Fulbright Orientation
The Fulbright Commission in Ireland hosted our orientation on 20 October and I finally got to meet the other Fulbrighters here in Ireland! I met up with a couple of Fulbrighters to travel together from Pearse Station in Dublin to Dún Laoghaire (done-leery for my non-Irish speakers), taking the DART (Dublin Area Rapid Transport).
Dubliners always talk about how beautiful Dún Laoghaire is as a seaside resort town, however I saw almost none of it because I was fighting tooth and nail to keep my umbrella from flipping inside out. I assumed that I'd never again experience wind like I did living in "Blowing" Green, however the wind coming off of the Irish Sea is unlike anything I have ever experienced. We stopped into a Starbucks on the way to the hotel and I picked up a hot chocolate, and I could actually taste the difference between American milk and the Irish milk that they used. I was also pleasantly surprised that Starbucks in Ireland offers the American classic pumpkin spice. I was not pleasantly surprised, however, to discover that the wind had blown my hot chocolate all over my face and raincoat. I hadn't even spilled it; the wind was so strong that as it blew across the hole on the top of my cup, it sprayed out.
The view from the Kingstown Room at the Royal Marine Hotel in Dún Laoghaire.
We got to meet the Fulbright Commission that have made it possible for us Fulbrighters to carry out our projects, as well as Fulbright alumni and American and Irish ambassadors and diplomats. The Fulbrighters introduced themselves and it was so interesting to head what everyone was working on. Projects were in refugee integration, hand-knitting practices, Irish folktale illustration, art curation, cancer research, and so many others. Take a look at current American and Irish Fulbrighter bios here: https://www.fulbright.ie/i-am-fulbright-2017/current-awardees/
We then returned to the DART to head for Monkstown, where we walked to dinner at 8A Brasserie.
We had a two-course dinner, and I ordered the autumn vegetable bruschetta and steak.
Our final stop of the night was at the headquarters of Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann at Cultúrlann na hÉireann, and this was the highlight of the night for me. We were led by a teacher through some céilí dances, which are the traditional Irish group dances that are danced to Irish traditional music. There were four trad musicians that played as we danced for about an hour, and I had so much fun laughing and dancing the night away. Surprisingly, it reminded me a lot of line dancing that I did while living in Tennessee. It was so freeing to explore another art form, and I actually felt that I did pretty well. There was only a single step that I didn't understand, but to be fair, not even the choreographer in our Fulbright cohort knew how to do it.
Céilí dancing with a fellow Fulbrighter who is studying dance and choreography in Ennis, Co. Clare.
As we began to close out the night, the teacher who led the céilí dancing suggested checking out the session happening in another room. She also revealed where a famous Irish actor likes to get a quiet pint in the area and had me write down my phone number to pass along fiddle lesson information, and I was struck by how real the place felt. Oftentimes in Dublin, I don't feel as though I'm experiencing "real" Ireland as so many things have been modernized and internationalized. Bryan Adams's "Summer of '69" plays in shops and street performers belt out "Sweet Caroline," and I question why I ever left America at all. But the Cultúrlann na hÉireann in Monkstown seemed like a true bastion of Irish culture in the middle of a large city.
A bit of the session that we attended. Sessions occur daily at the Comhaltas headquarters in Monkstown.
We were the last audience members at the session and the musicians waved at us as we left out the back door to split a taxi back to Dublin proper. I am still in such a state of disbelief that I am here, and I hope that my joy is shown through my photos and videos across my social media platforms. Life is wonderful, I am doing what I love in a place that I am growing to love and feel more fulfilled and purposeful each and every day.
Le grá agus comhaltas,
Bernadette
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