Carey Mulligan is beautiful

Ballyraine Campus
Apartment number 8
Bedroom

I was traveling alone up until New York, but I thought I was going to be alone all the way until Ireland- a terrifying thought for a naturally nervous person such as myself. And I always think I'm more competent than I am until I'm actually in these situations. Where the hell do I go when I get there? How do I find the bus station? Is it at the airport? What if my luggage isn't there? What if I miss the bus? What if I'm the last one to arrive because I'm an idiot? Well luckily, other people in the group were connecting in New York, and I had them there to lean back on.

The flight was alright, except I got the aisle seat which means I won't be sleeping, basically. I watched Wall Street and read a book called "Round Ireland with a Fridge", which is pretty entertaining. It is about 8:30 am when we descended into Ireland, and I just see green- light greens and dark greens and little spots of white. It was a different feeling than China.. I didn't keep repeating in my mind the country I was in (Ex- "I'm in China. I'm in CHINA!") (x20). It wasn't like that; it was definitely more calm. I like to reflect on how I react to new things, if you can't tell. I think I learn a lot about myself.. and because I like to think my life is a movie, I think it foreshadows the future.

Anyway, as mentioned before, Ireland is super, super, super green. Extremely green. Very very very green. I know you think you already knew that, but you don't really know. It's pretty clean too. We find our bus stop pretty easily, we have to wait about 45 minutes. I go back inside to a different part of the Dublin airport to go to the bathroom and emerge to see a group of French hockey players.. each one with a perfect face. Seriously, I couldn't stop staring- it was embarrassing. The bus arrives and here begins my love story...

Which I'm not going to describe in the blog. The bus ride is loonngg. Its about 4 hours. Which I didn't mind at all because I love bus rides, and I was so excited to see more of Ireland. We go from Dublin to Letterkenny with 4 other stops on the way. This is the one and only bus ride I have ever been sick on. I got horribly ill, I thought I was going to puke on the guy next to me several times. You know when you're in class trying so hard not to fall asleep but its inevitable? As its happening you're falling and you slam yourself up and look like an idiot? This happened to me around 10 times. I tried so hard not to sleep, I just wanted to keep watching the scenery (which, actually, if someone kidnapped me blindfolded me, and flew me to Ireland where I opened my eyes, more often than not, I wouldn't be able to tell I was in a different area). There were a lot of hills, A LOT of cows and sheep, and again, a lot of green. The houses are different.. very spaced apart and in unusual and unique shapes. They also have a billion of roundabouts, and oh yeah! They drive on the different side of the road on the different side of the car. I didn't notice this that much because the bus was so big and I was all the way in the back sitting in an aisle seat. I think I got so sick because it was so hilly, I couldn't see out the other windows that well, we were going really fast, and I had about an hour of sleep.

Long story short.. which hasn't been that short (sorry), the town of Letterkenny is just adorable. It's kind of small, said to have only 15,000 people. It's not a big touristy place, which I like a lot. A few people I've talked to we all surprised a group of American students would come to Letterkenny on vacation. Which I then proceeded to tell them we weren't on vacation really. I'm here in my apartment with my two roommates who are also from OU, Brenna and Christina. I think we all get a long pretty well, same goes for the whole group. Since I was here first I got to pick a room first (Yeah! We have our own rooms!), I picked the double with its own bathroom. I just had to. They hate me. We get a living space and a kitchen as well; its much nicer than I expected. There is no full length mirror though. Isn't that ridiculous? Sure, provide the kitchen with sugar but no full length mirror. But that is my only complaint.

In future blogs, I will get in more detail about the work we'll be doing here, which I'm also really excited about. Besides assignments, we'll be volunteering for the Earagail Arts Festival, a huge festival in the town featuring local/famous artists, bands, readings, movies, several other events through out Letterkenny and Donegal.


Other fun things:
-The Euro is ROUGH.. Say something is 20 euro. Cut it in half and add the half (10) to the original amount and that is what it is in dollars.
-The weather is sketchhh. And by that I mean, its cold. Its on average 50-60 degrees here. The sun rarely shines. But it fits Ireland. It's still so beautiful. It's pretty windy too. The locals say it rains most days but it hasn't a lot yet.
-It's a 7 hour difference so it's almost 6 am in the states.
-It doesn't get dark here until 11 pm
-The accents are as wonderful and as mesmerizing as you think they are.

Quote:
(about the town)

"If you're going to break a window, everyone in Letterkenny is going to know about it."