Day 3 in Ireland

It has been on the go since Thursday 12/30/11 so I apologies now for not writing sooner. My parents and I drove to Seattle and stayed in a hotel so it would make things easier once it was time for me to catch my flight. This was the second time I have ever flown by myself (minus a small trip to Pullman). I was feeling really anxious but super excited. My mom and I spent almost the whole night talking and we had to be up by 3am. Needless to say I had no sleep on Friday. Once 3am hit that’s where it has been nonstop since. My mom and Doyle said their goodbyes to me at security check and that was it. My mom said she had a few “ugly cries” as she would call them after I left. It was sad for me for sure but I was just so excited to start my new adventure. I guess you could say I was on a high and I still am.:)

                My first plane ride was 5 about hours to JFk in New York City. I was so lucky I slept the whole way through and nobody was in the seat next to me so I had plenty of sleep room. I had a layover in JFK for another 6 hours. Talk about huge airport I had to take a bus to get to my next terminal. The unfortunate part about my 6 hour layover was I was in a really small terminal so there was only about 3 stores and 3 restaurants. In the waiting areas next to each gate they had iPads everywhere for people to use. You could sit down play games on them or get on the internet. The coolest thing was you could order food from the restaurants and they would deliver it right to your seat! Everything was super expensive to eat so I mainly just snaked on foods I brought with me. They even charged $7.99 to use the wifi in the airport. I was so angry I just used my phone’s 3g instead.

                My last flight was about 6 hours and I finally arrived in Dublin around 8:30am! Considering the size of Dublin I was expecting the airport to be huge with lots of people. It was huge for sure but not that many people. This could have been because it was also New Years. None the less it was super easy getting through everything because nobody was there. CUSTOMS was what I was most afraid to go through and that was a cake walk. I met my group and then we took a 3 hour bus ride down to Cork. Everybody fell asleep on the bus but I just couldn’t stand the thought of missing the scenery as we went by. It is nothing like I have ever seen before.  It has some features of Washington since it is green and all but so many differences that it unique and beautiful. I noticed that even the largest houses in Ireland are still fairly small. All I could think is “Quaint” is the best way to describe this country. It is so difficult to describe what I am seeing. After only 3 days of being in Ireland I recommend everybody see it before they die.

                Once we arrived in Cork we were to stay at this hotel called the “River Lee Hotel”.  They treated us like Queens and Kings!!! Our dorms were not ready for us to move into but it gave us all an opportunity to meet everybody in the program. We had a group dinner at 5:30 and by this time I was so tired I could have fallen asleep in my food dish. The food is very different here… its true when they say its pretty bland. But it’s still delicious. TONS of Seafood and vegetables. Two of which I am not fans of at all but I have been so good at trying everything and I have already discovered I like butternut squash! I am glad because they seem to eat it with everything! In Ireland they eat everything in large portions compared to the US. Surprising huh?! Example… at the hotel for dinner we had a very large bowl of soup, a huge plate of dinner of our choice (chicken, fish or pasta) with vegetables on the side then your dessert consisted of 5 different things on a plate. At first I thought we were sharing them until they brought out 22 plates of dessert!! For breakfast it was a buffet and it was THE best buffet I have ever had. You can taste the real food compared to home. It is illegal to add any hormones to food and some may have antibiotics in them but they are strictly for if the animal has a cold so not all animals get them. I never thought I would be one to say what a difference it is to eat beef here verse home.  Then for lunch we got a huge bowl of duck soup (not bad actually!) and 3 large half sandwiches! One was a shrimp wrap, chicken wrap and smoked salmon sandwich. WOW! I haven’t been able to finish a meal yet!

                I am all moved into my dorm now. It is set up in pods so I have 5 people down a hall way and at the end we have a kitchen that we all share. I am one of the lucky ones and I have my very own bathroom in my room. I have decorated my dorm as much as I can but so far I haven’t been it much. We are constantly taking adventures into Cork. I live about a 30 min walk to the city which isn’t bad. I also live on the main drag so its not sketchy by any means but I am still using the buddy system wherever I go. I have made many friends through my program and I love it because they are so adventurous as well so everything we do is spur of the moment. I am not nearly as afraid to do things as I am at home for some odd reason. It’s a very different feeling and atmosphere and by that I mean its very comfortable around here everybody is relaxed. After orientation yesterday we all walked downtown into Cork (which is huge!!). We bought a couple clothes and some stuff for our dorm. I have to go grocery shopping and for 8 months I was prepared until I walked into the grocery store and literally had no idea what to buy. I walked out with some toilet paper and yogurt. HAHA. Hopefully round 2 will be more of a success. I can’t wait until I get to visit the English Market! Everything is fresh and locally grown. It is very well known throughout the country and is the best (only 30 min walk from my house yay!).

                The people here are so different in the oddest ways. First of all I stand out as an American by just wearing jeans! It’s all about the dresses, wool sweaters, leggings and BOOTS around here. I need to make a small shopping trip so I don’t stand out as much. They all have a sense of humor which I love! Very sarcastic and always have something clever to say. I am seriously picking up the accent and its embarrassing when I talk because I don’t want them to think I am mocking them haha. When I get home I am going to walk in to the grocery store and pretend I am an Irish lady. They are so kind when I mess up saying things wrong or if I ask the wrong questions.  A friend and I went to the pub for the first time and we made many mistakes and this old man next to us started laughing and taught us a few proper ways of doing things the Irish way. He was SO cute and SO nice. We sat in the pub for quite a while just listening to him tell stories as he drank tea and we drank our beer. It’s exactly what I have always heard what happens in a pub and it happened our first night! He lived in a little town about an hour away from Cork on a farm. He had a super thick accent and talked very fast but I kept up well. He kept asking do you actually understand me? Haha. I couple times I said “pardon me” like three times  then I would give up, smile and move one. His name was Michael O’Sulliven. I don’t think he realized how much we appreciated his company and advice.

                I know this is extra-long because I haven’t had the chance to write in a few days but this is the gist of things. I have so much more to tell and say but it’s 5:40am in Ireland and I couldn’t sleep anymore. I have been doing well so far with the time minus getting up really early but I do stay up late so its not much difference from home. Thankfully my mom snuck some on the go Starbucks in my bag so I will be drinking that after I get done blogging.  I hope everybody at home is doing well! I miss you guys but right now I am having so much fun and have so much more exploring to do I can’t stop and think about being sad. I have fallen in love… with Ireland. I hate to say that I keep falling for it every day the more people I meet and the more places I go.  I start school tomorrow and get my classes which I am a little nervous for but once again I am so excited for the new adventure!  I can’t wait to hear from you all!!!

Until next time (which should be soon now that I am settled in… so stay tuned!)

-Brittany