So, last night I fell asleep around 6 PM, thinking I would wake up around 7. Instead, I woke up at midnight- bad move. I was wide awake, hungry and without food at midnight. Since we hadn't gone out and bought groceries yesterday, I opened the food my mom had packed for me for the plane ride. Thanks Mama! Over 3600 miles away and she's still saving me. I ended up writing a bit in my journal, taking a shower, and looking at facebook. The perks of being awake so late was that, because of the time difference, I was able to talk to friends and family at home who were still in the middle of their evenings. Thanks to those who kept me entertained :]. I didn't end up falling back asleep until 5 AM. Doing great so far with the time difference/ jet lag...
Today I woke up around 9:45, and two of my roommates, Abby and Paige, and myself went to the student center hoping to join a group heading to ikea (we need a lot of stuff for our apartment). The outing was sold out, but we will go tomorrow. Instead, we joined a group heading to the city centre of Dublin. We had to take the bus, which is kind of expensive, and the guides took us to the shopping center and basically said "Okay so you guys know how to get back right? See you later!". We were a little thrown off by that, but figured we would find the way back eventually. We ended up meeting two other girls at UCD, one from Whitewater and one from Marquette! So funny that we had no idea who each other was. So, we walked into a department store called Dunnes to buy some random items for our rooms (in my case, hangers and a pillowcase). Afterwards, we all went to a cell store to set up our phones. We just wanted a simple pay-as-you-go plan. The men working there were super nice and helpful. The phones are pretty cute to be honest. Takes me back to the days of 7th grade. Here's a pic:
After that was all resolved, we went to grab lunch at subway (really stepping out of our comfort zones) and find our way home. At this point, it started to rain pretty hard and of course I am wearing the raincoat without the hood. We wanted to stop at the grocery store called Tesco on the way home, so we needed to get off at a stop that was different from UCD's. The center is called Merrion Centre, and it has a full grocery store with a few other small tourist shops. We figured that Merrion Centre was close to Merrion Square, one of the bus stops. So we get on the bus only to realize that these places are two completely different things. The bus driver told us we wanted to get to Merrion Road. He was helpful and directed us towards a bus stop that would lead us to Merrion Road. Eventually we got off that bus and found our way to Merrion Square- definitely an adventure.
We all got our groceries for relatively cheap and were on our way back to UCD around 4. As soon as we got home, we stocked the fridge and went to our rooms to rest- we were pretty tired from walking all day. I finally finished setting up my room. Our rooms are pretty small, but the apartment itself is really nice! Here's a few pictures to give you a visual:
Since then I've just been hanging out. My roommate, Ellie and her friend who is staying with her just got here today. I think tonight all of us will go out to dinner. For those of you concerned of my bank account balance, I promise this won't be a regular occasion. It's just the first night that all four roommates will share, and it's something to celebrate! Well, that's it for now. Not sure what the rest of the night will look like, but tomorrow we are going to ikea to get the rest of our basic necessities of our apartment. Orientation also starts tomorrow, so I'm excited to learn more! Here's a couple of pictures from today on Grafton Street!
Last thing: This world is SO small! Before we left, I learned that my roommate, Ellie goes to Villanova. One of my good family friends, Becca, also goes there. I thought I would ask Becca on a whim if she knew who she was. Turns out, Ellie is in the same sorority as Becca's roommate, and they know each other! Then today, my roommate Paige told me that she went to the same grade school that my Aunt Jeanine teaches! How crazy is that that we all randomly picked this apartment and we have these connections.
Safe to say, I'm in love with this city.
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