Irish House Party!!

I don't really know why it is called an Irish House Party, but that is what the hotel calls it. It is more like a show I would say. Oh well, that is besides the point.

The Irish House Party was at Landsdowne Hotel right off Waterloo St. We were supposed to be there at 7:30pm sharp according to the emails. So Ally and I got to the number 10 bus at 7pm to meet up with Miranda and Heather and about 10 other people from our program. We asked the bus driver to please let us know when to get off. There was a lot of traffic and later Dorothy told us that Thursday was the late shopping day in Dublin so many people were out shopping. And even later than that (like on Friday when we were out shopping) we noticed that the Thursday shopping hours on stores were only one hour later, hahaaha! Wow, they stayed open until 8pm instead of 7pm!

So we got to the Waterloo St stop and followed the directions by turning right at the junction and walking 200 meters. Sure enough there it was! We walked in and the desk told us the party was downstairs. Downstairs looked just like a pub! There were people sitting around having drinks in business suits and watching rugby or something. We didn't see anyone we recognized and it was already 7:25pm..... and we were worried we would be late! They told us our room wasn't ready yet and to just take a seat. So we found some huge booths and sat down. A few more people came and then Dorothy arrived. She is the coordinator for all our activities and trips and a really nice older woman who is really funny and tells pretty great stories. She said we would wait around for the others to arrive and our room to get set up. It was about then that we realized the 7:30pm sharp was to make us get here asap and nothing was really going to start until at least 8pm. So people started getting drinks and taking off their jackets, etc.

Nuala arrived and all the boys were daring each other to buy her a drink. They all secretly wanted to but nobody wanted to be "that guy" who asked our study abroad lady, but if she would have said yes then all the other guys would most definitely be jealous of him. Anyway, nobody asked to buy her a drink, hahaha! By this time everyone was there and it was getting crowded in our little area. Luckily the room was ready and we went inside.

We picked a table that was close to the front but later realized there was a pole kind of in our way for some of the stuff, oh well. We sat with some girls from Colorado and students from Boston University who lived all over, including the Chicago area. We got two free drinks from the school so I took this opportunity to have my first full pint of Guinness! It took me forever to finish it and I was literally choking it down at the end, but I finished! In the time it took me to do that Heather and Miranda had 2 pints of Guinness, and Ally had a pint of Guinness and a pint of Bulmers. For the second round I got a diet coke. Everyone else got another pint of Guinness but I would have rather died than drink another right away.

The funniest thing was that this party was about 50 college students from the US, their two coordinators, and a table off to the side of 4 cute old women from Maine. hahahahaha!!! They were so funny the entire night.

The show was really great. They played their traditional instruments for us and told us some history behind the music and instruments.There were 3 men playing instruments and a girl who danced. She showed us some Irish jigs and other dances. We even had volunteers get up and learn some dances.... I definitely was not one of those volunteers. The funniest part was during one song when they had to spin around a lot they said more people should come dance..... so Dorothy and Nuala got up and did it! Then more people got up, still not me. One of the boys asked the women from Maine to dance and they just giggled a lot and I am pretty sure said no!

They passed out song sheets and we learned some Irish songs.... one was even in gaelic! They asked for some talent from the audience and one kid knew the Irish lullaby and he was a really good singer. We were all very impressed, including the band. Another kid played the guitar and sang Galway Girl from p.s. I love you. We were all very impressed by that too.

When it was over it was raining, obviously, because it is Dublin. We were all going to go to a nearby put but we walked FOREVER in the rain. Finally the two boys in front told us they didn't know where they were going, perfect! So Pat took the lead and he brought us to a pub that is probably half way back to campus! We were walking so long and my feet were so wet, ewww. Miranda went in and got a drink and wanted to hang out but Ally, Heather, and I did not. We were super hungry so we went next door and got food, I just had some chips (fries) and they asked if I wanted vinegar on them.... no thanks. After we ate Miranda still didn't want to leave so we just grabbed a cab and came back to campus. It was definitely a good night.

Week

There isn't much to say about the rest of my week. Some highlights included....

