Things International students should know before coming to tcd/and living in Ireland?

Yeah I'd also recommend meteor as a good prepay mobile phone network. Those there's not much difference between it, vodaphone and O2. You'll find a lot of students are on meteor though and intra-network calls/texts are cheaper.

Airport is what? 10-12km outside the city centre? 16A is your best/cheapest bet. But like the others said make sure you have exact change.

Dublin is divided almost perfectly in half by the river liffey. In the city centre you'll tend to notice a bit of a shift of social um... socio-economic-affluence-ness (damn I need a thesaurus) on either side of the river. I guess it would be like eastend and westend london? Of course there are exceptions too: Christchurch area on the southside for example due to a methadone clinic there and Liffey street on the northside which is like a spill-over of templebar.
http://maps.google.co.uk/ has dublin down to a T if not the rest of the country. You can very easily see the imposing status Trinity has on the city centre with that too.

Public transport is good... IF you're not a tourist. It's mostly buses too for the moment. You have to know where you're going and what that place looks like to get off on the right stop. The bus drivers can actually be quite helpful though unlike continental drivers as they can see how it might be difficult. Buses rarely run on time and nobody seems to mind that much. So apart from our neutrality we're nothing like the swiss.

Dublin is a very expensive city, I'd even say moreso than London, especially for alcohol. Luckily you'll be hanging around with broke students. So just do what they do for nights out and drinking and you'll be fine with money. Oh yeah and learn to enjoy bavaria out of the can. You'll need that particular "skill" for the pav (the better and far cheaper of the two college bars).

Ibid wrote:

Right, there is a sizeable little English community in Trinity. They're very welcome and despite what many English people seem to think about the Paddies, are respected and liked. But there is a little bit of a "Team England" thing going on within the College whereby the English lads all gang together and are so altogether English. You'll come to understand this more with time, but basically I'm saying is to mix with us Irish plebs as well and it'll be all good .

I find the English lads the loveliest people. I mean, if we Irish were at college in England, we'd all gang together too.

My best tip is to simply not look scumbags in the eye ever, even for 0.00001 of a second and you should be fine.

He-he!

I smell a rising!

Public school?

Oh right, public school in Britain = private posh school? I thought London2005 was calling us commoners!

I have to say I've never noticed a snotty attitude among any of the English people I've met in TCD.

Yes in England public school = private school!

I had a girl come right out and tell me she was only at Trinity cos she didn't get in anywhere else, and that at least there were plenty of other English people like her (implying posh and rich like her), which I found very rude and ignorant. I expected to have loads of English friends since I grew up there but I haven't anything in common with those types and they just wreck my head. They're not all like that, as you can see ,other people have had different experiences, and I know dead on English people as well. I find a lot of the Irish students rich and snotty as well, especially the ones who went to the private schools and live in D4. Just don't get on with them and that's been my main problem at Trinity.

But back to the topic, if you don't want to end up in an English 'clique', make an effort with the Irish people and don't wait for them to approach you. If you're friendly nobody will care that you're English, like I was saying, I feel that "Irish people are so closed and unfriendly" is an excuse used by people too lazy to make an effort who would rather stick with their 'own kind'.

&#231 wrote: »

and bring peace offerings of potatoes. The natives like that...

It's times like this I wish boards still had rep.

That's hilarious!

There really isnt that much of a divide really - there are just a few saps who think they're better than everyone else etc.

i've only come across them once or twice in my two years there - and its a hell of a relaxed place to be honest

and we are very friendly!!

London2005 wrote:

Whaoh, I sense such a divide between the English/Irish at Trinity. I went to a public (private) school so I want to get away from that. I dont really know many Irish people at all, but whenever I tell people I am going to trinity the first thing they say is how friendly the Irish are.

One of the reasons I picked it over bristol/durham etc was that I thought it would be much more laid back than those unis which would just be a continuation of school, but you guys are making it seem the opposite!

lol.. well one thing I like about trinity is how laid back it is and how it's nothing like school. tbh I personally know two english people at college and they've assimilated themselves from the beginning with irish friends. I've only heard of "team england" from boards. I think as a result of our national history we'd tend to tabloid a story like this even though they'd only constitute the tiniest of tiny minorities within the college.

Note: we generally do not know each other, we're just a talkative bunch and within two days can be well on the "seems like mates" level. don't let it put you off.