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.