Welcome to Galway

We made it! After seven hours of flight over the Atlantic ocean we arrived in Dublin and stepped outside into the wet air. No sunshine, but it was by far warmer than the Minnesota weather we left and the air smelt fresh. Three hours on a bus later, we were in Galway. The city is so colorful! There are stone walls lining the multi-colored small houses, most with cute shutters. The roads are narrow and wind, people walking everywhere. Simply wonderful.

We made our first trip to the store to get sheets and food essentials, successfully becoming damp to the bone on the way. It wasn't necessarily raining but the water was thick, as I said. After unpacking a little bit we went into town for dinner (It was by now 5 o'clock local time and I hadn't eaten since they gave us breakfast on the plane at seven in the morning). After a lovely plate of fish and chips we walked about town a bit then grabbed a taxi back to our apartments.

My room is quite big and has a fancy spiral staircase leading up to it from the main floor where the other two bedrooms are. Its awful chilly though!

Today's weather was a bit nicer. No rain!! I was so happy =) but it was a day full of international student orientation and walking to campus (about a 35 minute walk) and then into the city center (another ten minutes) and then eventually back to the apartments. It was quite a full day and I'm ready for bed to beat back the jet lag.

The thing that is most annoying to me is not knowing how to go about daily life. I hate looking like the ignorant American who doesn't know where anything is or how different things work. But people have been generally friendly and helpful, so I haven't been too discouraged. I'm really excited for classes to start, as nerdy as that sounds, but the start of classes will mean a few things: most of the Irish students will be back in the city. We were told most of them go home for weekends and breaks. Classes beginning will also mean forced interaction with students other than the other Concordia students and my roommates, which will be nice. I'm also looking forward to classes in general, the subjects and meeting the professors. But I'm assuming Monday will come soon enough.

Overall, I'm having a marvelous time and already working on my Irish accent =)