• going to the poster sale and getting two posters to spice up my room a little.
• buying some tacks so I can actually use the huge board in my room.
• installing Quinn's printers on my computer and setting up my account so I can print stuff.
• my roommate Andrea making me a Spanish Omlette for dinner! It was sooooo delicious and she promised to make me one once a week =)
• walking to Centra to get ice cream bars in our pajamas and running into some friends who asked if we were on our way to the student pub.
• buying books from the crazy bookshop that texts you when your books arrive.
• booking London and the first half of Spring Break.
• Cecilia making me a list of French words that I have to practice.
• I picked my roommates for my International Marketing group instead of the American kids I knew (they literally begged me and I felt bad). I should definitely get bonus points for this because I am the only English speaker in the group. Then an Asian girl randomly joined us too which doesn't help because she doesn't speak English well either!

And that pretty much takes care of the week up to Thursday's Irish House Party!!

Saturday Night

When I got back to my apartment it was time to get ready to go out with my roommates. Cecilia, Elodie and their friend, Natasha and her friend (who does not speak English, and I didn’t find this out until AFTER I talked to her all night and thought she just couldn’t hear me because the music was too loud! I felt so dumb!), and Cecilia’s 3 German friends were all going. I invited Jackie so I wouldn’t be the only English speaker and I had a buddy.

When I was ready to go I went out to the living room and it was quite the scene. Andrea and 2 of her Spanish friends were drinking some beers on one of our couches while all the French girls were drinking wine on the other couch. So obviously I said hello and made them all talk to me in English. They were so happy when Jackie came down so they could go back to talking amongst themselves. Andrea and her friends weren’t coming out with us because they were getting up early to go on a day trip.

We headed out to the bus and it was raining, of course. We tried to go to Temple Bar but it was absolutely packed. We had to leave because we couldn’t even find a place to stand! We made our way to Porterhouse and it was really fun. We went up to the fourth floor and I had a Bulmers Irish cider that was actually pretty good. We hung out there until we finished our drinks and then headed out for some dancing. We ended up at the Purty Kitchen again and they were charging 10 Euro cover. Jackie and I were like “no way!” so I told my roommates we weren’t coming in. On our way out security asked us why we were leaving. We said we didn’t want to pay 10 Euro so he was like, “well how about 5 Euro?” We said ok and he walked us to the front and flashed the lady with a 5 and then she looked at us and said “ok so that will be 5 Euro” hahahaha!

We went to the third floor disco room and danced for hours. I knew pretty much all the songs they were playing so I was singing along. All my roommates were so impressed when I knew all the words. They told me it was too fast for them to understand all the words they were singing. At around 3am we got a few taxis and came back. I was exhausted! Good thing I had no plans for Sunday.

Saturday

On Saturday Jackie, Miranda, Heather, Kate and I took the DART (train) to a small town called Dalkey. It was about a 20min train ride. When we got there we went to Goat Castle and asked about their tours. We decided to come back to it later. We wanted to walk down to the water so we just started wandering around. It turned out to be a really cute town and the houses were so quaint. The first time we saw water was in the yard of the prettiest school I have ever seen. So we obviously took pictures of the school and water. From there we saw Dalkey Island and the place all the other tourists were at, haha. So we walked towards that spot and on the way we passed some really huge, beautiful houses that overlooked the water. One of the prettiest ones, it looked like a castle, was the Moroccan Embassy. That was pretty cool.
The lookout point was basically just that, a point that was close to the island that people took pictures at. Dalkey Island has stone ruins that go back to the Napoleonic Era and a herd of goats live there. When it is nice out people can usually talk local fishermen into taking them to the Island. We might go back to try it, haha.

We walked back to Goat Castle and took the tour. It was really funny because the tour guides were actors that dressed for the period and played the roles they would have in the castle. They were so into it that it made us enjoy it. The end of the tour was in a church and graveyard. I found a gravestone that dated back to 1790, the older looking ones were hard to read and I couldn’t make out the dates.

After the tour it was time for food! We went next door to the castle to Queens Bar and had dinner. It was so delicious. It was getting cold out so I got a hot chocolate. I wanted to try something more Irish than the lasagna I had last time we went out to eat so I got the Traditional Shepherd’s Pie. It was soooooo good!

After dinner we got back on the DART and headed back to campus.

Trips!

I just got finished booking the first of my trips and I am really excited!!

Feb19-22: LONDON!!

