It's Just the Beginning

It's been a long time coming, but I am FINALLY in Ireland. Nine months ago this was only just a a dream of mine and three months later I received the acceptance letter, and now it's a reality. I am in Dublin, Ireland and am already in love.

  The journey began on September 11 at about 6am. The two best people my mom and Megan took me to SFO, we lugged my very large(and heavy) luggage to check in and I was on my way. It was a long day of traveling and didn't arrive in Dublin until 9am the next morning. Once arriving in Ireland I grabbed my bags and immediately met a few girls that are a part of the program as well and met the rest of the group upon arriving to Griffith College.
   Finally being in Ireland was so exciting, but that became the longest day ever. We got dropped off by our taxi driver and were off to registration that consisted of sitting around for 3 hours..... by the time we got our room keys and were able to leave registration we had to meet with Olwyn our program director who showed us places close to campus to buy groceries, shop, and enjoy a pint.
  After our quick introduction to Dublin we were all back to the dorms to get ready for our first night in Dublin, Ireland! The nightlife in Ireland is a blast! There are always people out in every pub and bar, every night. I've had a blast learning about the city and enjoying a pint or two with the locals.
   We didn't have any commitments for the first four days so we all spent our days exploring the city and seeing all that it has to offer. We went to City Centre where I will be doing plenty of shopping in an amazingly cheap store called Penny's. In this same area there is Trinity College, Grafton Street (high end shopping where I will be doing window shopping), and Temple Bar. We also spent a day on the hop on/hop off tour bus where we were able to see more of the city.

                                          The Guinness Factory, an incredible place to visit

                                                                       Our Bus

                                                           The Old Jameson Distillery
  Monday the 17th was our first day of orientation out of 4 where we learned about the campus, the student union, and the courses offered throughout the semester. As international students we get the first two weeks to sit in classes and test them out before we have to actually submit our official class schedule. Awesome, right?

Today, September 22, our group had a preplanned trip to the County Wicklow and Glendalough. All I can say is that it is a breathtaking place. For the past week and a half we have been living city life and busyness, but today we got to experience the country side. It was what you would imagine if you thought of Ireland, green and gorgeous. We were picked up bright and early in the morning by an older Dublin native man. He was so cheery and excited to show us around. We made many stops on the way to Glendalough including the bridge/road where, P.S. I Love You was filmed.

A view of all of Dublin

                                 

Our Tour Bus!

Location of P.S I Love You

    Our tour guide today was determined for the group of us to fall in love with and learn every word to the song, "Galway Girl." This meant that we listened to it just about 8 times throughout our day and he was successful, we all do love it and can't stop singing it. If you don't know it, here it is as part of the movie, P.S. I Love You. Listen Here :)             

So many sheep are EVERYWHERE. Aren't they just adorable?

Glendalough, once a small town, now an incredible place of history.

                  I once had a tour guide that told me Glendalough was the "Land Between Two Lakes"

So this has been a long and exciting post. I will try to keep up to date as much as possible! :)

Oh, and just so you have an idea of where in the world I am, here's a little map of Ireland....

Here ya'll go, some more photos for your viewing pleasure;

Our Tour Guide