FINALLY IN GALWAY!

Hi everyone,

After a long, long day of travel I am finally in Galway. It is so beautiful and better than I even could have imagined it. The people are very friendly, and our resident directors Kevin and his wife Fionnghuala are really friendly and fun. I'm glad they will be the ones taking us to Paris and on all our other excursions. I have only run into two people who speak the equivalent of Pikey and it was our driver from the Shannon Airport to Galway, Jim and his wife Lena. I rode in Lena's car, because the bus (or coach, as they call it here) wasn't able to start because the gas tank got frozen because it was -9 degrees Celsius! So they had a smaller bus and 3 of us had to ride with Lena. We could barely understand her. Kevin also says he can barely understand Jim, and Kevin is Irish!

I arrived at Shannon after two sleepless plane rides, the one from Newark to Shannon seeming to drag on forever. Then once we exited the plane, at around 6:45 AM local time, we had to wait in the long customs line. That went off without a hitch and the lady barely asked me any questions but went on and on about how many Americans had come through. Then we had to wait in the airport until 12 PM for the rest of the group to join us. So that was a very long wait. Then finally at noon we were able to make the drive to Galway, and we went straight to campus for our first meeting. We were issued our first "challenge" by our directors, which is to find our way to campus tomorrow without help. Should be no problem, as there appears to be only one main road in Galway. So after a very short meeting at the campus, we headed over to our apartments. The group is split into two, with some members living at Gort au Corrib or something, and the rest of us living at Menlo Park Apartments. The apartments are very nice and I can't complain about them at all. I am glad the internet is working right away. The only problem is that there was no hot water left for my shower tonight! And I am worried about the other girls running their heaters all night. The heaters are terrible and I am wearing tons of layers including a jacket and scarf in my room while I am writing this.

Anyhow, after we got our apartments, we all walked over to Dunne's, which is somewhere between a Target and a Macys and got things for our beds and to shower. Some people also bought food, but I heard that was the most expensive grocery store so I didn't. Then we all took a break from each other for a little bit to shower, which as I said, I wasn't able to take one because of the lack of warm water. Then we all walked into the main Galway for our first night here. It was FREEZING! But very fun. The girls in my group wanted to go to this very expensive restaurant/pub that was fancier than Cheescake Factory. So all of the entrees were around 24 euros and there is no way I will ever pay that much for food, so I ordered a starter and was able to come in under 7 euro. It was Irish Wood Smoked Salmon with salad and bread, and it was ok. Not the best, but good enough. After that we walked around and then we went into the Kings Head Pub. It was fun, but it was just the girls out, and as I said, I don't have much in common with any of them. Hopefully I will get to know them better soon and find out other things about them. Also, no one knows any Office quotes whenever I say them. Idiots.

So that was pretty much my first day in Ireland, now its 9:30 and I can't remember ever being so tired! I will put pictures up soonish.