First part of Spring Break:
Mar 5-9: AMSTERDAM
Mar 9-11: VIENNA
Mar 11-13: MUNICH

Back to Dublin for all the St. Patrick's Day Celebrations!!

Fact:

When the Irish tell you that something is on the first floor, they really mean the second floor.

An example: room 113 would be on the second floor, room 213 the third floor and 013 would be on the first/ground floor.

Another example: when they clearly tell you to pick up your textbooks on the first floor and you walk in and ask at the counter they will definitely tell you to go up the stairs to the reserves desk.

Confusing? Yes.
Will I mix this up again? Probably.

Friday

No classes! I had a list of a bunch of things to accomplish and I totally struck out! Jackie, Miranda, Heather, Kate and I were on a mission for books. The used bookshop was closed, of course. We stopped in the regular bookstore and it was about the size of a closet! Instead of having the courses next to the books they just had the books on a table with signs like ‘marketing’ or ‘accountancy’ and you had to search for the exact name of your book. It was such a pain, especially because I couldn’t find any of my books! I asked the guy at the register and he looked up the one book I needed for sure…… it was on order because they didn’t know the professor was going to use it. He took my name and phone number and told me I would get a text when my book was in and I could pick it up at the reserve desk, haha! The other books I am sharing with Ally so I was going to wait for her to come with me so we could get them. Then I wanted a bus pass…. we couldn’t find any so I will have to go to the Dublin Bus office next time I go to town. Then we wanted to check out the UCD apparel…. not a good selection.

Finally I had some success…. Heather and I took the bus to Stillorgan and hit up the Tesco for some groceries. I needed food badly! I don't know if I will ever get used to these grocery stores though, they are something else.

Later Jackie and Heather came by and we watched some Friends DVDs and read our Ireland travel books, hahaha! We are sooooo cool!

Thursday

Not much to say about Thursday. My International Marketing class was at 9am, I did not enjoy waking up early for the first time since I arrived. My professor has quite the sense of humor though. He wrote the book and told us to all buy it because he wanted a new car, haha! I found out later that my roommate Andrea (from Spain) is in that class too but she decided to skip all her classes this week. She said she wanted to be in my group and I said ‘yeah right!’ but she assured me she works hard and will try to make it next time. We will see.

After class I came back to my room and Ally imed me that she was feeling super sick. I called Nuala to see where the closest doctor was. She said we could go to the student center and they had a doctor and nurse that was free for students. Since Ally could barely get out of bed and the student center was across campus we waited a little while for the advil to kick in and her fever to get better. When we got there it was closed for lunch! Instead of like rotating shifts and lunch breaks everyone here just closes for lunch, it is proving to be very annoying. The center wouldn’t open up for another hour and a half and we knew Ally couldn’t do all the walking to come back and she didn’t feel up to sitting and waiting so we went to the pharmacy in the student center. She got some flu meds and we walked back.
She didn’t get out of bed for the next 3 days… poor Ally =(

Wed

I will start by saying that I am sooooooo glad my schedule got changed and I had a break on Wednesday. I don’t know how I would have survived without one!

My first class on Wed is 11am and exactly the time of our bi-weekly study abroad meetings. Luckily there are about 5 of us in that class so we all have to miss it and I know people who go and can fill me it. I sat by Pat, who I met in the halls of Quinn on Monday. I’m glad I know someone because I hate sitting alone in lectures. Afterwards I met Ally at Quinn and we went to the bank so she could open her account. They didn’t accept her letter from Nuala because her names weren’t matching the order on her passport (the comma was in the wrong place). So we went back to Nuala’s office and she wasn’t there, so we went to lunch at the student restaurant. The food was good but it was kind of expensive, what else is new, haha. Nuala still wasn’t back by the time we were done so we came back to Roebuck. I had about an hour to kill so I tried to watch Gossip Girl online and it was not working. I got some clips from youtube though. It is so annoying that I can’t just watch it from the US sites.

My class from 3-6pm was ‘The European Union and the Business Environment’ and wow was it boring. I tried to pay attention but 3 hours is such a long time. He gave us a few breaks but he just talked and talked and wasn’t making any sense, ahhhh! He also assigned 5 textbooks and told us to just pick one….. who does that?!? It didn’t help my concentration knowing that Heather and Ally were across the hall in the study area looking up flights for Spring Break trips! So this man talked until AFTER his time was up, as if he didn’t have long enough already, ugh.

