Day 3

Ok, so I do know that I've only been here for 3 days...however, in those three days, I have come up with a list of things that...

You know you're Bethy in Ireland when...


*You play the "which way are you going" game with people when walking towards each other. Except there's just no winning because they're playing according to their traffic rules, and you're playing according to your traffic rules.

*The @ and the " are switched on the keyboards, and it gets you every time.

*You're going to get way into shape by walking 2.54 miles to school everyday.

*You feel like you're on top of the world because you did the 2.54 miles in 32 minutes this morning.

*You have to really think about what time it is before calling anyone, so that they don't hate you because you called at 3 in the morning.

*You kind of can't wait for classes to start so you can make some friends.

*You think all the Irish boys are cute.

*You think all the Irish men are cuter.

*You never know which way to check to see if cars are coming, so you run across streets and pray the whole time.

*You finally have a cell phone, but no one to call on it. (I know this is really sad, but it's true.)

*You are amazed at how expensive EVERYTHING is, and vow to buy €1 loaves of bread and €1 blocks of cheese for the next 4 months.


Everyday is an adventure. It's 9:20am on Friday here, so I'm going to go start anoher one.

Here

Well, I'm here. Wow. And the adventure begins. I've only been here a little over 20 hours, and there's so much to tell.
I'm sitting in my new dorm room right now, it's actually 3 in the morning my time, but my sleeping schedule is so screwed up, that I'm wide awake with not a chance of going back to bed. The room is cute. Not what I expected, but ok. And then again, I was expecting that I was going to be in a different dorm.
I like Blackrock, it's this adorable seaside town with a GORGEOUS view of the Irish Sea one street over from the main street, and it's kind of like a typical suburb. It's much prettier than the main campus, and it feels more European...
...but....(you had to know there was a but coming, didn't you) I can see already that it's just going to be that much harder to meet people here than at Belfield (the main campus). I already made 3 friends who are all international students who all live there, and even though I'm living in a dorm, with everyone having single rooms, it's not like I'm forced to meet people.
I mean, I love it here, and the rooms here are much cleaner than the rooms on the main campus...but...
Well, I'm going to orientation tomorrow, and I'm just going to talk to the international advisor, and see if there's anyway to get me a room on main campus. And if there isn't I'll still love it.
Goodbye for now,
Bethy

So frustrating

So, I guess the one most frustrating thing about going to Dublin is that they don't answer emails. Since Ireland is 8 hours ahead of the time here, to call would mean either staying up late or getting up early, and since all of you know me, you know that getting up early is not an option. So, I have resigned myself to emails that go unanswered, and some early morning phone calls.
About 2 weeks ago, I signed up for campus housing, and I registered and put my credit card number in for the deposit payment. When the money had gone through 2 days later, I assumed that they were placing me in a room. BAD assumption. I emailed them the day before yesterday asking where they were placing me, and today I get back an email saying that they don't have any rooms on main campus, and had never gotten either my registration or my money.
Great.
So, now, when I probably need sleep the most, I'm staying up until 1:30am our time so that I can fight with them, and hopefully, so that they will give me a room on main campus. And this is just presenting itself now, when I'm about to go, and everything else is needing to get done, and get done efficiently.
I'm leaving in 3 days now, and as of this moment, I have no place to sleep for the next 5 months. If they don't help me over the phone tonight, I really don't know what I'm going to do. It's like everything was falling into place nicely, and now this.

Bethy

getting ready

Well, in a very uncharacteristic way, I'm finally stepping up to the technology of about 5 years ago...

This week, not only did I purchase my very own cell phone, but I'm in the market for a laptop, a plug adaptor for my iPod, and now I've started a BLOG...I'm almost disgusted with myself. But hey, we all grow and learn, right? And here it all starts.

I leave on Tuesday, the 16th at 7:05am, which gives me now about 4 more days. I am so terrified, it's not even funny. Now I can share that all with you...lucky you.

signing off for now because I care more about sleeping than blogging (that may change eventually), Bethy