I am now officially moved into my dorm at Queen's University. It's very nice to have my own room and bathroom to come back too. Although it's different because I guess they are trying to conserve more energy so the heat and hot water here is only on Mon-Fri 7:00am-9:00am and 3:30pm-10:00pm & Sat/Sun 9:00am-11:00am and 3:30pm-10:00pm, can be a little chilly in here at times. Also the culture here for students is to stay here Monday-Thursday evening or till Friday after class and then ALL of them pack a duffel bag/suitcase and either jump on a bus or drive home for the weekend and come back Sunday night or Monday morning. There were lines of them at the bus stop this afternoon waiting to go home. So apparently its pretty loud here on the weeknights and dead quiet on the weekends, which is basically the opposite of the states. It's been fairly loud at night the past couple days and there are only a handle full of students here since classes don't start till Monday, so I'm anxious to see how crazy it gets when around 1,500 freshmen students move back into the dorm area on Monday!!! Campus is about a 20 minute walk from my housing area, so there is no oh crap I snoozed my alarm I need to run to class hahaha.
Yesterday and today they had informational meetings, registration, and some events for the international/study abroad students. I am currently enrolled in 3 classes, however I now have to drop 2 and add 2 different ones, which I'm praying I will be able to do smoothly without and problems on Monday. We had been told that most study abroad students won't have classes on Fridays because part of the adventure is to travel on the weekends and we will automatically miss at least 3 Friday classes for our weekend trips with the IFSA abroad program; so no classes on Fridays makes it easier and universities are usually understanding of that. I became very close to 3 girls while I was in Dublin who are studying at a school south of Dublin and we decided that we were all going to do our traveling together and we could leave Thursday night or Friday morning. However 2 of my classes have meeting times on Friday and I don't currently get out till 5pm on Fridays, and so far 2 of the girls in Dublin do not have classes on Fridays. This meaning I am the one that has to change my courses. It's a frustrating thing I was hoping I wouldn't have to deal with but I now have to drop 2 classes and find 2 new ones to take that won't meet on Fridays. Hopefully this will all get worked out at the beginning of this week and the university will be understanding and fine with it.
Today we attended 3 more sessions and then went on a 2 hour Belfast City bus tour. A couple of us wanted to get good pictures so we braved the freezing temperatures and wind and sat on top of the roofless bus the whole time...brrrrr. The bus takes you through the city, around to the different murals from the Conflicts, across the Lagan River to the harbor where the Titanic was built and where the 100th anniversary will be held next year, and through the different town areas, all while listening the amusing and informative tour guide explain what everything is. After losing all feeling to our bodies we ran power walked the 20mins to our rooms to try to defrost our bodies for an hour before heading back down to the student union for an event. They held an Ceilidh for the international students which is a traditional Irish celebration where they had bowl of Irish stew for everyone (luckily they had both regular and vegetarian lol) and a live Irish band for a dancing demonstration. That pretty much leads to now sitting here informing you of what has been going on.... Tomorrow I'm going on a shopping trip to the local grocery store (Tesco) to get some food that I can attempt to cook for myself, as well as attending a Belfast Giant's hockey game tomorrow evening.
That's all for now, I'll leave you with some pictures... Love and Miss you all tons!!!!
Cheers,
Elaina
My bed
My desk/storage area
Main building on campus, Lanyon building
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