Luckily my next classroom was next door, haha! From 6-9pm the US study abroad kids have Irish History. You can only imagine how well behaved we were… with all our friends sitting by us, computers in front of us, learning the history of a country that we will only be in for 4 months…. yeah. We had 67 slides to go through after she did the introduction and passed out our groups for a presentation but we still go out by 8pm. I was starving!

This was the first time I actually used our full kitchen. I made pasta. It was yummy. While I was cooking I finally met my Irish roomie! I told her I didn’t think she really existed and she said she was thinking the same thing. Her name is Feona and she is a freshman in engineering.

Tuesday

Tuesday I only had one class from 12-2. It was my information systems class. We started getting into groups and so far my group consists of only two other people so we will probably have to join another group next class. We had to go around the room and talk about our homework exercise. Everyone had such good answers but I was lost so when it was my turn I just told him that I had never had a class about info systems before. He told me I could have just said I agreed with what everyone else had already said, haha. Then he told me that it was a big day in America and I shouldn’t even be in class. I am only one of two people from the US in that class.

UCD held a reception for the US students during the inauguration so we could all watch it. The party started at 4:30pm and it was at the Student Center. They had red, white, and blue balloons all over and an American Flag hung up and a giant screen with the live news from Washington. We had to check in (they had a list of the students who were invited) and they gave us drink vouchers. Soda and water was unlimited and we each got two (Budweiser) beers. It was so funny! I made sure to take some extra waters and diet cokes on my way out.

All the people from Quinn that we had met at our orientation were there along with various other faculty and the local news. Apparently we were on the 9pm news here! They tried to interview me but I kindly said no, I had no idea what to say! They brought out food for us too. Little sandwiches, chicken tenders, spring rolls, onion rings, it was quite the assortment. I was happy they put that together because otherwise I probably wouldn’t have found a tv or place to watch it.

My Address

Just in case anyone wants to send me something nice.... =)

Jen Schreiber
Roebuck Hall House 1, Apartment 3, Room 3
University College Dublin
Belfield
Dublin 4
Ireland

Happy 15th Birthday Kelsey!!

First day of class

They don't celebrate MLK Jr. Day in Ireland, imagine that! So classes started on Monday. I only had an hour of International Monetary Economics and an hour of Management of Information Systems with and hour break in between. No big deal unless you think there is only one theater in the building and some nice kid outside tells you that there is a letter after it on your schedule and there are “quite a few” theaters. AHHHH! I had to take out my laptop and quickly pull up my schedule only to find that I was standing in front of theater L and needed to find theater Q, awesome. I went back to the entrance of the building and a nice man told me he would show me the way. I had been in the completely opposite side of the building. The lecture hall was pretty big but only about 60 kids were in the class. The professor seems to know a lot about monetary econ because he worked at the Federal Reserve Bank in DC for 8 years and also the National Irish Bank for 5 years. I recognized a few kids from the study abroad program in class and will probably sit by them tomorrow.

During my break I walked over to the Quinn Building to wait for my next class. I passed the time by updating my blog, you are welcome!

I don’t know a thing about IT systems and thought my next class was like an introductory type thing, wrong! The professor handed out a sheet with a case study of a fictitious company from, of all places, Peoria, IL…. no joke! He told us to answer the questions and we would review it the next day. I read the sheet and had NO clue what to do!! There were only about 20 students and 10% of our grade is participation so I was sure he would make us all talk about it. I googled it when I got back to my room, haha!

Later on Ally informed me there was a party in her apartment and to eat and come over. I had a good conversation with my 3 French roommates and one of their friends over dinner. We talked about American movies in France and horrible dub overs. They wanted to see my movies because they always come out sooner in the States. Apparently we have the same taste because they liked most of them. I told them they could watch one but they said it wouldn’t work on their computers so they would wait until I could watch it with them.

Across the hall was crazy, I think all of Ally’s roommates had friends over and everyone was just running around. Most of them were heading out to the pub already so it got quiet pretty quickly. We had some wine and waited for Heather to come over. Once Heather arrived we played some drinking games with the wine. Heather and Ally each had about a bottle; I had a glass, haha! We headed over to the student pub and there was a line, but it was nothing like a joe’s or brothers line. Miranda and Kate met us in line and we met up with all of Ally’s roommates inside.

