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Hi everyone!
So the past 5 days have been totally crazy and I only have a few minutes to write this post right now so please be patient with my probably poor spelling and grammar :)
I flew out of Newark air port on Friday (10/9/2010) at around 9 p.m. on Continental. Up until I got to the gate I was able to hold it together but saying good bye to my brother and parents at the airport was pretty hard and I cried a little bit... but once I got through security it was fine.
The plane was pretty big and I don't believe there were any empty seats. We all had our own little tv monitor and were able to watch houndreds of different programs or listen to a wide variety of music.
The woman I was sitting next to on the flight was very kind. I didn't catch her name but she lives in Derry with her husband. I found it interesting that she is a member of the European Union and has an EU passport and he is a United States Citizen and had to go through a different line in customs. I thought they were both Irish citizens.
Anyways, after a flight that was both too long and too short I landed at Belfast International Airport at 8 a.m. local time on Saturday morning (11/9/2010) I was able to take a little nap on the plane and after going through customs and picking up my luggage I was ready to go out and explore. My resident director at BCA Jim Skelly met me at the airport and we quickly hopped in his car and drove to Derry (or Londonderry depending on who you talk to).
Once there we checked me into my lodgings, on this trip I stayed in a hostel called Paddy's Palace and then went on to get a mobile for my stay in Ireland (cell phone = mobile). After this Jim had to go off and do some work for the university which allowed me to get to know two of the girls also studying at the University through BCA. So I went to lunch with Juliet and Gina in a little cafe just inside the walls in Derry. Afterwords we did a little bit of exploring. In our travels we found a little shopping area with artsy shops, where the local shopping mall is, and there was this beautiful park up on the hill going away from the river. In the park they were having a concert promoting peace which was facinating and truly entertaining.
After spending the day exploring the city, the three of us walked along the river on our way to Jim's house for dinner. We had pretty good take away pizza and recieved some information about Derry, the University of Ulster, and what to expect during out orientation week.
We took a cab to he city center after dinner to take a closer look at te local night life. While it was 11 oclock in the evening I was surprised to see that people were only beginning to go out to the pubs, clubs, and discos (yes they have discos). The three of us were pretty tired to go out ourselves so we all walked back to my hostel (Paddy's Palace) and turned in for the night. Surprisingly I couldn't fall asleep. I thought it was very strange considering that I hadn't slept at all since I was on the plane. But this enabled me to call my family and chat with them for a little bit.
The next day the rest of our group arrived in Derry after flying in from Newark. We grew from a group of three girls to a group of six. We met for brunch at a little restaurant along the river in Derry and, after a very good breakfast, we walked over to the University's residence for a little bit of rest.
At around 2:30 we left the University Housing for the city center again to take a walking tour of the city of Derry. A very nice tour guide told us the history of the city without removing any of the details. He said "We'll tell you the good, the bad, the ugly, and the indifferent. We leave nothin' out" and he was very right. Derry is right on the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland and was a hot spot during the troubles. As you may or may not know Derry played host to the incident known throughout the world as "Bloody Sunday", but its history goes back far longer than that.I wont bore you all with a history lesson but I thought it was all quite fascinating.
The tour ended in the center of town and from there we went to the local shopping center and walked around for a bit. We eventually made our way down to "the Garage", a restaurant on the water, for dinner with Jim. That night we again enjoyed good conversation and good food. After a very delicious meal we all went our separate ways home and tucked into bed.
The next day I packed up my stuff, checked out of the hostel, and moved from Derry over to Newtonabbey where the University of Ulster Jordanstown campus is located. After checking into my accomodations (which are very nice, I have a single room and my own bathroom) I went over to explore the main academic building with Jim. He thought it might be important to meet some of the important people in the international office, so we stopped by and I was able to introduce myself and get some useful information about the coming orientation week.
After this brief introduction we headed over to my new academic advisors office to discuss my courses of study. The only unfortunate thing about studying abroad is that I need to make sure that all of my classes will transfer for credit at Wentworth when I return home in December. This caused a slight hick-up when one of the courses I absolutely needed was changed from a one semester to a full year course. However, we were able to work it out so that I could complete the course in one semester by doing extra work on the side.
When this meeting ended I headed over to my accomodation to unpack and to settle into my new room. After logging into the internet I was able to Skype my mom, show her what my new room looks like, and chatted with her while I unpacked. She was also surprised by the size of my room and the amenities that I was granted.
So that is the end of blog post one. I'll post another one soon. But that covers my first weekend in Ireland.
To my family, I miss you all alot and I look forward to seeing you when I get home in December (but I'm really really really excited about being here :-D )
To anyone else reading, I hope you enjoyed this and found it informative as well as interesting (I know I'm usually pretty boring so I hope I didn't put you to sleep)
Please everyone keep in touch.
Love,
Renate
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