Breathing Room: Dublin Week 11 

When you’re traveling, or if you somehow find yourself in a strange place, it is easy to get caught up in the cycle of experiencing the next best thing. Your mind goes into vacation mode, while your tired body tries to keep up. The tricky thing can really be enjoying those times when you’re not experiencing something new and wonderful, but rather sitting in a spacious building with coffee and a paper to write. 

After an event filled weekend and student race day, I was ready for a weekend of rest. What I got was another week filled with places to go, people to see. On Wednesday the site I’m interning for hosted the national Student Media Awards. The Irish concept of national was a little strange for me. While presenters from their versions of CNN and American Idol took the stage to announce winners from all over Ireland, it occurred to me this could never even be thinkable in the massive U.S. It was much more like a state in that sense, everyone was more closely connected with “celebrities” and TV’s talking heads than we were in the states. We almost tend to hold them up on a pedestal, or look at them as an elite sect of society. 

The concept of “star struck” was also very relative as I knew almost none of these Irish stars. A bizarre looking set of twins with Bieber-like locks and matching jackets were pointed out to me as the pop duo “Jedward.” I recognized the name from a tattoo my roommate has on her foot-(I will never understand). We also ran into the cast of Ireland’s version of Jersey Shore called “Tallafornia.” Instead of drawing mixed feelings of love and hate, like with the U.S. crew, apparently most Irish people are ashamed of the reality TV bunch. As one girl from the show announced a winner, someone from our table cracked “look, she can read!” 

I mentioned before how I was disappointed with the lack of team spirit shown at the horse races, but I didn’t have to wait long for DCU to show their pride at the Smedias. Students were standing on chairs, whopping with excitement at the mere mention of a nomination from our school. This may have something to do with the special on drinks served. The span of media categories was pretty impressive. One even included short animated films. Its interesting to think students my age will one day become producers, presenters, reporters and write content which will be read all over the globe. 

I was able to meet journalism students from DCU I had never talked to before. It was interesting to get their perspective on major American news networks. Since coming here I’ve noticed the major influence America has in European media. From the outside, it’s easy to see America as a homogenous country where everyone has “Friends” living in New York or knows somebody on “16 and pregnant.” I find myself starting off my sentences with, “well it depends..” when asked about people in America. There are many regions which I cannot speak for or haven’t seen myself. 

By the end of the night I had gained a different perspective not only on Ireland, but on America as well. Later that week I had another chance to find some common ground with some fellow study abroad or “erasmus” students. I returned to the beautiful Glendalough with the DCU hiking club. Although we started along the same path Natalie and I had hit up the week before, we took a turn into the forest which led to a hiking trail with narrower footing and a steep hike up a mountain. It was breath taking and a completely new view from the over 6 hours of hiking Natalie and I had covered. 

There were several Germans who had organized the trip along with a few Americans, Spanish and Irish students. I spoke with one girl from Germany who not only shared my name, but my love of dancing and chocolate biscuits which she termed “hiking cookies.” I found out one of the other Americans was in a modern company at home. One of the girls from Ireland said she liked to Salsa dance and spent a semester studying in Spain. It was interesting getting her perspective on Ireland after traveling away. She noticed the collectiveness of the people and said she found the Irish were definitely their own breed after looking from the outside. 

After making it to the bottom, we quickly made our way to a pub. There I got a chance to use the cards I’d been carrying around and we played a game which was strange to the Germans, but had been mastered by the Spanish girl sitting next to me-bullshit. She introduced me to the phrase “eat it eat it” after someone called a bluff at the wrong time. It seemed odd at first to be playing such a casual game which I had often played with my family in a pub with people from all over Europe. I was pretty confident starting out, calling out bullshits right and left, but by the end of the game everyone had gotten the hang of putting up their poker faces. 

The rest of the weekend consisted of staring at the 4 walls of my bedroom trying to find the motivation to write essays while watching the gorgeous view from my window being lit by the rare sight of sunshine. I mean it’s not exactly a proper skyline, but the tall trees and road always look inviting when I’ve wrestled with the political and cultural aspects of Ireland that seem over my head. I hadn’t seen the last of sunshine yet though, Croagh Patrick awaits me next week!