So for my first day

So this was an interesting day. I gave myself an hour and half to get to campus. I left exactly at 7:30 and took a leisurely stroll to the Luas. I felt no need to rush since I had so much time.

PS - for those of you who were asking, the Luas is the train/tram that runs along the street.

There were only a few other students at my stop and even tho the Luas was full, I went ahead and got on. So I got off and walked to campus just after 8am. Next week I think I'll leave at 8am. My class was at 9 so I was there a little early. It was a cool drizzly morning. I actually slipped on the stones walking to school. Oh well. I kept on walking, hoping that not too many people saw me.

So I figured I'd get some tea and hang out but apparently nothing opens before 8:30am on campus. I think the earliest class is actually 9, which is unusual in the US. So I wandered around campus and finally found a bench in a little secluded park area. Once it hit 8:30, I got myself a tea - some cream and one sugar - it was good!

I walked to my first class, Theatre and Ireland 1-lecture, and took lots and lots of notes. We have 6 girls in my course. In the first class we were with under grad Seniors. We had 16 students and 1 was a guy. It's all a little over my head at this point. But the class was cool. We are starting with Irish pre-Christian theatre, and it's like getting a history lesson in Irish folk as well. It would help to know what my Prof is talking about, but I'll learn it as we go on. So we only have an hour in that class but will usually get out early so we "M-Phils" can get to our Research Seminar that starts at 10 and is a 10 minute walk off of campus. Our Prof walked us to our next class since it is not on campus and not close.

So we took all these notes in the theatre class, and when we arrived late to the Seminar, we all realized we didnt know what was going on! There was a PhD student talking some crap and once she finished there was a question and answer period. When the class ended, I asked my Theatre Prof what this class was and why we were there. She explained that every week we will have a new PhD student presenting their work. It doesnt technically have anything to do with our course, but we can get ideas of what sort of research we want to do. It's just unfortunate that we have to cut our Theatre class short to watch some 'know it alls'. Oh well.

Then we have an couple hours to spare before we head to our Cinema and Ireland 1 - lecture class. There we join the MPhil Film Studies students. It was a little warm in there are my course girls and I had walked around a lot between classes so we were tired and the Prof was a little low key. We all had a hard time staying awake, even tho I thought it was interesting. He just talked a little mono tone.

At the end of this class, my feet hurt pretty bad (turns out I have two blisters on the palms of both my feet... owwie it hurts!!!! I was walking like Forest Gump and walking very slowly)

Then, I was on my way home and decided to 'top up' (add more money to) my new Luas travel card. You can add up to 50 euro, which I did. But it didnt show up on my card. I thought that maybe when I had put the card thru the machine it had taken my card, but it kept beeping at me. I slid it thru a few times but couldnt tell if I was good to go or I wasnt getting through at all. So I hopped on the Luas, unsure about my status. If you get on the Luas without a ticket or passing your card thru then you can be fined 1000 euro. So a few stops later, when I saw a bunch of guys with orange vests coming on, I quickly got off. They dont check if you bought a ticket every time. It's just a random check. But i didnt know for sure if my card was valid so I got off and topped my card up 10 euro from my credit card.

Anyways, once I got back on the next tram, I made it to my stop without getting caught again (but this time i knew I had money on the card) and limped on back to the flat. So once i got my feet off the floor on the bed, I called the Luas customer service and they are 'investigating' my situation and hopefully I will either get that 50 euro back or get it added to my card.

What a day! Currently I am watching Friends on dvds. I am on season 3. I have watched some British or Irish tv, but I keep my good old American tv on in my room.

I have tried not to get up cuz my footies hurt too much. I dont look forward to any more walking. I think I'm going to get to bed tonight. I've been having trouble getting to sleep but bet I'll get to sleep tonight!

So that's my long day. Tomorrow I have a class starting at 2 (yey) then another one at 5.

The night before

Well, first off, I headed into town today to get my loan refund check. After waiting for 20 or 30 minutes to go upstairs to the student fees office, I saw my name on the refund check was Kelly. Again with the Kelly. I was Kelly on my travel card too! So I showed the lady the error and she got on the phone, had me wait a little while just to tell me that she will have to reissue another check which i can pick up on Friday. So I'm still money-less! :-(

Later this afternoon I went on a post grad tour of the campus. We walked around, got to see what most of the buildings were... it was a good time. At the end they had a wine reception (yet another one) and I had a glass of orange juice and some cheese! Yum! haha. I got a smart card for the Luas so I wont have to have cash on me every time I ride. It's sort of like a prepaid card, but cheaper to ride if you have the card.

