First Day in Dublin

I made it! After six hours in route, several hours at airports, a two-hour drive to Newark, and a short ride to campus, we arrived at Dublin City University (DCU) around 9am (4am est). The flight was smooth, but I wasn't able to sleep much. We checked into our "suites," the apartments we'll be sharing with 9 other people from our group. Each room houses two students, and has its own bathroom.

At noon (7am est) we had our first session of orientation. Lots of introductions, rules, and schedule information. After a short campus tour, we had the afternoon and evening to ourselves. We ate lunch in the food-court like facility on campus called "the Restaurant." What I had: a chicken baguette, similar to the American chicken patty, and chips (huge steak fries). The campus itself is small, as DCU is a fairly new university (26 years). Heavy emphasis on athletics, especially soccer. There are several beautiful fields on one side of campus. Our apartment building is located next to the sport center (gym), which is great. We toured their facility, and although it's not FitRec, it's definitely a place where I'll spend a bunch of time over the next four months. The grocery store is a 5 minute walk from our building. After a 3 1/2 hour nap, Casey and I went food shopping. Everything so far has proven to be an experience- trying to figure out which milk is 1%, 2%, or whole, finding chicken that wasn't breaded, and deciphering the cost of items (euro vs. u.s. dollar), while knocking several things off of shelves, I'm sure others could tell we were Americans.

Tonight, several of us ventured out into Dublin's city centre. We went to two different pubs, the first I can't remember the name of and the second, Oliver St. John Gogarty. At the first, I had my first Guinness and my first encounter with a local. He said his name was Christie, and after finding out I was an advertising major, he asked me to come up with ideas for campaigns for a child's bicycle and women's headbands. Maybe it was the Guinness in him talking, but he was extremely friendly and wished me well in my studies. Oliver St. John Gogarty is located on one of the tourist hotspots in Dublin. Our group met another local at the first pub, and he took us to Gogarty's. The atmosphere was friendly, and one of the waiters gave our group two platters of free chicken tender-like appetizers.

A great first day, check back for more updates and pictures!