Entry Six: Pains of technology and traveling

  Today is our first day visiting the special education schools. I cannot remember exactly where we are going, but I know we have to take the train to get there. The school is out of the city, so we will be able to see some more of the Irish country side. We have to get up and be ready by 7. It humors me that when I am getting up in the morning, many of you guys are just going to bed or are still up. I don’t know when I will adjust to the five hour time difference, but hopefully I will soon. I am tired of always being so sleepy

So far the internet has been nice to us and has not stopped working. At least for me since my room/laptop is the only one who connects to the Wi-Fi. While I am enjoying this perk of my room, it is starting to get bothersome. I understand everyone wants to stay in touch with people at home but sometimes I would like to be in my room alone or have complete and uninterrupted access to my own laptop. But I have to play nice since I would like someone to share if they were in my predicament. Before we discovered my luck, we had to go to the pub down the street to use their Wi-Fi. There was nothing wrong with the pub, but staying in my room is much more convenient.

Changing the topic, this is day three without using my cell phone. Surprisingly it is not as weird as I thought it would be. I originally brought my phone so I could call my parents when I left NYC for Dublin as well as when I returned from Dublin and arrived in JFK. I also brought it to use as an alarm clock. I knew it would not get any service here since it is not a world phone. Sadly I cannot use the phone even as a alarm clock since it does not get service. Luckily I have my iPod that still has a working alarm. Warning to anyone traveling outside of the United States- brings an alarm clock! Or at least an iPod that will serve as one. I suppose not using my cell phone has not bothered me yet because I can communicate with you guys and my family through this blog as well as my computer. I did bring a disposable phone that you pay minutes for, to use over here in emergencies. I mean realistically I should have some way to call for help if something bad happens (thoughts flashing to the worst). But of course the phone does not work. What my parents and I did not know was that you had to set up the phone as a world phone before you left the country. So of course, I am out of luck.

One other problem with technology. My group has burned through three plug adapters. By the group I mean the other five girls. Riley (the only male) and I have not. One of the girl’s adapter started smoking. Like actually almost started on fire. This is due to her plugging her straightener and blow dryer in at the same time, burning out the adapter. Literally. Now only three of us having working adapters, myself included. So like my laptop, we are sharing. I do wonder why the straightener is being used when we are in Dublin. This city is known for rain. I may not have curly hair but I am aware that if you straighten your hair in humid or rainy weather, hair gets frizzy or starts to re-curl.

I have to get going as we are about to leave for the first school. Today we are visiting one of the schools that focuses on teaching students with disabilities. We will start learning how Ireland educates students with disabilities and how it relates or differs with our system. After we are finished, we are going to explore more of Dublin.

-Katie

Here are some pictures from yesterday. I fell asleep before adding them to yesterday's entry.

Alyssa may not like this one but I think it is hilarious. We really like the hand driers here.

 

Some colorful doors!

 

The group minus Alyssa at the castle 

Entry Four: Make you green with envy using pictures

Hello friends! I just got back from the bus tour. I only have a few minutes to update because we are about to head off to find some delicious Irish food for dinner. Expect a full detailed update after dinner. Sadly I am STILL exhausted.  Hopefully I will adjust soon or it will be a long week. I mean I fell asleep on the tour bus today. At least the other girls in my group fell asleep too. We occupied the back seat of the bus, which was long enough to fit us all on it. Riley, the boy from the group, snapped a picture of us all sleeping. I am sure it is going to be a very attractive one of me. But before I go off to eat some scrumptious Irish food, here are some sneak peeks of my adventure today. Expect more on Facebook and perhaps a few more in the next entry.

-Katie

Here's the country side from our bus tour. The picture does not do it justice.

 

This is from another stop on the bus tour. We got to go to the lake where Braveheart's wedding scene was filmed. I of course have never seen the movie so next on my agenda is to watch it. At least now when I watch it I can say I was there.

This is from one of the stops we made. It was raining (of course) and we had to walk a few minutes to get there. It was off the road a good distance, which I really enjoyed. It made it more authentic in my eyes. This is the Brownshill Portal Tomb. I don not have much time to do a descriptive retelling of its history. Instead I provided you an image I snapped, that explains what it was. You can see the image below it. Or Google it. Google might be faster and easier to read.

