Oh hey

I'm here! The trip over went well; I almost missed my connection in Chicago due to a delay in Mlps and an excruciatingly long security line in Chicago, but made it right at the final boarding call. On the Aer Lingus flight I sat next to a 17-year-old girl from western Ireland. She told me about what liquor to avoid (this was a bit disheartening coming from a 17-year-old), as well as what neighborhoods in Dublin to avoid (this was a bit disheartening as well, but I have found Dublin to be considerably less threatening than she suggested). She was great, though; as we were preparing to land, she pointed out places like Bono's home and where the absurdly rich and arrogant people live (there's a name for them, but I can't remember what it is).
My apartment is gorgeous. I will never be able to afford to live in such a nice place in real life (as opposed to Dublin life, which at this point is still extremely surreal). I'll post pictures whenever I'm motivated enough to take and download them.
IES took us to our first pub visit last night--a place called The Barge near the IES center. I had a couple pints of this amazing hard cider called, I believe, Bulmers--I wasn't quite up to the Guinness at that point. It was fun, but I'm looking forward to going without the entire IES group and actually mingling with real people (as opposed to IES people, who at this point are still extremely surreal as well).
Today we had our first day of orientation and took a day trip to Glendalough, a medieval monastery in the mountains south of Dublin. We actually saw a bit of sun between the rain; it was quite beautiful. I'll download pictures from this trip later as well.
I feel as though I'm adjusting to the time difference, but jet lag hits me at odd moments. I'm looking forward to classes starting so I can get on a real schedule. I think I'm going to be able to arrange it so that I'll only have classes from Tuesday to Thursday so I can travel when I want to on my four-day weekends. I said before I left that I only wanted to travel in Ireland and the UK while I'm here. However, I don't know that I'd be able to pass down a trip somewhere warm if I found cheap airfare--not that it's exceptionally cold here, but the dampness does sort of seep into everything.
I have information on my mailing address, but that will have to wait until another day. My roommates and I decided to try to stay awake until midnight tonight, but I think I'm about to crash; I have hours upon hours of sleep to catch up on.
Hope you're all well! Goodnight!