Home

Today, I feel like I finally made my room my home. I finally unpacked, hung clothes up and put my suitcase and backpack away under my bed. What helped the most was that we were given the opportunity to be taken to the supermarket and IKEA today through this Christian community group. It was really nice because to walk that far with all the bags we had to get would have been painful. I got to buy food, so I stalked up my kitchen cabinet and filled in some of the fridge. I am still unsure how I feel about this sharing kitchen stuff.... someone already used my butter. Not that I dont like sharing, but I just still dont even know like anyone on my floor so I found that kind of weird. Spent less then i thought but still too much.. Then we went to IKEA. Talk about heaven. I love it there! It got me SO excited to go back to Pullman and get to buy stuff for our apartment. Way more affordable then I remember thinking it was, except that I definitely still spend 63 quid... ouch. Either way I am happy I did. My room is finally mine. I picked out a new bed spread and sheets and some pillows. This little change made me feel so much better. It wasnt like a hotel or hostel anymore but my real space with my own selections.

I also was looking for decorations so my room could be less bare, but the walls are painted cement so that rules out a lot of options for decorations. Luckily, for the second time ever in my life i was creative (big little was the only other time). I decided to make my own collages of pictures and put them around my room. I dont have many pictures right now, so my goal tomorrow or monday is to go to the Kodak store and print more. But basically I put them together and made it much homeyer. ALSO as i was organizing everything i came across postcards I have purchased that I intended to send to people. However, in my new inspiration I decided to use the post cards to make one of my collages. I plan to continue to collect them all semester and add them onto the one wall so by the end ill have a real collage and display of everywhere I have been. Im super excited for it!



I got to meet a couple flat mates in the kitchen today while i was cooking dinner, they are all a very nice bunch but I dont totally fit in yet. And from eavesdropping, a good handful of them are older than average. I look forward to talking more with them and getting past the superficial hello hows about ya's.

Its 9:22 and I am officially exhausted yet again so I will not be going out and being social again. But need not fear, I will be doing that soon I hope. I just need to stop waking up so damn early for all these activities. Tomorrow is sleep in for sure. I cant wait.

White fluffy stuff?

Today was finally our last day of really long meetings as far as i know. We got to learn about health and english as a second language, along with more student services and the library. After the meetings we got some free time, got some lunch at the student union cafe, couldnt understand what the waitress said the soup of the day was so i stupidly asked "whats that?" when everyone at my table responded "whats tomato and basil?" Yup. I was the ass in that situation. Anyways, then I ventured over to finish registration and get my student card and then realized I had nothing to do before the tours they had planned for us so i read the paper. Funny how republicans can still piss me off while in a whole different country. (sorry little) We got a tour of some of the grounds then, the Rec center and the library. The rec is nothing like WSU but it had a decent array of stuff. A really nice pool, for laps and then a separate one for diving and a sauna. But the catch is you dont get membership with tuition.. you pay 75 quid for our 4months here for full access. I am still debating whether I will do it or just be fat..

Right, so today was tons of craic (crack) which is equivalent to fun here in Ireland and it was even quite sunny out! Ned's dad contacted me via phone to say hello and tell me when he will be coming into town and that we will have some tea. Unfortunetly right after I hung up the phone and told him how beautiful out it was, it began to snow. yes. SNOW! White fluffy crappy stuff fell from the sky. And then the next second it was sunny again! It was the strangest weather I have yet to experience here and it was also cold as hell and windy. So all my Pullman friends , know that I am much more on the same page of weather as you. Anywho that was the only exciting thing so far today. We have a international student welcome reception and dinner tonight starting at 6 that I am about to get ready for and then its out to the pubs! Tonight is apparently going to be a crazy busy night. Not only is it a friday, which means people drink a lot on Fridays, but its also pay day. So people havent been paid since before Christmas so it will be a big celebration all night. Maybe ill find a cute Irish boy to buy me drinks.... hmm ALTHOUGH interesting tidbit here, at the pubs, groups work on a "rounds" system. Where each person will buy a round of drinks for the table and it goes around until everyone has purchased one for everyone... interesting way of doing things, I am adjusting though.