Entry Three: Time zones are no ones friend...

Apparently the time difference has hit me harder than I expected. When we returned to the college after exploring, I passed out. Clothes and all. Luckily I set my alarm before I fell asleep. Today we are heading on a bus tour to explore some areas outside of Dublin.

But before I get to that, I want to fill everyone in on my first day here. The seven of us, plus our professor, went to downtown Dublin via bus, to the tourist center. Once we were there our professor left us! He reminded us Monday was a bank holiday and that we did had a free day since all the schools would be closed. He recommended we go on a bus tour, which we could purchase in the tourist center. Then he left us to fend for ourselves. I can tell it will be an interesting trip. We all wandered inside and agreed to go on a bus tour on our day off. Here’s the site for the tour: http://www.paddywagontours.com/. We are doing the 1 Day Kilkenny/Wicklow from Dublin tour. It looks like we will get to see some interesting sites.

After booking our wagon tour, we decided to wander around Dublin to get something to eat. We ended up picking some random restaurant as we had no idea where to eat. The food was decent for my first meal in Ireland. I had some sort of chicken sandwich with fries. Over lunch we decided on going to the Guinness Factory to check it out. The Guinness Factory was really amazing. Not just because of the beer aspect (I’m thinking of you Matt Mason). The factory consists of several floors where you learn about their history as well as the process of making beer. Matt, now I know how you made your own beer. It is definitely harder than I originally perceived. At the top of the factory, you can either learn how to pour a perfect beer from a tap or get a free glass of beer. We unanimously agreed to get the free beer as the line was too long for the perfect tap. I do not know if it was because of the jet lag, time difference, or lack of sleep but I barely had more than a few sips of beer. In fact no one drank more than half of theirs. By this point most of us had headaches. The beer was just not appealing on little sleep. But the room we were in had floor to ceiling windows instead of walls. This gave us an amazing view of the city. I would love to go back to the factory but perhaps maybe when I feel less exhausted or jet lagged. By the time we finished with the factory, it was already 6pm. We did some more exploring then headed back to the college as we were all exhausted.

         Before I head off on the bus tour, here are some sneak peak pictures of my day. I will upload the rest of them to Facebook later. Expect tags in pictures that reminded me of you.

-Katie

 Me and my friend Alyssa! Notice our lovely rain jackets.

 

Gates of the factory

 

View from the top

 

And of course the free Guinness that no one finished

Entry Two: Safe and sound in IRELAND

Guess what everyone. I am safe and sound in Dublin! I do not have much time to update this as we are heading out to explore the city shortly. I just wanted to let everyone know I made it safe across the ocean blue. The flight to JFK was quick and I had some time before I connected to my flight to Dublin. I never realized how big JFK airport was until I had to switch terminals. After getting settled in to the airport, I found one of the girls I knew through another friend, who was also traveling. Alyssa goes to Brockport with me and we were reacquainted at the study abroad meeting. We stuck together for the rest of the evening. After eating some overpriced airport food we found the professor, Art Smith, who is in charge of the Dublin trip. When we stumbled across him, he was hunting down other members of group. Three other people (Jessica, Rachel, and Riley) from our group were from different colleges so the three of us had never met them before; two other girls (Brianna and Meghan) in the group were from Brockport.

After hanging out in the food area, my new friend Alyssa and I made our way to our gate where we met the other members of the group. There we quickly became acquainted before boarding the airplane. The airplane ride wasn’t too dreadful as I slept about 90% of the flight. It was after all, the only sleep I would be getting since it was an overnight flight. We were advised not to nap at all after we arrived as we needed to adjust as quickly as possible to the five hour time difference. My friend and I were separated on the flight. I sat next to the girl, Rachel, from Le Moyne College in Syracuse. We became friends rather quick as I used the side of her seat for a pillow to sleep on.

Before I leave to explore Dublin, I will tell you one last thing...

IRELAND IS GORGEOUS!

From the little I saw on the drive between the airport and the college, I already am in love! Be prepared for an update later as well as some pictures. 
 
-Katie

Here are some quick pictures of my room.

View from my room.

 

Inside of my room (we get our own sink)