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!