Continuation...

As a continuation from yesterday... After Clarissa got me out of my room we all met up in our student center here in the center of the like apartment/dorm buildings. Decided to wonder down into downtown Belfast, which ended up being a ton of fun. It was raining for part of it.. cold as hell with the wind i mentioned before. We wondered around a bit lost, got everyone else cell phones. Thank god. not being able to get a hold of anyone was just driving everyone nuts. found a mall and inside was the Pound store! Best store ever!! equivalent to the dollar store, it was so useful for all the nonsense you dont want to spend money on. Unfortunately having a ton of bags with a long ass walk home is not particularly comfortable... i need a massage for sure. But at least the rain stopped. Finally got home with all my goodies, planned to unpack and put stuff away... however as my last post shows, i more or less just talked on facebook with a few of you and then passed out.

Today was another long day, although I am hoping to make it past 9pm. Woke up at 7am to use my new en suite shower! froze myself while trying to get out and figuring out how to turn it off... always fun. Also, for the life of me I just cannot figure out how to use sinks that have separate faucets for hot and cold. Either your hand is on fire or its numb. and splashing the water to the middle just does not seem to work! any ideas?Anyways, met everyone to walk to our main campus. Absolutely beautiful. photos soon. I feel like I am going to school at Hogwarts half the time. Sat through MORE orientation stuff, then had my advising appointment! I am officially registered for classes!!! So excited :) I am taking Irish Politics, The Religious and the Secular in Modern Political Thought, and Negotiations of Conflict Resolution. All are level 3 or like senior level courses except the first one is level 2. Met a couple other cool kids from the states but didnt connect with them like I have with the ones from my program.

....

It is now about 6hours past when I started writing this post because I had to go out for a while and eat and whatnot. We got to go on a Bus Tour of Belfast and see the whole city including the city hall where we met and chatted with the Lord Mayor (nice lady). After that we came back to our rooms where I initially started this post and then left to finally go into a pub and get food, I ordered a veggie burger. Interesting lesson learned, vegetable burger in Ireland translates to bad potato latka patty more or less on a bun... It wasnt bad after you added mayo and ketchup and vinegar and anything else to actually have flavor... I was starving though, so i ate it. After that we went to this thing our program put on called a Ceilidh. I still dont know how to say that but its supposed to be traditional Irish music and dance. Well we got there and I had a flashback to Sock Hop days in elementary school with slightly more diversity, aka a lot of asians. People were learning how to Irish dance on a big floor like line dancing and everyone else was huddled in their comfort groups. You ALLLL know how I feel about dancing in general so obviously i wanted to leave right when we got there. But to be polite and not those arrogant Americans who think they dont need to attend the cool kid events, we stayed and watched, took some pictures and video and then left. Went into this pub called Guinness Times or something like that, sat down and just hung out. As it got later the pub started getting super busy and I have not been more entertained with horrible outfits in a long time. This whole new fad of extremely tight dresses that barely cover your ass is in.. but ladies seem to forget that it makes them look like kangaroos with there gutsbeing squished together and very obvious. Were in a tiny pub in Belfast and these girls are all dressed like we might as well be in the heart of NY. Even more baffling was when we got up to leave, there was a huge line out the door in the POURING rain where girls are waiting to get into this not that great place in there dinky outfits with no coats. I would not be that dedicated no matter what ever. Anyways,this is how I officially made it past 9pm but am now exhausted again. We have more meetings tomorrow and a campus tour with some other interesting activities. I discovered how to text internationally today also and bought a Queen's University sweatshirt so I feel like a real student!

Final Destination

At LAST I have arrived!!! I am in Belfast, Northern Ireland. We got here today around 1pm or so on a charter bus. Check in was simple, got our kitchen packs, keys and a bunch of paper work and off we were to our rooms. My room is much more like a dorm room in the States... except its a single, so just me in it. And I have my own bathroom in my room, shower, toilet, and sink. I will post some picture of my room as soon as I unpack and it looks presentable.

After mini check in we all went to our separate apartment buildings, naturally mine is the furthest down out street and began to unpack and settle in. Almost immediately we all realized no one else besides me had phones so no one could get a hold of another. luckily Clarissa (one of my hostel mates) was brave enough to come and buzz our dorm buzzer and sit outside my window until i realized what was happeneing and looked out my window.... ..... uh oh. bad sign. I am officially nodding off like an old man with the jolting back awake. I will finish the update about my first day in Belfast tomorrow. cheers

To be slagged but not be a slag...

Last night my exhaustion got the best of me again before I was able to blog but need not fear, I am wide awake at 8 40 am to update what you missed. Yesterday was a pretty busy day that consisted of doing not a whole lot. We spent about 7 hours at Arcadia University's office hours going over orientation stuff. Mostly academics and what to expect in the classroom. Good thing im a good writer because it sounds like thats pretty much all we do for our modules.

We also went over some fantastic vocabulary to try and help us adjust, one such example would be that we were told if you are not slagged, there is something wrong with you. This meaning, if people dont joke with you then your weird. Irish people love to tease. However, we were also told not to use this word in the singular because it changes the meaning completely and means slut. funny i know. We played around with silly words and quirky things like that for at least an hour.

Finally after orientation we were given tickets to go to a play. I really enjoyed it but was so exhausted I definitely fell asleep in the first half of the show... finished that came home, did some facebook, packed up my stuff and passed out. Now we are all getting ready to depart to Belfast so I will update everyone when i get there! Very exciting because its finally my last destination! I could even unpack!

Dublin Day 2 Recap

I was behind one day due to my exhaustion last night which ended up benefiting me nicely since we had to meet this morning to start orientation at 8 30 am. Definitely did not want to wake our lazy bums up, so all of us continually pushed snooze until about 7 45. Jumped up rushed around, decided it was okay to look like crap, went and got some toast for breakfast and were on our way.

Orientation was supposed to be pretty boring but I was pretty entertained the whole time. The stuff we talked about was useful and relevant and our group of students going to Queen's is hilarious. Were all pretty outgoing and funny and loud and are the ones asking questions and getting involved, its fantastic! im so glad to be going to school with these people. We had people talk to us about money, immigration, social life, our home stay, and safety. A funny police officer came and told us about what crimes to look our for and then got on about football and hurling... very entertaining man and definitely someone I would talk to on the street. I learned that me and my roommate Clarissa will be doing the homestay together with a single women who apparently loves guitar, walking and dancing and has two grown children nearby. Were excited and it should be interesting. That will be next Friday so stay tuned to hear more about how that goes. After the longest orientation ever (mostly due to our half of the room carrying on conversations with the presenters and being so damn entertaining) we got a free ticket for the Dublin Hop On Hop Off Bus Tour.

This was probably the most touristy thing I have ever done but it was pretty enjoyable. Until the sun started to go down and that ridiculous wind started kicking in again. We got to see a ton of cool places which again i urge you to go to my facebook to see the whole album as I have only selected a picture of Dublin Castle here to show you.

Not long after this stop, at St. Patricks Cathedral we started to get tired of being a tourist and got on the bus simply to drive through the rest of the sites instead of getting off the bus. It took us right back to the hostel where we then finally went to the store. Thank god. I purchased towels. which will be really amazing tomorrow morning so I can dry properly. I also got myself a european hair dryer and straighter so i dont blow up all of the block and a new purse. Finally can stop using the hideous Satchel my mother made me bring thats so 90s and also screams tourist. I am very happy with my purchases and after that a smaller group of us girls went to a quaint, slightly over priced, place to eat called Freddricks i believe. It was a pretty ridiculously long day and we finally got back here and I have been updating and uploading pictures and friends for hours now. It is 1:30 am now and I must rush to sleep as we have another long orientation day tomorrow dealing with academics and classes. I hope someone is reading this somewhere and if not its kind of fun to recap the day. OH and I figured out how to make my first international call today, to my mom and Kelly helped me figure out skype. I was slightly challenged for a while.

Also as a side note, our hostel has some quirky aspects to it and i must mention it has a plug outlet like a foot from the ceiling... by the window. I have no idea its purpose but it is in the most unusual place.... i have been pondering its usage for 2 days now....

