Alrighty, so here is the first post among many more to come. Since I'm already at day two and I haven't posted anything I am going to catch y'all up on the past three days - the sleepless day before travel day, travel day, and the first day in my new home, Dublin.
Sleepless day before travel day:
So this past Thursday was my last real day in US. I spent the majority of the day in Chicago on a job shadow at Prudential Capital Group. In between meeting analysts and sitting in presentations, I kept asking myself questions like - do I need that extra pair of shoes, will my rain boots actually fit in my duffle, can I rearrange my clothes so that I have more space, what books will I want to read while abroad? Needless to say when I wasn't focusing on asset management, my thoughts were consumed by study abroad. After the job shadow I grabbed dinner with good friends (Becky, Hannah, Tanaya and Sophia) at a local restaurant where we chatted about all the adventures that were ahead of us. Once the check was paid Sophia and I hightailed it out so we could catch our bus back home. The entire bus ride thoughts were whirling around in my head and sleep was just impossible. Once I got home I tried to sleep some more and that was deemed unsuccessful too, but at this point it wasn't nerves that were keeping me up, it was the excitement. I truly was exited about all the adventures of living in a new country and experiencing new things everyday.
Travel day:
Today's the day! The day it all begins! I woke up and immediately packed and repacked my clothes one last time since I, of course, thought about what I was taking with me about a million times the night before. I also grabbed my very last American breakfast with my parents where my mom told me last minute travel tips and my dad gave me a last minute gift before I left - Irish Spring Soap. To answer a couple of questions about the gift: yes, my dad is a jokester; yes, the soap came from Walgreens (my dad's favorite store), and no, the soap did not make into the luggage. Maddie, my best friend from home, came over one last time to say goodbye and wish me luck on my travels. The luggage was all in the car and I was ready to go. I said goodbye to the puppies, which broke my heart a little since I'll miss them so dearly. I arrived at the airport and checked in, now all I needed to do was get to my gate. After grabbing a coffee with mom and dad where my mom's "last minute travel tips" made another appearance, we headed to security check. I gave both mom and dad two giant hugs each and told how much I love and will miss them. My mom fought back tears as I wove through the security line. Security was a breeze and finding my gate was pretty easy. Unfortunately, United kept changing my gate which gave me a bit of anxiety but finally we boarded the plane and we were off to Chicago. We landed in Chicago safely but later than expected so when I got off the plane I had to run to my next gate to catch my connecting flight to Dublin. I arrived at the gate, looking like I hot mess but I quickly found three other Illinois kids studying abroad - Bridget, Erica and Will. we then boarded the plan and were off. I mostly just watched kids movies and attempted sleep the entire flight.
First Day in Ireland;
After the 8 hour, uncomfortable flight we landed in beautiful Ireland. Customs and baggage claim turned out to be a piece of cake. I grabbed a taxi and headed over to the apartment. As I sat in the back seat of a car driving on what felt like the wrong side of the rode I got to watch the city unfold before my eyes. And it is GORGEOUS! Everything was incredibly adorable and colorful. When I got to the apartment, my friend Catie, was already there so she gave me the quick tour of my new home. Pictures of the apartment will be posted soon. We unpacked and chatted about the semester ahead. After hours of trying to fight back how tired we were, we eventually gave in and took a nap. When we woke up we decided to go find a store to buy toiletries and some snacks. This way harder than we initially thought it would be. Even though we wrote out instructions and drew ourselves a little map we managed to get lost. After aimlessly walking around and not panicking we found the store. After arriving back home, all the Illinois kids decided to meet up for dinner and drinks. Catie and I then set back outside to try and find our way around Dublin again. We failed....again. Thankfully the other Illinois kids found us and we all headed out together. After striking out at multiple pubs since our group was to big (13 people) to accommodate at 8pm on a Saturday, we decided to just give up on eating local cuisine and eat Subway instead. Yes, we realized that is one of the most American things we could have done. The Subway we stopped in was also a little convenience store and was stocked with alcohol. We ate our subs quickly and then we all made our first alcohol purchase of the semester. While most of us bought cheap European beers, Spencer chickened out and bought Budweiser......we definitely gave him a hard time for it. He then attempted to make up for it by buying a single Irish beer. We all set out to the boys' apartment to enjoy our very first drinks in Ireland. We arrived at their apartment (which has been declared the nicest apartment) and then did what all great Irish do.......DRINK! It was tons of fun - we all just drank and got to know each other. The group of Illinois kids is great, and it looks like we will all get along swimmingly! One of the funniest parts of the night was finding out that Spencer's one Irish beer was actually non-alcoholic, haha. He clearly is having a great start in the alcohol department here. After our pregame we headed out to the pubs. We arrived at our first pub and we all ordered Guinness, which was delicious! Then we went to this "night club" which actually turned out to be more of a 40 year old hang out...we decided not to stay. We also accidentally crashed a birthday party in the process of walking through this "night club." After that sad excuse for a night club we walked around for what felt like hours and then decided to call it a night. All and all an interesting first day and night!
My apologies for this incredibly long post, the ones in the future shouldn't be this long. I look forward to sharing my travels, thoughts, pictures, etc with y'all!
Cheers,
Jenny
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