Official in Ireland

The past 24 hours have been better than I could have ever imagined! 

Last night, my roommate Charline cooked us a French dinner. Baby potatoes with a baked brie-like cheese to drizzle over them and a big salad to share. She bought french chardonnay and set out appetizers as we watched European mogul races while she finished cooking.

Charline, Christina and Maggie

Jorge and Brett

After dinner, Courtney and I ventured out with my roommate Maggie and her friend Christina (not the one pictured above), a study abroad student from the States who has already been here for a semester.  We put on our version of their club attire, which is little black dresses, bare legs and high heels, and headed to a party at Christina's Irish friends' house.  Mingling was a little hard at first but we made friends fast. After one of the guys I was talking to forgot my name, I prompted him by telling him the first letter was 'M' and that it's an Irish name. When he gave up and I told him my name is Megan, he laughed and told me that Megan isn't an Irish name!! I didn't and don't believe him... and I found a few others to back me up :)

From the house, we took a cab to the City Centre so that we could go to the club called Trinity Rooms. But because it's the first week back for everyone and Tuesday is a big going out night, the line was OUTRAGEOUS! Like, I've never seen anything like it! So we followed some people down the street and around a corner to a different club called Angel Lane. It was madness! (But a little less crowded because it has a higher entrance fee of 7 euro). The dance clubs here are literally insane. They play a lot of Top 40 songs - although people still go craaazy for"California Girls" - and they dance differently. You stand out if you raise your arms too much, your feet get trampled on like nobody's business, mosh pits brake out, and nobody grinds or thizzes.
(Side note: none of the American/Canadian friends we've made here even know what thizzing is. This makes me stick out like a sore thumb, as it is my go-to dance move).
After being separated from everyone we knew, Courtney and I left so that we could go home and rest our bruised feet.

Nothing super exciting happened today, but for some reason Court and I couldn't stop smiling! Great classes, a trip planned to Galway this weekend and an appointment at the Immigration Office to receive our temporary Irish I.D.'s.

We got a recommendation for a good fish and chips restaurant to go to for dinner from "our friend" who works at the vodafone (a cell phone company) store. The fish and chips were delish! And the ketchup wasn't weird tasting like I had heard it might be! Then we went to the Immigration office, received our I.D.'s and wandered back into the main part of the city, where we stumbled into an Italian restaurant for a brownie sundae and decaf coffee.

I could get used to living like this :)

Thomond Village

The dorm-apartment complex that I'm living in is called Thomond (pronounced Toe-mund) Village. There are six bedrooms that share a hallway and then a kitchen/dining/living room at the end of the hall. All of my roommates are finally here! Two of my roomies are from the states - Maggie is from Tennessee and Brent is from Chicago - Christina is from Austria, Jorge (hor-hey) is from Madrid, and Charlene (who I have yet to meet) is from France! The three from outside the U.S are studying here for a year and just switched into our apartment this semester.

Each room has a private bathroom with a shower that's about the size of the upstairs toilet room at 227, which is really small for those who have never seen it. I have a built in desk, a small closet, and a double-sized bed. Way nicer then a dinky, little extra-long twin! My window looks out on the Thomond Courtyard and the Shannon River. The kitchen has everything... except for a microwave. and there's a couches and chairs in front of the TV (which has all of like 16 stations, one which is probably playing FRIENDS no matter what time of the day you turn it on). These dorms are fabulous minus the fact that it's a 10 minute walk to main campus, a 15 minute walk to the gym, and a 20 minute walk to Kilmurry which is the village most of the friends I've made are in.

One side of the closet

The other side

Teeeny shower

The fridge is the giant cupboard on the left and the freezer is the small one on the left... 

View from the balcony

Things I've already noticed/ways people notice I'm American.

- Irish people walk the same way they drive, on the opposite side as Americans. Lines for stores also form on the right.
- There is no such thing as "dressing on the side" when ordering a salad. I first asked for balsamic and got a blank stare back, then when she offered honey mustard, I accepted and asked if she could just put it on the side. When she came to bring me my salad she brought the container of dressing with her and asked if I just wanted her to pour it on one side of my bowl... I told her it was alright and she could just pour it all over the salad.
- "Tree" is the equivalent to "three"
- Scotch tape is referred to as cello-tape and only comes in bulk packaging.
- Most doors are "push" instead of "pull" and aren't labelled, which makes walking into a store/restaurant/my dorm more difficult than it should be.
- Coin dollars are obnoxious... And so am I when I try to use them.

Day One

Flying into Shannon at sunrise

After leaving Phoenix at 8:40 a.m., I finally arrived at about the same time in Ireland the next day. There were a fair amount of study abroad students on my flight and they all seemed to be from the Midwest or the East Coast. I definitely heard someone say, "I bet the people from the West Coast are freaking out right now" because of the weather... but I was surprisingly ok in the sun.

Today mainly consisted of getting unpacked and walking to the student area on campus. I showered... before realizing that I have yet to get a towel, played with the weird European outlets, and made a list of all of the things I need to buy when I go into town tomorrow.

I am living in an apartment-style dorm but it's way different than I expected. After swiping your ID card into the apartment, you walk into a long hallway and there are three single-person rooms on each side and a door at the end of the hall that leads to the kitchen/dining/tv room. The kitchen is sooo different! The refrigerator and freezer look like cupboards from the outside and there isn't a dishwasher or a microwave!!! Guess I need to learn how to cook...

Two of my five roommates are checked in, one guy and one girl - both American - and we have one temporary roommate who will probably be moved out by the end of the week once the pipe in her dorm is fixed. Theresa, the temporary roomie, is Irish and was so fun to talk to during our quick chat in common area.

Interesting things that came up in our conversation:

- There's some "monster" rugby team practicing in the University's gym and it's supposedly a pretty big deal

- The gym and my dorm village are on complete opposite sides of campus

- She had never heard of the terms freshmen, sophomore, junior and senior... They simply use first year, second year, third year and fourth year

- She imagines the United States the same as Ireland but warmer and more expensive (Check out the exchange rate, girlfriend)

Later, I met up with Courtney, the other Chapman student studying here, and we walked back over to one of the pubs on campus and each had our first Irish Guinness! Yum. It was foamy and fabulous! Definitely better than the bottled version in the States. 

Legal in Limerick ;) 

Courtney and I are heading into the city tomorrow and buying some essentials - lucky for me, Courtney explored a little today and figured out stuff like the bus path and the fact that you need to bring your own shopping bag with you or else you get charged for one.

It's about 8:30 p.m. now and I am off to bed (I can't believe I lasted all day without a nap!!)

xxx!