first day.ish

So first of all, I would just like to say that Hannah is responsible for this blog. Seeing as how I'm not a blogger. Or an artismypeacie. Or at least not an authentic one. So honestly I have no idea how updated this thing will be but I'm going to give it a shot for the benefit of parentals and friends who want to know what's going on in Ireland while I'm away...

Airplane ride: 3 stops: RDU -> Washington DC -> London -> Cork
Rides were smooth, easy and I didn't really get lost too bad. On my 7 hour flight to Heathrow I watched Ratatouille and talked to the girl next to me who managed to make it the whole flight without needing to ever get up so I kept having to ask her to move so I could use the bathroom.
I was able to have a pretty sweet 4 hour layover in Heathrow where I just stared at the guy in front of me because I had nothing else to do. Turns out he was a grad student in Ireland and he told me Cork was a really nice city so that was good.

Cork, the city.
Rory and Sarah picked me up from the airport which was really helpful and they dropped me off at my house (below). I had to wait a little while for the manager of the house to give me key but he seemed really nice. It's a 8 bedroom house and I share it with 1 guy, 4 girls, and a married couple. I think. I met 2 of my roommates so far and they seem pretty nice. The rest of them are still on winter vacation and will be back later. My house is really nice. There's a kitchen downstairs which is cute and big and then there are 8 bedrooms. I got to choose between this big room downstairs and a small one upstairs, so I chose the upstairs one because it seemed really cozy and it had a really pretty view (right). That night I ate dinner at Rory's house and it was perfect timing because I realized I had no food whatsoever, nor did I have normal essentials like toilet paper. But his family was really nice and it was good to be able to feel at home somewhere.

Today I woke up at like noon and went exploring. I bought some groceries at a local market. The market alone was so fun. It felt very European, and very non-Harris Teeterish. There were different areas for different fresh food- it kind of smelt weird because of all the fresh fish but I ended up buying fruit, bread, and eggs all from different vendors. I'm excited about the eggs because it looked like everything at the market came in that day so they should be better than Food Lions. I then wandered around the city some more and decided that I am going to really like it here. Everyone is so friendly- some old man who was in one of the food shops where I bought some peanut butter caught up to me outside and told me how peanut butter was good for the heart and that he hoped I had a nice day. And then he kept on walking. Everyone has really fun accents and that fact alone makes everyone more interesting than normal people at home.
I had put together a somewhat European looking outfit (skinny jeans, fake Uggish boots, down/hood vest, and a scarf) so I would blend in sans North Face and it worked because every single girl I passed had on pretty much exactly what I was wearing. Which was weird but whatever.
I really really like it here. I was in a good mood on the way home and stopped by a little bookstore and bought Pride and Prejudice because our house doesn't have TV and the lame copyright laws don't let me stream TV shows from abc or nbc.com since I am not in the United States so I decided I needed something to do. It hasn't started raining yet but I'm expecting it to come soon.

Streets in Cork- outside my house: