Start of the Semester

I'm going to rewind a little and talk about this past weekend... On Saturday there were 5 of us planning on going on the school run to the local grocery store, Tesco. The bus was supposed to leave at 11am and when it wasn't there at 11:30am we went to find out what was going on only to be told that it wouldn't be there till 12:30pm. We re-grouped an hour and a half later and went off the Tesco Extra (kind of like a really nice Walmart).  What made the trip extra fun for us was the fact that you enter, grab a cart and the push the cart onto a travelator (sort of like an inclined people mover at the airport) and the carts wheels magnetize to the belt so you can let go and your cart doesn't roll away. We were all very amused by this!! Saturday night a group of the international students went to the Odyssey Arena to watch a Belfast Giants hockey game. It was a lot of fun, but let's just say it really made me miss the NHL. Last week I met a guy who's from Squirrel Hill and of course loves all the Pittsburgh sports teams so we had a great time talking about the Penguins and noticing all the crazy differences. I mean c'mon this team has their group of own old school cheerleaders (who are very entertaining to watch hahaha). Overall we had a lot of fun, and may try to catch another game before their season is over.... Sunday I went to a church that was recommended to me and enjoyed it, went out to lunch, and hung out the rest of the day.

Monday was the 1st day of classes for Queen's. I dropped the 2 classes I needed to in order to have Fridays off to travel with my study abroad program, and attended my 1st class at 4pm. The class was nothing what I thought it would be like and not at all what it said in the description online. It's called The Anthropology of Modern Social Dance, I'm not quite sure how I feel about it, but right now I'm still enrolled in the class... Tuesday I had a class at 1pm called Twentieth Century British Theatre, not exactly my chosen interest, but I guess we'll see how it goes. After that I went to my Shakespeare In Performance class. It was full of 3rd year students (our equivalent to seniors) the professor walked in and said, "this is your last semester here and this class is very tough and demands a lot from you because this is your last chance to show us what you can do before you're on your own!" Whelp I definitely don't fit in that class,  so I dropped it and I'm currently looking for a new class to fill that spot. Some options I've found are: Film & Sound, Creative Writing (Drama), Practical Photography, and The Beatles ( not sure what I'll take because some of those are also 3rd year/advanced classes).

I am very happy to say that I have found the closest Starbucks to campus, about a 5min walk. I was surprised and excited that my Gold Card works here, so I can still get my discounts on certain drinks... I'm sure I will be spending a lot of time there :).... I enjoyed almost a full day of sunshine yesterday for the first time since leaving Pittsburgh over a week ago. However I guess 1 day is all I get, because today it was super windy and raining. I was forced to buy an umbrella before leaving the student union this afternoon and it proceeded to almost break 5 times on me before reaching my dorm.

Cheers!!

My cart on the travelator.

 A video of the amusing cheerleaders doing the "routine" they do after a goal...

Now in Belfast

Hello All!!,

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

I'm here!

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!!! :) :)