About 50 students from the MHMK have the chance to study for one semester in Dublin, at Griffith College. The first couple of weeks are already over and I believe that all of us are completely arrived here now.
The first impression of Dublin is very positive. The capital of Ireland has about 500.000 citizens from various parts of the world. There are also a lot of Germans. Moreover, Dublin has a lot of sights such as Temple Bar with its pubs and its old buildings. It is a very nice location for trying the famous Irish Guinness. Furthermore, Dublin has many shopping streets, so it will not get boring here. Especially the big O’Connell Street looks very fascinating with its big “Spire” in the middle. It is one of the most famous streets of Ireland.
The Griffith College is located in southern part of Dublin and approximately a 25 minutes walk away from Dublin City Centre. About 6000 Students are studying at Griffith College. It is located on an old military area. But you do not notice that apart from the “Turnstile-Entrance”. After 11 pm you have to enter the college by scanning your hand at a special gate.
The requirements from the college are quite high but we do not have many lectures. Thus, there is enough time that could be spent for assignments or exams. Most of us are writing on the first assignment at the moment. The deadlines for assignments are not only at the end of semester. It is very common to write them during the semester. Consequently, there are much more assignments than in Germany.
Most of us are living in the Griffith Halls of Residence; it is the official student accommodation of Griffith College. Normally, four students are living in one apartment that includes two bedrooms, two bathrooms and one living room with a small kitchen. It was a big surprise that there less kitchen items inclusive. Consequently, most of us received a packet with knifes and stuff like that from Germany during the first two weeks.
It should be mentioned that Dublin is a very expensive city. Therefore, it doesn’t matter where you buy your daily items because it is expensive everywhere. Even Aldi and Lidl are much more expensive than the German shops of them. Especially, Spar and Tesco are not very cheap for the daily shopping tour.
On the other hand you can visit sport events such as football games of the Irish national team for a normal price. Some of us visited the European Qualifiers match against Gibraltar last Saturday. It was a very nice experience to see the big Aviva-Stadium live.
To summarize our first couple of weeks in Dublin it could be said that it was not a false decision to choose this city!
David Hahn