Then I came back to the apt. where I made stroganoff and steamed broccoli for the group. The taste of the strog. was a little different, but alright. That was the first meal I made here that didnt start out frozen or dry. But it turned out fine.

Lastly tonight I finished reading what needs to be read for my 9am class tomorrow. I'm a little nervous. Not about the class. It's the same place that we met for my orientation, and after that the Prof will walk us to our next class since it is off campus. But I am nervous about transportation. The most controlled way to get to school is to walk. I could give myself about an hour. But I dont want to show up on my first day of class sweaty. I could try going on the Luas. But they say that you should give it plenty of time and that you may need to let 3 trains pass by before you can squeeze on. So I could try to be out there at 7:30 in order to get to my 9am class. We are about half way on the Luas track from start to end, so there are several stops before it gets to me. So I'd have to see how difficult it would be for me to get on. Then there's the bus option. I dont have a card for the bus, which, if I end up taking it a lot, would be a really good idea, seeing as you need exact change for the bus. The bus actually starts it's route at my stop, so I could probably be assured a spot. But again, I dont know what the crowd/rush hour traffic would be like. I would maybe only give myself an hour if I tried to take the bus.

When you're in a car, you know when you can leave. You give time for traffic, but you know when you can get in your car and start driving. I dont know when I can get on the Luas or the bus at this moment. And the last thing I need is to be late for my first class.

I'm ready for class. I've got 3 notebooks and I can always get more. I've read everything that was required to be read for the morning. I've got my alarm set for 6:30 (which sounds so completely unreasonable when you have a 9am class 2 1/2 miles away - shoot, I wouldnt wake up that early to get to work at 8am!!) I'll feel better once I'm in my regular routine and have a good idea of what i'm doing and when.

Tonight, I just need to try to sleep!!!!

A Post by Caroline

So I'm sitting in Kerry's room amongst all her junk and she says she doesn't know what to say or she can't say it well so I'm going to say it for her...Actually although it's 11.57pm she's just gone to get a pizza out of the oven!

Today, she went to Church this morning and sat next to an English guy called Richard who she said was very nice but he went to meet his Opera friends so she didn't get chance to speak to him as much as she'd like to. I met her at Tesco to get some food coz she wanted to get some fruit and veg (yes guys, she's being very healthy over here!!) and I wanted to get some food to make a thai green chicken curry to make for all of our flatmates and one of our friends (Nike from the photo) tonight. It took her a while to find the way to Tesco from the church, she's getting good at walking faster so I'm not sure if it took her a while coz she was lost or coz she was walking slowly from getting up so early for church! We chilled out this afternoon and she went into town to meet Nike and bring her for dinner we us, whilst I attempted to make a gulten, dairy, egg and pork free meal so we didn't poison Nike.

The meal seemed to go down well but everyone was up for an early night since tomorrow is week 1 at uni. Oh! Also, Kerry bought her first winter coat yesterday! It's gorgeous in black with a satin sash belt to sinch it in at the waist and it's got a really good shape to it too...shame we went for clothes in the sale and managed to buy everything but! Pictures will come soon...

Sunday slow day

So today has been nice. I took my time getting ready this morning, which lead me to rushing out to church. It's a good 20 minute walk once I step out of my room, and I gave myself 15 minutes. Whoops. I went to Grosvenor again. I enjoyed it. I arrived just about 11am. I was almost a big moist from walking so fast to arrive on time, and I got seated next to a tall English Opera student! haha. Guess you never know what you're gonna get!

I really enjoy worshiping in another country. It's really cool to be with people who love Christ on another continent. Afterwards I met the assistant pastor's wife while she was feeding her 8 month old son. I am going to try to make it to their Tuesday night small group this week. I feel it's important to get involved with the community and with the church I am attending.

After church I met Caroline at Tesco for groceries. I thought if we had really heavy bags then I could pay for a taxi to take us back, since the taxi hub is right outside the Tesco. Unfortunately, the cash register guy wouldnt take my credit card, meaning I had to use all the cash I had left in my wallet (that was supposed to be used for traveling until I get my loan money squared away!!) At least I had the money to pay for the food, but still... Now I'm really broke!!

So I had what was sorta like Ramen noodles, a bit different, and I'm going to re-read my play before I head to campus and give my book to another student so she can be prepared for class on Tuesday morning.

