Hello! I'm sorry it has taken me so long to write an update! We've been really busy these last few days, so I haven't had a whole lot of time to sit and write everything down. School starts today, but I don't have class on Mondays, so I have the house to myself this morning. Let me just say, I love it here! I haven't even been here a week and I've already seen so much! I'll try to remember as much as I can and give you a recap.
The flight went well, though I have to say, the jet lag really got to me. We're only five hours ahead here, but it took me so long to adjust to that! I think yesterday was really the first normal day in that regard. We got a taxi from the airport to our house. The taxi driver was really friendly and showed us a lot of places along the way to kind of help us get our bearings. I sort of forgot how they drive on the wrong side of the road. So weird. We're still getting used to looking to the right when we cross a street. Anyway, we got to the house. That's when the culture shock they're always talking about first set in. For some reason, I kind of assumed that since everyone here speaks English and Europe is pretty advanced, there wouldn't be a whole lot to adjust to. I was very wrong. I mentioned before I left that the area we were living in was supposed to be pretty nice, so we were all expecting a pretty modern place to live. Not so much. The area is very nice, but our house is quite old and hasn't been updated since who knows when. The original email said that it was recently redone. Apparently "redone" only means a new coat of paint. The appliances seem ancient, I've never seen carpet like this in my life, there are still skeleton keys for all of the doors, and we have a water heater we have to turn on thirty minutes before we want to shower or all we will get is freezing water. This also means that the water in the house is cold all the time unless the heater is on. The house is heated by radiators and those only come on twice a day, so we have to wear lots of layers usually to stay warm. The only thing cool about the house was the backyard which is small but has roses and apple trees. Very pretty. In fact, all the yards, front and back, in this area are gorgeous. Anyway, we were all a little shocked at our first impression, to say the least, and were all thinking "I just want to go home." Instead, we got our stuff into our rooms and decided to go grocery shopping. This was another major adjustment. At home, I'm used to my Walmart that I'm familiar with. I know where everything is, what everything is, and have a routine that I follow. There is nothing even resembling Walmart here. Instead of have a couple of large super-stores around the city, they have lot of smaller market-type places everywhere. We use a place called Tesco which is right around the corner from our house. We were already exhausted and a little frustrated, so the grocery store just made us that much more disoriented. We didn't know where anything was and we constantly had to convert the euros to dollars, trying to figure out how much we were spending. It's expensive! Apparently, Dublin is the like the third most expensive place in the world to live or something like that. I believe it. After grocery shopping, we walked around our end of the city looking for cell phone stores and whatever else we could fine. We walked into a home store that reminded us of a department store in America. I know it sounds so ridiculous, but we loved just being in a place that seemed familiar for once! Before going shopping, we decided that we needed to give our new house a little makeover, so at this home store, my roommate and I got some new sheets, matching duvet covers, and some candles for our room. In fact, we got candles for the rest of the house too to try to get rid of that musty "old" smell. All of that helped a lot. Needless to say, the first couple of days were a little difficult. Adjusting to the house, unfamiliar EVERYTHING, and just general differences in the way of life here was a challenge. Luckily, we all felt the same way together. The study abroad office always told us to have a sense of humor going into a trip like this. I now see why. Though it was hard at first, it hasn't taken long at all to get used to everything. We actually really like our house now. It helped to get our stuff moved in and make it "ours." After we got used to the little quirks here and there, it wasn't bad at all. The location couldn't be more perfect, it's fairly big, and we've all decided that this living situation is a much better representation of how the people here really live. What Americans consider "nice" and what people here consider "nice" is just very different and something we weren't used to. So, my roommates and I have all decided that this was much better than being put up in a ritzy, modern apartment. We like it a lot. :)
We spent the second day at the school figuring out our schedules and what classes we're going to be taking. This is, by far, the best schedule I've ever had. Like I said, no Monday classes for me! That means extended vacation times on the weekends. :) I haven't gone to any classes yet, obviously, but I don't think they're going to be that bad. From the impression I've gotten, their course work is much more relaxed than it is at Purdue. That was one thing I was really worried about. Anyone in Dietetics knows how strenuous the classes are at Purdue and how much time outside of class they require. Their classes are longer here and the normal students are in class from 9-5 every day, so I'm pretty sure they do a lot of their work in class and not so much on their own. I'm not taking all of the classes here, so my day won't be nearly that full. It's a pretty nice arrangement for me. Also, on Fridays I think I'll be done by noon, which was also be very nice. I'll be able to take off early for weekend trips instead of having to wait until Saturday. The school is about a thirty minute walk from our house, but it's a nice area to walk through, so I don't mind it. It's been nice to have these last few days to do whatever we want, but I'm very ready to start classes tomorrow. It'll be nice to get into a routine finally.
