I've Been Awake Too Long

January 13/14, 2007

The Adventure Begins.

Well, first off, I was pulled out of line going through security in Great Falls, Montana. They patted me down and what not and took out every thing that was in my backpack and scanned it through the x-ray. Of course I'm going to blow up the plane. With my iPod and my PowerBook charger? Naturally.

But through plane delays and low-speaking 90 year old women, I finally made it to Dublin. And I love it. Right now, we are all staying in a hostel across the street from Temple Bar (the kinda touristy part of town, but it's awesome). Ashlee Springer waited for me at the Dublin airport and we took a bus down town and had to carry my giant bags a few blocks to the hostel where we met up with everyone who was just leaving for lunch. We went to a very nice restaurant and lunch was on the program. (Well, I'm sure we're paying for it somewhere, it just seems nice that we didnt have to pay.)

After lunch, they let us off on our own. I took a much needed shower and discovered something rather interesting. You have to punch your key card into a thing by the front door of your hostel room to get light. Okay, fair enough. Except when that light only lasts about three minutes -- maybe. So, while I was showering, about a minute in, the lights went off and I had to finish my shower in the dark. It was pretty black in there. But after that, I went on an adventure to find cheap/free internet. I found a coffee shop with a really weak signal, and I checked most of my email and stuff, but it was too slow, so I walked around the Temple Bar area and found a place to write this and let everyone know I made it and I'm okay, but I have to use the computers provided and they are just a wee bit different than an American keyboard. And it's frustrating. And just the thought of everyone coming in here and touching the mouse and keyboard grosses me out. In an hour, I am meeting back up with the rest of the students and I think we're all going to dinner together. (Except this time, we have to pay.)

I think I'm doing pretty well as far as jet lag goes. I didn't sleep the night before I left and I kinda slept in the airports and a decent amount on the flight over. I'm definately tired because it should be a quarter to 10:00am (Montana time) but it's really 4:45pm Dublin time and I haven't had more than three hours of sleep since about 11:00am on Friday. Needless to say, I'll be ready to go to bed tonight. And then tomorrow we have to be up early for Orientation stuff. Oh well. It's been nice to have the day to do a little exploring, hopefully more in the next few days too. (Before we move further away from Temple Bar.)

I have a pocketfull of Euros and an empty notebook and I suppose by the end of my journey, they will have reversed themselves.