So once I get to campus, I assume I will stand in one place and have people meet me. I'm giving my play book to a classmate, then I'm bringing my Irish Society friend Nike back to our flat where Caroline will have dinner prepared.

But for the moment, I'm going to rest. It's time for a rest!!!

Ugggghhh

So I went out with 3 other flat mates this afternoon. I actually wanted to stay in and finish reading my stuff for school, then go grocery shopping, then go to this seminar. That didnt happen. I woke up late again, maybe a quarter til 11. I'm having trouble falling asleep before 3am (even with the help of sleeping aids...). I got up and read more of IOP (yes, Lisa, I said it!) Got a small bowl of cereal and used the rest of my milk (i dont have much more food now!!). I read one of my plays, the one that I'm going to be handing to another class mate tomorrow, so I needed to get that out of the way. And then my flat mates called me to come along with them to go shopping. They knew the only thing I needed was food, so we were going to work that into the shopping plan.

Well, for some reason (there is a reason, but I was unaware) we headed to the North past the Liffey River. The Liffey splits Dublin into North and South and there is a rivalry between the two. We headed to Dunnes shopping center on their "grafton street" which is much bigger than the one in Rathmines. I had no plans to buy anything but I did buy a winter coat. I brought lots of jackets with me, but I'm thinking most of them will be too thin for when it starts to really get cold. There was a huge sale so the place was slammed. I knew we'd be walking so I wore "walking shoes" - big thick almost boot like shoes. Unfortunately, it was too 'warm' to wear that sort of thing. According to weather.com, its 63 at 5pm, so it was probably about 65, which is pretty warm for this place!! And my condition was acting up!! All I wanted to do was to throw off my shoes and socks and grab my rainbows. But I couldnt do that, as I was on the north side. Also, busses dont really travel across the Liffey. They stay on one side or the other. We took the Luas, but had to walk past my school, then past the Liffey, and to the 'other side of town'. I could feel my heart rate rising and I was getting very warm. I didnt go into any other shops that the girls went into. I wanted to stay outside where it was cool.

Finally, here I am on my bed, my shoes and socks OFF, waiting for my feet to recover. Funny thing is, the other girls were worn out as well. Not like me, but they had aching backs and things like that. I dont think that we're just 'old', but we have been doing a lot of walking around for a while now.

I will not be heading back out to go to the seminar, even tho it's still going on. And I dont think I will walk into Rathmines to go grocery shopping. Tonight may be a cereal night (provided one of the flat mates lets me use their milk!!)

It was a nice day, but I was dressed for a cooler day, and that just didnt work out great for me... So we will rest some more :-)

Orientation Night

First off, here's me. In case you forgot. This is what I look like after my orientation day. Sorry MJ, you cant see this picture unless you make the difficult journey to getting online. Otherwise, you may imagine what I look like :-)

So I gave myself plenty of time (so I thought) to walk down to get my refund check but that's not so correct. By the time I actually got on the Luas, 30 mins had past, giving me 30 mins to get to my orientation. I decided I'd have to wait til Monday to get my check, but I did stop in and get my travel card changed from "Kelly" to "Kerry". Once that was done I slowly strolled to my area of campus.

When I arrived at my dept I found the blonde lady who had been helping me last week. She walked me up to my room. I would have had to have the code to get thru the door anyways - which I got in orientation - so it was just as well to have gone to this lady.

One thing that I'm finding true about the Irish is that they are not on time. Ever. Usually, this is GREAT for me!! I dont tend to be on time. But when I'm new to something, I show up early. You dont wanna walk in late if they've already started!! But for instance, when I showed up early to the CU, they asked why I was incredibly early, even tho it was only 10 mins early. They figure everyone will show up about 15 mins late - meaning I was really 25 mins early!

Well I was the first student to arrive at my orientation, beating 2 of the 4 professors!! That's fine tho. I got to talk to the ones who were there and they got to know who I was, and that cant hurt to have the professor know who you are!! Well, only 2 other girls showed up!! And apparently they said there are only 5 or 6 who are in the course!

But each of the profs got to talk for a little bit and gave us class schedules. I'm excited about it!! I have film screenings each week - and Dad, you'll like that on week 9 we'll watch The Quiet Man!! haha awesome huh? We will visit theatres and archives. Even one of the classes will be a tour of all the libraries that we'll need for our research. How perfect is that?? I'm really looking forward to this. There are no exams either. Just writing (which isnt great, since my writing isnt great... :-/ ) I usually have 1 class on Mondays but for the next 2 weeks we wont have our Monday class. So my first school week starts on Tuesday, and I'll have 3 classes that day. I'll be starting off my week with a bang!!

