First weekend in Ireland
So, I arrived here Friday afternoon since my flight got delayed by 4 hours Thursday evening. We left around 12:45am instead of 8:45pm. It completely sucked sitting in the airport for that long of a time. It was a good thing that we were late though because our apartments at the hostel werent ready yet. I am living with 3 other girls, one of which is leaving for 2 weeks to go on a trip to Italy with some other students. The apartment is very small and not where we were supposed to be living, because the old residence halls got closed down last year. So we're stuck in this place. We already have issues with a huge leak in front of the bathroom door, the keys barely work, we have no dressers or anywhere to put our stuff besides a tiny closet in the other bedroom. I am on the top bunk and this girl from Manhattan, NY has the bottom bunk(she is the one going to Italy). In the other bedroom there is one from Chicago and the other is from Florida. The funny part is, my bedroom is actually the living room(we have an electric heater in here and the tv, and the kitchen) but they needed to make more room for students. So that is the room I'm in.
Everything is so different here. Everyone is out really late drinking and walking around the streets. Our window faces the Liffey River, which seperates Dublin from North and South. I'm on the north side I believe. It is very crowded here and its actually a pretty trashy city, very much like chinatown in boston or something. Our classroom buildings are about a 10-20 minute walk from here and all the classes are held monday-friday 9am to 1pm and each class lasts 2 weeks. I am scheduled to be here for 6 weeks but I may only do 4 weeks if I get sick of it here. I am only going to travel to places I really want to see because everything is very expensive. I am going to go broke real fast. Its hard to find a cheap place to eat. Thank god we get free breakfast from the hostel and then lunch vouchers at this cafe in the classroom building. That saves us alot of money. However we do have to pay for our dinners and then our lunches and dinners on weekends. We have an 'RA' living in the apartments with us in the other building and he plans like student activities on weekends and stuff. He said he would try to get some good trips going and I will most likely stick with them because he will find the cheapest of trips and I know I wont get lost when I am with them.
With the whole being homesick thing, I was very much so on Friday night and Saturday. I had to hold the tears back, and I never cry that easily so it was definitely new for me. I do miss home alot and called my mom telling her I want to come home. I promised I would stick it out for a few days and see how classes go on Monday, if they actually seem interesting or not. I do hope they are because I dont want to go home and have everybody keep asking me why I left and feel like a failure, but yet I do want to go home and see my parents. I have adjusted very quickly to a nice laid back lifestyle at home that such a huge change has really worn me and stressed me out very quickly. Today we toured an old castle and this old fishing town and I did much better. I felt more refreshed in the morning too. It was probably such a huge lack of sleep and being sick with a cold of some sort. I was also really upset about the whole situation but after talking to the girl that is like the dean of students and she calmed me down a bit and promised me things would get better. I hope they do. I have been so excited for this trip for a long time now and then all of a sudden being disappointed by the way the city is pretty much sucks.
I am going to be writing in this journal as much as possible, so that I can remember everything that is going on here in Ireland. So, comment if you like, doesnt matter to me. This is mostly for myself anyways.
Everything is so different here. Everyone is out really late drinking and walking around the streets. Our window faces the Liffey River, which seperates Dublin from North and South. I'm on the north side I believe. It is very crowded here and its actually a pretty trashy city, very much like chinatown in boston or something. Our classroom buildings are about a 10-20 minute walk from here and all the classes are held monday-friday 9am to 1pm and each class lasts 2 weeks. I am scheduled to be here for 6 weeks but I may only do 4 weeks if I get sick of it here. I am only going to travel to places I really want to see because everything is very expensive. I am going to go broke real fast. Its hard to find a cheap place to eat. Thank god we get free breakfast from the hostel and then lunch vouchers at this cafe in the classroom building. That saves us alot of money. However we do have to pay for our dinners and then our lunches and dinners on weekends. We have an 'RA' living in the apartments with us in the other building and he plans like student activities on weekends and stuff. He said he would try to get some good trips going and I will most likely stick with them because he will find the cheapest of trips and I know I wont get lost when I am with them.
With the whole being homesick thing, I was very much so on Friday night and Saturday. I had to hold the tears back, and I never cry that easily so it was definitely new for me. I do miss home alot and called my mom telling her I want to come home. I promised I would stick it out for a few days and see how classes go on Monday, if they actually seem interesting or not. I do hope they are because I dont want to go home and have everybody keep asking me why I left and feel like a failure, but yet I do want to go home and see my parents. I have adjusted very quickly to a nice laid back lifestyle at home that such a huge change has really worn me and stressed me out very quickly. Today we toured an old castle and this old fishing town and I did much better. I felt more refreshed in the morning too. It was probably such a huge lack of sleep and being sick with a cold of some sort. I was also really upset about the whole situation but after talking to the girl that is like the dean of students and she calmed me down a bit and promised me things would get better. I hope they do. I have been so excited for this trip for a long time now and then all of a sudden being disappointed by the way the city is pretty much sucks.
I am going to be writing in this journal as much as possible, so that I can remember everything that is going on here in Ireland. So, comment if you like, doesnt matter to me. This is mostly for myself anyways.