Oh hai there. Let me tell you about my day and show you where I live!

Well hello there! I'm writing this information on this blog until my journal comes in the mail. (Which the wonderful Amber Gibson made me!) Then I will probably rewrite it all in there. I'll have more written then blogged, but when I have photos or important stories to share, they'll be posted on here.

I suppose I'll start with the morning of my trip. I woke up at 6:30 to hang with the family before they all left for work and school. I was surprisingly awake for that early in the morning, but I drank two cups of coffee for good measure. I took my time, said goodbye to my family and finished packing my bags. I cleaned up around the house and then loved on my cat, who I am sure hates my guts right now for leaving her in a house with three large boys, a cunning cat and three dogs that just want to play with her. Unfortunately, Isabelle, you could not come with me. I do apologize.

DJ drove me around town to pick up some last minute things (like a power converter!) and then off to the airport. I arrived and made it through security without much of a hitch. I had an entire carry-on of just diabetic supplies which barely fit in the overhead bins on the plane. It didn't feel like I was leaving for another country.

I was hit suddenly with an extreme amount of exhaustion and ended up sleeping on the plane ride to Atlanta, which was an extremely long flight. I mean, anyone been on a flight longer than 32 minutes? Because that's as long as it took to get there. (If you've been on a shorter flight... why were you even flying? Just drive)

Atlanta wasn't near as bad as I was expecting. I made it to my gate without a hitch, grabbed some food and waited to board the next plane. I was surprised by the amount of people who looked Irish. It was something I didn't think I would be able to distinguish, but I could, at least decently. The plane boarded and it was a large plane, I think someone could sit on my shoulders and still not hit the ceiling, but it wasn't the largest I'd been on.

Everyone near me was extremely nice, they helped me fit my bags into the bins when I was having trouble and helped me get them out laters. I sat next to a lovely Irish lady who was just in America working on a grad school program. She told me wonderful things about where I was living in Dublin and to definitely travel outside the city. (I have tips on air travel and bus travel now :D)

The flight was only eight hours and honestly I wanted it to be a little longer, there were so many good movies I hadn't had a chance to see in theaters that I wanted to see. I ended up only watching Monuments Men, which was GREAT. Before trying to sleep the remaining five hours because I was to arrive at 8:15 in the morning and I wanted to try and get onto Dublin time.

I slept maybe three and a half hours. But then I was in Dublin. Customs had a long line but it moved quickly and my chat with the man who checked my passport went something like this:
Him: How long are you going to be in Dublin?
Me: Ninety days.
Him: Wow, study abroad?
Me: Internship actually!
Him: Oh! How posh!

And then he handed me my passport and I went on my way. A lovely man named Derek picked me up from the airport and gave me history of Dublin as we drove into the city and to where I lived. Now I don't walk around completely blind, just about 90% so. I arrived at my little house and Melanie met me from my program and gave me a tour and a welcome bag. I got a cell phone, map, water bottle, moleskin notebook, pen and some other fun goodies. I met my roommate, who is wonderful so far and later that day I ended up meeting the other two girls who are living with us currently. There will be anywhere between four and seven girls living in that house at one time. Which will be loads of fun!

We already get along great, three of us are from the states and one is from Australia. We're already planning trips around Ireland and tomorrow I'm going to Trinity College with Hannah.

I proceeded to take a two hour nap, shower and then walked around Dublin. I found a starbucks, had my coffee and then picked up some groceries. It was suddenly six and the sun was only where it might be at two in the afternoon. I think that helped me stay awake.

Dublin is beautiful. The architecture is stunning and the people here are so nice. I was actually surprised though by how many different languages I heard just walking around. When I think about it, it makes sense, I just hadn't been expecting it.

Katelyn and I were still pretty wide awake at nine thirty, the sun was still out. (I will not get over how amazing that is) so we decided to go for a walk. The minute the sun went down we were both exhausted and went back home, I was asleep within thirty minutes. I set my alarm for the next morning at eleven as I have nothing to do until Friday and I figured I'd be exhausted. I woke up right before nine, wide awake. Maybe not too jet lagged?

I'm currently at a coffee shop since our wifi is down but should be working later tonight. It's been an amazing couple of days and I can't believe I'll be here all summer. It's going to be great.

I'm debating on going to swing tonight or waiting until next week, all my roommates seem excited about it and want to come with me! They like to explore and travel and talk, I think we're going to get along splendidly.

This is my house

This is our little garden in the front!

This is what the view from my room looks like

This is our kitchen

And our living room!

This is my bedroom

and my cute little bathroom!

We have skylights!!

We also have a backyard. Which is going to get groomed very soon. BUT I THINK IT'S LOVELY HOW IT IS

It was still light out, so before our walk Katelyn and I climbed onto the roof and this is what we saw.