We then found out where we will be screening our films, and also our lectures the next day on the film will be in the same room - good deal, less places for me to find!!

The Director of our course is also the Theatre prof and she gave us a photocopy of one play we need to read before class Tues morning at 9am. Then she gave us the name of a book of modern and contemporary plays, one of which we'll need to also read by next Tues. Thing is, there was only 1 book in stock, so I bought it and I'm going to read it by Sun afternoon, when I will pass it on to another student so she can read it, since the rest of the books wont come in til Tues or Wed. The first one from that book is Pot of Broth by WB Yates. Doesnt seem too long.

One of the foreign students and I then wandered around Grafton Street for a bit, and she asked if this was the road where they filmed "Once". I realized that it was. 'Once' is this Irish film that of course Steve showed me a couple of years ago, cuz that's sort of an indie film, right? nothing that was super publicized, as far as I remember... (i dont usually know of films that didnt come out on the big screen at Columbiana Grande) Sean you saw it too, maybe you'll remember. I think it's great that I got to see it cuz I bet that will be a film we will talk about, and it's something I know of, and it was a film that was filmed right outside my school!!

We had a wine reception after the orientation with the other "M-Phils" like the drama students and film students (See? I am all three - film music theatre- not just one. I like the idea of that!!). As soon as I walked in the course Director found me and introduced me to another girl in my course who hadnt made it to the orientation, so that made 4 of us so far who I've seen who are part of the course... She was sweet. Two Irish students, One Chinese student, and ME! The last one I met I talked to for quite a while. She actually did the undergrad program for Multimedia at DCU, which was what I had an interview for in the Masters degree. Basically the Masters program would have been the 4 years of undergrad degree in 1 year. But it sounded a lot like what I did in my undergrad - as far as making films and videos and having audio projects. So I would have been prepared for that program had I went ahead with the interview, but I like the path I've chosen (That the Lord has put in front of me).

Coming home, I grabbed a 6in sub from subway and an iced mocha next door from Butlers - this is chocolate you should expect from me for Christmas. It is sooo tasty!! (yes yes, I admit it, I bought a whole chocolate bar to go with my mocha!!)

Then I grabbed the Luas back home, got a seat - yey me - got back to Hall (trinity hall), found my computer and walked it over to the computer place. Here are the results. 1. the guy played around for a bit so that my iTunes will connect to the internet and I've already watched the 2nd week of ANTM, and in fact, i prepaid for the entire season! I'm so fieeeeeerce!! (Thanks Tyra) So I'm set!! 2. Most Macs can not get skype on the wonderful server that is my university. Great! But, there is a slightly more pricey solution. As you skype users have found, there is virtually no cost - unless you need to buy a mic to talk into your computer. Other than, the use of skype is cheap. Well, I can go to O2 - where I get my phone service from - and get one of these plug in drives for 20e the first month and 10e each mo. after that, and then I'll be able to use skype. but still, that's not bad! I probably was going to give myself 50-60e a month for phone service, so say I spend 40e on my phone, and then 10 on skype? Yea, that works!!!

So that's my story of my day.

I need to get on with reading the play in my book so I can be prepared to hand it off to someone else. But tomorrow they have something called "Screening the irish in britain'. It'll be an all day event, luckily something you can show up to at any time and leave at any time, so I may not stay from 9:15am-7:15pm!! But apparently a lot of the speakers are writers of my books I'll be reading, which is kinda cool. (I should definitely be there for when Dr Holohan from Trinity speaks around 5pm!!)

So that's the my idea of what might happen tomorrow... We shall see :-)

Orientation day

First I'd like to say "GO COCKS!!"




Next, today is the day I head out to orientation. Just from looking at the email list there seems to be most girls in my course, which isn't super surprising. I'm going to head down early to pick up my 'refund check' from the student fees office. Just because I get my check today does not mean I'll have money now. Basically once I give my check to the Bank of Ireland, then they'll have to send it back home to verify it, then it will get sent back to Ireland, so I'll still be waiting several more weeks possibly to actually have money (Mom, I look forward to that 20e coming in the mail!!!)

