Originally Published in Print, April 2022
One of the hardest things about being an international student is the sheer amount of new things to discover, whether in your studies or your social life. Starting at Trinity College Dublin was exciting, but I was slightly apprehensive as well. This was partially due to New York City, a place full of a claustrophobic busyness, setting my standard for cities. One of my first memories is being upset on the New York subway mostly because of the fact that I was on a subway full of people in a city full of people. I myself am not a city-dweller, having grown up in various flavours of suburb, but family ties meant I was in New York often. Since New York was so mind-boggling, I expected all of this to be multiplied in a new place. I was nervous about dealing with the pandemonium of Dublin, a new city, far away from familiarity.
Due to lockdown, it’s safe to say that my expectations were overthrown in my first year. Dublin was a distant place to scurry to when getting books for class or somewhere to roam on the rare meetup with coursemates. The only aspect I became familiar with was the tram – or Luas – that I took to campus. There’s something entertaining about a subway overground. Plus, there were no finicky turnstiles, just a tap at one of the many loading points. The timely purple snake of the city beats the slightly ominous underground subways of New York. Or maybe I’m biased because subways traumatised me when I was younger. Regardless, the Luas made this unexplored city wildly accessible, which I’ve come to appreciate this year as restrictions have lifted and I get to explore Dublin the way it should be.
With this new freedom, I expected to finally experience a chaotic atmosphere. There were a lot of new things to take in, from the cobblestones to the fantastical pedestrian arch of the Ha’penny Bridge on the horizon. The crowds on campus and the constant flow of people in all directions on O’Connell Street are undeniable. Yet, the chaos never came.
Moving around Dublin simply feels better. It’s many things New York is not, and open is one of them. O’Connell Street is the widest street I’ve ever seen that isn’t a motorway and it gives me breathing room as a pedestrian. Plus, there’s something fun about crossing the expanse of the Liffey each morning on the walk to college and seeing the guiding star of the Spire against all the light pollution. On that note, I marvelled at the fact that I could actually look over the roofs of the low buildings from the street and see the sky without putting my head at a ninety degree angle. It really is the little things. New York is a seemingly endless concrete city, whereas Dublin has places of all shapes and sizes and nothing is too colossal.
I do have a bias for the low key. To be fair to New York, the constant closeness and movement in the human hub of activity can be energising. Nothing is more refreshing than stepping out of that hustle and bustle into any number of museums and friend’s apartments. Even stepping out again has its charms, since everyone has moved so much as to make a new landscape while maintaining some familiarity: the same lines of small trees or garbage bins along the grey-brown sidewalk and the same buildings coddling the neighbourhood street.
On Dublin’s flip side, I’ve heard all the jokes about the Liffey and Spire that I praised earlier. People here talk about the buses the same way I talk about the subways. Dublin is a literary hub and New York is the city of dreams and they both have irritating transport and people to complain about it. A city is always full of people who see its virtues and flaws and react accordingly. Dublin wasn’t entirely strange after all.
Without Dublin, I never would have been able to see that there was familiarity and comfort in knowing the flaws of a city. After all, there’s something a little nostalgic about having to weave through a crowd of people on a gum covered sidewalk underneath great skyscrapers like the Empire State Building. And I’ll even admit that I occasionally miss staring at the black wall beyond the window of the subway. Being placed somewhere new as an international student made it all the easier to appreciate New York. Many Irish people have travelled to New York over the centuries. I’m glad I travelled the other way towards the Emerald Isle and have discovered that all Dublin has to offer can be just as brilliant as the Big Apple.
