New Country, New You (pt 1)

I woke up at 5 am on my second day in Ireland to find the light still on. I got up and turned it off and then went back to sleep. I woke up again around 8:30 am and decided to get up. It was still dark outside and it was really cold. I fiddled with the heaters, of which there are about 5, each of them with a different operating system, and the water heater, again with a different system. I was going to go explore, get a cell phone and open a bank account. The problem was that I didn't know where to go to do these things. I spent a couple hours dithering at my computer and reading the student info book about the apartment. I had to reset all the heaters because I'd messed them up. They're not terribly effective unfortunately. Unlike American heaters they don't blow hot air, they raidate warmth. So, if you're sitting about two feet away, you'll feel it, but any farther and it's as if it's not on. The water heater is also really weird. It only heats water from about 4am to 8am and that's all the apartment has for the day. There's a boost dial that can heat up more water for up to two hours, but it's supposedly realy expensive to use. And while I'm on the subject of technical stuff, the internet at Gort na Coiribe is all wired, but it's still very slow and not reliable. It was okay the first couple days because it was only some of the international students, but as more people have arrived it's slowed to a crawl. Some days my computer can't even find the networks even though the cable is plugged in. It's a pain. There's supposed to be something I reconfigure on my laptop to make it like Irish internet better, but I can't find whatever it is so it's a toss up whether or not I'll actually have internet. Any ways, back to my second morning: I was still trying to find places I was going to need to go when my roommate showed up. See, I live in a three person apartment. There's a room with a single bed in it and a room with two beds in it. The single room is the Irish girl's room (she was here last semester so she gets to keep her room). I was assigned to the double room. Since I got there first, I got to pick which bed and desk I wanted. I picked the ones closer to the window, which is probably the colder area, but I wanted to be able to look out the window from my desk. There's one bathroom we all share, a semi-equipped kitchen, a living room and dining room combination and a closet where the water heater lives. (I'll photograph all of this eventually) So, I knew it was likely I'd be living with a girl who's part of my particular program, but I didn't know who. All of the students on my program, but one, are from Willamette because it's technically WU's program. The girl who isn't from Willamette is my roommate. Her name is Jamie Mullett and she's from Kentucky. Her school, Bellarmine, has a partnership with Willamette so she got attached to our group. She's nice. : ) 

The view out my window

Embarrassed at being caught in my pajamas, I decided it was probably time to go out and see what I could find, my internet research having yielded nothing useful. By 11:30 I was leaving the apartment. I was going to get food, but I wanted to save my money until I had opened a bank account (just in case there was a minimum amount needed to open one) and had a cell phone.

One of the arches into Gort na Coiribe. My apartment is on the ground floor on the other side of the staircase near the car.

Looking towards Cuirt na Coiribe (more expensive apartments) and Dun na Coiribe (townhouses). This is also the way to the school, although I didn't know that when I took this. It may look lovely and warm, but it wasn't. I was wearing a wool coat, a hat, gloves and a scarf to stay warm.

The Dunnes that's right across the street from Gort na Coiribe. That's where I got my bedding and towel.

Since I had kind of already seen what was in the immediate area around Dunnes and in the Galway Shopping Center, I decided to investigate the stores across the street from the Galway Shopping Center, starting with Curry's.

Outside Curry's

Inside Curry's #1

Inside Curry's #2

So basically Curry's equals Best Buy. It's the same sort of idea. Mostly electronics and some music, movies and video games. I found a hair dryer there for 13 Euros that looked like it might not just fry my hair and I made a mental note to come back and get it later (I didn't want to carry it with me while I explored).


Next door was Aldi.

The outside of Aldi (obviously)

Inside Aldi

Also inside Aldi.

Aldi is a gorcery store for the most part. There's also, as you can see in the picture directly above there are these metal things set up in teh middle of the shop where they put random other stuff. There's everything from clothes to rain boots to speakers and CD players to toys and cookware. All of the random stuff is much cheaper here than it would be elsewhere but it's a gamble what'll be there. And I don't know how good the quality is either...

After Aldi, I went in Woodie's just out of curiosity.

The inside of Woodie's

Woodie's was kind of an odd experience for me. It smelled, in part, like Home Depot, which smells like boredom. But it also smelled like other things. And there were tea sets and aprons and other more houseware-ish things for sale there. For example, this was the first and only place I found pants hangers at all like the ones I'm used to. I couldn't find more than the one pack so I got those. The lady I bought them from was kind of hard to understand when I asked her if there were more, so I just left it at that.

Harry Corry is a designer furniture/bedding/towel place as far as I can tell. I wandered through really fast looking for an extra blanket, but I didn't have any luck so I kept going down the line.

Smyth's, a toy store

The Mickey and Minnie section!

The next place I went in was Smyth's. I was so pleased to see and old fashioned toy store with blocks and books and games and stuffed animals. They're a dying breed in the US and more's the pity. I liked the Disney section a lot. Didn't buy anything here though.

The movie theatre!

The movie theatre is also in this complex. I didn't go in it, but I took a picture to help me remember where it was. I was at once disappointed and kind of pleased that it was pretty much all American movies. I mean, there are a bunch I wanted to see and didn't get to, but at the same time, it would've been cool to see Irish movies you couldn't see in the U.S.

I went back across the street to the Galway Shopping Center, thinking of heading to the Car Phone Warehouse to get a cell phone. On the way there I explored the shops at the end farther from me that I hadn't looked at the night before. I found a Subway attached to an arcade.

DDR!

I found a DDR machine! I was ecstatic so I stopped to play a round. Didn't do too bad for not having played in months. Now I've played DDR in three different countries (US, Japan and Ireland)!! I'm ridiculously proud of myself for that.   

Spongebob paintings on the wall of the arcade. ^_^

A butcher shop

Inside the Galway Shopping Center I decided to wander around now that the stores were actually open. I took a picture of the butchers because you see them a lot here, but you don't really in the U.S. anymore and I thought it was interesting. I went in and out of the bookstore, Eason's and some of the other places before I went in Car Phone Warehouse. I explained to the guy behind the counter what I wanted and he said some stuff too fast for me to follow (in my defense his accent was kind of thick) about going to town because they couldn't help me there. So I wandered around some more and finally went in an outdoor wear shop and asked the man for directions to get into town. He was really nice about it. He could tell I was American. He went to NUIG too and so we talked about Gort na Coiribe for a bit and then he gave me directions.

I think I'm going to have to cut this day into two posts. I think blogger doesn't like this many pictures in one post... Sorry it's taking me so long to put stuff up. I know I'm way behind. The internet was broken for a couple days and then I was out in Connemara learning Irish all weekend and I've got school during the days... Any ways just bear with me and know that I'm working on it.

Quickie

No, I am not still on my first day. I'm actually on day 14 now.

Yes, I am very behind. I promise I will get stuff up as I have time. The next couple will probably be mostly pictures with little bits of narration in between them. For now though, I need to go read like the wind and go to bed. I have to get up early and go register with the Garda (police).

Oh yeah! Before I forget. My address is:
Shannon Brown
120 Gort na Coiribe
Headford Road
Galway, Ireland

My cell phone here is 353 834 236 091. I can receive incoming calls from wherever for free. Just please be aware that I am 8 hours ahead of you (if you're on the west coast that is) and that I can NOT return your call if I miss it. Don't leave me a phone number to call back, leave me an e-mail address, okay? I can text some too, but international texts are really expensive, so save that for emergencies.

Okay, going to read now. 'Night!

First Day

It felt like my first day in Galway really started after that shower. The shower is a tiny, tiny stall with barely any room to move around and the drain doesn't work very well (I need to go report it and ask for maintenance people to come but thanks to the short hours at reception I haven't had the chance). I had to use an extra shirt to dry off because I didn't have a towel yet. None of that mattered because it felt so nice to be clean. I was not very long out before someone knocked on the door to my apartment. I thought it might be my roommate so I ran to open the door. Turns out it was an American girl, but not my roommate. Her name was Bridget and she had also just arrived. She didn't like her apartment and so she'd asked if anyone else had arrived yet so she could see if they were all like hers and the people in reception directed her to me. I let her in and showed her around. She said my apartment wasn't like hers at all. We walked over to her apartment and as she pulled the front door closed behind us the inside handle came off. The floors really were sticky and the downstairs was missing a seat completely. I could see why she was upset. After that she decided to go talk to reception and see if she could get moved. I went back to my apartment and worked on unpacking some more.

Alcohol...

