And it begins...

Alright, we found some CAT5 cables at the 2euro store so hopefully it'll work well, it seems to be so far. It's really nice having internet in the apartment now!

Thursday was the day we left Minneapolis. Nothing too exciting. We got on a plane to Minneapolis to Chicago. The Chicago airport might be the most confusing airport ever. We got into Chicago around 3:30 and our next flight was to leave at 6:52. Luckily this gave us time to get confused! We asked at the information desk and the man drew us a nice little picture and told us to take a left at Starbucks and follow the signs through the exit, down the stairs, take a train to terminal 5 and then we'll have to go through customs. No sweat, right? We made it! Our flight left from Chicago on time and we landed in Dubling on Friday morning about 7:50 am. I couldn't really sleep well on the plane. I watched 2 movies and read a little, I finally dozed off to sleep just as the announcement went on that it was time for breakfast. To us, it was about 1 am so this breakfast was a little confusing to my eating schedule, but it was about 7 in Ireland, so I guess they were trying to get us on track with that time right away.

We got off the plane in Dublin and had to wait in a long line to get through customs. I had to have my picture taken because I am going to be in the country for such a long period of time. We also have to register with the government within the next 30 days. We're going to find more about that at orientation. After standing in line (which went faster than I thought it would) we went to claim our luggage. We then went into the entrance of the airport to try and figure out, what next? We asked at the information desk and the lady told us there was a bus that leaves and goes straight to Galway, right out to the left. Apparently by "right out to the left" she meant out the doors, across the street, through the building, all the way you can go on the sidewalk, take a right, and there will be a nice gentleman that will help you on the bus. We found it eventually! It was only 15 euro from the airport to Galway, we didn't think that was too bad.

We arrived in Galway a little bit after 1 pm and proceeded to the bus area. We asked a nice guy how to get to the school and he told us it wasn't a very far walk, so we started to walk in that direction and then came upon an information booth (which you see in quite a few areas in Galway, they are good to their visitors!) At the information booth we found it would be about a 15 minute walk to the university and about another 30 to Dunaras Village (our apartments). We decided against walking since we each had 2 suitcases, a backpack and purse. We found the bus that took us close to our place and then hadta walk about a mile (uphill, of course) to find the apartments, but we found them! We got into our apartments right away and then decided to go to a store near by to pick up some stuff we needed, get our apartments situated and call it a night.

We've been exploring Galway since! Today was really rainy but the weather hasn't been too bad so far. It's kind of unpredictable! Galway is beautiful city!! We stopped by our campus and it is one of the prettiest campuses I've ever seen! We have found that Dunnes is a good place to get pretty much anything you need. We also went down to see the ocean. I know where I'll be going if I ever get stressed, it's so peaceful down there. We were pretty tired after all our walking yesterday, but we did have time to stop by our first pub for some Guinness. We had amazing crepes for lunch yesterday and today ate at a cute little cafe.

I wish that our apartments were a bit closer to the city centre, but we're looking into getting monthly bus passes, so we'll see how much that is. Luckily there is a shuttle that goes between Dunaras Village and the university. This is a new service they started this year, we got bought those passes today!

I'm really excited for my roommates to move in and to start school! I think thus far, it kind of seems like a vacation still. Once school starts and everything gets going, it'll be interesting to see what happens. I'm also excited to see what kind of people that I'll meet!