Eurotrip - Part Prague.

Onto Prague!

     Our flight got in at Prague at 1am. We stepped off the plane onto ice covered, metal steps. I almost slid off. Safe. Unfortunately, I had to check my bag and I had left my coat in my bag since we were coming from Italy where it was nice and sunny. When we checked the weather for Prague, I guess we all just looked at the highs. So we were expecting it to be a solid 45 degrees out. Not the negative 20 it was. Anyway, no one was at the airport. No one checked our passports, asked us why we were there, how long we'd be there for. Nothing. I could have moved in if I wanted to and they would never know. So if you're ever looking to move illegally into a European country, go at night. Well we got in line for a cab, which were coming every 15 minutes. So we were standing there in the cold for a good 45 minutes that felt like 3 hours. We met a girl from Chicago that lives there. She's probably illegal, that's why she flew back at night. She said she was surprised at how cold it was though because when she had left the week before, it was warm and sunny. Awesome. This weather came just for us. Eventually we caught a cab, showed him our address, and were on our way. He dropped us off in what seemed like the middle of nowhere and then just drove away. There we were on some random, dark road without anyone knowing we were in the country, waiting for someone from the hostel to come let us in. About 10 minutes later, someone finally let us in, gave us our keys, told us to come back to the desk in the morning, and went back to bed. We probably could have got this hostel for free, but oh well. Keep in mind how late it is and of big of a hot mess Kristen is. (That should make sense to you if you read Eurotrip Part Rome). So we walk in and Kristen's making enough noise to wake up the entire city. Which would have been fine if we were in a private room, but we were in an 8 person dorm room. It did have a kitchen though! Our hostel-mate, Jyn from Japan, woke up and told us to turn on the lights. So I figured that meant it was only him. So we did. There were 3 other people in the room besides him. I felt bad, but we made our way to some empty beds, Liz and I quietly threw on sweatpants, turned off the lights, and went to bed. Kristen took her entire suitcase to the bathroom. Lord knows why, but it sounded like she was retiling the place. I don't know what she could have possibly been doing in there, but once she finally got quiet and settled into bed, her phone goes off. Where a normal person at 2am would just quiet the thing and get up and walk out of the room, Kristen just grabbed her phone and ran to the bathroom. The bathroom door by the way is the loudest door I've ever heard. It's a slider and even the quietest person couldn't open it without making at least a little bit of noise. So imagine a panicked Kristen haha. Anyway, by time she was off the phone, I was already passed out.
     My mom gave me the name of this company that does free walking tours in Prague, so the next day we looked that up and decided it was a good plan. When we exited our hostel, we found that our street actually looked very nice and it was only a 7 minute walk to city centre. (I say 7 because 5 feels too fast and 10 seems too long). Which was awesome considering our hostel was only 7eur per night! So we took the tour, which was 3 hours, but we saw all of Old Town and learned a good chunk of Prague's history. Mostly focused on WWII. We has an awesome tour guide named Reg, from London, who sounded like Austin Powers' father. Or the coach from Miss. Congeniality. Which ever movie you've seen. He sounded like that guy. After the tour, we walked around and shopped a bit. Eventually we made our way over to New Town, got lost a bit, saw a castle, saw some other weird stuff, ate, and headed back to meet our hostel-mates for a night out. It was us, Jyn, Zuzan from Slovakia, and Ming Ho from Korea. He didn't really talk much. He said he could understand us, but it was hard to reply back in English. He was nice though. Zuzan come to Prague every other week to take classes, so she knows her way around and took us to a few places she likes. I ordered a Budwiser, which apparently is a Czech beer and the one we know in America is a rip off and illegal to import into Czech. I must admit, it was way better tasting. I also had a beer called 'X' that was brewed in the pub and claimed to be the strongest beer in the world coming in at 12.5% alcohol. It was really sweet and tasted like berries. I liked it. Shortly after, we went home because we all had to wake up early. We left our Facebook info with them, but have yet to hear from them :(
      Then next day, we were planning on waking up at 7am and walking around a bit before heading to the airport, but that didn't happen. So we got up, packed, checked out, and headed right for our plane to Copenhagen! What the eff is in Copenhagen???

Eurotrip - Part Rome.

