I'm Here!

I made it to Cork!

It's awesome and beautiful!



Every street sign is in English and in Gaelic, and some are only in Gaelic:-)


I arrived yesterday afternoon (21 August) after a nine hour flight to London, an 1.5 hour adventure in Heathrow, and one hour flight to Cork.

On the long flight, I ended up making friends with one of my neighbors, a guy from Highlands Ranch, CO who travels for work all the time. We talked about his travels and random things about Colorado and school. He wasn't much older than me but has traveled a lot for his IT job, and as he's flown through Heathrow quite a few times, he agreed to take me through London's airport to get to my connecting flight...which was awesome.

After a lot of walking through tunnels, and a bus ride between terminals, we reached airport security. We spent about 45 minutes between the walking and security, then we parted ways. I got my boarding pass for my Cork flight and continued into the new terminal. I ran into my friend at Customs, where I got my Visa to pass through the UK (yaay for the first stamp in the passport). When I reached the beginning of the gates, my air plane friend was there again (his connecting flight was going to leave earlier than mine and he had to leave Customs pretty quickly). Lo and behold, his flight was delayed...we said our goodbyes (for the third time) and I was off to my gate. I was at Gate 90, he was at Gate 5...needless to say, it took me about 15 minutes on moving walkways to get to where my plane was. It was literally the last gate in the terminal.



I made it to the gate just as boarding started, which worked out perfectly. I was in Cork by the end of the next hour and a half; I got my luggage and hopped into a taxi...taking about a 15 minute ride into the city and through to my housing. I checked in and was taken to my room...



I have to say, I have pretty sweet digs. I am in a suite with three single rooms, each with their own bathrooms, and a common kitchen and living area. The kitchen has all of the essentials, and then some--we have been provided a vacuum, mop, iron, ironing board, bread box, toaster, microwave, dish rack, dishes, mugs, glasses, silverware, and pots and pans.





The living area has a TV. We get about eight channels (there are more, but we don't have cable)...including a channel that broadcasts its news in Gaelic. I watched about 15 minutes of that broadcast last night. I didn't understand any of it, but it was so cool!


I found my way to Tesco (an Irish version of....a Super Walgreens....yes, a Super Walgreens with DVDs and Computers). I bought some food for the night and for breakfast this morning, realizing I would be carrying back everything to Farranlea...which is about a 15 minute walk. I then found out that the Tesco doesn't provide bags for free...you either bring your own or buy bags. Needless to say, I bought a large reusable bag and continued on my way. I was pretty pleased with this environmental policy.



I got home, ate, and then crashed until this morning. I met one of my suitemates, who goes to school in Maine, and I took her to the Tesco. I was looking for another power converter for my electronics as the one I brought doesn't work with my computer. Needless to say, this desire brought us to the Cork City Centre.



The city is about a 20 minute walk from where I'm living; we took a bus at first, just to figure out the directions. We made it to the city, which is filled with lots of narrow streets and is decked out with seemingly thousands of shops, cafes, and little nooks of things. We ended up in about a dozen different stores, asking about power converters and whatnot...we even got directions from a very nice hardware store employee, who drew us a pretty awesome map. It was all too bad his map was to a store that closed three years ago (Hickey's on Paul Street).



We ended up at "The Sound Store" on...well, near Marlboro Street. I got the converter (the last in stock!) and we mosied on to O'Brien's, a deli with Shamrock-Shaped foccacia sandwiches. We sat outside and people watched, which was awesome just because it was such a nice day and it seemed like the whole city was out walking.



We found our way back to the bus stop and then walked out of the city toward the university campus. We made it there after some detours (or moments of being lost). It's a fenced-in campus, which was kind of different for us, but otherwise it didn't seem weird. It was actually a beautiful area. It's about as big as DU, maybe slightly smaller in length, and pretty similar. It felt like a Eurpean version of our campus...just with buildings in different places and no copper. The buildings were definitely older, and the library (although, like DU, not as pretty as the rest of campus) seemed pretty new, as well as the Devere Center (equivelent to Driscoll Student Center).



We went to the Chapel, which is fenced off from the campus (this was done to separate the clear Catholic symbol from the otherwise non-denominational campus). It was a shrine to all of the Irish Saints, and was open but did not have Mass. I found out that Mass only happens during the school year at that Church, although the campus was full of enough people to fill that building (and some others) today.



We found our way around and then our way out...then walked back to Farranlea (all of 15 minutes). Our new suitemate had moved in...She's from Massachusetts.


It was a full, good day. I may go out tonight with my suitemates, hopefully to a Pub (just because they're everywhere). Tomorrow I plan to get a bank account, explore the city some more, and get more food for my awesome kitchen! Friday marks Orientation day, and then I begin my early program on Monday.



Sorry for the long post...I just had to fill you in on my first experiences flying and being abroad!



~MJ



PS Sorry for the lack of pictures...I left my camera behind when I went to the city today. What was I thinking?!