Another Day at the IPA

This week I finally started school at the Institute of Public Administration, or IPA for short! It's about a thirty minute walk from the flat in Rathmines, which seems like a long walk by American standards, but is a walk in the park here. Everyone here walks or takes public transportation. Having cars is a huge expense in Ireland due to the outrageous gas prices. Luckily the weather has been absolutely brilliant! I don't know who made up that rumor about Ireland being a cold and rainy country but they are liars! Haha in all seriousness though, the next two weeks are the best time to be in Ireland. It will generally stay around the mid-sixties and sunny. We plan to take advantage of this and travel out to the Cliff of Moher this weekend! Back to the IPA, I'll be taking three classes: Irish Literature, Irish History, and Irish Politics and Culture. So far the lecturers have been grand and fairly interesting. My only complaint is the heat in the classroom is still cranked up even in the beautiful weather so it is a struggle not to fall asleep! For the next two weeks we will be in class almost every day to front-load the curriculum before we start work in the Dail, or Irish Parliament. After that time we will be in class on Monday and Wednesdays in the morning and then our offices at varying times depending on our placement. We are all anxious to find out which TD we will be working with. This should take place next week when the Parliament returns from their summer recess, On our first day of classes we were treated to a three course lunch with unlimited alcohol. It was quite the treat! We were also all shocked to find out that the IPA will be sending us on a free trip to Paris for a week to celebrate finishing our mid-terms! How sick is that?! A few of the girls and I have plans to fly from Paris to Italy for a long weekend after that so once October rolls around I will be quite the world traveler! This whole experience still feels surreal to me. I'm on a roller-coaster that only goes up, to quote John Green's The Fault in Our Stars.

There's not too much else to report at the moment, but as the news rolls in I'll bring it to you!

From Dublin, With Love.