It was crazy inside. We were packed in so tight and had to squeeze through everyone to find people. There was music playing when we got there but then a band started playing and everyone was really into it. Mosh pits were forming all around us! There was a kid with a Cubs shirt on and Heather made fun of him because she is a Sox fan. I just thought it was funny we were having this argument in Dublin. The night was pretty uneventful. Eventually I walked back with Rachel and Amy and crashed for day 2 of classes.

Phone Number

My Irish phone number is 086 872 2687 and the country code is 35.
I can receive texts for free and send them for 25cents!

Bus Tour

On Sunday we had a bus tour scheduled with our study abroad group. It was the hop-on hop-off bus tour of Dublin and we could do whatever we wanted but if we met Dorothy (the lady from Quinn who is in charge of our activities) at 1pm she would buy us our tickets. Ally and I wanted to go to the city earlier to eat lunch so we planned on leaving around 11:30am. As it got closer to 11:30 Heather woke up and said she wanted to go with us also and asked if we would wait like 10mins. During those 10mins Miranda woke up and wanted to go with us too. So we finally left Roebuck more like 12 but when we got to the bus (like 5mins later) Heather and Miranda still weren’t there! A bus going to the city centre came and we were starving so we went on it, haha. By the time we got there Heather and Miranda were on their way so we waited for them inside a McDonalds right at the bus stop. It was raining so we didn’t want to wait outside. Once they got there we didn’t have much time at all so we just at McDonalds… it was expensive! They only give you 1 or 2 packets of ketchup, no refills on sodas, and people take your trash for you.

The bus tour was nice. It was a good way to see the city and stay dry, haha. We only wanted to get off at a few stops because some of the destinations we were going to do another day (like the Dublin Zoo and Guinness Factory). We went on a tour of Dublin Castle (first picture) and walked through some of the National Museum. We tried to go to St. Patrick’s Cathedral (second picture) but it was Sunday and closed for services, so we will have to go back to that too.

We looked through a gift shop at all the crazy Irish things. I was going to get some postcards but they were really dumb, so I am still looking. Then Miranda and Heather left to go back to campus and Ally and I went on a hunt to find a good place for dinner before we went to see Bride Wars, haha! We looked for a reasonable amount of time considering it was raining and kinda chilly until we realized that we would never be able to find a cheap meal in Dublin. We found nothing cheaper than about 10 euro for a meal and the stuff we actually like was more. So we went to Burger King, haha! But it was still almost 7 Euro for a value meal, ugh. They didn’t have chicken nuggets so I got chicken bites! They are basically the same thing but smaller and you get more of them. They were out of Diet Coke, I was so upset! So I got a Sprite…

After we were done eating we had a lot of time to kill but since it was raining we decided to just sit in Burger King. We people watched and saw a lot of umbrellas break from the wind and watched the street cleaners go by, so entertaining! Jackie was meeting us at the movie but she didn’t get there until we were already sitting down in the theater. After the movie we took the bus home and I put on my pajamas and did nothing the rest of the night! They do not celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. day in Ireland so I had to get a good night sleep for the first day of classes!

Random Stuff

When I got my schedule I thought it was great! No class on Thursday or Friday! Only 2 hours of class on Monday and Tuesday were good too…. Then I saw Wednesday. I had class from 11am to 9pm with NO breaks!! Ahhhhhhhh!! We had been told several times and it is in our packet that we cannot make any changes to our schedules, ugh, and I had already seen signs everywhere that you can’t eat in class…. so obviously I was thinking about when I was going to eat lunch AND dinner. Also, the US study abroad students have a bi-weekly meeting on Wednesdays that I was going to miss because I had class. So I went to see Nuala this morning and she told me the meetings were very informal and nothing to worry about missing. She said she would send out emails to those who had to miss and I could just stop by and see her if I needed more details. I was like ok that is fine but I will still be in class for 10 hours. I asked if there was a chance they would get out early so I would have a break and she said my Irish History one would….. that class is from 6-9pm so basically I would still be in class for 9 hours, haha! She said she would talk to the lady who makes our schedules and get back to me.