Dublin Day 1 Recap

So after the long ass journey here, I have been in Dublin for two days and love it! I am so excited to get to Belfast but the couple days here have been fantastic. I love my roommates, there are four of us in our Hostel and we all get along wonderfully. We met up with the only three boys in the whole program, also going to Queens, and have been touring with them a bunch also, Absolutely hilarious.
Yesterday, after Arcadia bought us lunch, sweet deal by the way, love free food, our group decided to go tour the Guinness Storehouse. I have to admit it was pretty cool. You start at the bottom, and there are seven floors to go up that takes you through the brewing process. Check out my facebook for a ton of pictures recently uploaded. At the top of the 7th floor there is a place called Gravity Bar where i proceeded to consume my first ever Guinness right from the source. It was damn good for a heavy beer and everyone is always raving about the creamy head... i admit it tasted good but i couldnt help but chuckle and think "thats what she said" every time. mature i know.

Anyways, true to being an American I purchased some memorabilia, a really adorable Guinness shirt. After that we continued our walk around Dublin which ended up being a solid 3 hours total if not longer, to try and find a store only to find out some places in the world still believe in a day of rest. Sunday. So after slight cursing we went and got 2 for 1 fish and chips and just enjoyed each others company further. Made our way back to the hostel freezing our bums off, I will second Makennas posting about the wind chill here. Its Wicked! Makes your face and ears burn like hell and although the temperature is close to home, the wind easily drops it much below that.
Got home, jumped in bed to warm up, chatted with dad a little on facebook and by 9 I was tapped out and non responsive.

The Trials of Travel...

Its official. I have arrived in Dublin! Actually I have been here for about 12 hours but I am finally functioning now. It is 8am and I have been awake since like 6, which for anyone who knows me, that's a miracle. So despite the weird hours ill give a quick rundown of my travel here... it was far from easy naturally.

So I started the morning leaving my house at like 5:40am to get to Seatac and have there be not a single person in line for check in and maybe a 5 minute wait through security.. awesome. So i sat at my gate until 920 when our plane finally took off. Not a bad flight, there was no one sitting in the middle which was nice, but the old man (i mean really old) in the aisle seat said maybe 4 words the whole trip, and i had to go pee like 5 times and had to have him move.. I'm sure i was his favorite person. Got into Chicago, realized my flight wasn't posted on the board, freaked out because, oh right, our plane was running late so I thought I only had 4o minutes before we boarded, so I went and stuffed my face with good ol' American McDonald's (i figured it was the last chance to eat it in the US lol) then went to a lady at a desk, which happened to be the gate that my plane was supposed to be boarding from, where she kindly told me if had been delayed until 6:30. Sweet.... SO I got a couple calls in to family and whatnot which was nice, but then it just got boring, cold and annoying. luckily as it got closer these nice Europeans sat next to me and chatted for a while getting me excited for friendly people.

Flight number 2. We finally boarded. and then sat... and sat.. and sat... literally for an entire additional hour. Right as everyone was getting irritable, the captain gets on the intercom to tell us that there wasn't enough water in the plane for an international flight so there fixing something with a switch board, blah blah, but makes a point to sound annoyed and mention it should have been dealt with a long time ago. but it wasn't. So we waited. After we finally starting going, we had to wait in the longest airplane traffic line ever documented, easily another 30-45 minutes. Naturally if anyone can do math, this put us at least 2+ hours behind schedule. This delay had the wonderful affect of me missing my train.

