Most students studying abroad are required to make some small lifestyle adjustments: looking to the right before crossing the road, accounting for the fact that Diet Coke has calories, dealing with sore thumbs as an effect of the text messaging craze, and accepting that J. Crew didn't have the Euro in mind when designing the Magic Wallet. However, on the east coast of an island about the size of West Virginia, Dublin has quirks and perks of its own.
Upon arriving at the Emerald Isle, I was quick to find that while many stereotypes were disproven, others were dead on, and there was yet an even larger collection of cultural oddities that I never saw coming. Though I have yet to bump into Bono while strolling around the city center, his presence is never far. U2 claims just about every other spot on the average pub playlist (the ones in between are U2 covers), and each song inspires all ages to spring from their bar stools and join in on a mass sing-a-long. Oddly enough, the only music that can elicit a similar response? Country-Western.
As far as food goes, they do, in fact, love potatoes in every form imaginable, but pizza seems to be just as popular. Staples of sandwich bars are not your typical turkey with lettuce or PB&J, but tuna with sweet corn and chicken with stuffing. However, it's not hard to get away from these peculiar combinations, as McDonald's or Burger King (or both) are surely offering up their value meals right around the corner.
While American culture has undoubtedly infiltrated this small city, there is one place that is purely Irish and better off because of it: the pub. Dimly lit and always packed, the pub is said to be the center of Irish social life. It's a place to meet, to mourn, to celebrate, and, of course, to drink. The Irish are known for their friendliness and heavy alcohol consumption, and in terms of affability, they delightfully met my expectations, but the boozing is beyond anything I imagined. Run out of cream for your morning coffee? Bailey's will do just fine.
And not only is there nothing wrong with a pint or two between classes, it's nearly a necessity. Past the early evening, it's hard to find a seat at most pubs, but if you've got your Guinness in hand, standing doesn't seem so bad. At night, in the center of Dublin, cobblestone streets shut off to cars create something of an alcohol arcade with drinking venues that range from sake bars to swanky clubs. Here, it's hard to feel the pain of a 40 oz.'s demolition as drunken rugby players are literally falling at your feet?and they don't just appear to be partying every night?they are.
Though it's not always easy to carry on a conversation between loud music, funny accents, and foreign slang, as long as you stick to the quality of your Guinness (a thick, creamy head is brilliant and a flat one, bullocks) or the weather (clouds or rain), you'll find that Dubliners are charmingly crude, delightfully sarcastic, and rightfully proud of their home. From the Jameson Distillery to the downtown shopping, from bad teeth to breakfast baps, Dublin truly is, as they say, quite grand.