So I was just checking to see which classroom I am in for my next class and my schedule is changed!! Yay!! I have class on Thursday morning from 9-12 which relieves my Wednesday a lot. Phew, crisis averted!

Also, at our orientation meeting there was a funny miscommunication. We had to register our laptops and they printed out a sheet with a time for everyone to go in. some of the times were conflicting with our tour so the lady nicely told us that we could just call in anytime. She mentioned just calling in if we had any problems, etc. Finally a girl raised her hand and asked what the phone number was so we could call and the lady said “no, no, there is no need to phone you can just call in anytime.” After that Nuala said we could call in to her office any time. And the lady after her said we could make appointments with her or just call in anytime the door was open…. So then we started giggling a little because after all that they were talking about walking in, dropping in, stopping in, etc. hahaha!! I think they got the hint that we didn’t understand because when I was talking to Nuala today about my schedule she told me to drop in anytime, haha!

It is very easy for me to tell who isn’t from around here because we walk on the wrong side of the sidewalk. I walk on the right side, just like I would drive but everyone else walks on the left side… just like they drive! Oh man

Rainy Day

The second day in Dublin was gross. I woke up at 11am and it was windy and raining. After being so productive the day before I didn’t feel guilty at all just lying in bed for hours and hours! Another roommate, Natasha, moved in and she is also from France! She speaks much better English than Cecilia and Elodie so they were very excited to have someone who could help them out. She lived here last semester and told us that our other two roommates had lived with her. Natasha went out to do some shopping and Elodie and Cecilia went to the city so I was here alone. I didn’t mind though because I talked online, did some of my blog, and archived all my emails!

I was going to go to the store to pick up some things but decided I didn’t need anything that badly. Ally and I decided to go to a movie so we found times and buses and everything but we wanted to eat first. We walked to the Centra which is in the residence hall closest to ours to get some dinner. During our short walk we froze, got wet, and almost got blown over. No way were we going to walk to the bus stop! I got a pizza from Centra and it was surprisingly good! I ate it at Ally’s then went back to my room. Jackie came downstairs to visit for awhile and my fourth roommate, Andrea from Spain, moved back. She seemed to be in a hurry though so I haven’t had a chance to talk to her. All I know is she was here last semester and is in Business like me. After meeting her I watched a movie on my computer and fell asleep.

Not a very exciting day but it felt so good to do nothing!

Night 1

We ended up having a group of 9 girls the first night. We took the bus to the Temple Bar area and had dinner at Fitzsimons. It was definitely a cool place with 5 floors of nightclub, pub, restaurant, and a rooftop terrace. We got a huge table in our own room that had a tv tuned to a rugby match. We took this time to discuss how little we knew about rugby and decided to try to catch a game while we are here. Some of the girls started out with a Guinness, I had water, haha. I was really hungry for a real meal since I hadn’t had one since I left Chicago. The first thing that caught my eye was lasagna. Now I know that it is probably a crime to eat lasagna in an Irish pub but whatever, I was hungry…. and it was actually good! Most of the table got the Irish stew with lamb, potatoes, carrots, etc. I tried both the stew and the Guinness so my pub experience was not a complete wreck.

After dinner we headed out on the street and just started walking. I don’t exactly know what we were looking for but finally a guy handing out flyers convinced us to go to “The Purty Kitchen” because we could get 2 for 1 cocktails. When we got there a band was playing and we ordered our drinks. This was my first Guinness experience. I was too afraid to get the full pint so I went for the ½ pint, or as I called it, the baby pint. It is a good thing I got the small one because I could not have choked down a whole pint. It is definitely something that will take time to grow on me.

We sort of split up a little because a group of 9 girls awkwardly standing in the middle of the pub was too much for us to handle. Once the nightclub opened upstairs we went to check that out and it wasn’t too long before the 3rd floor opened up with a different DJ. He played pretty good songs and even had some that we requested! At first we were the only people up there but it filled up quickly. The crowd at this club was definitely interesting and we began wondering if it was a gay bar! As the dancing continued the creepers started to come up to us. Ally seemed to attract the most and I even had to tell an Italian guy that no, she would not dance with him because she sprained her ankle yesterday, haha! I don’t think he believed us but at least he left.

