This first week has been incredibly hectic. 

The flight was fine.  No crying babies.  Watched Easy A and tried to sleep (but failed quite miserably).  I’m almost positive a little over half of the plane was going to U of L (about 65 people?) which made getting past customs and finding our shuttle quite simple.

I arrived at U of L around 10AM.  Once dropped off at reception in my village (I’m living in Kimurry village), we had to fend for ourselves.  We weren’t given any directions on where to get food or what to do.  I was not used to this type of survival at all.  I was in a strange place with no direction.   After getting lost a few times, I found a grocery store and picked up very few items.  This is where I learned that you are supposed to bring your own grocery bags to the store.  I guess Ireland is green in more than one way.

It was then time to sleep.  And sleep.  And sleep.

The rest of the week was a lot of figuring out where everything is, orientations, pub hopping, and figuring out my class schedule.  I start my first day of classes tomorrow at 9AM.  We’ll see if I like it.  The cool thing is that we (international students) have two weeks to test out any classes we are interested in.  After two weeks, we pick our final schedule.

I really like all of my roommates.  I have one from Finland, one from Canada, and the other three are from the states.  No Irish roommates, which would be disappointing if my roommates weren’t so cool.  We had some nice family dinners, and I seem to be the head cook of the household (which may seem funny to some).  We don’t have a microwave in the kitchen, so my other roommates are actually learning how to cook!  Yay!  Life skills!

So, the Irish are a bit crazy.  And when I say a bit, I mean there are people screaming, “I’m on a boat!!!! I’m on a boat!!!!” outside my house right now.  The guys are very forward, so I am learning to get really good at rejecting people.  I’m not quite sure how they wake up in the morning after drinking so much.  I’m pretty impressed.

I am currently streaming the Steelers game and planning on staying up ’til 3AM to watch the whole game.  The time difference is a bit crazy, because it’s usually the middle of the afternoon when I skype my friends who are just getting up in the morning.  Also, fun fact:  Hulu doesn’t work in Ireland, so that was a huge bummer.

Photo time:

^Blue skies the first day. Love it.

^My first Guinness in Europe.

^Family Dinner #1

^We ventured into the city of Limerick and found this.

^My roommate Meagan, and myself. She’s from Canada and brought all of the roomies awesome Canada mittens :]
^At a pub on campus called Stables.   Fun friends :]

^Family dinner for Fleur’s birthday!

Will write later this week about my classes.

Cheers,
Melanie

Location: Limerick, Ireland