     Okay, so unlike how American universities get two short breaks during the Fall semester, one in early October and one over Thanksgiving, European universities get one long break in early November. We get a ten day break to "catch up on our school work." Now while actual European students do use this break to do just that, the professors should know Americans do not. We cram as many cities and countries into this break as possible. And that's just what I did. Dublin, Ireland to Rome, Italy to Prague, Czech Republic to Copenhagen, Denmark to Paris, France and back to Dublin, Ireland. Five planes, four countries, and only three passport stamps later, makes for a very successful Reading Week.

     So our flight to Rome was at 6:50 which meant we had to be at the airport at 4:50 which meant we had to leave for the airport at 4 which meant we didn't get any sleep the night before. Also, you should just know now that my roommate, Kristen, is a hot damn mess. This will be mentioned throughout this blog. We ended up booking all cheap flights on cheap airlines, which means no free checked bags and your carry on has to be able to fit into what seems like the equivalent of a cereal box. Liz and I ended up borrow two camping backpacks from our two friends. You know the kind. Tall, skinny, 50 million zippers and pockets that you could potentially lose your stuff in. Kristen used her regular back pack, so Liz and I offered to carry some stuff for her. The morning of, Kristen comes out with her backpack stuffed to the size of two Thanksgiving turkeys both feeding families of 20. She gave me all her shirts and Liz all her pants. You may be wondering what the heck could possibly still be in her backpack, but the cab driver was here and called me about 5 times wondering where we were so I didn't have time to ask. (But now we know for future reference, Kristen's not allowed to travel with us unless we pack her bag for her). So we make it to the airport, Kristen ends up having to check her bag, but Liz and I were fine. We got to our deserted gate and sat for about 1.5 hours with nothing to do. Since it was so early, nothing in the airport was open. After we finally got on the plane, I passed out and was awoken by a rough landing. I swore we were crashing. But I soon learned we were just landing when people started clapping. They do that in Europe. Clap when the plane lands safely. As if we weren't sure if it would or not.
     Anywho. As I walked off the airplane, something hit me that I hadn't felt since I landed in Ireland way back in September. The sun. I almost forgot what it felt like. It's warmth just sucked me in and I knew Rome was going to soon become my favorite city in the world. Well we made it through the airport, requested our passports be stamped, and were outside sweating in the warmth as we waited for the bus to come. Everyone around me was speaking Italian, obvi, and I was slowly, but surely, starting to remember some of my high school Italian. Small words though. And not much about verb conjugation. But I got the gist of what those around me were saying, which was a good feeling. While we were waiting I taught Liz and Kristen the basics. Hello, bye, thanks, yes, no, I don't know, I don't understand, and, most importantly, I don't speak Italian. None of which any of us used, except hello and thanks. When people started speaking to us in Italian, we all sort of stared with our mouths open like idiots. At some points, I was able to answer back in English, but I still had a few moments of processing. Guess I wasn't as well versed in Italian as I remembered.
     Once we got to our hostel (which we somehow found by walking, go us!), we were set up with a free map of the city. The lady was really nice and circled all the main points we'd want to see. She also told us about a few options to get around the city. We decided the best option was to grab a 3-day pass for the metro. It was only 11EUR and luckily there was a stop two blocks down from our hostel. In order to get out money's worth, we had to ride it 11 times. (One ticket, one way cost only 1EUR). And you best believe we rode that bitch at least 16 times. While we were checking in, the receptionist asked us if we wanted to come to the free dinner that night. Uhhhh yes, please! So we put our names down on the list and recognized some of the previous names. Go figure we're staying at the same hostel as four other girls that live with us in Ireland. Small world. But we dropped our crap off and headed to the Vatican to meet up with our other friend who went to Rome that same week too. Apparently most of the Americans I live with ended up going to Rome for the first few days of Reading Week. Super small world.
     On our way over, we could tell we were getting closer by the amount of people trying to sell us tours. They all started out the same way: "Are you guys American?" At one point Kristen said, "No, we're from Canada." Surprisingly enough that dude just walked away. Maybe they thought we'd want to fight play some hockey or something. We walked in to the Basilica, where Dani told us to meet her, and were just amazed. It reminded me of that thing in Hercules that he knocks down while playing frisbee. But obviously better and everything was stone. They were cleaning it though, so certain sections of the surrounding pillars were covered up. Clearly just means I'll have to go back in about a year to see it. No problem. After finally finding Dani, we headed towards the entrance to the Vatican City. Well, the museum anyway. Luckily, they had student discounts. We got in and made a bee line for the Sistine Chapel. The place was closing at 5 and it was about 4:45. Good timing we had. But then we learned that they just stop letting people in at 5. Which was good because we thought that it wouldn't take long to get to the chapel, but who knew it was a friggin' maze to get there. After 20 long hallways and getting stuck behind 10 groups of Asians taking pictures of every single thing, we finally got into the chapel. Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to take pictures and there were any lights on. It was also a lot smaller than I expected as well. But nonetheless, it was quite amazing. After that we went and found noms, which in Italy is quite amazingly delicious. I'm only glad I didn't study there because I would have spent so much money eating in restaurants.
