Arrival and getting situated...

So, first off I highly recommend Lufthansa if you need to fly internationally. Not only are they very nice and friendly, but amazingly excellent service. While airplane food is still "airplane food", I was actually impressed that it wasn't bad at all by my college-student standards. I sat next to a German woman who spoke less English than I speak German (which is none). It was interesting and exciting. She was sweet. I watched two movies (He's just not that into you and Confessions of a Shopaholic-- I'd read the book long ago, so I had to) and then landed in Frankfurt. I'll admit, I was extremely disoriented and I didn't even realize it until today. Looking back, it took me an hour to finally decide to just sit my ass down and read. So I read John Grisham (The Partner) for about three hours, with a nice view of the airplanes to my left. I had six hours, so I could have gone and explored Frankfurt, but I was too sore/stiff from lugging my bags around and sitting so long, and I'd have to get through customs, then come back through security. I figured it was easiest for me to just take it easy. So then I got back on Lufthansa for a two hours flight to Dublin. Getting through customs was easy (though, my ability to decipher through accents is terrible and I was one of those weird Americans who looked eternally confused as the custom woman asked me questions.)

The hard part was finding Beth (the girl I stayed with via Couchsurfing.org). I went a payphone and called her, and got on a bus. I had two big bags and my backpack and purse, so a man on the bus was nice enough to help me with my bags. I got on the 747 bus, which is the main bus from the airport to Dublin city centre. I got off at O'Connell which is a BIG street and very common (I'll probably mention it often, because in the last twenty hours I have become best friends with it.) A German exchange student and I tried to find our way, though she spoke little English and neither of us knew where we were going. One thing about Dublin: Their street signs are completely unuseful. They're attached to buildings, so pretty hidden, they're not very clear to under stand (i.e. Great Charles Street reads as "Charles Street Great" and there are north/west/etc directions BUT they seem to be merely suggestions or solely for the purpose of confusion, because they do not correspond to anything. Also, the post codes (i.e. the city centre is Dublin 1, Santry where I'm staying, is Dublin 9) are 200% without logic. The bus system does not go by times, and you pay far by a very, very complex system of "stages" (I think that has to do with postcodes...) Suffice it to say, Dublin is not the easiest to navigate. It took me two hours from O'Connell to find Beth's house, which was at absolute most a 30 minute crawl. She was very nice, I cleaned up (using Wet Wipes because I'm classy, even though I needed a shower very badly), and we went to Temple Bar. The "touristy" neighborhood with all the pubs is called Temple Bar. There are pub crawls, more pubs than you can imagine, trust me, and lots of festivals. That's where their Pride parade was, and Beth and I saw a bellydancing festival at a pub called The Button Factory (cute: they stamp your hand with a button stamp.) It was 20 euro to go see a 2+ hour performance of ALL types of tribal dancing-- Ballywood, ATS (American Tribal Style), etc. etc. Beth bought me a Jameson (God, I hate whisky) and then I bought us Bulmer's (Irish cider). I liked the Bulmer's. After the show we met up with some of the performers because Beth is friends with them, and then we meandered home-- a bit tipsy so we went the long way and got a nice view of the city. The river Liffey (as in Lift, minus the 't', add 'ee') splits Dublin in half, and it's gorgeous river with a lovely bridge connecting the two sides. Very romantic place to walk after a date, if you get the idea. Dublin as a city gets very dark at night, so the little light that were on when we were walking home glowed around Liffey because of the water.

Anyway, I slept in her guest room/office/TV room. Her flat was quite messy, but then again she lives with two men, hosts a lot of couch surfers, and is a 22 worker. I slept on a foam mattress with a duvet cover (apparently the sleeping style here because that's all we have in our dorms at Shanowen.) In the morning I got up at 7 am, because we had to leave by 8. To my silly-American-dismay, I had my clock set wrong so when I thought it was 7 it was really 6. Needless to say, I sat in a chair for an hour, too tired (and slightly hungover) to do anything about it. I caught the 41 (which I'll probably take a lot to get back from Trinity after work.) Unfortunately, no one helped me with my bags this time and it was a mess. I even missed my stop, even though the driver knew I needed to get off and I pressed the button. Dublin drivers have even less patience than CA drivers.

It took me forever to find Shanowen Square. Of course. I walked at least triple what I should have, going in the wrong direction on more than one ocassion. BUT, Irish people are very, very nice about helping. Since the streets are poorly marked, their directions don't make sense half the time, and they may know a place but not the street it's on so it's hard to ask for directions... When I was looking for Beth's flat this one guy even helped me flag a taxi to ask for directions. Very sweet. So this morning, (Monday) a man looked up a map on his phone and spent at good five minutes helping me map out the best route.

First thing I did when I got into my room was take a shower. Much, much needed. Then I went to the mall (Omni Shopping Centre) to get groceries-- unfortunately Tesco's was closed for renovation so I'll go tomorrow. I set up my internet, this blog, and then went on a little tour of the area with the rest fo the group. We have an RA, Mary, who is like our connection for anything we need between EUSA (the program) and Shanowen Square (the dorm/apts). She's like our concierge. Then I went back to Omni to get a towel, because many of us thought they would be included bu they aren't. Then I went to the bank AIB to cash my traveler's checks and USD cash. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to use my card because my cards (all of them) won't work in ANY ATM. Beth was very kind to lend me 20 euro for the bus and the day. She works just around the corner from Trinity so we'll probably meet up for lunch a bit.

My body is beyond sore. I have bruises in places I didn't know could bruise (my arms and hands are covered in "bruise" splotches, pretty gross actually.) My arms feel like they aren't part of my body anymore. My feet have more blisters than I can count.

So, that is my first account. The updates will get shorter. Tomorrow is more orientation stuff, and then this weekend a few of us are thinking for going to the beach (only 4 euro roundtrip on their DART, which is like the Monorail/BART.)

Hope you're all great!