Alright! So, I’ve been here 10 full days now. Here’s a bit of a recap: I flew out of Chicago and into London on the 11 and then on to Dublin the same day. I decided to take the bus from the airport to the hostel since it was much cheaper. So, I grabbed my bags and started asking around as to where to go. This would be the first of many times I was asked if I was an American (but all in good fun). After finding the bus, I tried very hard to make sure I didn’t miss the stop, which was quite simply the first one. I got off successfully and started in search of the hostel. The brochure my program, Arcadia, gave me made it sound pretty easy to get to and it probably was, but when factoring about 3 hours of sleep in 36 hours and two big suitcases, it makes it a bit more stressful. So, one wrong turn and three direction stops later (no one knew where the place was), I found it! I got checked in and carried my bags up two flights of stairs and was home! Well, for a few days at least. See, I had my orientation to Ireland in Dublin but I’m going to school in Londonderry in Northern Ireland, so this was only temporary. In a dazed state, I went out and got some food from a little pub and then came back and crashed for a few hours. I heard someone else, Lyndsay, arrive and we went out and explored. The first stop? A pint of Guinness, naturally! Then we just walked and walked and explored. It’s a beautiful, friendly city and I can’t wait to visit again. We asked around for good places to visit and which pubs to go to at night and got some great suggestions. (They drink a lot here. More on that later.) The next day, two other American students in our program- Chris and Jeremy- arrived. Thus started 5 days of fun adventures and site seeing. Usually, we had orientation in the morning for only two or three hours and then we had the day to ourselves. I had my first very Irish meal that second day: a salmon boxty. Boxties are basically big pancakes that are rolled and stuffed with some sort of meat, veggies, and sauce. It was delicious! Then we followed that up with Bailey’s flavored cheesecake. I was surprised to find it had such a different texture and taste compared to cheesecake back home, yet still amazing. The rest of the week, we tired lots of different food- fish and chips, pizza, and a vast variety of potatoes- and saw sites- Trinity College, St. Patrick’s Cathedral, art museums, the River- and drank alcohol- Guinness, Magnus, cider. It was a fun week!
Lyndsay and I with our first pint
All the Americans studying in Ireland through Arcadia
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