Made it to Cork!

Welcome to my blog! I hope this will keep you all updated about my travels and adventures abroad! I am hoping to update weekly, maybe a bit more in the beginning. Once I get around to pictures I will add those too. Feel free for comments, and questions- I will do my best to answer. Love and miss you all!!

So I have made it to Ireland! Safe and sound!

It has been a busy last few days. I left Southington on Saturday, and my dad drove me to JFK to catch my flight which was at 6:40 pm. I flew Aer Lingus, and didn't end up leaving JFK until 7 or so. I felt like we were sitting on the ground forever. The flight was long and uncomfortable and I didn’t get much sleep, my dislike for flying did not help the long trip. They did serve us dinner though, which was surprisingly good! It took us about six hours and we landed in Shannon at 6:10 am Ireland time.

Customs was a lot faster than I anticipated. I was the first to go through as the man was waving me over. I just handed him my passport, he stamped it for 30 days and I was on my way. Sometime soon I need to head down to the City Hall and register with the immigration officer to stay here for longer.

We grabbed our luggage, and it took forever for the rest of the fifty-five QU students to get through customs. Thank goodness for Mark, our QU study abroad guy- who is like a tour guide these last few days, getting us settled acquainted, and answering the endless questions everyone has. We finally loaded up into two big buses and started the two hour ride to Cork around seven or eight. Liam, our bus driver gave us our first reality check that we really were Ireland when a group of us went to get on the bus and he exclaimed- "girls you're in Ireland, the door is on the other side." The left side driving was a bit scary at first, and the Irish love their round a bouts! The bus drive was gorgeous, what I was awake for. So much green!! And we saw two castles which must be older than our country! Great weather too! The last two days have been blue sky, and a bit cloudy. We'll see how long this holds up for.

We got to our apartments and went to check out our rooms. The apartment has five bedrooms and a common room/kitchen which was not as clean as I expected. I have my own room, with a bed, shelves, desk, desk lamp, mirror, cork board, and attached bathroom. Really different from my small room I've had at QU and a bathroom shared with eight people! I am living with two other QU girls, who I don't really know but seem nice, and two Ireland girls, Sofie and Helena. The common room and kitchen were kind of a mess when we got here, but we later found out that the girls that moved out left all sorts of stuff behind so I am sure it will work out.

We were already dead tired when we got here, but had to drop our stuff and head into the city to buy the basics. Lots of walking!! It is a lot farther than I thought, but I am sure after a week we will be used to it all! I bought an cord for our internet [no wireless :( ] and some bedding [which I am sure my brothers will laugh at when they see pictures!]. We also went to a phone store [almost went to O2 Sean! But they did not open till noon so we went elsewhere] and I got minutes for my borrowed pay-as-you-go phone. I have free texts and calls within Meteor phones, which all my friends have here so that will be nice. And I can receive phone calls and texts from the US for free. So if anyone wants to spend the money to contact me I will gladly receive them! It was a long walk back to the apartment, especially with full hands and backpacks; we dropped off our stuff and later went out grocery shopping in the complete opposite direction. It is about a ten minute walk- not too bad. But a bit overwhelming- not recognizing brands or anything. I managed to find the store brand Special K though! So I will be happy.

Today we had orientation. Again a long day, but lots of useful information. I won’t bore you with it all. We are now registered as students. I will get an ID card tomorrow. The whole classes ordeal is still confusing. But I guess I am in a Physics and Anatomy class. I still need to find out when those are. Then for my two electives that I am going to take, I can just go to a bunch of different classes all week, and don't need to make a final decision on that until January 14th. We'll see how this goes! Very different from my written in stone course schedules at QU where I didn't have much in the way of choices due to the Physical Therapy program.

That's all for now! Was supposed to be a quick update to let you all know I was here alive, but one I start typing...