About a half hour or so later Bridget came back over and we went across the street to Dunnes to get food and look at bedding. Dunnes is kind of like a small Fred Meyers. They have food and clothes and shoes and some houseware type stuff. We were both really hungry so we just picked pre-packaged sandwiches and juice and sat down on a bench in the store to eat. Then we wandered upstairs and looked at the pillows and sheets and towels. We were going to go to another store, but Bridget wanted to get her housing situation figured out before she bought bedding, so we came back. I went back to unpacking and eventually finished getting everything put away. I waited for a couple hours and then I started to get hungry and worried that I wouldn't get the stuff I needed that night. I waited until just before 6 pm and then I took off on my own.

More alcohol...

Still more...

And more. I've never seen so much alcohol in a grocery store-like place. I was going to take more pictures in Dunnes, but Bridget and I were REALLY hungry and we got distracted looking for something edible.

I walked over towards Dunnes and decided to explore off to the left first. There was a place called N17 Euronics (yes, just like the movie rating) and so I went in there looking for a hairdryer. I found short Cat-5 cables for 5 Euros (I brought my super long one just in case and with all of it coiled on my desk there's no room for anything else) and some hairdryers but they seemed kind of expensive. I wandered through the whole store and then they told me there was 5 minutes to close. It was only 6pm. I bought my Cat-5 cable and went on my way. I went out to the Galway Shopping Center, a little farther on down Headford road, the street that goes by Gort na Coiribe. I was looking for Penney's and I found it, but it was closed. I stuck my head in Car Phone Warehouse, but they were closing too. Tesco is the only 24 hour store nearby and they are mostly groceries but some other stuff too. As the shopping center shut down for the night I wandered around feeling lost and kind of lonely. I went over to Supermac's, and got a hamburger, fries and a drink. I thought it would be like McDonald's and I recognized the name from an ad I'd heard in the taxi earlier that day. I sat down to eat my food and it didn't taste at all like McDonald's, it was worse.

My food from Supermac's. It looks benign enough, right?

When I left Supermac's, it started raining. It's not a long walk, but alone, in a foreign country, when it is dark, very very cold and now wet, it was kind of miserable. I went in Dunnes and wandered around, trying to find sheets and a pillow that I liked. I picked out a fluffy white towel (they didn't have a blue bath towel, only white or yellow), a good pillow, a duvet (because they don't really do comforters or quilts so much here apparently), a duvet cover that came with a pillow case (they're blue and white striped) and blue sheets. I also picked up a Mickey Mouse pajama shirt, which even though I didn't need it, still made me feel a little better.

My Mickey pajama shirt. I'm wearing it right now. : D

I walked back to the apartment and started putting my bed together. I put on my Mickey Mouse t-shirt and pajama pants and then a sweatshirt and my panda hat too because it was really cold. It was about 8:30 when I laid down just to try out my bed...

For Sharon

It was a 6 hour flight. I had orange juice when the lady first came around. I watched all three NCIS: Las Vegas episodes (it's quite good for a spin off. I'm pleased) and ate some Oreos and fell asleep before they came round again. They were offering dinner that time, but I declined. I wasn't hungry and airplane food is icky. I slept on and off for most of the flight. I didn't have breakfast on the plane either, though they offered that too. As we got closer, I woke up and looked out the window. It was pitch black because we were still over the ocean. Later I heard some girls saying how scary it was to look out and only see black, but I thought it was nice. Then we dropped into some clouds and everything was gray and foggy looking for a couple minutes. Underneath the clouds there still wasn't much to see. There were scattered lights, but no huge lit up areas like even the smallest US cities. It looked like there were streamers of tulle attached to the plane wings and I immediately thought of Sharon. I watched them for a while, because there wasn't much else to look at and then we were landing. It was bumpier landing than I'd had so far.

On the ground, I put my wool coat, my hat and my scarf all back on. We had landed about 15 minutes late, I think (we were supposed to get in at 6:45 am, and it was at least 7). It took a while to get off the plane. The airport was absolutely empty when we got into it. We had to go down at least four escalators to get to customs. There was a long line, or queue as it would be called here, in front of the two elderly men who were there to let us into the country. They had everyone who wasn't a student go through first. There were at least 70 (maybe more, maybe less, I'm awful at estimating numbers of people) of us left. Professor Petersen and her family waited a little longer, but after 45 minutes of so they decided to skip up the line. Professor Petersen stopped to tell me that she'd try to keep the cab driver from leaving. I don't know what took so long but I waited over two hours in line to get through customs. All I could see was that the men were looking at papers and taking pictures and typing on their computers. Finally, there were 15 or so people in front of me. Another flight had just landed and the line behind us had gotten really long. One of the men let everyone from the EU go through. All the other people had to wait behind us though and I wasn't last in line. Some decision seemed to be made because all of a sudden, the line started moving a lot faster. I got up to the window and I gave the man my letter and my passport. He asked if I had proof of insurance and of finance. I gave him my insurance card and told him I was going to open an Irish bank account. In a monotone voice he told me I had to have proof of finance 30 days from right then. I said okay and he gestured me through. I scrambled to get all my stuff and get out of the way. I went to get my checked bags and walked through customs. A bored looking man gestured me through a green gateway (meaning I didn't have anything to declare).