I was tired and it started getting late and sweaty so Jackie, Ally and I took a cab back to Roebuck. Overall it was a fun night! I don’t think we will be frequenting The Purty Kitchen but I plan to check out some other places soon!

Day 1

After waking up at 8am, I tried out my shower and new hair dryer. I went to the kitchen for breakfast and Cecilia had gotten up early and set the table for us but didn’t know what I would want to eat, so cute! We chatted about what we expected from the orientation over my bowl of cereal and her breakfast. Elodie and Cecilia made sure to tell me that they were counting on me to explain things to them later if people started speaking too fast at the orientation. Our orientation started at 10am in the Quinn building. It is a very nice building with lots of windows and open areas. Once we got there though we saw that the US Study Abroad students were in a different room from everyone else, ahhh! So I said good luck to my roomies and went into my room. It was very interesting how it was set up. It was stadium seating and the seats were connected to the desks behind them so if you were sitting in the middle the only way to get out was to have everyone on one side get up and out of the row!

We were introduced to 6 or 7 different people from the University and each gave us their little speech. We got a crash course in computer setup, campus safety, schedules, etc. My favorite was Dorothy because she is in charge of our trips! We got a list of events she would be taking us to, starting with the Hop-on, Hop-off bus tour of Dublin tomorrow! I also finally met Nuala, the lady I have been emailing for months with silly questions. I apologized for all the emails but told her I was very impressed with how prompt she was!

After the orientation they had some sandwiches for us. I ate it because it was free but it has cole slaw on it, yuck. The water and Cadbury milk chocolate bar was good though! Then we had a campus walkabout (tour, haha!). After that I had quite a list of things to do from the orientation so we got to work on the list. I got my student ID card, had my computer wired for the Quinn network, bought a cable to connect my computer, and got money from the ATM (didn’t have time to open my bank account yet). Along the way I met a bunch of other students and they were all very nice, I am sure I will see them around.

Then it was phone time! Miranda, Ally, Jackie, and I took the bus to Blackrock and got new plans. The first store we went to had a jerky guy so we left and went to a place around the corner. That guy was very nice so we decided to buy our things there. I got a new pay as you go phone and topped it off with 20 Euro. As long as I top off 20 Euro each month I get free texting to Irish numbers, which is really nice. While we were waiting for the bus to come back to campus Ally and I got fries at McDonalds. We couldn’t resist!

Once back on campus we got changed and headed out to the City Centre for dinner and our first night out on the town!

Arrival

Well today is a gross day in Dublin. Good thing I have nothing on the agenda.

It is windy and raining and the fire alarm for my building just went off. Luckily there still aren’t very many people here so we all fit in the entryway, haha!

Ok so I will start with arriving in Dublin. Our flight got in at 7:50am local time and it was still very dark and cloudy. We had to walk down the stairs of the plane because we didn’t have an arrival gate. The flight crew told us it was chilly so if we had a jacket to put it on…. We walked out and it was sooooo nice! It was about 45F and a great change from the Chicago weather we had just left! Customs was fine, they stamped my passport for a month so I have to go to the Guard and register and get a resident card sometime this month.

All of our bags arrived and the carts at the airport are free here, phew! The bus took us to campus. We got off with one other girl, Jackie from Vancouver, but she had no bags! Apparently hers were lost so she just had her backpack. This was bad for her, good for Ally who had only rolling bags and no way to stack them. So she helped us pull some stuff and we asked the front gate how to get to our dorms….. they were all the way on the other side of campus! With no bus or taxi in sight we started our trek across cobblestone, pavement, and parking lots, thru buildings, up and down steps and hills and finally made it! We were sweating and I had taken off 3 of my 5 layers! Jackie, Ally and I are in the same building and it is nice to know someone.

Then I met my roommates! I have 5 roommates total but only 2 were moved in at that point. Cecilia and Elodie are from France and they know each other from school. They speak English but I have to slow down for them, use my hands a lot, and explain some words in more detail… so far I have taught them “can opener” and “sleeping bag” haha! They got here a day before I did and are very nice. I also met Ally’s roommates Rachel from Philadelphia and Amy from Australia.

