Arrival

I arrived in Dublin on September 6th. It was cold, wet, and rainy.. as expected. Kathleen, my host mom, picked me up and it was a 15 minute ride to Malahide. I slept the rest of the day because I was soooo tired. Three 14 year old Italian girls from Venice are also staying with the family for 2 weeks studying at an English learning school.. After much searching for an apartment, I've decided to stay with my host family for the rest of the term. They're absolutely amazing people, and the food is great.

Malahide is beautiful with the long walks on the beach and Malahide Castle.  I take the train into Dublin which is about 20 minutes. It's a nice suburb of Dublin. Kathleen and her family have lived there for about 8 years, and before that they lived in Tokyo.

I met friends that are going to Trinity through facebook. They're from Spain, Italy, Germany, and California. We all went out to Temple Bar in Dublin for my 21st Birthday! We had a great time, also consisted of 7 Irish Boys singing happy birthday to me ;]

Orientation starts on Monday and classes don't start for another week, but I can't wait to get into a routine!
Tips: Look on daft for apartments/house shares. Set up your bank account ASAP (go with AIB, they offer a free student travel card and snacks, I got a can of tuna fish!? haha) Penny's is a great and very cheap store to buy clothing and shoes. I got a nice pair of shoes for 7 euro! Use google talk/google voice to call home, it's COMPLETELY free and you can call mobiles/landlines (haha I said mobile). Also, use the UF VPN client if you want to listen to pandora of watch shows on hulu. Cheers!

I have a facebook album of pictures you can see here.