Train to Cork - 1st Day in Cork!

Finally the day had arrived. We were going to our new homes - but first we had to sort out the cell phone situation and take the train to get there. The cell phones were fairly easy - Tim and Geoff had gone and purchased the phones and loaded them up for us, so all we had to do was reimburse them. I am the proud owner of a little red and black Samsung phone. Then we had to get us and our stuff to the train station.

Easier said than done - between us 8 girls and all our luggage (I was among the "light packers" and I had a large suitcase and my backpack), Geoff, Suzy and Suzy's dog, a car and 3 taxis were required to caravan us to the station and once we got on the train, we had to get our luggage into the overhead compartments. A challenge for anyone with the amount of luggage we all had, but there was another difficulty in my case. I am, in case you hadn't noticed, on the shorter side. With someone helping me, I could easily lift the suitcase, but not quite as high as it needed to go - with the result, that I nearly took the head off these two very polite gentleman who were unfortunate enough to be sitting under the shelf I was trying to fill with my bag. Horribly embarrassed, I apologized over and over again and offered to buy them whatever they wanted off the snack cart, but they waved me off, thanking me for offering - and laughing at me a little too, I think.

I was completely mortified - I hid my head in my book (The Unbearable Lightness of Being) for I don't even know how long. People got on the train and off the train. Some of the girls fell asleep, others talked quietly or listened to their iPods. At a certain point, the older man (the one whose finger was injured in the tumbling suitcase mess) was left by his younger companion and we began talking. He was absolutely lovely. We chatted about his travels in the US, the wedding he would be attending soon, his book and then - !!! - I got my first Gaelic lesson.

My Gaelige dictionary so far:

Go rabh maith agat - Thank you
Le do thoil - please
Slán - Goodbye
Sláinte - Cheers
and
(phonetically) eoi - goodnight

And yes I remember how to say them. So exciting! Karen, the representative from UCC who came and spoke to us told us about an Intro to Gaelic class that's offered and I really want to take it - but I can't if my sleep meds aren't keeping me awake in class. I'm so glad I have this month to attend class and see how I do before the semester actually starts - it will make picking the classes I take over the semester much easier if I know I can (or can't) stay awake. I don't want a repeat of what happened when I tried to take Hebrew last fall.

Once the train arrived in Cork, our group waited 'til everyone in our car had exited before we tried to move our luggage. We had learned our lesson! After loading us and our stuff into cabs, we rode over to Copley Court, our home for the next four months. I was staying in an apartment with at least 5 other people, I knew, but none of them were IFSA people. After getting my key, I let myself into my apartment on what we'd call the 3rd floor, but is the 2nd here. 4 of my flatmates were already moved in and I met two right away. I learned that there were going to be 7 of us, 5 girls and 2 guys. We each had our own bathroom and bedroom, which was VERY exciting. My room is yellow with yellow curtains and a view of Cork. It's lovely and very cheerful. After dropping my stuff and locating my contracts, I went back downstairs to meet up with the rest of the group. We were all going to walk into town together. Geoff showed us how to get to city centre and then the group split up. The bar-hoppers from the night before went off together and the rest of us went with Geoff to UCC, which I really appreciated, since we were going to campus so I could talk to Karen about my sleep disorder. Geoff took us to campus (not the most direct route, but he's from Dublin, so it's not his fault, really) where I was to meet Karen. She was running a little late so we looked around and admired the Ogham stones. Once she arrived, we briefly spoke and then Geoff basically said see you in a few weeks and left. We walked around a little bit longer and bought ethernet cables and other absolute essentials and then decided we were starving and had to eat NOW. Since most of us hadn't had much of a lunch, unless you'd bought something on the train, we were all hungry.

Our token "local" Mary, whose mother is from Cork, led us to this delicious Italian place where we all happily ate dinner, before deciding to head home and unpack. At that point, I had absolutely no sense of Cork, beyond a pretty campus and a confusing city centre, but I'd learn. Since we had our official UCC Early Start orientation the next day, I didn't stay up very late. After chatting some more with my flatmates and meeting the 3 I hadn't yet met, I unpacked and turned in, exhausted and excited for everything to really start!