Turns out, taking an MBA in Ireland is a bit consuming – both mentally, and temporally.
I’ve been adoring my time in Dublin so far, meeting people and learning new things, and my days have been full of wonder and adventure – full enough that some things had to fall by the wayside. Things like video games, blog posts, and even rock climbing.
They’re necessary sacrifices, though – I’m not unhappy about any of those sacrifices, since I know they’re in the short term as I build the foundation for the next steps of this adventure I call life. Thankfully, I’ve been on a bit of a holiday break recently and have been able to get a bit caught up on all of those fun things that I’ve let slide.
Sit back, dear readers, and prepare yourselves to be regaled by a few tales of my life in Dublin, during the first series of modules for my new degree.
I am now a resident of Dublin 8, specifically an area known as The Liberties.
It’s a beautiful section of the city – close to the central city, an 8min bike ride from Trinity, and a short walk from pretty much everything I could ask for. The view out my window is unequivocally Dublin – The Guinness Brewery rises to one side, St Patrick’s Cathedral to the other, and the John’s Lane Church (Church of St Augustine and St John) soars right in the middle.
It’s beautiful, and I was ecstatic to hear that the community manager for my apartment would be organizing a walking tour of the neighborhood. I signed up immediately.
I knew I was a gentrifier, since towering steel and glass monstrosity, but I didn’t quite realize the scope of the situation until our guide started explaining it all to us. The Liberties is an old part of Dublin, and had historically been a fairly low income area… It’s not a bad, or dangerous, neighborhood by any means, but it’s also not a thriving or wealthy neighborhood.
Our guide walked us through the town – showing us some amazing landmarks, some challenging parts of history, and some very interesting little tidbits about the town.
It all crystallized into a clear picture to me – this was a community, nothing like what I’d left behind in Oregon. As we walked, our guide’s family members popped out their doors or windows to say hi. His Grandma waved from a balcony, and his niece and nephew swept by on their bikes. Friends came out to welcome us, and schoolkids that he’d taught shouted greetings from the other side of the street.
It was vibrant, and lived in, and growing.
I can’t wait to get to know it better.
A few standout things to mention: – We saw the oldest fruit tree in Ireland! A pear tree, over 200 years old. – We walked through a community park, brand new, that the people of the Liberties had been lobbying for for years, and had finally gotten approved. – We had the opportunity to see a small community test garden, used to help bring schoolkids out of the city and into a small oasis of growing things – Our guide is a beekeeper, who runs a series of 50+ hives throughout Dublin, ensuring the pollinator population remains strong
Now that I have a new apartment… what helps turn it into a home?
Well.
A few things happened to help me settle in. I mean, obviously bedsheets and such were the first order of business – this place did come fully furnished, but that didn’t include things like cookware, linens, books or a computer desk… or even a dresser, as interesting as that is.
I started with plants, though. They’re simple, easy, and make an immediate impact on how “homey” a place feels to me – I went to a spot I’d found on my explorations through the city, a store called “Howbert and Mays”, and picked up a few friends to keep me company:
From there, IKEA.
I rented a van for an afternoon, steeled myself to drive on the wrong side of the road, and made the journey North to the nearest IKEA. I picked up what I could, limiting how overwhelmed I got, and was thankfully able to fill in almost all the cracks that had been missing in the furniture department… and, for something like 20% the price of similar furniture when I’d originally moved to Hood River in Oregon.
Now, granted these pieces are IKEA, and not “fancy bespoke Oregon tomfoolery”, but… you know. Still. Pretty proud of that one.
After IKEA… All that was left was to wait for my shipment of things from the States.
I’d already received all the various packages from the Grand Adventure (Seen below), and those had been arranged as a starting point for the decoration of the apartment… but there was quite a bit still incoming. Things like my computer, my bike, and all the photos that I’d had up on the walls in Wilsonville. All had been carefully packed (by a moving company), and would be carefully delivered (again, moving company) in the closing weeks of August.
Of interesting note, though… after unpacking everything, and getting ready to put up all the various interesting things from Oregon…
I stopped.
I didn’t want to put them up. Neither the rocks I’d collected on hikes, nor the photos I’d printed from my adventures, felt right to put up in a place of clear visibility here.
It was an interesting realization: I’m good. I’ve moved on from Oregon, at least for now, and those memories have settled into their well deserved, and dearly earned, rest. I repackaged them, and put them into one of the storage areas of the new apartment. I thanked them for their help, through the years in Wilsonville, and wished them well on their continued slumber… at least until the time when I’m ready to revisit that portion of my life again.
For now, though, I’m happy in my new world. I’m strong in Dublin, and empowered with the memories of my adventure through Europe. I’ll never forget, nor lose, the memories of Oregon… but it’s time to make some new memories on a new continent.
