to hear how growing up in a deaf household has impacted her life. She gave us lots of insight into Deaf culture and told us how most of the workers in Deaf Village are deaf themselves which I found to be really cool. She told us how she doesn’t view hearing loss as a disability, that it is more of just a language barrier and I thought that was a really interesting perspective to take on it. I am interested in learning more about sign language to better be able to communicate with those who have hearing loss.
Later that night most of us went out to some pubs and had a great time!
On Friday morning my roommates and I decided to go for a walk and get donuts to celebrate National Donut Day! We went to this place called the Rolling Donut and it was amazing. I got a Bailey’s cream donut and it was sooo good! I would definitely go back, they had so many flavors to choose from!
A few hours later all of the girls in the group headed to the Guinness Storehouse. It was really cool to see the history of Guinness and how it is made. I waited to try Guinness until I got there because I wanted it from the factory to get the real stuff. I personally was not a fan because I don’t like beer but maybe if I did I would have liked it. But I really enjoyed the Gravity Bar at the top with the best view of Dublin!
Later that day we took the train to a Cricket Club with our professors and watched women’s cricket, Ireland vs South Africa. Although I didn’t quite understand how the game worked it was still interesting to watch. It’s crazy how long those games can last, apparently they can last for days! We only stayed for like an hour or so.
Saturday we didn’t have anything planned so Steph and I went to do some shopping and then went to the gym on campus. Later that night a group of us went out to dinner at this place called The Market Bar. It was really big and had live music and the food was pretty good. It was a fun yet low-key day.
Sunday we had a day trip planned, 11 out of the 12 of us went on a bus tour. First we stopped in Wicklow where we saw a sheep farm and got to hold baby sheep! They were adorable and I fell in love! Next we went to Glendalough which had a monastic city that the tour guide led us through, and then we had free time to explore the walking trails with beautiful scenery and 2 lakes. After that we went to Kilkenny and had free time to walk around and get lunch and do whatever else we wanted. We went to a pub called Kytellers Inn and I finally had Fish and Chips! I hadn’t had them yet since being in Ireland and was craving them so badly! They were so good and the pub was really cute!
Looking forward to the next few weeks! Stay tuned to see all of my adventures!