The next day we officially started our orientation, which turned out to be less intense than anticipated. We talked about cultural and academic differences before heading over to the Guinness storehouse for a tour of the museum (and a free pint!) The museum was quite well done, full of history, advertising art, and the science of stout. At the end you get to pour your own pint, which is quite a complex process--it takes 2 minutes to pour it properly! If you want step by step instructions, just let me know.
After Guinness, we took a hop-on-hop-off bu
s around the city and back to our hotel. We recharged quickly and the six girls went out for pizza. Later that night we all fancied up and went on a pub crawl in the Temple Bar area. The best of the pubs featured an Irish duo that played a fun mix of my favorite American music (tracks included Tom Petty, Old Crow Medicine Show, Bob Dylan, Semisonic) and traditional Irish music.
The next morning we learned how to keep ourselves healthy and safe with a cooking lesson and a visit from a Garda (police officer). After we hopped on the bus and went to a branch of the National Gallery where we saw an exhibit on Irish soldiers. It was quite interesting, but came at the end of a long day of listening, riding the bus, and eating. That night we decided to stay in and all piled into my hotel room to watch Good Will Hunting. What a great movie! Also, Irish TV has very few commercials!
Today was the day that everyone in my group was looking forward to--travel to Cork day! We took a greyhound esque bus and we all tried to enter the bus on the right side without thinking about the fact that the driver sits on the right side. It's a
crazy country to walk in because you forget that they drive on the other side of the road. The bus trip was pretty uneventful, we mostly just snoozed and played road trip games. After 3 hours we arrived at Victoria Lodge, our new home. Anxious we realized that we were all on different floors. Any trepidation quickly disappeared as soon as I saw my room. It's just the cutest! I feel like I'm living in Ikea. Scripps Dorms are beautiful, but Victoria Lodge really has a college feel. We share a kitchen but we each have our own bathroom and room with a desk, closet, and underbed storage! Upon dropping our stuff off we realized how famished we were so we quickly headed to a hip restaurant. After our hunger had been conquered we began the extremely stressful process of buying bed linen, things for our room, and groceries.
The good thing about Ireland is that bed linens are cheap, cheap, cheap. 1 comforter, 2 towels, 1 pillow with case, 2 washcloths, 1 sheet set and 1 candle cost under 30 euro. Wooey! What a bargain hunter! The bad thing about Ireland is that groceries and everything else costs a fortune. Currently I am sitting in the common area with about 10 other college students (it feels so college-y) after moving in and filling up on chili con carne. I love Cork so far and can't wait to see what it really has to offer! Tomorrow orientation for my early start class begins, so it should be an exhausting day of information followed by an evening at a pub watching Dublin play against Cork's rivals in rugby! Should be colorful! When my card reader is being more cooperative I will post some pictures of all the things I have been doing because Ireland is definitely a place worth photographing, everything about it is beautiful!