My room is nice. I have a big desk, bed, storage space, and my suitcases fit nicely under my bed. Once it is unpacked and cleaner I will take pictures. My overhead light doesn’t work though, so I have to go buy a lightbulb. My bathroom is hilarious. It is literally a shower! I have a sink, toilet, and the shower head is on the wall! I just pull the curtain around and it turns into a shower. The water pressure is surprisingly good except the showerhead is dumb and the water comes out of it so that if I am standing directly under it none of the water would hit my head and be in circle hitting my shoulders. Hahaha!! I tried to turn it to see if it would narrow a little but the whole head came off! Then the water was just pouring out like a faucet, ugh. So I screwed it back on.

The living area is nice and already has all the dishes and silverware and pans along with a microwave, toaster, and of all things a George foreman grill, hahaha!!

In the interest of not falling asleep the group decided to keep busy. We dropped off our stuff, got a sandwich at the little store on campus, and went to the IT building to get our computers wired to their internet. After that we went shopping.

We took a bus to Stillorgan shopping center which is ‘just up the way’ from here. They had a Tesco there which is where we were told to go for cheap things. I needed a lot of stuff but didn’t want to carry it all back through campus so I only got the necessities and we will go back soon. The grocery store was interesting… I will have to get used to it. Everything is so expensive! And we realized that nothing is free either…. We had to buy reusable bags for our groceries or use plastics bags that they charge you for too! I also bought a hair dryer because I didn’t want to bring one and blow it out when I used it here.

By the time we got back from shopping I was beat. I put away my stuff and chatted with the roomies for a little while before going to my room and unpacking. I went to bed at 8pm and after being awake for over 30 hours it is no surprise to me that I slept a solid 12 hours and woke up at 8am the next morning!

Plane

I am writing this from the plane and don’t know when I will have Internet to actually post it but figured that I would get started on this blog thing while I had time to kill. I am currently listening to the new Britney cd for the first time all the way through (Lanuti: I will get back to you on how I like it!). The plane is very empty. The seats are 2, 4, 2 and I have a set of two to myself! I guess I will back track a little to catch everyone up.

I am going to be in Ireland from now until May 18th. I am studying at the University College of Dublin (UCD) at their Quinn School of Business. I won’t know my schedule until I arrive (I am sure I will post it) but I signed up for management type classes and the required Irish Culture and History course which I am kind of looking forward to. I am traveling with 3 other girls from U of I, Alison, Heather, and Miranda, and we are all on this flight. Already at the check-in counter at O’Hare I met another girl from Boston University who is also studying at Quinn!

Packing was difficult. I have no idea what I will need so I brought a little bit of everything. But apparently Europeans in general tend to dress up more for things so I only brought 5 tshirts (everyone can be shocked now!). I will let you know how this works out, haha! I only brought travel sizes of shampoos, toothpaste, etc so I will have to try out some Irish products. Hopefully I don’t end up liking them better! Then I would have to stock up before I come back!

My carry on ended up weighing too much so they made me check it (for free, but still annoying). I have never had any airline weigh my carry-on luggage and clearly it was not necessary since this flight is not full. I put some of my heaviest stuff in there though, hoping to squeeze a few extra pounds into this trip… haha! I guess it worked but I was hoping to have my granola bars, towel, fitted sheet, and 4 pairs of jeans with me in the cabin!

Once we arrived at the gate, Ally and I went to get some water and magazines. The lady was really funny and told us that we should combine our purchases because she had a buy 3 get one free deal on magazines…. so we did and I will now be completely up to date on all celebrity gossip thanks to People, In Touch, Us Weekly, and In Style!

The in flight meal was decent. Chicken with rice and vegetables, salad, roll, cheesecake, cup of water. I ate most of it mainly because I don’t really know what the next meal I will be eating is, except for those granola bars in my checked luggage!

The movies we can choose from are pretty lame and I haven’t even heard of half of them. I decided to watch the one episode of Friends that they have while I ate. My iPod wouldn’t turn on…. not a good sign. I hope I just need to plug it in and it will be fine. I think we are going shopping once we get our rooms because none of us brought hangers, strengtheners, hair dryers, or school supplies and we all need some other miscellaneous stuff.

According to the flight info tab on my screen we flew up over Michigan and Canada and are just about to start crossing over the Atlantic Ocean. They have dimmed the lights for us to ‘settle down’ I should really try to sleep but I don’t know how well this will work. I will type more later!