     After diner at the hostel with our lovely fellow Dubliners, we went to "the best and oldest gelato" place in Rome. And I'd have to agree with their sign. At least on the best part. I can't account for oldest. Then we made our way to the Trevi Fountain. I don't know what angles they use in movies, but just so everyone knows, there are building surrounding it and it is not across from the Spanish steps. I don't know why, but in every movie, and by that I mean the Lizzie McGuire Movie, they always make it seem like the Spanish steps are across from the Trevi Fountain. LIES! But after staring at it for 20 minutes, I threw in a coin and made my wish! And then stared at it for another 30 minutes from the other side haha. We then made our way to the Spanish steps. Which aren't far, but still. Now those do have a huge plaza in front of them, so that was nice. We climbed those, and luckily there was a metro stop at the top, so we went home. It was about 12:30 when we got home, so I just passed out without even changing out of my jeans. Not that I mind. I love, love, love sleeping in jeans.
     The next day we decided that we wanted to go to the colosseum. One of the people who worked at the hostel, who didn't speak English very well, told us to walk left out of the hostel and "walk walk walk until we see big colosseo." It was about a 15 minute walk. Being the Americans we are, we looked on the map and saw that there was a stop on the Metro called Colosseo. So of course we hopped on that sucker and rode for 5 minutes instead of the walk. When we exited the Metro and walked above ground, the colosseum pretty much smacked us in the face. It was literally right there. Just chillen. No big. The thing is massive too. Italians were just walking by on there way to wherever not even looking at it. I guess it becomes invisible if you walk past it every day. Again, we were hounded to pay extra to go on an english speaking tour and skip the queue. But we decided that the line wasn't long enough for 20 extra euro. The ticket we got ended up getting us into the colosseum, as well as the ancient city. Which was also just chillen out right next to the colosseum right in the middle of a couple major roads. I guess I'm just use to having to venture into the country side to see ancient ruins or something. And by venture into the country side, I mean open a history book.
     After the colosseum and ancient city, we just walked around that area a bit and shopped and found some food. Okay, now the restaurant we found was AMAZING. Literally. We sat down, Liz and I ordered ravioli and Kristen got pizza with sausage on it. The ravioli was perfect. Then the guy next to us got his food. Which smelled amazing and made me even more hungry. So yes.. I ordered more food. Fatty. But it's okay because I've been training all my life to be in Italy. Any get together with my mom's side includes salad, pasta, first course, second course, and about 3 courses of desert. So I ordered a plate of tortellini and Liz ordered a cheese pizza for her and I to split. (Stop it. I can't tell you're judging me). You must understand the smells surrounding me. I was like Pavlov's dogs. Some guy in the room got mussels, I don't even like mussels! But it still smelled amazing and made me want some. But I refrained.
     Then we walked around at bit. Found a few hundred plazas to see. I don't even remember how many plazas and fountains we saw. They're literally everywhere in Rome. So unfortunately I don't remember all the one's I went to, or the names. But one of these plazas did contain the Pantheon. That was cool. By that point I was exhausted though and to me it was a giant circular room with a hole in the ceiling. But looking back, it is pretty cool that I have seen it in person now. After the Pantheon we went and found another plaza which was really cool. There were about 20 different artists selling their work, a couple musicians, and a spray painter. Spray painters are always fun to watch. We were all pretty exhausted after that though, so we shortly went home and to bed.
     The next day was our last day. Which was very upsetting. I wish I could have stayed longer. We decided for our last day since we were out of sights to see, we would just chill around Rome. One of the places marked on our map was a student community. It sounded cool so we headed in that direction. As we were looking for a bridge to cross over the river, we noticed that there was a random island in the middle of the river. After about 10 minutes, we figured out how to finally get down there. It was really cool. In front of the island was an arch. It looked as if it use to be a bridge the whole way across, but now it was it's own island standing there. It was really quite cool to try to picture what the area use to look like back in its hay day. You could see little remnants of what the river use to look like as well. But soon we grew hungry and made our way to the student area. We found this little back alley restaurant, which was exactly what I picture when I picture Rome. I loved it. And I only got one course this time, even though I wanted more. I held back. Then we just sort of meandered around until it was time to go catch our flight to Prague.

