Intro to Ireland

Back again, this time using the Internet services provided by none other than Ms. Meaghan DeGuisto (another BC student abroad with me).

Anyway, I left Madrid on a Tuesday evening after another horrible (but cheap) night bus ride coming back from Barcelona. I flew to Dublin where I stayed in a great hotel for a night before flying from Dublin to Shannon. Upon reaching Shannon, a tiny airport about two hours from Galway, I ran into a group of students who were also headed for Galway. There were kids from Duquesne (thought they didn't know Claire...too bad) and one from St. Louis. We hopped a 14 euro bus to Galway and promptly all passed out. When I woke up, we were at the bus station and it was dark and rainy. Great.

Over the next two hours I cabbed to Corrib Village, my residence for the next four months, signed in, met with the rest of the BC kids (we are six in all), and got lunch with our BC on-site coordinator.

Margaret Daly. God, what can I even say about her. She's our coordinator while we're here, so our go-to person for anything and everything, as well as my supervisor for my student teaching stint. She's an energetic ball of fire, who seemingly has travelled everywhere in the world. Example: at midnight on New Year's Eve, Margaret and her husband were in South Africa in the "bush" on a safari...poppin bottles. Haha, she's fabulous.

After lunch and a quick tour of campus, which is pretty in some areas, but for the most part is old and institutional-looking, we headed into the city to buy the essentials (sheets, a cell phone, energy adaptors, etc.) After two hours we had walked the streets, gotten soaked, but gotten what we had come for.

Galway City is great. It's adorable. There are cobbled streets where cars can't drive, with little shops and bars all around, and then there are more regular-looking parts, with cars coming from the wrong direction being driven by people on the wrong side of the vehicle. Weird.

That first night was spent packing and going to bed early. My apartment is located on the second floor of a yellow-ish building. It's one of four units per building and there are probably twelve to fifteen buildings in Corrib Village. We also have a mini-mart, an expensive laundry room, a registration building and maybe one or two little eateries that always seem to be closed...but the upside is that all the kids from BC live here and we are only a seven minute walk to campus.

As for my roommates, they are fine. One is from Fordham, we share a bathroom, another from UConn and the third from just outside Paris, France. I think we are going to co-exist well, but probably not hang out that much, with the exception being the French girl, who shares my name, but says it much prettier than I do. I've only had one conversation with the non-French girls and I've been here five days.

My room is great. It's a good size with a double bed, ample shelving and a fine view. I share a bathroom, but that's not a problem for me, despite the cold water. We also have a small common room with couches and a TV (which has yet to be turned on), as well as a tiny kitchen with a tiny fridge, tiny dishwasher, freezer and stove. I don't think much cooking is going to be taking place there...

To wrap up for now, since we have to get into the city to meet Margaret for dinner, I am very happy here so far. Classes start tomorrow. I get along with all the BC kids and we have met a lot of other great kids from the States. The Irish kids are all on holiday until tomorrow, so we'll see how they are when they arrive. I'm looking forward to classes, but also have plans to travel to London, Greece, Spain for Carnivale, Dublin at least twice, and who knows where else.

Please keep me updated with what everyone is doing at home. I really miss you all!