Well, I made it! I am finally here in Dublin!
The flight from STL to Chicago was more than slightly stressful. I am fortunate enough to have an amazing friend who's mom works for American Airlines. She let me use her buddy passes to fly over on the cheap, the only catch is that I had to fly as a standby passenger. This meant that I didn't know for sure if I would make the flight until the last possible second. I was the very last passenger to board the aircraft. That wrecked just a little havoc on my nerves but I made it and all was well. I sat next to these two women who had already partaken in a few cocktails and proceded to order two more on the 45 minute flight to Chicago, but other than that, the flight went fairly smoothly.
As soon as we deplaned, I made a beeline for my next flight and fortunately they already had a boarding pass printed out for me.... in FIRST CLASS no less. Let me just say that I had never flown first class before and it pretty much blew my mind. The seats are motorized to fold out into beds which makes for a much more comfortable overnight flight. Upon boarding the plane, I was given a care package complete with Burt's Bees chapstick, a toothbrush, toothpaste, socks, tissues and an eye mask. Once everyone is settled into their personal sky-thrones, the flight attendants walk around and offer everyone juice, water, or champagne. Basically my every need was attended to. OH and the food? DELICIOUS. It started with a shrimp and smoked salmon appetizer, followed by salad and bread. The main course was a "melt-in-your-mouth" filet of beef with a side of risotto and spinach. To top it all off I had a Ben and Jerry's sundae for dessert (which I could barely eat). I also had a glass of Grand Cru with my meal.
In short, it was amazing and totally made up for all the stress of the first flight.
I arrived in Dublin around 2:00am Missouri time, 8:00am here. Going through customs wasn't terrible. I was mildly interrogated about my reasons for studying abroad, but that only took a few minutes. Thankfully our student managers met us at the gate and we took a bus back to Trinity. Security is really tight at Trinity College (TCD) since it is such a tourist attraction. The entire school is surrounded by thick walls and all the entrances are heavy wooden doors. It feels like a fortress... a fortress of KNOWLEDGE.
I couldn't really sleep when I first got here, so I wandered around Grafton Street with my roommate and got a vodafone for calling other Irish folk. Grafton is crowded and there are street performers everywhere. We passed by three young Irish lads who were performing a rock cover of "Airplanes" by B.O.B. which was interesting to say the least. It's so cool to hear so much live music in the streets though and all of the street performers we heard seriously could have been headlining their own show.
I meet with Helsinn tomorrow and get the details on my six sigma project. I also have class at 8am local time. I just woke up from a much needed nap, but since it's about midnight here, I'll be getting back to bed soon.
My anxiety was kicking in full force before I left and everyone had to keep reminding me how much fun I'm going to have over here. Now that I'm here I am excited and ready to absorb all I can!! I'm trying my hardest to commit everything I see to memory. There is so much to take in and I've only been here a day!
No comments:
Post a Comment