Dublin!

We arrived in Dubin yesterday and totally attacked the town today. While the other girls went shopping, Taylor and I went on a tour guided by a recent history PhD student from Trinity College. It basically jammed Dr.Babcock's entire class into two hours. I did learn some interesting facts that Dr. Babcock has not yet taught us. Fact 1) The library at Trinity was used to film the library scenes in Harry Potter (yay!) and Star Wars. 2) The number three is believed to have magical powers in Celtic mythology, hence why groups of three are very common on Irish crests. 3) It only took two generations for Irish to go from being the majority language to being the minority language. While on the tour we ran into lots of costumed actors walking around. It turns out that the show The Tudors is filming in Dublin this week. Kelsi went absolutely crazy when she found out and Jenny managed to get the phone number of one of the extras. In addition to the tour, we picked up Kelsi from the stores and went to tour the local churches. I was very excited to see Christ Cathedral, but we couldn't get in because The Tudors was filming there also and no one was allowed in. Grrr. We did make it to St. Patrick's Cathedral. Just in case anyone was wondering, St. Pat's is Anglican and not Catholic like we originally thought. St. Pat's was really pretty. It was interesting how they had the coat of arms of all of St. Pat's soldiers/knights/I forget what the plaque called them in the choir loft area. (One of the pictures above shows the choir loft which is decorated with flags and helmets.) We ended the day by walking through St. Stephen's Green, shopping (window shopping), and meeting up with Antje and the other girls (plus Brooke B. and Megan A. who have joined us recently) for fish and chips. As I am writing this, people are getting all dressed up to go hit the club scene, but I am opting for a night in. A random side note, I am very glad that someone thought it wise to paint on the streets which way one is supposed to look before crossing the road.

I saw this poem at St. Pat's and thought you might like it:

Christ be with me, Christ within me, Christ behind me, Christ before me, Christ beside me, Christ to win me, Christ to comfort and restore me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me, Christ in quiet, Christ in danger, Christ in hearts of all that love me, Christ in mouth of friend and stranger. - The Breast Plate of St. Patrick