Jet Lag is a Bitch

I have two hours before I have to go to my “traditional Irish welcome reception” (whatever that means), so I’m going to update. However, I’m extremely tired, so this may be more rambling than anything.

Rewind to yesterday: I arrived at Detroit Metro about 2-2:30ish and hung around the terminal for a few hours talking to Shelby (the other CMU student) and another lady who was going to Rome, and…

I arrived in Ireland!

That was actually a place in Detroit Metro on the way to my terminal. I love irony. The flight to JFK (less than an hour and a half in the air) was nice and easy. A man stole my window seat, but it didn’t really bother me because the plane was so small I could see out of windows on both sides easily enough.

JFK wasn’t nearly as impressive as I expected from the map I found online. Shelby and I got bad pizza at a Sbarros that didn’t have plain pepperoni pizza, while I fidgeted over my iPod that wouldn’t turn off (everything else worked, the power just wouldn’t go off). The coolest thing was that apparently Cyclopes resides at JFK.

The plane to Shannon, Ireland was awful. I sat next to another kid going to study abroad in Limerick, which was okay, but we didn’t have many exchanges (he actually tried to sleep). Anyone who can sleep on a plane like that is a miracle worker, because that was just not going to happen. Instead, I watched Inkheart (better than the book, like I guessed) and Slumdog Millionaire (good, but maybe a little over-hyped). The rest of the time I tried to get over my nausea. I don’t think my body likes being up all night in a plane.

Landing was awesome! First, because the flight was over. Then, because customs was easier to pass through than going to Canada (“You’re studying abroad at Limerick” – “Yes,” “When do you head home?” – “June 23^rd,” “Have a nice stay."). And lastly, because my luggage made it!

Shelby and I found the Limerick people pretty easily enough and they actually had my name on the list, so that was good. We sat around for a while in the airport waiting for a bus driver. I sat by the Limerick students who were charged with picking us up and chatted for a while. I made an idiot out of myself because I fail at accents (I thought she said her name was Ilsa - or some other variety of similar sounds that was not common. It was definitely Lisa). I don’t think it helped that to me it was 5am.

The Irish drive on the wrong side of the road! Ok, not so surprising, or even weird. The thing that is crazy is they have round-abouts galore here. And not our dinky ones, but ones with monster DNA. Not to mention that they run into each other. You get off of one just to be in another one. It’s a mess. Also, their lanes are smaller than ours, but their buses and trucks are about the same size.

Once we reached campus we got to go directly to our rooms. Pretty much the coolest dorm rooms I’ve ever seen, but I’ll do more on that later.

I can’t believe I’ve been up for 25 hours and have at least six more hours to go before I can sleep. I’m SO tired, not to mention looking like a mess (the rains not helping).

Here’s a sneak peak on how cool my dorm is: