Going into the door, I couldn't close my mouth and my chin was hanging down because I couldn't believe where I was. Seeing all the security, buildings and landscapes, gardens, and systems that you see in movies that only rich or people in authority can have made my heart rate increase. Even though it's not used at this moment due to unassigned ambassador for Ireland from the U.S. it gave me goose bump feeling of being there. I got to see and meet some great people, and one of them was Tom Healy who is the chairman of Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board. We took a group picture with him, and when he said that he would post that on his Twitter, I almost died (inside, but not outside – I was trying to look sophisticated and contained). I felt really honored, privileged, and special to meet him and come to such an event! He was appointed to be in this position by the President Obama! Oh, and the President Obama was in this place!!!!!! I took many pictures and maybe I should have tried a bit harder to not look like a tourist, but I just could not not take pictures of this memorable moment to record and brag about it later. Their food, of course, was delicious. I don't think I can thank Dr. Coe enough for letting us have this experience! Thank you Judy!
US Ambassador's Residence! I still can't believe I was there just a few hours ago! At first, I couldn't believe I was actually in Dublin, but this is more unbelievable. I didn't know what Fulbright was exactly until the meeting with Colleen Dube from the Fulbright Commission, and today made me realize that it's one of the prestigious programs that one can have!
Everything was fabulous today from the weather (sunny, warm, no rain, and clear and beautiful skies with handsome-looking clouds), and the ending of today was one of the most wonderful and invaluable experiences I have and will ever have in my life; it was an once-in-a-lifetime experience. We took a taxi to the US Ambassador's Residence in Ireland. The taxi driver was very funny with many jokes and he made it a very short and fun ride. Dr. Coe, our professor, was to attend this event with Fulbright because she once received the Fulbright scholarship and was attending as an alumnus, and luckily, we were invited to come along with her.
Going into the door, I couldn't close my mouth and my chin was hanging down because I couldn't believe where I was. Seeing all the security, buildings and landscapes, gardens, and systems that you see in movies that only rich or people in authority can have made my heart rate increase. Even though it's not used at this moment due to unassigned ambassador for Ireland from the U.S. it gave me goose bump feeling of being there. I got to see and meet some great people, and one of them was Tom Healy who is the chairman of Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board. We took a group picture with him, and when he said that he would post that on his Twitter, I almost died (inside, but not outside – I was trying to look sophisticated and contained). I felt really honored, privileged, and special to meet him and come to such an event! He was appointed to be in this position by the President Obama! Oh, and the President Obama was in this place!!!!!! I took many pictures and maybe I should have tried a bit harder to not look like a tourist, but I just could not not take pictures of this memorable moment to record and brag about it later. Their food, of course, was delicious. I don't think I can thank Dr. Coe enough for letting us have this experience! Thank you Judy!
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Today, we made a trip to not only the Dublin Castle, but also to Chester Beatty Library, which is located right next to the castle. Having been to National Library of Ireland yesterday, I expected this library to be similar where we put our belongings in a locker and can't really get far into the library because we are visitors. It turns out, we had to use the locker, but this wasn't a library! This was more like a museum where exhibition was taking place. Books which people can rent or look at weren't present, but rather, ancient books were displayed for people to only look at. Due to the time constraint and our schedule, we weren’t able to go through all displays with the guided tour, so we ended up focusing on papyrus.
Papyrus is made from the Cyperus papyrus plant that grows in the Nile's water. It grows up to about a meter in water and can grow up to about four to five meters in height. The triangular shape of the stem of this plant makes it possible to withstand high winds. The ancient Egyptians started making paper from the papyrus plant over five thousand years ago, and this became one of Eqypt's major exports. The modern word "paper" originates from the word "papyrus.” Egyptian rulers realizing the importance of Papyrus, made its production a state monopoly, and guarded the secret of Papyrus. When paper was invented by a Chinese official, the production of Papyrus declined rapidly and eventually stopped. Papyrus was lost until 1965 when an Egyptian scientist discovered the old lost secret of Papyrus hand-making. Dr. Hassan Ragab reintroduced the papyrus plant to Egypt from Sudan and started a papyrus plantation near Cairo on Jacob Island. He also researched the method of production. This discovery made Eqyptians able to produce Papyrus again. http://www.egyptian-papyrus.co.uk/ As we make our way to the Dublin Castle by foot, I rediscovered things that I have noticed before, which are pharmacies here. I want to become a pharmacist or so called "chemist," in Ireland, and I am actually starting pharmacy school at University of Iowa starting this August. Therefore, I was interested in how the pharmacy schools and drug stores work here now that I visited Trinity College Dublin. I am from Korea, and Korea and the U.S.A. are different in that in Korea, you apply and go to pharmacy school but you end up getting a bachelor’s degree, versus in the U.S. you take pre-requisite courses and once you get into and start pharmacy school, after four years of education, you get a doctor of pharmacy. Also, in Korea, pharmacies are privately owned and separated in that they are not chains. However, in the U.S. I noticed that most pharmacies are chains, such as Walgreens and Rite Aid.
In Ireland, there are three pharmacy schools, which are in Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, Trinity College Dublin, and University College Cork. All three schools' pharmacy programs have the same system, which is that a student who wishes to become a pharmacist will complete a four-year program in undergraduate. So you would get a bachelor's degree in pharmacy. After that, you will do a practical training with a tutor, then you will have to pass Society's Licence Examination. Also, one thing that's different from the U.S. is the name for each grade. Instead of calling it freshman year, sophomore year, junior year, and senior year, it goes junior freshman year, senior freshman year, junior sophister year, and senior sophister year. As I was researching more about pharmacy school, I found an interesting term used to describe a student, which was a "mature" student. A student is considered a mature student if he or she is over 23 years old. This makes me think that maybe it's uncommon to have older students in Ireland. As a student at University of Colorado Denver, I see and run into lots and lots of older students whose age can go up to 40 or even more who have already started family. I wonder how Irish people think about this matter? https://pharmacy.tcd.ie/info/becomeapharmacist.php Kevie is so scared!! During the big break today, Kevie and I decided to go to National Museum of Ireland, history and archaeology. With its free admission, we enjoyed looking at different kinds of animals living in Ireland and ancient gold. As much as we were shocked by some gigantic animals, we were having so much fun with lots of pictures. We went to the library, which was really nice, but one bad side was that we weren't able to go inside because we were visitors.
Going to places in Dublin made me think that their architectures are very delicate and beautiful, and I can tell that they really put lots of effort on decorations of buildings. Last place we went before we got very late lunch from O'Brian (around 4) was Merrion Square Park. Located on the south-side of the Dublin city centre, it is managed by Dublin City Council. It contains a statue of Oscar Wilde. Ogham is a primitive writing system of slashes and dots that was used to inscribe names on gravesites and standing stones. However, some scholars commented saying that it's inefficient, monotonous, complicated, and too cumbersome for daily use. So when the Roman alphabet was introduced in the fifth century, the Irish used it as the primary way to record their ancient myths and legends. Ogham letters are lines chiseled into stone post. This is how Ogham alphabets are illustrated: An Ogham "B" is a single line chiseled into the stone post to the right of the stone post's edge. Here is a picture that will guide you how it's written.
http://www.irishcultureandcustoms.com/AEmblem/BooKells.html http://www.irish-society.org/home/hedgemaster-archives-2/places-artifacts/the-ogham-alphabet Today, we went to the very famous number one school in Ireland, the Trinity College in Dublin! We were lucky to get a private tour by a student named Marcus. Due to his intelligence, we were able to get into the Chapel with his key (he is one of the Chapel Scholars). With his humors and informative tour, I was able to grasp some histories behind this college. The original name, legal name, of the College is "The Provost, Fellows, Foundation Scholars and the other members of Board, of the College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin." Thus, on all legal documentations relating to the College, this is how the college name is written. The name comes from the Charter of Queen Elizabeth I in 1592 who established the College. Trinity College was founded after the Reformation, in 1592, on the site of the confiscated Priory of All Hallows. For centuries, Trinity was owned by the Protestant Church, and a free education was offered to Catholics, provided that they accepted the Protestant faith.
This college looked not only sophisticated, but also made me wonder how difficult it is to get accepted because everything about the college seemed very traditional and deeply rooted. So I looked into some information on the eligibility to get into Trinity College in Dublin. A student applying from the U.S.A. has to have a minimum score of 1300 on any two of the Critical Reading, Math, and Writing sections and no score less than 500 on SAT, or has to have a minimum composite score of 29 on ACT. A cumulative GPA of 3.3 or better is required and two letters of recommendation, one from a college counselor and one from a faculty member, are required. On the online application, the applicant will write a personal statement limited to 500 words stating why he or she would like to study at Trinity College Dublin. For the year of 2012-2013, a total of 16,646 students were registered. Out of that, about 12,000 are undergraduates. About 14,000 are full-time students and 58% are female. About 15,000 are from Europe, 700 from North/Central America, 500 from Asia, 19 from South America, and etc. I was surprised to see that there were more Asian students present than I expected. As I was touring, I observed the student diversity, but I didn't see many Asians, so seeing this number somewhat surprised me. It was a pleasure to visit this prestigious university in Dublin! https://www.tcd.ie/Secretary/corporate/legal-faq/ http://www.sacred-destinations.com/ireland/dublin-trinity-college http://www.tcd.ie/international/apply/non-eu-undergraduate/entrance-requirements/ http://www.tcd.ie/Communications/Facts/student-numbers.php Ireland reminds me of Korea in a way that you can walk anywhere and the public transportation is very good here in Dublin. Today, after the meeting with Fulbright Commission, we went to Saint Stephen's Green Park and walked around. It was so pretty and due to lots of rain and humidity, everything was so green and trees were gigantic in both width and height! Manny different kinds of birds were present; one of them was a beautiful and majestic swan which stood out, of course.
Wolfe Tone, whose statue was the main one before the entrance of the Saint Stephen's Green Park, is a founding member and leader of the Directory of United Irishmen. He went to Trinity College of Dublin and got his law degree, but later changed his career to politics. He served the Catholic Committee for reformation before founding the United Irishmen. This statue was erected in 1967, and is located at the corner of St. Stephens's Green and Hume Street. This ten foot statue of the Irish Patriot Wolfe Tone (1763-1798) is sculpted by Edward Delaney. It is backed by granite columns. Behind the columns are the statuary to represent the subjugation of Irish people. . http://www.lawlibrary.ie/viewdoc.asp?DocID=59&m= Kevie and I came to Dublin through a long way, compared to how other people came. We started from Denver and got to Toronto, Canada, to London and to Dublin! I have never flown to Canada before. Toronto airport was just pure amazing! Not only it had all the famous brand stores, but also, it provided free usage of Ipads on every table that people can sit on and relax. The flight from Toronto to London was about seven hours and Kevie and I wanted to sit together but no one was willing to sit in the middle. The lady who sat on the left side of me was actually from London and when we talked, it was so cool to hear her accent. The airplane food, as always, was tasty and I finished it all the way. I slept most of the time. In both Canada and London, Kevie and I were beyond excited to get our passports stamped! The layovers in both weren't even bad – we used bathroom, got something to eat, and we boarded the airplane; it was plenty of time to transfer but not too long of a boring waiting time. One funny thing was that the toilet (not bathroom but the actual toilet) was tiny and it doesn't really flush but rather the water just goes down. On top of that, the each stall in bathroom was big so you could put the luggage and your bag in front of you and still have some room left. I was surprised to see the pretty lights when we landed in Toronto – almost like Las Vegas!
Ireland was so green and I could feel the humidity right after I got off the airplane like how I do when I get to the airport in Korea; it kind of reminded me of Washington back in the States, too. Seeing the signs in both English and Irish at Dublin airport was fantastic. A little talk about Irish language: Irish language is one of several Celtic languages, which later died out in most areas. People in Ireland, Scotland, and Wales still speak it, though. However, in Ireland, English is the mother tongue of most Irish people even though Irish is a compulsory subject at school starting at the age of four until the end of secondary school. Major Irish speakers are concentrated in counties of Donegal Mayo, Galway, Kerry, and Cork. It is estimated that about 80,000 people, which is 3% of the population, are native speakers of the Irish. With ups and downs of the usage of the language of Irish, after the Irish Republic gained independence in 1922, Irish was declared the first official language of the Republic. However, the new government still continued to use English as its primary language and the native speakers of Irish continued to fall. Despite this fact, the usage of the Irish language still continues to not give up and still tries to promote and spread it around the world. http://www.lexiophiles.com/english/languages-spoken-in-ireland As we walk around the city of Dublin, I noticed some things that were different from the States. First, their roads are opposite from the U.S. in that your driving handle is on the right side instead of on the left side, which makes you look to your right when crossing the street, and this still confuses me, and Kevie has to remind me every time we cross the street. Along the line, jaywalking seems to be a common act to do. Their bacon is huge, big and more salty. There are lots of Subway stores. Their fashion trend I noticed is that women wear leggings and stockings a lot with running shoes no matter what their outfit is – whether dress, skirt, shorts, or even with a shirt. Even men tend to wear sneakers with suits; I think this can be explained by their walking lifestyle in Dublin. Double Decker is common, which excites me because I love getting on Double Deckers and just the feel of sitting on the second floor of the bus. One of the things that surprised me a lot was the fact that lots of taxis were expensive car brands, such as Mercedes Benz and Volkswagen. I saw only one Hyundai; Toyota was pretty common. Insomnia is an Ireland version of Starbucks because I see it almost every block or every other block – but don't forget there still is Starbucks here, too, but Insomnia is more common. Spar is like the 7 eleven. They say "to let," which means for lease. It was fun to observe the city of Dublin, and I think this helped me grasp a little bit better of Dublin and the people here.
Blog #2
Some cool facts about Dublin! 1) Dublin's O'Connell Bridge that covers the famed River Liffey is known to be the only bridge in the European continent whose width is the same as its length What's now the bridge was built in 1863, which replaced the wooden bridge that was built in 1801. Even though it looks mighty and concrete now, prior to the wooden bridge, O'Connell Bridge at first built with a rope that could only serve on person and a donkey at a time 2) Any of what's called "Dublin Mountains" are not even high enough to be called mountains and meet the criterira required to claim mountain status. The Sugarloaf is the tallest "Dublin Mountain," but it merely measures 423.3 meters above sea level. 3) There are over 1,000 pubs in Dublin to drink in 4) The legal drinking age is 18 5)About 10 million glasses of Guinness are produced daily! 6) Handel’s classic "Messiah" was premiered for the first time in 1742 in Dublin at the New Music Hall in Fishamble Street, with 26 boys and five men from the St Patrick’s and Christchurch choir cathedrals taking part. http://www.nileguide.com/destination/dublin/overview/local-info http://www.irishcentral.com/roots/top-ten-interesting-facts-about-irelands-capital-dublin-city-photos-129668748-237788821.html |