A Few Days In

I got to Dublin 3 days ago.  We landed around 8:00 AM Dublin time after what felt like a very short flight.  After going through immigration and customs, I met up with my API resident director (Eimear) and another girl who had also been on the cancelled Chicago flight (Molly).  We took a cab to UCD and checked in to get our student IDs/apartment access card.

Since I missed the first day of API orientation, we had to cram two days into one.  Add on top of that some crazy jet lag and a little bit of culture shock and I was feeling incredibly overwhelmed.  I was glad I wasn't the only one who missed the first day or else I would have felt even more behind.

The rest of the API students joined us (there's 11 in total) and Eimear gave another presentation followed by the group taking a bus into the city centre.  The streets were really busy with people walking around for it being in the afternoon on a Tuesday.  We stopped into Penneys (kind of like a cheap clothes/bedding store) and picked up a few things.  After that we went to a phone store because some of the girls still needed to get an Irish phone.  We then went to this really odd store, Argos, where you look through this giant catalog of pretty much everything that has ever been sold and then you write down the product number on a little slip.  You turn in the slip and pay and then the employees go into the back warehouse and get your item for you.  It seems like something America would have adopted by now.

Eimear, Molly and me then headed back to UCD while the rest of the API students stayed in town.  I got back to my apartment, unpacked, and tried to stay awake as long as possible to adjust to the time (I think I made it till about 6:30 PM).

Waking up in the morning, I already felt a lot better.  The API group met again for another little lesson on how the school system works followed by a campus tour (pictures to come once I take some).  The API group went to the "international lounge" and we all signed up for 2 international student organizations.  One of them was hosting one of the things you have to do when you're in Dublin...the pub crawl.  A little later was the first UCD welcome meeting.

UCD Orientation

At 6:30 that night, the API group headed out with about 300 other people (supposedly the biggest pub crawl ever of this kind) to the city centre.  After some confusion because of the massive amount of people, we got into The Workman's pub where we got a free pint (I partook in a pint of Bulmers, a delicious Irish cider) and started to socialize.  I was most happy to learn from a German girl I was talking to that she did not know what the Jersey Shore is and she did not know who Snooki is.

After that, we hit up four other pubs: Trinity bar, O'neils, The Mezz, and Porterhouse.  I liked all of the pubs but my least favorite was probably The Mezz.  It was sort of a small, loud, grunge bar although it was still fun.  Three of them had live music which was awesome!  The pub crawl was supposed to end at a nightclub but we were feeling tired so decided to get a cab back to UCD.

The first pint

Trinity

O'neils

The Mezz

Today there is more UCD orientation and we need to go to an actual grocery store.  So far, I'm absolutely loving Dublin.  I was a little worried after the first day but now I'm really happy to be here!