Out of the Classroom (Or, Why I Wish I Cared About More Things That Are Probably Important)

One of the cool things about Champlain Dublin is that most classes take you out on excursions during class time. So far it seems like I'll be out and about at least once a week, but since it's the beginning of the semester the teachers are going overboard with getting us out there.It's really great to be able to incorporate our environment into our education and it's great that the teachers are taking advantage of all of Dublin's opportunities.

However.

The places we go aren't always the most exciting. And I don't always give a crap about the stuff we're seeing.

The other day our science lab went to the Geological Museum at Trinity, but it was really just a single, small room in the Geology department, past some offices at the top of some rickety wooden stairs. The displays looked kind of like science fair material that a kid's parents has helped them on. We wandered around for 45 minutes pretending to look at the rocks and minerals until our teacher asked us for examples of igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic rocks, something I remember learning in fourth grade.

And then there was today. Oy.

The day started at 9:45 when we were supposed to meet our Writing the City teacher so we could go on a tour of Dublin Castle to "inspire our writing." But something got messed up with our times, and this just didn't fly with our teacher, who is a stickler for time. When we have breaks in class she informs us at least 5 times to "be back at 10:45," and the email reminding us about the castle visit gently reminded us, "Don't be late!" So instead of waiting around, we went to the Chester Beatty Library. Chester Beatty was this American guy who did some stuff but his biggest claim to fame was that he liked collecting rare books. So there were two exhibits, one of Muslim illustrations of mythology and one of various ornate religious texts from different cultures. They were cool to look at, but it was hard to make myself read all of the contextual background information, so basically I just wandered around looking at all the pretty pictures. Then we found out that our teacher hadn't even ever been in the library before, nor did she deign to look at it now. Also, no photography was allowed inside. That would become the theme for the day.

Then it still wasn't time for our tour of the castle, so we went to the City Hall building. Except we had already been there. We went into an exquisitely boring exhibit about the history of Dublin as a city and its government. We were told to wander around until out tour guide came in. The walls were stone painted over with pure white, and by the time half an hour was over, I wanted to do anything except stay in there. Finally our old, short, and stout tour guide came in and we found out our tour group included what appeared to be the Dublin chapter of the Red Hat Society. The old ladies fidgeted just as much as we did as our guide stood entirely still and competed with disembodied audio-visual presentation voices. He was explaining that under the building used to be used as torture chambers.

"Now you know what will happen to you if you act up," the Head Old Lady joked.

"What did she say?" asked another old lady.

"Torture chamber!" answered another.

Classic.

Then, after finding out that we didn't have time to visit the rotunda room (good thing, because we had already been there as well) it was finally time to visit Dublin Castle. It was definitely the best part of the day.

Dublin Castle is actually more of a palace now. It used to be a Norman castle made of stone, but there was a fire that destroyed most of the structur. Only one of the original towers still remains.

Anyway, our teacher herded us in to the waiting room for the tour, bought our tickets,

And abandoned us. She had to go somewhere, she said, so she left. I was tempted to leave too. But I decided not to waste a free tour in the castle. I won't bore you with all the history, but it was basically a lot of fancy rooms. But our tour guide was very good, and we even got to see some of the old castle that they found underground. Here are a few pictures, but they came out kind of bad.

Room where the fancy ladies with giant hoop skirts would congregate. Now a reception space.

Throne room. No longer used, and when the Queen of England visits in the summer, she will be the first British monarch to visit in 100 years, and the first to not sit in the throne.

The room where the Irish president is sworn in every 7 years.

Steps from the original castle

Oscar Wilde statue in Merrion Square

After Writing the City, I had another class, and yet again we were going on a tour. I'm in two lit classes and this was a combined literary walk for both classes. First we went to the house where Oscar wilde was born and  Merrion Square, neither of which I cared much about and both of which left me shivering outside. Oscar kind of looked like he was smirking at us and saying, "Why the hell would you want to come stare at a statue of me?" even though I am reading The Picture of Dorian Gray right now, I still couldn't bring myself to care because it was so cold out and I had had a long day. The one cool part was when we went to Trinity yet again (starting to feel like I should have just gone to school there as apparently that's where all the important stuff is) to see the Book of Kells and the old library. The library made me feel like I was in the Hogwarts library so I really enjoyed that part.

For now, I'm kind of done with standing around looking at exhibits and old stuff, although I'm still glad that we get to go see all of these famous Irish sites in class. Even though it may not all thrill me, I'm still so grateful that I get to be here in Dublin!