As I said before, I'm a little nervous about going today to meet everyone. I know where my department is. Both of my parents have been there with me at different times. But then my mom and I decided to wander a bit and all the doors we looked through lead to the theatre. I didnt find any classrooms, and we are supposed to meet for the orientation in the lecture room. Now in a couple of hours I should be settled, but until then I will have butterflies in my tummy.

As I'm getting ready I have Aerosmith playing on my iTunes. Two thoughts come to my mind: Rockin Rollercoaster at Hollywood Studios in Orlando - what a fun ride!!; and that I need to make sure I hit the last computer session tonight so I can be connected to iTunes. I still need to see if I can download this season's America's Next Top Model. Lisa, how's it going? It's all short girls this season. Those are my two American things I want right now - my show, and Disney World :-)

First Thursday

First off, if you want to see more pix (if you dont scroll down quickly) here they are. I thought you should get a good idea of my bathroom!! Do you notice that the shower floor is the bathroom floor?? The shower is on the left. you can see the drain on the floor. This is the entire bathroom, from left to right! So when I take a shower, the entire floor gets wet. Crazy huh??
Also I've got a pix of me and my mom outside on the street in front of my apartment. I'm on the 3rd floor (the 2nd main window above my head is my kitchen and living room, and it has a light blue blanket over the couch) and the second double window from the left (2 double windows above the wall) is my room.


So today started late. I'm feeling like I'm on an extended 'holiday'. That will all change when classes start!! So today I slept til just before 11am (which means I was probably waking up when some of you were getting up at 6am!!) and I had a lazy morning. Read a little (Isle of Palms, thank you Aunt Barb), took a shower at 1:30 then made lunch! Talk about slow start!!

Just before 4 my flat mates Caroline (England) and Monique (Canada) and I left for campus. This time we decided to WALK!! We went at a nice breezy pace since Monique had just bought 160 euro leather boots this morning and had to take it easy. It took us an hour to walk to campus. It's not that we just walked slow, but remember, it is a good 2 1/2 mile treak to campus.

The thing is - everyone walks EVERYWHERE. Or you take the public transportation. Caroline thinks it's outrageous that I didnt walk to school (Ben Lippen, that is) or to Church or to get to town and that I had a car that I drove everywhere. She also doesnt understand how I have never lived in an area that had a bus stop. But honestly, where are you gonna hop on the bus in Irmo or Chapin?? They just dont have them. If you want to get on a bus, you're gonna need to drive down town, THEN catch a bus. It's just a different world that they've never seen!! I suppose in Irmo we could have walked to the BiLo or Kroger, but with a car, you might as well drive so you can take more than 2 bags home!!
But here, you walk! I've taken the bus (one of those double deckers) once into the city centre. But mostly we ride the Luas. It's a 10 minute walk to the Luas, then you pay 1.90 euro, then you walk 10 more minutes down Grafton St to hit the campus. And as a side note, it is a SIGHT to see Grafton Street. If you google map Dublin, you can find Grafton street between St. Stephen's Green and Trinity College. It's a regular road but cars dont normally drive down this road. It's filled with all the nice shops and eateries and there are constant performers up and down this road. If you saw my Ireland video from last year I have a section at the beginning of two kids singing on the street. This is where they were. You get bands (modern and traditional), guys on guitars, people all in bronze standing like a statue, even today we passes a choir out there singing the oldies song "for the longest time" (for the record, that song was stuck in my head all afternoon!!)

But once we got to campus we headed out to the field where they were having cricket and rugby tryouts! We watched for a little bit, then walked around some.

Around 7 I headed to the Christian Union (CU) praise night. So apparently, Ireland is on MY time - 15-30 mins late for everything. The sign said they start at 7 and when I appeared a few minutes before 7, a guy told me that I was really early! LOL But it was good. I talked to a few kids that were alone (one girl told me she thought I was part of the committee cuz I came over to talk to her!! haha) and after 30 minutes of praise songs, most of which I hadnt heard, we got to hang around and talk. I found the 2 other post grad girls there tonight. They were nice. One is from Dublin and the other is from Canada (who loves Seinfeld!!) I left around 10:30 (also called 'half ten') and came home with a first year medical student who happened to live at Trinity Hall as well, so that was good to have someone to walk home with on that last walk!

