Since it took me such a long time to figure out how to start a blog...I'm a bit behind. I arrived in Dublin early on Wednesday January 9th after a few delays in LaCrosse and a missed flight in O'Hare. After making it through customs and actually getting my luggage I took a taxi south of the city to Dundrum. Dundrum is a suburb about 5 km outside the city center and is connected to the city via the Luas, a lightrail system. Wyckham apartments where I live are located close to the Ballaly Stop on the Luas and very close to the Dundrum Town Centre, the largest mall in all of Ireland!
My first few days here were filled with orientation during the day and going to the pubs at night with all the IES people. There are about 45 of us here from all over the country and most of the students live in the Dundrum area which makes it easy to get to know people. The pubs I have been to lately have been AMAZING! the people have been really friendly and I've met some dubliners! I've had one guinness so far and it was pretty good, so far I prefer my Bulmers cider and I think I'll be having a lot of that while I'm over here!
During orientation we took a day trip to Glendalough, an ancient pilgrimage site south of the city. Glendalough was beautiful and the buildings were amazing. The weather was not ideal, but that seems to be a theme here in january. I think that the unpredictable, cold, wet weather is going to be the most frustrating part of the winter months here and I'm already excited for spring!
Tomorrow morning classes start and everyone is ready for them to start. I think for the first week I'm going to attend most of the classes offered to get a feeling for the classes, but as of now it looks like i'll be taking...
1. Intro to Northern Irish Troubles (tuesday)
2. Ireland in the EU (tuesday)
3. Marketing (Wednesday at the European Business School)
4. Perspectives on Northern Ireland (Wednesday)
5. Intro to Irish language and culture (Thursday)
as you can tell, I have a 4 day weekend which I'm super excited for! I think that this long weekend will make traveling great and just let me tour around much easier. Well, that is about all I have to say right now and i'll make sure to do some interesting things in the next few days!
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2 comments:
Johanna! So Far it sounds like things are wonderful. Don't let yourself get depressed because of the weather though! We don't want a sad Johanna! How are the Irish accents? Amazing I am sure. Do you like your roommates? I hope you all are getting along and having a good time. I look forward to reading your blogs! LOVE YOU TONS!
Diane~
Johanna,
Can't tell if our first posting went through or not. Anyway it's great that you have set up a blog. Looking forward to keeping up to date on your happenings.
Love,
Grandpa roland and Grandma Sandy
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