Day 2:
After a wonderful night of sleep I woke up and mozied down stairs to
begin my day. We went to an Italian restaurant where I had a Hawaiian pizza
and I shopped with my cousin and her mother. We saw downtown Dublin,
Trinity college, and went into many beautiful shops along the way. My major
purchase of the day was a tin whistle from an Irish souvenir shop.
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| Literally, Best Day Ever |
I have been to Ireland and Dublin before on a family trip at the end of
grade school. The whole time since,
I think back to the few things I remember
and was excited to revisit some of these places while walking around downtown
Dublin. The funny thing is, I remember everything wrong. A bit sad
I suppose, however it was interesting reconciling my severely inaccurate memories
with the actual locations and seeing them again at an age where I will remember
them more vividly in the future.
When I tried to sleep that night, the jet lag set in big time. I stared at the
ceiling until two in the morning when I finally started playing 2048 on my phone.
This is a game I have been attempting to win since January and have failed every time. Of course, on this night of all nights, I won it (at 3am)! My celebration, however,
was silent and short because my cousin was sleeping soundly no more than 3 feet
away from me.
Day 3:
I slept in late after the difficult night and gathered my things for the
train ride to Cork. Cork is 2.5 hours from Dublin and my cousin (who graciously
helped me move) drove us to the station so we could make the train just in the
nick of time.
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| On the Train |
The ride was pleasant and I talked to a friendly Dubliner who had
just returned from a 7-month journey in Asia. I also tried to make conversation
with a woman from Cork but she was not very eager to talk to me so I read my
book.
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| Cork City Centre |
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| Cork City Centre |
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| Cork City Centre
After I had organized my room, two other Kansas girls and I went to
a pub to experience the local culture. As planned, my first drink here was a
pint of Guinness that I enjoyed more than anticipated! We also befriended an
elderly Irish man who gave the scoop on local food and attractions.
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| When the normal size is just not enough... |
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| My first meal, chicken and chips! |
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| Cheers! |
Day 4:
Orientation Day consisted of a lot of presentations. The presenter for
the music program looked very chill and seems like he will be a fun leader for
the next three weeks!
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| The Student Center on campus |
My roommates and I made another Penney’s run to gather other things I
decided I needed and came back to the apartment to relax a bit. At orientation
the student union board told everyone to meet at a local pub for “bonding time” that night so,
trying to follow the directions of our superiors, we went to the pub that evening as instructed. This proved a good time to mingle and introduce ourselves to other Americans who are also attending the end-of-summer programs. (And it is literally so hilarious
trying to get numbers and such because very few people have figured out their
cell phone situation at this point.)
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| A picturesque bridge on campus |
All in all, my room is looking quite nice and feeling homier the more
trips to Penney’s I make. Things here are sooooo different from home and the
culture shock has definitely set in already. It will be beneficial to settle
into a schedule next week and get a better lay of the land and the campus but,
so far so good!
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