First Day, cont.

Bridget and I checked in at the IFSA (Institute for Study Abroad) table with Geoff, who we learned was one of our program advisors. We got our keys, free breakfast coupons, maps of Dublin and health insurance info, plus the schedule of events for our time in Dublin. After deciding to go down to breakfast after settling in a bit, I went into my room and met my roommate Elle, who was trying to rest - jetlag hit everyone pretty hard. (Incidentally, that is the one real benefit to my sleeping problems - I don't really get jetlag because I'll sleep whenever I get a chance to sleep!) Bridget's roommate was sleeping, but she came over and met Elle who, it turned out, goes to school with Bridget's roommate. Elle went back to sleep and the two of us went downstairs.

Breakfast was a buffet - choice of two cold items, plus hot items, toast, and tea or coffee. IFSA arranged for us to have enough breakfast coupons for every day we were in Dublin which was lovely. We pulled out our maps of Dublin and tried to figure out what to do that day, since we didn't have anywhere we had to be until 6:30 and it was only mid-morning. We decided to go to the National Gallery and maybe to look for cell phones. Bridget wanted some time to unpack, so we agreed to meet up in a few hours. Against our best intentions however, none of that ended up happening. As I found out later, Bridget fell asleep and slept the whole day, so I spent the day reading, surfing the internet, and watching bad tv with Elle - basically anything except sleeping.

The group of us met up that night for dinner all freshened, at that point, having no idea how many of us to expect. Between Elle, Bridget, Bridget's roommate Sophia and I, we knew half the group, because it turned out, there were only 8 people signed up for the Early Start Program who had applied through IFSA - and we were all girls. I don't know what we'd all been expecting, but that wasn't quite it. While we were in Dublin, IFSA provided us with breakfast and one other meal each day - that day it was dinner and they spared no expense. Little did we know that we wouldn't likely be getting quite such royal treatment in the future - though we all agreed it was nice while it lasted! Dinner gave us and our 3 advisors a chance to get to know each other. Geoff was a young lawyer and rather the restraining hand on Tim, the head advisor I suppose. They both work in the Dublin office. Suzy is our person in Cork - who was really helpful when I got sick this week! After dinner, us 8 girls went to a nearby pub to hang out for a while and then split up with 3 girls going out for a while longer and the other 5 of us going to sleep, after a painfully long day. Day 1 in Dublin, over and done with!