Greetings from Across the Pond!

Sorry for taking so long to make a real post, but the first few days here have been crazy. I'll try to update more frequently as well as take a post more pictures in the near future.

--------DAY 1------------
We made it! So our trip over took a little longer than planned, but nevertheless we still made it. Our flight outta Pittsburgh got canceled on Tuesday due to bad weather in Chicago so we had to fly out Wednesday instead. We flew from Pitt to LaGuardia Airport in Queens, NY then had to take a bus to JFK Airport in order to fly to Shannon Ireland. The bus ride was quite interesting and was scarier than both of the flights--we really didnt think we were going to make it the 11 miles between airpoints for a bit of the time.

We sat around in JFK for a while after dealing with Aer Lingus ticket issues (Why would anything go smoothly at this point) and left the US at 6:30 or so. The flight over wasnt as bad as we thought. Aer Lingus gave us dinner and had tons of free movies, games, and tv shows to watch. We hit some turbulence over the Atlantic, Reline thought we were going down, but the plane held up nicely.

Jet lag set in immediately. Our say started at 7 AM Pittsburgh time and we arrived in Shannon at 6 AM Ireland time. From here we had to get through customs and pick up our luggage which combined took about an hour. So from 7 until 8:50 we had to wait for the bus from Shannon to Cork. We were both exhausted and hardly slept but an hour or so on the plane.

The bus arrived and it took another 2 hours or so to get to the main bus station in Cork. From here we went to get a taxi. However, before we got a taxi I planned on going to the bathroom until I found out public bathrooms cost about 0.20 euros to use and the machines give no change. So not having exact change i wasn't about to spend 1 euro to use the restroom.

We hopped in a taxi and the driver took us to our flat just up the road for 8 euro--again another rip off. Check in at The Spires (our flat) took a little bit and we finally got into our room at about 12. We began to unpack until we met roommate #1, Erika, a grad student at University College Cork (UCC). She got us and directed us to a small restaurant (Lennox's) where we got our first taste of Irish cuisine. You'd be surprised to know that if you order chips here you will get french fries, not actual potato chips. I found out through experience, but dint mind because they were excellent.

After lunch, we were both to the point of complete exhaustion, we went to the Centra (a small convenience store by our flat) and got a little food for the day. We returned to our room and slept for a little, even though we weren't supposed to, and tried to regain some energy.

The rest of Day 1 was pretty relaxed and we basically unpacked and laid around. We went to bed extremely early and found the real results of jet lag when we each woke up multiple times throughout the night thinking it was time to start the day.

--------DAY 2-------------
We got up for orientation around 9 and stepped onto campus for the first time. Since we missed Day 1 of orientation because of our flight cancellation, we thought Day 2 would be very helpful. It wasn't. Nothing really went on and we didnt really learn anything important so we left about a half our later. It poured rain and exploring this massive campus was not happening in the rain. We hung around the room until the sun came out and we decided to head into the main part of the city.

We explored downtown Cork and let me tell you, its something else. There is a large river (River Lee) at the bottom of the hill that runs through Cork and right at the bottom of the hill is the Fosters Beer Brewery--NOT AUSTRALIAN FOR BEER. We ate at Burger King, which is way more expensive here than America and tastes just as bad. Reline was looking for a guitar so we found a music store and looked through some other shops downtown. On the way back we bought our first 6 pack of Irish beer and headed home.

That night our roommate suggested we go to Cissie Young's for a quieter first night out in Cork. We walked the 75 meters to the pub and had our first experience drinking with the Irish. We tried Murphy's--a local favorite, Guiness--of course, and the MGD. I am confident in saying that any Irish person could easily outdrink me on their worst day.

--------DAY 3---------
Pretty boring day actually--we went back into town where Reline bought a guitar and I just looked around. Later on in the day we needed to find the real grocery store instead of the small convenience stores. A little more than a half mile down the road was the SuperValu and the walk by included a nice view of the Lough Lake.

There was hundreds of birds mobbing anyone that would feed them and the swans here our huge. Canadian geese having nothing on these things. We came back, cooked dinner and hung out.

------DAY 4----------
It poured alllllllllll day so we stayed in and only went out for a short period to try and see some of campus before the first day of class.


---------DAY 5---------
First day of class!

I had my first class at 10 AM and let me tell you campus is huge. It took at least 15 mins to walk from my flat to the class. Thankfully it was sunny out and the walk was somewhat enjoyable. After class Reline and I headed to the international education office to get caught up on everything we missed at orientation and got our UCC ID Cards. The buildings here are amazing. The Main Quadrangle is basically a castle and the coolest building i've been in thus far. The grass is also perfect, i dont think anyone has stepped on it in years.

I had lab at 3 and had to walk even further to get to it. It took about 25 mins to get to the lab building, but again the scenery here is beautiful. Crossing over the River Lee through the Madryke Gardens makes the walk very enjoyable.

I should note that class is crazy over here. This week is like a "test" week where we just go to any class we want and see if we like them. We then register for the classes next wednesday. So if i dont like a class, i just go to another and register for it next week. Also, some classes only last 5 weeks and many of the classes that last the entire semester are only once per week. My schedule is pretty relaxed and I hope to do some major traveling soon.

Reline and I seem to be handling the cooking pretty well. I cook and he washes dishes. Pretty simple. Also, we met our other roommates, Caroline, who is Erika's sister and a 2nd year student and Steven is a 2nd year student who has been extremely helpful.

Overall, everything has been going well and I hope to finally take some pictures if the weather permits. I'll load them to the picture site--the link is posted on the right hand side at the top of this page. Once we iron out and take care of all the small details of life in Ireland (immigration and such) many more pics will be coming. We hope to visit Blarney this weekend and make it our first trip of our visit.