Greetings from Ireland!,
**I made it to Belfast Monday morning at 9am (4am USA time) and was pleasantly greeted by on of my program advisor. I was told that plans for our orientation had changed and we were heading down to Dublin for 2 1/2 days. We picked up 2 other girls who will be studying at Queen's University with me, grabbed lunch, and headed 2 hours down to Dublin, feeling exhausted from a full day of planes and layovers, jetlag took over me and I slept the 2hrs. We checked into our hotel in Dublin, the Mont Clare O'Callaghan, rested and then went out to dinner at an Irish pub called Porterhouse. Unfortunately our hotel does not have free internet so we ran over to the local Starbucks to catch up on the world, sadly it closes at 8pm so we only had about 30mins. :( Went back and slept for about 10hrs.
**Yesterday we had a few talks about safety and cooking at the IFSA-Butler office in Dublin, then went to lunch as a group in Dublin City Centre. After that we were treated to a tour of the Guinness Warehouse. It's a really neat building, 7 stories, which is actually the tallest building in Dublin, and it's a self-guided tour of the history, and production process of Guinness. At the end you go to the top sky bar and have a 360 degree view of Dublin, and learn how to pour the perfect pint receiving a certificate and all. We had fun, however only 1 out of the 6 of us actually enjoyed and drank the pint, and it was not me!! haha. After the factory tour we split up and 4 of us jumped on the Dublin Bus tour for a few stops then headed to dinner at cute cafe called Lemon. We then ran back to the hotel and down to Starbucks again to catch the internet for 40mins :( We then to decided to venture down to the popular Temple Bar area and hung out in the famous Temple Bar for an hour or so. Then off to bed we went.
**Today we had our last 2 meetings on student activity services through IFSA-Butler study abroad program, and academic differences. It was really sad to leave the other 4 girls who I feel like I connected with and got really close to in only 2 days. but after saying our good-byes the 3 of us N.Ireland (Queen's) girls were rushed back up to Belfast and our IFSA advisor had us drop our bags off at our dorms quickly then proceeded to drop us of in the middle of city centre and drove away (ahhh overwhelming!!!) One of the girls is staying off campus with friends and left us to go to her place. The girl I stayed with in the city has been here 9 times in the past 8 years!!! And has many friends across Ireland. I felt completely lost in the middle of a crazy new city but with her help I got a phone (that I still don't know exactly what I have in my calling package really), some necessities for our dorm room, and a few grocery items to hold us over for a little while. We took a taxi back to our housing area, and now I sit at my desk in my dorm room writing this. To say I'm a little overwhelmed, stressed, tired, and lost would be an understatement right now. I have my own room and bathroom here, and share a common area and kitchen with 7 (I think) other people. The rooms a decent size, though it doesn't look all that welcoming. I hope my unpacking and organizing goes quickly and easily. It is going to take quite awhile for me to get used to this place/way of life, but hopefully it will happen soon. I do have to say that not being able to call or text anyone back in the states whenever I want to is very hard!! And the whole 5hr time difference is frustrating as well.....
Tomorrow I have Queen's orientation 9am-6pm and I'm praying that class registration will all work our quickly and without any problems so I can have some sort of schedule back to my life, and can start figuring out when I can skype people, and when/where I can travel. Really hoping not to have classes on Friday or Monday... or both haha..... Well I'm off to try to find something to eat, haven't eaten since 9 this morning, then it's unpacking my life of bags before getting some sleep in my new place.
Love and miss you all very much!!
Cheers,
Elaina
PS, some of you were asking for my address
***MESSAGE ME IF YOU WANT MY ADDRESS!!! :) :)
Hi Sweetie. I am excited to try posting to a blog. This post will hopefully work. The last 2 failed but now I have a nice young person coaching me. Love & miss you too! Aunt Jill
ReplyDeleteYou're going to do great! It takes a little while to get your bearings and adjust to culture differences. That's what an "immersion" experience is all about. I have confidence in you!!!!
ReplyDeleteAunt Leslie
After 1 successful post, my 4th effort, again on my own failed. Here I go again. Carrie, my young friend who helped with post 3(the one that worked), also spent time as a student in Belfast. She said it takes about 3 weeks to adjust but that you will love it. Once you find some traveling companions, she strongly recommends taking a trip to Derry (aka London Derry as the Protestants call it) to the sight of Sunday Bloody Sunday to learn about the history of the conflict and to see an amazing statue called Hands Across the Divide which is designed so that when the conflicts ends, the 2 outstretched hands can be moved together. She also recommends a bus tour through a poor (and unsafe - hence you will not be allowed off the bus) Catholic area where beautiful murals depicting aspects of the conflict are painted like street art over walls and buildings. Hope registration went smoothly. Once that's done and you get unpacked and spend a couple days with your suitemates, I'm sure you will feel much more settled. We love & miss you too, Aunt Jill PS This weekend I plan to download SKYPE and try to figure that out. Your trip is dragging me into the high-tech world I have been resisting for so long:)
ReplyDeleteHAPPY BIRTHDAY! I hope you get a chance to celebrate over the weekend and that one of your presents will be another Steeler Superbowl victory!
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