Travel Times.

Finally in Dublin.

I've been going since 6:30 am Tuesday morning, and it's currently 1:45 pm Wednesday afternoon (Chicago time). I'm exhausted and every bone in my body hurts.(thanks for the snacks Allie & Brent..I look like I was going to a movie)

Arrived at O'Hare at 3:30 pm...gave me plenty of time to get through security and to my gate with about 3 1/2 hours to spare. I read some magazines in the foodcourt and waited for Stacy & Claire to arrive. The airport is full of interesting people...the toe tappers, the loud talkers. About 5 pm I moved down to my gate H5 where it finally hit me that I'm actually going to Dublin. A little Irish family was sitting in front of me, talking in their thick accents. Not surprising that the first Irish gentlemen that catches my eye is a 6 month old baby boy. The rest of the Irish men were sporting some sweet beards..... it was like Santa & his minones retires to Dublin for the spring after busy season.

After some dinner-- some really suck overpriced pizza-- and a few phone calls & texts from all of my favorite people, it was time to board.

On the plane, I was lucky to get a window seat, 23F. A girl about my age sat next in the aisle seat and we had the empty middle seat. Turns out she is from Arkansas, went to school in St. Louis, and studied abroad at the Dublin School of Business (a different school than mine) last winter. She was returning to Dublin to visit her boyfriend, who works at the Temple Bar, and possibly arrange to move to Dublin. I told her that the only rule was that I couldn't move to Dublin if I fell in love, and she laughed and told me that her parents said the same thing.

Take off went smoothly and when I got in the air I finally got to relax. Like no turning back now. After dinner of chicken & rice, I took a dramamine and fell asleep. Airplane seats are not the most comfortable so my sleep wasn't fantastic but I was able to sleep almost all the way until they served breakfast, so maybe about 5 hours. Breakfast was a muffin and after that I had about an hour left of flying time. My seat buddy from Arkansas informed me that the man a few rows in front of us had consumed about an entire bottle of alcohol and had the flight attendants threatening to call the police on him when we landed.

(welcome to Dublin International Airport)

The sunrise over the clouds was nice and as soon as we dropped through the clouds we could see snowy Ireland. I learned later that Ireland had just experienced one of the strangest weeks of weather with freezing temperatures and snow-- both uncommon in Dublin. It is as green as everyone says it is. Once off the plane, we had to go through immigration. Ofcourse, my first priority was a bathroom, but I guess they don't let you use their bathrooms unless you've registered with the national garda. The only thing I noticed that was different about Dublin Airport versus O'Hare (other than size) was that in the bathrooms there were no mirrors over the sink. The Irish must be less concerned with their appearance than Americans... with this constantly rainy/drizzle I don't think the Irish ever have a good hair day.
(4 months worth of life in those bags... weighed as much or more than me)

Totting the luggage was about the most exhausting part of the trip. After exchanging dollars to euros (at a depressing rate), we got our luggage and found the AirCoach we were instructed to use. For 8 euro it took us to the outskirts of campus, about a 45 minute ride. Luckily the bus had Wi-Fi so I was able to check in with all of you.

Driving through Dublin had some similarities to America...minus the driving on the wrong side of the road. But we passed our share of Subways. There was also a Savoy Theater, playing all American movies, it was just like we were in Champaign.

The bus driver was super friendly and helped us get our bags unloaded from the bus. Then we had to wheel them across the street onto campus. We checked with the reception building who gave us directions to our residence halls. Which was at least a half of a mile away, up hill, in the drizzle, with a backpack, 2 large suitcases, and one small suitcases. Every muscle in my legs & arms were used. It's a good thing the Irish are so friendly or they would have been mocking us.... three little Americans lugging our suitcases on this bumpy sidewalks, across streets, through gravel to our residence halls. We must have stopped like 10 times on the way to rest.

I got my key, Apartment 16, and then we had to figure out what floor it was on. My friend Stacy is in the building next door and Claire is on the floor above me. When I arrived, no one else was in my apartment. It's pretty nice but the kitchen is dirty from the past residence so we are having the cleaning people come tomorrow I think.
(my room)

I unpacked and took survey of my room. All looks pretty good, except the shower is just a curtain in the corner of the bathroom. Reminds me of the showers in Turkey. I was all moved in about 12 so I just hung out for a bit then we met for a shopping tour.

I've met a lot of people from different places. The people I talked to on the tour where from Penn State and Asia and Austria and Holland, among other places. The guy from Holland talked to us for a bit about Thanksgiving and eating Turkey and some kind of Holland tradition about Santa Clause and his negro slaves. He insured us it wasn't a racial thing and he hoped we won't take it against him. We made friends with a girl named Laura from Melbourne, Austraila. She's really nice and she came with us when we seperated from the tour. We saw the TESCO which is Ireland's version of a small Meijer. We then took the bus to the city centre and walked by St. Stephens' Green and to Grafton Street.

(St. Stephen's Green Shopping Center) Looks like a steamboat on the Mississippi. Our guide made that analogy...we were all impressed he knew so much about the United States.

The little houses/apartments are so cute. They have bright painted doors and cast iron fences and the stairs & porches. It's picture perfect-- I didn't take too many pictures yet but I'll upload some as soon as I do. The guy who took us around from UCD was named Barry I think. He was really funny and friendly... describing places like St. Stephen's Gardens as a bitchin' park in his Irish accent.

Grafton Street reminds me of Taksim Square in Istanbul. It's all shops and a wide street made only for pedestrians. It had its charm...flower stands next to the Burger King. We got Irish Cellphones from 02 so we will be able to call/text each other and call home occasionally. We then went to the St. Stephen's Shopping Center. Don't worry America, Dublin has Claire's for all accessory needs. Out of all the American stores--Claire's is the one we find in Dublin. There was also a TGI Friday's. We went to Dunnes, which is like an Irish Sears to get Duvet covers for our beds and some basic dishware. We also got hangers and I bought an umbrella for those rainy Irish days. Dunnes also has a grocery store in the basement so we went there for the bear necessities...like toilet paper-- Kitten Soft. Not sure if that's quite like Charmin but we will see. We debated on what to do for dinner since we only have a hob (stove top), microwave, and toaster..which ruled out frozen pizza. We decided on grilled cheese since we didnt know if we had a pot to make any sort of pasta.

After our hike back to the bus, the 10, we headed back to campus. The buses are double decker and have the ears like buses in Turkey.

When we got home we made our grilled cheese in Claire & Laura's apartment. We met Claire's roommates--Claire from Norte Dame and Kat from Holy Cross. When I got back to my apartment, my roommates were finally there. There are 3 of them from Norte Dame-- Molly, Mary, and Julianne, and Stephanie who is from France. We haven't met our 6th roommate yet.

That's all one day in Dublin. About 8:40 pm. I think it's time to turn out the lights, watch an episode of Friends on my IPod and fall sleep. Can't fight the jetlag anymore.

That's all for now....