Arrived in Manchester at like 9 40am, original arrival time was 7:05. Went through customs, where I sweated balls ... like actual sweat not from being nervous or thinking they wouldnt let me in. it was like 80degrees in that room! painful. Luckily the guy was nice even though he took forever asking me questions, got through customs around 10 15. Following this I went to claim my luggage, where i encountered my first very rude bitchy European. Ironically, the thing that set her off was my luggage. It got stuck trying to go back in and made a bunch of the other luggage's back up and start falling off. She was yelling at the guys working who were all talking and not paying attention.. Anyways. got luggage, cursed my mom for being right again and telling me I had to much stuff and carrying it was going to be a pain. Took the shuttle bus to the train station where I had to purchase another ticket.. the guy at the counter even felt sorry for me, because my replacement ticket was 35 pounds. ouch. (original ticket was 19) Paid it cuz what else was i supposed to do? i had to get to Bangor to see Kenna! Got on the train, met a very nice young man who helped me find my connection and was very interesting and funny. He carried my heavy ass luggage for me, on and off and then onto my next train, sweet fellow. After I got settled onto my long train my jet lag kicked in hard and I passed out for about 10 minutes between every stop as i kept being panicked that I would miss my stop, which was at the end of the trains line... Got to my last connection, met a reallly adorable young Welsh man who I asked to use his phone so I could call Kenna and tell her why i wasnt there already. he also helped me with my luggage, its amazing that men can be so nice here in other counties. such a pleasant change.

Got to Makenna in Bangor, such an adorable town. Like seriously so cute and old fashion yet has everything you need. Love Makennas living situation and I am hoping that mine will be similar. We went into town, got myself a SIM card, THANK GOD! I have a cell phone! I was going crazy as you all know I have an addiction. My number is +07 765 15 2561. Went and ate lunch, then well, we took to long getting back to the train station, where the train, that is supposed to wait left 2 minutes early effectively having me miss my second train of the day. Problem with this one was that missing that meant missing the ferry which missing the ferry meant missing orientation today. SO i sucked it up and paid 50 pounds to a damn funny taxi driver to take me to the ferry port. Passed out on the ferry for 2 hours. Finally arrived in Dublin around 7pm, paid another 14.50 pounds for a taxi ride to the hostel. Got here, got upstairs and passed out by 8.

Woke up again at 10 pm when my roommates got home, got super confused and thought it was 10am.. chit chatted with them for a while, everyone is super nice and friendly and I am excited to have buddies to walk around with. Thanks to the time change I woke up at 6am, was able to make myself stay in bed until 7 before showering, best feeling ever after the travels, and now I am updating this epically long blog. Just had a nice small breakfast of toast and plan on laying in bed until we meet for day one of orientation at noon. Hopefully we get to explore the city some today also. But it is pretty dang cold, being by the water makes it extra chilly. I am still super happy to be here despite the troubled trip and oh right confusion on switching from American to pound and then to euro all in a matter of hours.

Lesson learned: traveling rarely goes as planned and being late, whether by your fault or someone else, sure can cost you, 85+pounds later...

Departure Day!

So the day is finally here!!! I leave at 9:20 am today! I plan on getting to the airport at around 5:30 am so I have plenty of time to get stuck and get through security without being stressed. After about three tries my bags are finally packed and although they feel 70 lbs apparently I am just weak because its only 35lbs... BUT everything important fit and although I am officially screwed for bringing stuff home, I am happy with what I am bringing. I think. Well anyways I hope to update this as soon as I get internet again whether that be in Chicago, Manchester, Bangor or Dublin. I will do my best to keep this interesting once I get there and interesting things begin to happen. Besides arguing with my mother and fighting with a large car cover, my departing day in the US has not been anything to write home about. Tomorrow should be a different story... so excited!

Countdown

So today is January 7th, and Makenna left this morning to start her adventure. That leaves me with only 15 days before I also leave. I am starting to possibly freak out just a little but because it seems like there is so much to do but nothing can get done for a little bit longer. On January 15th I am having a benefit concert at the Eagles Club in Olympia to help me with my travels. My dad is playing along with two other bands so it should be a good time. Everyone is welcome to come! you can find more information on my facebook about it. Anyways, I am still new to this blogging thing but I figured since it got closer i would write something as an update. As posted on my group page i got my address today and it is:

Thea Price
Elms Village
Ash Avenue, Apartment #6, Room 203
78 Malone Road
Belfast, BT9 5BW
Northern Ireland, UK

I am sure once I am there I will love to get anything in the mail! Well thats my update for now, check back on the 23rd or 24th when ill have officially landed in Dublin!