Now since this blog was so long already, I'm just going to stop it here and break it up into parts. Hope ya don't mind!

Northern Ireland.

So this past weekend, my school took a trip up to Northern Ireland. For those who aren't aware, Northern Ireland is a separate country than Ireland. They are part of the UK and there's conflict over that fact. I'll give you a brief history lesson. No so long ago, early 60s, trouble broke out in Northern Ireland between the Catholics and the Protestants. The Catholics were Nationalists who wanted a united Ireland and the Protestants were Loyalists who wanted to remain part of the UK. There was tons of violence. Any time the police even attempted to control it, they were petrol bombed. It was just an all around bloody mess. Read more about it here if you choose. So anyway, the conflict didn't end till the late 90s and this is where our school decided to take us. I was a little nervous, won't lie.

Friday


Woke up around 9:30 to head to Londonderry/Derry. We got up there around 1:00 and went on a walking tour. We were staying in a hotel right in the middle of the city, and back in the day it was a pretty small city. They had built a wall around the entire thing, but it only takes about 30 minutes to walk around the wall. Now the city has obviously grown outside the wall, but we didn't go out there. On the tour, we learned about how there was huge debate over the name of the city. The Protestants call it Londonderry, while the Catholics call it Derry. Tying back to that whole UK thing. Also, everyone in the Republic of Ireland calls it Derry. It was a nice city though, I did enjoy it. We also ended having to switch to Pounds, which has a worse exchange rate than the Euro. It's practically double. Also, the 3 banks up there (Bank of Ireland, Bank of England, and Ulster Bank) all give out different looking money. Can you imagine every bank in America giving out it's own money. Granted they all hold the same value, its just annoying to deal with. And makes it look even more like play money. That night we went to an awkward pub/restaurant thing that advertised £1.65 pints of 30 different beers and ciders. They lied. They had about 4 different gross beers to offer and no cider. But the bar tender did end up making us this really delicious pitcher of a couple different alcopops. We ended up getting about 4 or 5 of those pitchers and then meeting some really cool locals who took us to a pub called The Metro. It was pretty packed, which was nice because the other place was empty. We should have taken that as a hint when we walked in. The pub was playing really cheesy 80s and 90s American music, but it was still fun.  The guys were really cool too. One was a doctor who lived in Switzerland, one was a lead guitarist in a band called Flying Castros and was also studying music management in London, and well, I didn't really talk much to the other two. I know one of the other two guys was living in another country as well though. But overall Derry didn't seem too bad of a city.

