Oh, this is gonna be a good life...

To quote one of my favorite One Republic Songs, I think this really is a good life. While I have only been in Dublin for a matter of hours, I have completely fallen in love again with this city.

The journey started with the drive to Newark Airport, which was only minimally teary-eyed. It was, however, covered with winter weather, and Pat Tully is officially a champ for getting us there in plenty of time for my flight. After some tough goodbyes, long security lines, and a lot of luggage, I found my group and boarded the plane. It was a short flight, especially compared to Kenya, but it felt like forever. I successfully passed through Irish Immigration (the Garda officer told me he could tell I was from the West), and found the people from my program waiting for me.

They gave me a handy packet of information, including my Irish address, a lunch voucher, and a hop on/hop off bus voucher. We got to the hotel we'll be staying in until Tuesday, and finally had some time to relax.

I made friends with two girls from Lafayette, Katie and Julia (another Julia!), and then Kristen from PC got here! We rode the bus loop, got off at Grafton St, and meandered our way back to the hotel through the campus of our new school- Trinity College.

It was absolutely amazing to walk through the beautiful, ancient campus and realize that I'm actually going there. We just kept saying that to each other-- "guys! we go here!" Walking past signs for the Samuel Beckett Theatre was amazing. I'm studying at the same place he studied. Am I dreaming?

We had dinner in Temple Bar at a pub called Fitzsimon's, and went out for a pint at the Porterhouse. I have discovered that there are two pubs with that name (at least), and the one I'd heard about from friends is right in Temple Bar, while the other is closer to Merrion Square, where I'm staying. We went to OTHER Porterhouse, that had nice housemade beers, but called it quits around 9 pm our time- not enough sleep for a real night out.

It was fun to try and learn Irish phrases today- a cash register is a till, take-out is take-away, to pass someone on the road is to overtake them, going to the movies is going to the cinema... I have a running list.

I loved coming back to a city that I loved as a kid with a whole new set of eyes- so much has changed, but I still love Dublin. Tomorrow has a lot of orientation in store, and my goal was bed by 10, so I'm off!
Love,
Julia