So this is the blog

Hello!

Guess I'm a week overdue here but better late than never, "ye tink"?

Dublin's great so far-- took a walking tour of the area on Wendesday and went out to a few pubs (and a gelato shop =)) with some local Irish last night.

Right now I'm living about 10-15 minutes by bus from the city centre. It picks us up right in front of campus and drops us off in the middle of town so it's really convenient.

Everyone on my program is actually really cool and we've been spending time together this week since it's been winter break for everyone else. I've mostly been hanging out with two girls from my program and we make dinner at each other's places and are currently looking for dirt cheap airfare to travel around europe.

I don't have too many adventures yet, except one embarrassing story that will leak out anyway so I may as well cover it first for the spin control (poli comm major speak.)

A few friends and I got locked in the mall (Omni shopping centre) our second night here. We were at the Tesco (major grocery store in Dublin) and left right as it closed at 7pm...apparently also right as every single other door in the mall complex closed too. After standing around for a few minutes without any other signs of life, we were relieved to find an exit sign. We knew it was an exit sign because it was little and green and hanging over the doorway. There was a man on the green sign walking out a door- he seemed to be doing it a little briskly but maybe the people just walk faster in Ireland.
We exited that door.
It lead us to a small, (8 foot) gate-lined outdoor patio that was surrounded on all sides. I should also mention that we were each carrying crazy heavy rolling suitcases that we had stocked up during our shopping trip. Also, it was the coldest night in Ireland yet. The hail was coming down, painfully, and the windchill- unbelievable. Luckily (relative term I guess?) we had apparently exited a fire escape and two (pretty attractive I must say) security guards came and listened to us blubber about being trapped and helped us leave eventually.
Three of us went back to Omni yesterday and saw one of the security guards. I guess we were all trying not to laugh and he picked up on it. While walking past him, the three of us turned around back at him and he immediately recognized and laughed a bit. At least we're making an impression, maybe even a friend (that's pushing it)?

I've downloaded some pictures but didn't find a way to better incorporate them into the blog. I think I'll start posting on facebook. Much more to report but you're tired of reading, and I'm tired of writing. So we'll do this later, k?