Saturday


Saturday, we woke up by 9:00 and headed over to Giant's Causeway. It was really cool to see. All the rocks there grow in hexagonal formation - which is weird. But we climbed all the way out to the edge and there were some cool little tide pools. The wind was crazy strong though and at one point it was pushing me towards the water. Even when I sort of sat/laid down to keep the wind from pushing me, it was still pushing me. That was near death experience number one.
After the Causeway, we all piled back on the bus and drove to lunch. We went to this nice, little restaurant and had a chicken pot pie type thing. It was the chicken and the sauce with the crust on the side haha. Oh, and french fries. Everything here's served with french fries.
After lunch we headed to carrick-a-rede rope bridge. From the parking lot, we hiked about 30 minutes (slight exaggeration). I was expecting this big, long, dangerous rope bridge. I was hoping that it would literally be four pieces of rope tied to trees across a gorge with little pieces of wood going across every so often. Maybe one would even crack as I stepped on it. But no. There was the original rope bridge with a billion precautions on it. Safest rope bridge in the world. It even had a net. Bummer. But after the bridge came more cliffs. Shocker there. The edges of Ireland are all cliffs. No beaches. Now the ground was really muddy and wet. As I was walking downhill towards the edge of the cliff, I fell and slide a good three feet towards the edge. Near death experience numero dos. My butt was all muddy, so I hiked back over the bridge and to the bus to change so I wouldn't be sitting in a swamp all the way to Belfast.
That night we got to Belfast. We stayed at they Days Hotel and were told not to go left out of the hotel. That was Loyalist territory. Kind of scary being told you can't go to some places in a town and not being told where you can go haha. So that night, we all piled into one hotel room with all our alcohol and just chilled out there for a while. At some point we made it out to a pub that was near the hotel, but I forget the name. It was a really cool pub inside though. Tons of people and a pretty good band. That's the norm in Ireland though :)

Sunday


The next morning, we all piled back into our bus and took a tour of Belfast. We went left into Loyalist country and got to see all the murals and the peace wall. We all got out and signed the peace wall, as well, which was pretty cool. But it was still a little strange. There were still barbed-wire fences up dividing neighborhoods and gates that closed at night around the neighborhoods to keep people out. Or to keep people in. Not sure which is worse. We also saw the most bombed hotel in Belfast. City centre wasn't bad though. It just seemed like your average, safe city, with tons of shopping and restaurants. The tour wasn't too long though. We left Belfast by about 1pm and were back in Dublin by 4ish.



And that was my weekend in Northern Ireland. Now I'm in Dublin for a while and my parents, brother, and grandmothers are visiting! That means tons of free meals and drinks and taxi rides and tickets to places. My grandma even gave me money for laundry haha. It's good craic! :)

Trip to Galway.

Okay, sorry this blog thing is lacking so much. I won't lie, I'm lazy. But here's a little video of my trip to Galway. Well the daytime events anyway. I'll blog soon about my classes and stuff!

Traveling.

So people keep telling my to blog and I'm not sure what to talk about because I've kind of just been doing the regular classes by day, pubs by night. With that being said, I will update you on my plans to travel.

This Weekend.

Kylemore Abbey & Garden

Included in tuition, are two school trips. One being this weekend. We will be leaving Friday morning and bussing over to Galway, where we will get a tour of Kylemore Abbey & Garden. The picture makes me nervous, but we shall see. From there, we will check into our hotel and most likely end up going to some pubs. Saturday morning, we will ferry over to the Aran Islands. Once on the island, we will visit Inis Mor to see some archaeological sites I believe. We will also visit Dun Aongus, which has some nice cliffs I hear. Then Sunday, we'll leave Galway and go to the Cliff of Moher, which I was told to go to by many different people. And then it's back to Dublin!

Northern Ireland.
Our next school planned trip is to Northern Ireland. It'll take place the weekend of October 22nd, which just so happens to be the same weekend my family's coming to visit. Go figure. I don't have to itinerary for the trip yet, but I know we'll be hitting up Belfast and somewhere in the Londonderry area. I'll keep you updated on that when it gets closer.

Reading Week.

In Europe university's don't really have too many breaks like we do in American, i.e. Fall Break, Thanksgiving Break, and any other American holiday's that would cause long weekends. The only break we get is a week called Reading Week, which is ten days in November meant to help get some extra exam prep. Obviously this means big excursions for all us Americans. Liz, my roommate (Kristen) and I have all decided to travel together for this week. 

The plan is (and we're booking our tickets after we get out of class right now) to fly to Rome Saturday morning. We'll spend two nights, three days in Rome and then train over to Florence. We'll hang out in Florence for two days, and then, because Florence airport sucks and doesn't fly to any relevant cities, we're going to train it over to Milan. We'll be in Milan for about an hour before we catch a flight to Prague. It sounds like it would suck to only spend an hour in Milan, but it's a rather expensive city so I really don't mind at all ha. We'll be in Prague for two nights and then jet-set over to Paris! Kristen has a friend in Paris, so hopefully she'll have fun stuff for us to do. We'll spend 3 nights in Paris and head back to Dublin Monday afternoon. I know, I know. Monday classes. However the difference between the plane ticket Sunday and the plane ticket Monday, was 50 Euro, which is A LOT of US dollars. My plane ticket Monday now it 14.99 Euros. This whole trip, including planes, trains, and hostels, will be roughly $400. Not including food. It sounds a bit pricey to me, but everyone else says that's really cheap so alright! I'm excited for that.