I came out and looked around frantically for my cab driver hoping and praying he wasn't gone yet. I didn't see him in front of me and as I turned to my left a man leaning against a counter was saying, “Unless this is her. Are you looking for me?” I started to say maybe and he waved a paper at me that said my name on it. I said yes. He took me out to his cab and helped me put my bags in the back. I almost walked around to the wrong side to get in the front seat, but remembered at the last minute that the driver sits on the other side. We started driving and he was telling me how he didn't expect it to take so long and that he had been working all night and had been about to leave when I came out. I don't think he meant to make me feel bad, I think he was just talking because he was so amazed. I apologized and explained what I could see. We listened to a CD by, I think he said her name was Kylie Minogue (or something like that) for part of the way. I recognized one of the songs. Apparently she's Australian. His CD was well-loved because it kept skipping. We were quiet for long stretches while I just enjoyed looking out the window. It was gray outside so nothing got a particularly flattering light, but it was still fun to look at. The houses were cute. I noticed that his name was John Conroy. Partially because I felt bad for making him wait, because the silence was awkward and because I was genuinely curious I came up with questions to ask him. I asked him about the signs on the side of the road, the weather and the we talked about bikes. I also told him a little about what Oregon is like in comparison to Galway. He was nice about it all and seemed glad to talk to me whenever I came up with a question or a comment. His name was John Conroy. It made me smile in a wry sort of way every time we passed a business I'd see at home. I saw McDonald's, Texaco, Subway, a Best Western (or some big hotel chain like that. It might not've been that one in particular) and a movie theater with all American movies in it.

Mr Conroy took me all the way to Gort na Coiribe and even waited while I ran into the office to see if I was in the right place/if I could get a key to my apartment, which was more than he needed to do, particularly since I was two hours later than I was supposed to be (we got there at 10:45 am). The reception people were nice and helpful. They gave me a key and showed me where my apartment was. Mr Conroy helped me get my bags to the door before driving off. I dragged everything inside and went to my room. I was the first person there and my room is a double so I picked the bed and the desk by the window. I started unpacking just enough to take a shower, which was what I wanted most in the world at that point.

Not bad for my first time flying alone, eh? I made it all the way to Galway, even if it was only through pure luck at the end.

Still Alive

I'm promise I'm still alive! I just had a long day and I have to get up for oreintation tomorrow and I should've been asleep hours ago. I'll write you a nice long and interesting post tomorrow, okay? I just wanted to let you all know that I'm okay.

(I'll dedicate the first real substantive post to you, okay Sharon? You don't want this wimpy little one.)

See you tomorrow!

Newark

I made it to Newark okay. Now I know why international planes take extra time to clean. They're a lot bigger than domestic planes. Instead of three seats on one side, an aisle and three seats on the other side it was two seats by the window, an aisle, four seats, another aisle and two more seats by the opposite windows. Everyone got their own, albeit old and grainy screens. There were a couple different things to watch and games to play. You could even shop on the plane. Originally I was seated by a (I'm guessing) late middle aged woman who seemed a little not-all-there. I walked up to her and said hello and she just looked at me for a minute before she moved aside to let me into my seat. They finished boarding and there were empty seats everywhere. The lady next to me moved up to the next set of two seats and I spread out a little. I tried watching something, but got bored really quickly. I played Blackjack for a while, but that didn't entertain me for very long either. I ended up using the extra space to try and make it more comfortable to sleep.