Tomorrow I will probably have another slow morning, then head out to campus around half two to get to my orientation meeting. This is when all the students from my course get together and we meet the professors (and each other). It's different for each orientation, but I assume they will talk a little about the classes, maybe what to expect or what we will need, and we may end up at a pub. Every post grad student I've talked to has told me that they've ended up in the pubs with their classmates and professors. I mean, I would go to this taco place in 5 points with my film professor and pick her brain, but going to pubs is a much different experience. Honestly, I am nervous about going. First off, I have to find the drama lecture room (I know where the department is, but I dont know where they do lectures...). So I am nervous about meeting my class mates and just finding where to go. There are only 15 kids in the course so it's not like I'll be following the crowd... Here's hoping I dont miss this thing cuz I'm an idiot!!

A céilí in the front square

As a quick update, tonight I went to a ceili in the front square on campus. It was really cool. If you are living in Ireland, this seems like the perfect thing to do. They had a traditional Irish band and they showed us steps and my flat mate Caroline and I danced together! I took a quick video of the Cumann Gaelach committee showing us the first dance we learned (at the end is a shot of my American flat mate Maria)



I had a picture with Stephan who is on the committee. I specifically got his picture because I knew that Lisa would loooooove him (and I told him so). Lisa, if you come to Ireland, this is the guy you'll wanna talk to to :-)
The girls only picture is Caroline, from England, and our new friend Nike (neeka) from Holland, who speaks Irish very well.

Still working down the cold....

So first off, I still have my cold. I've spanned all the areas of the common cold. I've had the achy sore throat, now it's the running nose coughing cold. Thing is, they dont have advil or cough drops. I've used just about all my American cold medicine... Sad...

But last night I went with my 'flat mate' Carolina to our first meeting of Cumann Gaelach. We met the group outside in the front square. Everyone went around and introduced themselves, and the ones who could say it in Irish did so. We proceeded to go on a 'pub crawl' where we went to 3 pubs and lastly hit an Irish club. In my mind I thought we were going to a dance club but it was actually a private Irish speaking club. All the signs were in Irish and nobody spoke in English, and in the corner they had a 6 piece Irish group playing traditional Irish music.

The point of this group is to get together and have Irish conversations, so last night I learned how to introduce myself in two different ways (Sounds like 'misha kerry' or 'kerry is anom dom') and learned how to say Hello (sounds like 'gia gwitch'). I know you're practicing your Irish right now!! haha

A lot of the reviews I'd seen from international students at Trinity said they got along great with other international students but they didnt seem to be very involved with local students. I can really understand that. As you know all of my roommates are international. And there were a number of international students in Cumann Gaelach but most of them were Irish students. So that's great. I look forward to trying to get involved with the culture and the locals!

As far as my computer situation goes, I can sorta get internet at times in my room. But I can not get iTunes connected to the internet (meaning I cant get America's Next Top Model - unless one of you want to buy it and email it to me ;-) ). I also cant get Skype to work at this time. I'm hoping to get these things resolved this week... I'll let you know how that goes

And with my classes, during this term I have classes Mon-Wed and Fri. My Thesis will be due at the end of Feb and my Dissertation is due August 20, 2010, meaning I will be here for a full year.

Currently I am waiting for my student loan check and just barely making it by. I dont know when my loan will be ready and all I'm using money for is transportation. I am very very broke... *sigh* So that's my life here... :-)

Sorry I've not been around...

So hello, again :-)

This weekend I moved into my apartment, met most of my roommates, did a whole lot of walking, tried to set up my room, and used all my money!!

My apartment isnt huge, but it works

My bathroom is even smaller. The shower is the same floor as the toilet

My parents helped me move in on Friday and helped me discover Rathmines, the nearby town. It has the shopping center and grociery store. On Saturday my parents toured Dublin on the "Hop on Hop off", a tour bus that stops at different locations, and you can get on and off at your own schedule. That day I hung out with my roommates and got to know them. On Sunday my parents came out to my apartment and we took a taxi to Grosvenor (sounds like Groavner) Baptist Church. The pastor is an English man and I really enjoyed his sermon. The church has got a very international congregation. It was nice. We also checked out St. Stephen's Green shopping mall. Lisa would enjoy that!

My roommates are also varied in nationalities. There's Ona (sounds like 'wanna') from Romania, a 2nd year PhD student, Monique, a French Canadian, Maria from Florida, and Caroline from England. The last 3 are 1 year Masters students like me. We have tried out different public transportations together (the Luas, the bus), we have found the shopping center and the cinema in Dunrum, and we have discovered more of Rathmines. Thankfully, Carolina brought her car from England, so we can drive to the mall!!

