Kindness Of Strangers

I really thought that Mother Nature would allow me to miss one winter of snow. Little did I know, she sent flurries across the Atlantic Ocean to follow our group of 20 from Champlain College. We were welcomed to Dublin not in it's normal weather of windy rainfall, but a fluffy, picture book like snowfall. If only Mother Nature sent a road crew with plows and salt, too! As part of our orientation to the Champlain College Dublin program, we took a tour of the old city. Locked into this area are years of history the United States has centuries still to create.
Just as the snow followed at our heels, we trekked across ice covered, unsalted cobblestone sidewalks at the heels of a wonderful Irish scholar named Pat Liddy. Between cursing the "slippy" sidewalks and laughing at our attempts to speak Gaelic, he described centuries of Irish history.



Pat being relatively impressed with Katherine's attempt at Gaelic.


Throughout the tour, we stood in the center of City Hall listening to Pat yell to show us the echo ability of the building, admired The Angels Beacons of Hope exhibit in the courtyard of the Dublin Castle, and looked vertically and wide eyed at three of the 200-and-some churches in Dublin alone. However, one particular landmark stood out to me, The Iveagh Market.
A few short steps down Nicholas Street is The Iveagh Market. Edward Guinness (yes, of the Guinness family, younger brother of Arthur) created this market to get street vendors off of the streets and into a market place.



Lord Iveagh's face was sculpted into the side of the market because of his generosity. He was known to be quite the jokester, hence the wink!


As much of the Guinness strived to become lords, this is what helped Edward conquer his goal. Surrounding this market are houses that the Guinness family built to give the less wealthy Irish a place to live. This generosity is not only present in Dublin's history, but in it's current population, as well.
On our first night in Dublin, we walked onto the cobblestone and into a pub to celebrate our arrival as well as a fellow student's birthday. As for myself, if you give me music, I will gladly give you dance moves in return. With drink in hand, and a smile on my face, we were welcomed into the pub and onto the dance floor. On that dance floor we found new friends whom we have seen since.



Dancing with our new friend, Darragh!


We shared dances with these friends to The Beatles, and even got a little funky with Rufus & Chaka Khan's, Tell Me Something Good; We toasted to President Obama and to the thirty inches of snow back in Vermont (which the Irish couldn't imagine). As we left, we smiled with each other and our new friends as the bartender invited us back for more live music and "craic" (it means fun!) on Friday.
My first week in Dublin has brought nothing but wide eyes and a smile to my face. We have already begun to assimilate ourselves into the city. As our group entered Ireland, the majority of us didn't know each other well. It has been six days and I have already found the trust that helps create a family within my fellow students. There is nothing like finding kindness in strangers, and we have already begun to find it within each other as well as rest of this lovely city.