Becase of the cleaning and people being slow about boarding, we were a little late getting in, but since I had a 7 hour layover, it wasn't a big deal. I got off the plane and headed to the gate that my boarding pass said I needed to go to. I spent a while just collapsed in a chair trying to decide if I was hungry and just letting my mind drift. It was noon and my flight didn't leave until 7:40 pm so it wasn't showing on the departure boards. I ended up getting thirsty and going in search of a Coke. I thought about getting something to eat, but I wasn't hungry. I played with my computer for a while but the wi-fi options were not promising. There was an unprotected network my computer couldn't connect to, AndroidAP and Boingo. I already knew that Boingo was a rip off after Houston. They only let me have 45 minutes for free (which is why the Houston post wasn't up yesterday when I wrote it) before they kicked me off and everything went super slow. AndroidAP worked really well for a little while but then it just disappeared. My computer couldn't find it anymore. I gave up and went to sleep. I explored a little at some point (it's all gotten jumbled in my head) but didn't find anything too interesting to look at. I found a more complete departure board and saw that there was only one flight to Shannon posted that day and it was leaving at 7:25, not 7:40 like my pass said and from C134 instead of C71. But, one of the airlines it flashed with the posting was Continental and 25, which was my flight number. After waiting a couple more hours and confirming that on other boards, I wandered out that way.



My actual gate, once it was showing my flight.



Looking back towards where I ate.

When I got to C134 the gate was still full of people waiting to go to San Francisco at 5:45. C135 shared the seating area and their flight at 5 to Orange County was way late boarding and so was San Francisco. Around 6 I talked to Griff and he told me I needed to eat something. He made me want a hamburger so I went in search of one. No luck so I settled for terriyaki chicken, steamed vegetables and rice. It was hard balancing my food and drink with my two coats and two bags and scarf. There was a pushy foreign lady who ordered after I did and jumped the line of people waiting for their food to grab one. I ended up sitting next to her and the guy in the eating area. They were kind of loud. Once I got down eating  I went back over to my gate. I found empty seats and pulled out my camera. I took a couple picture of my gate and one of my panda hat and then I settled down to start writing. I got a couple of sentences in before Professor Petersen found me. I'd been keeping my eyes open for her all day, but I was starting to wonder since I hadn't seen them yet. She sat down with me and we talked about the holidays and Bend and family and Harry Potter and where we wanted to go once we got to Europe. I like her a lot and I'm looking forward to taking her class. I'm glad she found me. It made me feel a little better to know someone else was going the same place as me.

My gate.

7 pm came and went and we still hadn't started boarding. I didn't get on the plane until 7:30, five minutes after we were supposed to have taken off. It was supposed to be a full flight so I expected to be squished into my seat. I was two rows from the back of the plane. It wasn't as big as the one I'd flown to Newark in, but the individual screens were much nicer. I sat down in the window seat because I was the first of the three in my row to get there. A little while later an elderly man (I think he was Irish, but I couldn't be sure and I never got up the guts to ask) was moved to my row in the aisle seat (apparently he had the wrong seat twice before). No one came to sit between us. Until we were actually in the air, I was sure someone was going to appear and sit there. It was nice to have the extra seat. The elderly man put his carry on under that seat instead so he could have somewhere to put his feet and I put my coats and hat and scarf into the seat so I could have my lap free. We finally took off probably around 8 pm.

My panda hat, mentioned in the Houston blog post.

Houston

The adventure begins! Griff drove me to PDX on January 2nd (earlier today for me still...). I got my boarding passes and checked my bags with Continental Airlines. I had to pay $50 for my second checked bag, but I expected that. Griff and I said goodbye outside security, and I managed not to cry just yet. I miss him already though. : (



Since my first two flights are domestic flights, I haven't been through international security yet and I didn't end up going out to the international terminal.  While I was waiting to get on my flight I got another compliment on my panda hat (a Christmas present from Griff that I will take a picture of later). I've gotten about 8 compliments on it so far. Apparently it's a good conversation starter. ^_^ On the plane I sat next to two elderly women. The plane was pretty nice, they played a movie and TV shows for most of the flight. I watched some of the movie (Guardians of Ga'hoole) but I couldn't plug in my headphones because the elderly woman who was right next to me (I sat on the aisle) put up the armrest that had the headphone jack on it. Probably wasn't a bad thing all told though because it meant I actually slept some. I woke back up when they turned the screens back on to play TV shows. After that I just played Solitaire and waited. We landed on time, a couple minutes early even, I got off the plane and found my next gate without too much trouble.

Across from my gate in Houston

My gate in Houston.



I was hungry so I decided to try The Little Creamery instead of waiting in the massive line for Starbucks. I got a croissant with egg, cheese and ham on it and an iced mocha. It was pretty good. Now I'm sitting here at my gate, waiting for them to start boarding (it should be any minute now). Apparently my plane was an international plane so it's taking some extra time to clean.