This week I have had computer guys come to my room, but alas, I can not get the internet to work in its entirety. :(
Today I tried to wrap up loose ends. My roommates and I took the bus to campus and I got my travel card. I signed up for the Choral Society, and we practice every Wed. It's the oldest and largest choir in Trinity (since 1837) and we will perform this and next semesters and will even travel to Galway to sing. I signed up for dance classes, which means Friday nights. And I also signed up for Cumann Gaelach, the Irish society. We meet every Tues for conversations. As I have no Irish, it will be interesting as I try it out tonight. There will be people speaking English for those of us who are complete beginners. They also go to pubs and are involved with Irish singers and dancers. It'll be a great way to learn about the culture and to learn to speak a little Irish.
Earlier this weekend, I joined the Photography Society, but they dont have regular meetings. I also joined the Christian Union which meets on Thursdays for the 'large group' meetings. So I will basically have a meeting Tues-Fri nights.

I also got an email earlier today with my class schedule, so I feel better knowing more about what's going on. But this Friday at 3pm I should be having an orientation with my group, so I will get to see where my classes are...

Tomorrow night I hope to hit up the computer area so that they can totally fix my internet, then after that I'm going to go to my new Church for the 18-30 small group and try to meet some of the people there.

So anyways, that's what's up with me. It's cooler than it is in South Carolina, obviously, but I dont really feel like I'm in another country. Maybe it's just natural being here. But I look forward to getting involved with the Church and my school. I'm a little nervous about classes and essays and exams and the dissertation, but that's not something I need to worry about just yet. So that's me... :)

Day 2 - Last day in the hotel

Ok, so first off, you guys should understand that I am 5 hours ahead of you. So as I'm writing a little before 8pm, it's not just 3 for you on the east coast.

Today I sorta chilled this morning, not taking off til around 11:30am. I tried once again to get a bank account but failed again.

So I got my cell phone set up. They call it a mobile (a hard 'I') Email me if you'd like my cell (and if you want charges on your phone, as I get get free incoming texts and calls. hehe)

I hung out at student records for a little bit, and Mom and I had lunch in a cafe. Then we took the Luas from the city center, where my school is, down to my apartment at Trinity Hall. The Luas is like a train or above ground sub. It's a fast way to travel, but it's a 10 minute walk to the luas from my apt, and then another 10 minute walk to campus (followed by a 5-10 min walk to my classes). Eventually I will try out the bus near by, see which one will make me less late!

And that's been my day. My day plus a lot of walking.

You know that I've been diagnosed with my little disease, but the meds have helped a lot and I have been able to walk a whole lot, much more than i though possible, without getting weak and really sick

As I assume at this point, I wont have internet tomorrow? This is just a guess. So here's the plan for tomorrow: We will leave the hotel by 9:45am (yes, that's 4:45 your time) and head over to student records, see if they have the correct bank form so i can finally open a bank account, and see if they have corrected my local phone number and address, so that I may have my verification form to give to immigration.

Also, we hope this happens in less than an hour and half because we ordered a large taxi, possibly a van, to take all the luggage (5 large bags) to my new home. (It would be extremely inconvenient to try to move all the bags by bus!!!)

So I will be meeting my roommates tomorrow, I'll be seeing a lot of "freshers" (as my understanding is, there is just our one 'post grad' building but i believe all the other 11 buildings are freshers or first years)

So that's where I stand so far. My bank account should be set up completely by next week. I'm going to try to be finished with immigration so I cant get kicked out, then get my travel visa so when I do leave for a holiday, I'm allowed back in.... This is all future talk. We'll see what happens.

Hope you feel included :-)

The first day

So I only have a few more minutes of online time that I purchased from the hotel.

But today is the day my parents and I arrived in Dublin.

For a quick over view, we arrived safely, got all our bags, got driven to our hotel by a shuttle bus, then immediately hit the street after arriving. I need to get a bank account set up. I've chosen the Bank of Ireland as my bank, but as of tonight I still do not have an account with them. I was sent from place to place and nothing would come of it.

I did get my fees paid - meaning I signed my student loan checks, and I registered for Trinity.

I still am unsure about how to get into my classes, but that will come eventually.

Tomorrow I need to get my phone set up so i can make calls, I need to talk to the student records people and give them my local cell phone number and my change of address at Trinity Hall.

So I will give more info later...

Try to get some pix in too :-)