We've seen some things around Dublin, but we took our first day-trip this weekend. My roommate, Kayleen's, boyfriend is here on a study abroad trip too, so the four of us and he and his roommates all took a trip to Howth, which is a coastal town just east of Dublin. We took the DART which is pretty much their version of the metro; only about a thirty minute ride. If you know me well, you know I LOVE the coast, so I really enjoyed this. It was incredible. Blue skies (very rare here), gorgeous water, seagulls, and sail boats everywhere. We walked around the harbor for a while then had lunch in a little pub where everyone had fish and chips and watched some golf. Afterwards, we hiked up around the hills along the coastline. I've never seen anything like that before. It honestly looked just the pictures in magazines and on tv. I really wanted to see those cliffs that you always here about in Ireland and we definitely did! It was a long hike, probably over two hours. We were all pretty exhausted by the end, but everyone had a really good time.
Yesterday, the four of us girls went to Dundrum to go shopping. We took the Luas, which something like a smaller version of the DART. The Dundrum Shopping Center is massive! I think it was four stories high and had every imaginable kind of store and restaurant plus a really neat outside plaza that connected the mall to more restaurants and a movie theater. Very cool and so much fun. The city center in Dublin has a lot of shopping too, but it's all very expensive, so this is a much more practical option if you actually want to get something.
Dublin is, by far, the coolest city I've ever been to. It's a big city, but it's so different than Chicago or New York. It just feels different. People here are so friendly and always willing to help with directions or whatever. It just has a warm feeling to, I think. We see kids running around all the time, which is nice to see. It seems so much more safe here than at home, where you really don't see kids out by themselves very much. Oh, and there are dogs everywhere, too! I love that!! :) In fact, we have this really sweet golden lab that lives by us that always comes to say hi whenever we're outside. His name is Zac and I want to bring him home when I come. I don't know where he lives but he's always around. He follows us up the stairs to our house but never tries to come inside, although I'm sure he would if we let him.
I can't really think of anything else right now. I know this is really long! I just had so much to catch up on! I'm hoping to post a few pictures tonight when I get home. I'm going for a jog right now then I'm heading out for the afternoon. I need to stop by the school and then run some errands. It'll be the first time I've walked around by myself. Should be fun. :)
Here's my address in case you want to send me a letter.... :)
2 Garville Road 1st floor Apartment
Rathgar
Dublin 6
Ireland
Jeanine doesn't have class on Thursdays, so we have her to thank for the majority of the cooking. And boy, did she do a good job! She made not one, but two kinds of stew, one with beef and one with lamb. Sooo delicious! In honor of Jake's birthday this weekend, she also constructed some beautiful mini cheesecakes, complete with a beautiful apple sauce (picked from our trees) to drizzle on top. In addition to the the stews and cheesecakes, the rest of us contributed our services to make Irish soda bread and garlic mashed potatoes. Perfection!
Everyone thoroughly enjoyed it. Because it was such a successful evening, we girls thought it would be an excellent idea to make this a weekly tradition, but to alternate houses. With this thought, we kindly invited ourselves over to the boy's apartment next week. They, of course, were thrilled with this idea and I'm sure began planning immediately. The bar was set pretty high, however, so we'll see if they can reach our standards. :) After dinner, we all played a rousing game of phrase-pictionary (or something to that effect), then began parting ways. A good time was had by all.
by going to the Dublin Zoo! Kayleen, Adam, Jeanine, Monica, and I set out on foot so we could record some videos for one of the CFS advisors back home. We ended up walking the whole four miles to the zoo, bound and determined to get a taxi on the way back. Actually, the walk wasn't that bad, as we got to walk across the River Liffey and see a few other sites along the way. We had heard great things about the Dublin Zoo, but ended up being a little disappointed in that most of the animals weren't out! We had arrived about two hours before it was scheduled to close, but some of the animals must have already been rounded up. Despite that, we enjoyed the ones we saw and can now cross that off our list of things to see! Walking at the zoo was at least another mile, so we were really looking forward to our taxi ride home. Much to our disappointment, we discovered they could only take four people at a time. We were left walking again. Directly after crossing the River Liffey, we decided to rest in The Brazen Head, which is claimed as the oldest pub in Ireland. It felt nice to finally rest our feet. 
We almost bought dinner there, but decided to forge on instead and finish up all of the left-overs we had at home. We finally made it back, having tracked at least nine miles by the end of the day. We immediately changed into sweatpants and dinner was made. We ended the day by watching the new "Office" episode we were all sure we going to have to miss while we were here. Thank you Jeanine's boyfriend, Shawn!!