Other.
Other places I'll be traveling to on my own dollar include; London, Edinburg (Scotland/where Harry Potter was created), Amsterdam, Cork (southern Ireland), andddddddd any place I can snowboard, which could be Germany, Austria, Switzerland, or any super cheap place.

Pubs, pubs, pubs, and more pubs!

So my actual classes don't start for another two weeks.. which means these first three weeks are all about getting accustomed to Irish culture. And Irish culture means pubs. All day, everyday. People here will go to the pubs before work in the morning and get a pint like it's no big deal. Our professors here, whom we're suppose to call by their first names and not professor, invite us out to drink with them after class.

I should clear up this class thing. I do have an Irish 101 class for the first three weeks before regular classes start. It's split up into five sections: Irish Culture and Society, Political and Economical Landscape of Ireland, Peace and Conflict, Irish History, and Anglo-Irish Literature. And everyday we have about six hours of class. Also, for every hour we would have had class in America, it's two hours here. Argo, I'm taking six credit hours per class here, and getting three credit hours at Ship. Sucky.

Anyway, so basically all us Americans have just been trying to fit in with the locals and go to pubs every night. There's always some sort of deal going on, luckily. For example, Tuesday night at a dance club called Dicey's, it was student night. That means €3 pints and bottles. Which is a pretty good deal. Most pubs are about €4.80 every night for a pint of Bulmers or Guinness. Temple Bar area is about €6 for  a pint of Guinness. Mad expensive over there.

Now for the truth about Irish pub culture. People told us that the Irish don't go out to pubs and get drunk. They go out and sip on a pint of Guinness and have an artful conversation. That is a down right lie haha. Every Irish person I've talked to at any pub I've been to has been druuuuunk. Granted they can hold a conversation while shitfaced, they're not sipping ha. Again however, those folks going to the pub before work or in their lunch hour, are sipping a bit. Only about two pints at those times. Maybe that's what we were told about. And then after 7PM, that's when the real drinking kicks in. On the way to school, every day, at every pub we pass, there are about 20-30 empty kegs outside waiting to be replaced. Guess I have more learning to do ;)


I also wanted to touch on slang I've picked up so far.
Dodgy = sketchy. For example, when I tell people which part of Dublin I live in, they usually say, "Oh, that's a bit of a dodgy area." Lovely.
When getting a cab, ask for a "lift." If you ask for a ride, you'll either get arrested for prostitution or have one hell of a time :P
Speaking of prostitution. A sure fire way to know who's a prostitute and who's just a slutty girl walking the streets at night, a scrunchy. I've seen a couple in my "dodgy" area.
"Fall under a bus in the morning" means to die.
"Nacker" means douchebag. Usually can be spotted by wearing track pants and a track jacket. In England they're known as chavs.
Chips means fries.
Crisps mean potato chips. These aren't good over here. They come in Cheese&Onion or Salt&Vinegar. If you're lucky, you can find original flavor, but they're bland. Almost like I'm chewing on a raw potato.
"Craic" means a good time/good conversation. Example, pubs say, "Come in and have some good craic." A bit dodgy when you hear it said for the first time..


Well, that's it for now. Byeeeee.

Céad míle fáilte!

Wednesday

So it was my first weekend in Dublin and it was amazing! When I first got here, it was a bit difficult to get through the airport because everything is in Gaelic with really tiny, hard to see English underneath. But we managed. After getting in the wrong line for passport stamps, of course ha. There were five other kids on our flight with us, but we didn't even see them till we all met up outside baggage claim.

Speaking of the flight. It didn't seem long at all. It ended up only being five and a half hours, instead of the original seven that I thought it would be. The in-flight entertain was nice too. I watched Scream 4. Luckily I didn't jump too much on the plane. We got free dinner. I had meat ravioli and Liz had some weird chicken and rice thing. It wasn't half bad. Then I listened to all the Glee soundtracks and slept for a bit. Talked to the flight attendant about living here for the next four months and then played Who Wants To Be A Millionaire for the rest of the flight. I didn't feel tired at all surprisingly.

