In the weeks preceding my departure from the US to Ireland, I had no idea what to expect. My family is notoriously (and sometimes painfully) keen on preparing for any sort of travelling, especially adventures abroad, but this time it was different: I was travelling alone, and so the onus of preparing myself fell on me and me alone. I packed the highlights of my wardrobe and tried to imagine the unknown adventures on which I would embark, but I never felt truly ready, and that scared me. My father tried to help with the packing but my grandfather’s failing health kept him uncomfortably busy. The night before I left the country, my parents sat down with me and tried to figure out what else I would need in the land of the Irish, and though I felt there was something missing I couldn’t put it into words; I honestly didn’t know what to expect, but I had Karl’s voice ringing in my ears, saying, “It’ll be grand.” Having now been in Ireland for a little less than a month, I can tell how my perception of the city and country has been shaped by my open-ended preparation.
Ireland is a small country by many standards, and though Dublin is not an inherently small place, it certainly doesn’t compare to the metropolis jungles in the US; it’s large enough to have the geographic feel of a city but small enough to explore quite easily. The most remarkable aspect I experienced was how Dublin seemingly refused to instill a me-against-the-city mentality, even when I took a “shortcut” home from Grafton Street, or when I found myself on the wrong side of the River Liffey at 3’o’clock in the morning. That mentality was something I encountered even in my home city of Portland, and because of this, I felt more at home while lost in the streets of Dublin. When I look at it on a map, it seems like a city, but it feels different as I walk through the streets, almost like there is an unspoken, even unconscious, solidarity among the people. (It probably has something to do with the rise and collapse of the Celtic Tiger, but that’s a thought process for another time.)
The city has an air of friendliness to it, something I had heard about during our orientations and couldn’t concretely imagine beyond my experience of growing up in a small town. My lack of concrete preconceptions left me feeling eager for something totally different than what I was used to, almost expecting to arrive in a place completely unlike my home, but the friendliness of the people (and thusly their city) rids it of the stereotypically abrasive nature that cities can embody, and I believe it is this to which I can ascribe the strange sense of belonging that I feel; this city is very accepting, and as our trip leader put it best, “I’m still waiting for Ireland to kick in.” It may very well be that I haven’t encountered all cultural differences within the first week, but the sentiment remains.
In the coming months, I hope to explore more of the city and its culture, as well as branch out of Dublin to other parts of Ireland, and it might just take some time before I recognize strong cultural differences. However, I am excited to see what is in store for the rest of this journey, and I wish to embrace these differences with an open mind and arms to truly immerse myself in this beautiful place. And if I find these differences to be brash or uncomfortably strange, I will try to remember that I am here to experience and explore a place and culture that is different than my own. After all, it’ll be grand.
