Welcome to Dublin

Hello everyone!

I finally made it to Dublin! Being at JFK wasn't as stressful as I thought. I did get to the airport too early, so I sat around by myself.

The flight was good. I couldn't go to sleep so I just watched The Joneses, Family Guy, Kick-Ass, and part of Clash of the Titans before the plane shut off the movie for landing. Getting through immigration was easy, I just had to show proof that I was a student studying abroad, and none of that financial support paperwork. Luckily I saw 3 people I knew from NYU Film, so we split up into twos and shared cabs.

I'm still having trouble processing the fact that I'm in a foreign country! I forget about the 5 hour time difference, the fact that people drive on the left side of the road, and the fact that I'm a complete American tourist. I'm living in Griffith Residence Hall, which is part of Griffith college.

Griffith Hall of Residence

When I got to my room I met my roommate Hannah, who is doing the music video class. She's a student from Vermont. I got to unpack a little, and then we all had to go to an orientation. There's 18 of us in total. Seven music video students and eleven screenwriting students. Some students aren't from NYU. There's are Irish University students here too, but I haven't talked to them yet.

During the orientation I felt the jet-lag overcoming me. We met Susanne Bach, the coordinator of the program, and Chelsea, her assistant. They talked about the rules of the dorm, and then what happens in the program. We took a walk through the city to the Temple Bar area, which was actually a 45 minute walk (they said it was 20). Susanne and Chelsea bought us lunch in a cute little restaurant, and then we went into the Tisch office where our classes are going to be. There's only 4 rooms in the building, but we all have classes at different times so I guess it won't be overcrowded.

View from the restaurant

Tisch Office

We were given cellphones after a 100 euro deposit. They're all small Nokia phones, but they're cute. We can get free incoming calls, and if we pay 20 Euro a month we can get unlimited texting, or so I hear. We exchanged numbers once we got phones. Some people have newer phones, which I think look better. Oh well. A phone is a phone.

Chelsea took us to a store named Penney's, which sells discount clothing and supplies. We stocked up on necessities for our rooms. I bought a hamper and hangers, because the dorm only supplied us with 4. I also really needed an adapter for my laptop charger because the plugs are different here. While most of the group went back to Griffith, me, Erica, Sourabh, Stephanie, and Ariel searched about 5 different stores before we found the one that sold the right adapter. Now my Mac can happily charge :D

I went to my first pub today with some friends. We were the youngest there, and some people were looking at us. I tried Guinness for the first time--didn't like it at all. I then ordered Bailey's and felt much happier. It's cool that we can just go into bars and have a drink, not cause we want to get drunk.

A free day tomorrow!! I hope to do more sightseeing.
I posted all of my pictures on Facebook, and some are on my flickr