First Week Recap

It's hard to believe I've only been here for one week, it feels much longer. So far everything is going well. Classes start on Monday and my schedule looks pretty nice. I got in to all awesome classes that I wanted, and I'm very thankful. I am using my phone from the States here; however, I had to get it unlocked so I could use it here. My new number if you want to spend a lot of money to talk to me is: 085 763 7412. Here's a day by day recap of the interesting things I've done so far:

Sunday
I got in at 8:30 Dublin time, which is about 3:30 Indiana time. I didn't get any sleep on the plane, which sucked a lot. But the food was pretty good. A group of us took a bus to our hostel, which is one of the nicer ones in Ireland.

The outside of our hostel.

After putting our luggage in our rooms some of us went out for drinks. Though it was only about 11am in Dublin, it was still party time in the States. So drinking at that time was socially acceptable. Guinness, as you can imagine, is huge here. And it does actually taste quite different, mostly due to the fact that it comes from just down the road, instead of across an ocean. They also transport Guinness in huge trucks, like oil tankers.

One of many Guinness trucks.

We had a low-key day and got to just wander around and get over our jet lag. I found a door that I liked very much. There is a ton of graffiti around here. Nothing too spectacular though. There are a lot of punk kids loitering about, which is funny.

Sweet door or gate thing.

Monday
We started our orientation, there isn't too much to report there. Afterward we went on a hop-on, hop-off bus tour of Dublin, which was really cool. We got to see a lot of cool places, of course I couldn't tell you how to get back to some of them. But the ride helped us to better acquaint ourselves with the city. Dublin is a mix of old and new buildings. It's rather odd to see new stores in old beautiful buildings.

Hayley and I by St. Patrick's Cathedral

The River Liffey by O'Connell Street


Fields inside the Trinity campus.

Exit signs in Ireland are funny.

People bike a lot in Dublin, there are tons of bike lanes all over, even in city center. I'm jealous. And I miss my bike. I thought this bike lane (or cycle path as they say here) was pretty hard core, taking precedence over cars.

Tuesday
The business students had to get up extra early for orientation today, 8:30am instead of 10:30am. We learned some useful thing in orientation relating to how classes are here. For a class there is generally one essay and one final in essay format. So I need to brush up on my writing skills. During the break before lunch a few of us went to the Natural History Museum, also known fondly as the dead zoo. We found out this name comes from the hundreds of dead, stuffed animals that fill the museum. It was kind of cool, and kind of creepy/musty. Some of the animals were stuff a long time ago and you could tell. That night we saw The Importance of Being Earnest at the Abbey Theater. It was quite funny, all the parts were played by men, which gave it a good twist.

Wednesday
This day is one of the more exciting. We finally got to leave the hostel and move into our accommodations for the semester. I am living with two other girls from my program, Hannah and, Hayley, in Roebuck Hall. Which is extremely new, we're the first residents, and it is amazing. There are six of us in the apartment and we each have our own bedrooms with connecting bathrooms.

My room, the bathroom is to the left.

The kitchen is really nice, there are huge windows that overlook campus and out to Dublin Bay. It's amazing. The three other roommates are international as well, though not through the same program I'm doing. Bill is from Pennsylvania, Allan is from Ottawa, and Jordan is from Boston. I really lucked out because all of my roommates are wonderful and we have a good time hanging out together. Wednesday night we went out to the campus bar, which is an experience you'll never get at the U of M.

Thursday
We had nothing going on today, so we went out and bought more groceries at place down the road a bit. Taking buses in Dublin is dangerous, as Hayley, Molly and I waited over an hour to catch a bus for our return trip. Molly and I signed up for the gym as well, so hopefully I'll be fit and trim by the time I get back to the States. Nothing else too exciting happened.

Friday
Today we had orientation at the Quinn School of Business. The dean is awesome, he is funny and relaxed which is totally opposite of everything in Carlson. I got my computer set up to go on the internet and my schedule. I'll be taking Finance, Marketing, Human Resource Development, International Business and Irish History. I have no classes Tuesday or Friday and my earliest class is at 9am on Mondays, which is a poor choice of days to start early if I say so myself. Later today we're going back to the store to get dish soap and other necessities that keep getting forgotten about.

Cheers!