Thursday

Then all seven of us got on a coach bus and were taken to Blackhall, where we're living. Originally Liz and I were in a three-bedroom with a European roommate, but when we got here, we were told we're in a five-bedroom with two Americans and a European. Luckily I got the double bedroom, which means I get two desks, two beds, two shelves, and two dressers. I pushed the beds together to make somewhere between a king and queen :) Princess bed? Maybe. They mattresses are actually really comfortable. Shout out to Alyssa Taylor, they're the same kind of mattresses that you got when I went shopping with you.

Later that day, we had housing orientation and a nice little tour of the immediate surrounding area. And things that we might need to get to that day, like food and paper products. Pubs. They have Aldi here, which apparently that have back in the States, and it's super cheap. I got enough food for a week there and it was only twenty euro. And then we went to a pedestrianized market street called Henry Street and I got a cell phone. It was a rip off, but it was the cheapest thing they had and it's the same phone all the other American students have, so that'll be a fun game of who's phone is this? Then we all went back to our flats and crashed. I think I slept for thirteen hours.

Friday


What was not included in our housing orientation tour was how to get to school. They did give us a nice,  big tourist map of Dublin and show us on it where school was, but that was about it. We needed to be there for registration by 10am and they said it was only a twenty-five minute walk. Liz and I left at 9am and got there at 10am -_- I'm sure it is a twenty-five minute walk when you know where you're going though. Oh, also, all our roommate are in a different program then us, so we couldn't walk with them because they needed to be there at 9am and we weren't getting up that early. But anyway, so we finally got to the school and did the whole orientation thing, got our ID's and free lunch and another tour of where the other school building are. It's not a campus. The buildings (five of them) are kind of stuck in random spots in center city. It's not so bad though.

After that, FIE (the other program) kids had another couple hours of orientation, so Liz, Melissa (a new friend) and I went exploring. We went to Trinity College and St. Peter's Green and pretty much just got really lost. But getting lost here isn't bad at all. There's a river that separates the city into North Side and South Side. I live on North Side and school's on South Side. Along with Temple Bar area and everything else. So when you get lost, just find the river and it's easy to find home from there.

Saturday

Somehow, I didn't wake up till about 3pm. I didn't even go out the night before haha. I'd blame it on jet lag, but we traveled East sooooo yah. When I woke up, Liz and I went to Aldi's, which I mentioned earlier, and got food. Then when we got back, everyone came up to our flat and had spaghetti dinner. It was a good time. And then everyone came up and started drinking. It's weird playing pong with people from all across the States. So many different rules haha. No one from out west knows "Island" and if they do, it's called "Lone Ranger" .. Yeah. So even with just the American students, I'm learning culture :P After a while, we went to one of the pubs across the street called Mulligans. I had a pint of Bulmers, which is the Woodchuck of Ireland. So good. A few people here actually know what Woodchuck is, which is exciting haha. Around midnight, it was last call there, so we left there and started heading towards Temple Bar area. On the way we stopped in some pub with a live band. They were pretty fun, but then some weird, old Irish guy started singing to me and I left. We went to a pub called The Quay's (pronounced keys) which was jammed. But there was also a live band, which was pretty good. All the bands just play covers of American songs though. After The Quay's, we went to The Temple Bar, which was creeper central. I had my first pint of Guinness there though. Much thicker here than in the States. I don't know how I feel about it. And I don't know how people drink more than one of those. They're so filling. Two of my friends, Jack and Zach, are seeing who can take the most pub glasses, and I may join in. Mom would hate that. But I did take my Guinness glass though. Well, Jack took it for me. I don't know if it's like this back home, because I'm not bar-able back home, but each drink has it's own glass with it's name and logo on it. So this ought to be a fun game. But after they closed and kicked us out, there was a Papa John's conveniently located next door. Of course I had to get Papa John's. They didn't give us garlic sauce though. They gave us Ranch. Which wasn't bad, only because well.. yeah. But normally I don't like Ranch at all. But after that, we just found the river and found home. It was a good night.


So for the long post haha. But, if you'd like, here's a tour of my flat.


-Sara