Day 1: I Survived

Shortest form to fill out for customs

I AM IN DUBLIN!

While I was waiting in Philadelphia, I was overcome with this sudden dread that I didn't really want to go to Ireland. What was I thinking about moving to a foreign country?

But all my feelings instantly changed when the pilot announced that we would be landing in Dublin in 23 minutes. All of a sudden I got very excited! I couldn't wait to see what Dublin had to offer!

I got off the plane and made my way to customs. I wasn't nervous at all about going through customs. I have been through a customs rodeo more than a couple of times. When they asked me while I was here I told them that I was here for travel, as per what my program coordinator told me. I felt bad lying to them. They stamped my passport and I was on my way.

It took me a while to find where my luggage was. I seriously went to all the caracul's, just to find that it was at the other end and the reason that I didn't find it was because it was the second flight marked and not the first.

And of course my bags were the last ones! I was really impressed with myself because I was able to lift both of my bags with ease! That is what happens when you work out and do P90X. I felt pretty cool I am not going to lie.

But my good feelings were about to be put to rest. I checked my confirmation paper from the program to figure out where I was suppose to meet my ride. It said to meet at Terminal 1 by the information desk. My next mission was to figure out how to get to Terminal 1. I asked some workers and they said to follow the signs once you left the area.

When I left the baggage claim, I was greeted with a flood of people waiting for people they were meant to pick up. I looked briefly for my name, but I knew I had to go to Terminal 1.

I followed the sings and of course it was difficult to get to. It wasn't difficult in that it was hard to follow the signs, but that it was a good distance away and I had two very heavy bags. I managed to get to Terminal 1, but then I could not find the information desk. I asked someone at the currency exchange where the arriving flights were in this terminal. He said down stairs. I had to ride an escalator and almost died from falling because of my heavy bags.

I found the meeting point and waited. No one was there. I was already a little late because our plane arrived late and I had to go through customs; did the person leave already? I waited a little bit longer and realized that no one was coming. What was I going to do?

I tried calling on my phone, but I had no service inside or outside the airport. My phone worked in Hungary, why wouldn't it work in Ireland? I then went to the information desk and asked if there was a phone that I could use. She pointed me in the direction and I found a pay phone. It took me a while to figure out how to work it.

Of course it was the weekend so the company's office phone wasn't going to work. There was an emergency contact phone number and I had to dial a million times until I eventually got it right. But I didn't get a person, it was David's voicemail. Oh David! David knows me well. I am the girl he has been working with trying to get my visa extended. Now I am the girl who is stranded at the airport. I left a message and told him that I would call him back.

I then thought to call the place where I was living at to see if someone could send for me. Of course there was no number. I then called my dad to get help.

I tried to walk my dad through going through my e-mails trying to find the phone number. This proved to be impossible. I told him to forget it and that I would figure something out.

What was I to do? I saw something about WiFi and decided that I would find the number myself. I went to a smoothie place to get the Internet code, but the worker said that it was free. I got a smoothie anyway because I didn't remember the last time I ate.

I sat down to log unto the Internet, just to find that the Internet wasn't working. Fail.

I happened to be looking through my downloads and discovered I downloaded the confirmation page and thought that I might be able to click that and get a number. I soon discovered that the meeting point was suppose to be at Terminal 2! The same terminal that I arrived in! I was so pissed! Why did they send me two different meeting points? I also freaked out because the confirmation page that I printed out said that I was going to be arriving on Sunday. Would I have to spend the night at the airport? Why did they send me various times, dates and meeting points? I was furious!

So that meant that I had to brave the escalator again, walk up an incline with my two heavy suitcases to get back to the right meeting place. I did all that to discovered that there was still no one there for me. I wasn't much surprised. By this point it had almost been an hour and a half since I had landed, but it sure felt like it was hours.

Maybe the Internet would be better over here. No, no it wasn't.

I even asked these people if they were part of the program. They said no and tried to help me, but it was pointless.

I needed to contact someone. This was ridiculous. I went to a computer center and paid for some Internet. I went to my e-mail and found that a person had already arrived in the housing and was looking for people to hang out with. I e-mailed her to see if she could let someone know that I was at the airport. I even friend requested her on Facebook to see if she was on and I could chat with her. But nothing.

I looked for the phone number and didn't find anything. I felt so lost and abandon. I felt more alone in a country that I spoke the language then I ever did in Hungary where I don't speak the language at all.

At this point, I decided that the only thing I could do was to call David again. I decided that I would keep calling him and in an hour if that didn't work, I would just hail a cab. I was worrying about doing that because what if the people at the housing wasn't there and I couldn't get in?

Luckily I didn't have to worry for long because I called David and he answered! Praise God! I told him that I was at Terminal 2 and that I was sent multiple meeting points and that I had went to the wrong one first. He said that he had sent the driver back. I was so happy to hear that!

David then asked how getting my visa went. I got my visa already? I realized that he meant me going through customs. I then thought that maybe the stamp was the visa. I told him that I was able to get through and I said that I was a tourist. He was surprised at my answer and I told him that is what Malissa told me to do. He said that we were suppose to be honest with customs. I said that I am pretty sure Malissa said to tell customs that I was coming here to tour and that later we would get our visas. David said that all the information was in our orientation packet. What packet is this? I don't remember reading about that! David said it should be okay. It better be because after all the crap I had to deal with already today, I don't need another thing added to my list.

Now I am worried if I did the wrong thing. I swear that is what Malissa said to do! And when is just a stamp a visa? I thought we had to go to immigration like we did in Hungary and get it then. Not right off the plane and by answering a couple of questions. Well, I will talk to David about it Tuesday and see if I totally messed up.

I waited for my driver and dared not move. I wasn't going to miss him this time! In no time he was there and he was so nice! We talked and we figured that I had gone to the wrong meeting point because the company had sent me multiple. I was so focus on getting to Terminal 1 that I didn't even look at the cards with names on them. He was waiting at the meeting point and when David called to tell him that he received my message, the driver informed him that he was at the right place and I wasn't there. Poor guy, he even tried to page me over the intercom and even tried to see if I was in customs or what not. I appreciated all his efforts.

He helped load my bags in to the car. I was so happy not to have to deal with these heavy bags! I started to walk towards the "passenger" side and he asked if I would like to get in on the other side. Oh yes! They drive on the opposite side! I even told myself a million times on the plane that they did so I would not make this mistake!

My living place was not far from the airport. It is around 10 minutes. The driver pointed out a park that was close to my apartment, a convenient store and a bar "where you can get drunk".

We rolled up to a building that I assumed was where I would be staying. It looked so European! You know those little apartment houses that you see in movies.

A girl named Selena came out to greet me. She was in charged of getting us keys and helping us to our rooms. The driver said that he had finally found me. Apparently by now everyone knew I was missing!

Selena than showed me to my room. We had to go through a gate, which required a key. We then went into a building, which required a key. We stopped once we were inside the building. I thought that this meant that I had the bottom floor. No, I was wrong. I was at the top and they had no elevators. Usually I don't care if there are elevators or not, but when I have two hella heavy bags that I have been carrying around for the past two hours, I want an elevator!

So we started to take my bags up to my room. We reached the room and Selena knocked to see if there was anyone there. Apparently one of my roommates was home. No one answered so Selena opened it, with another key. She showed me to my room, which was the first one. She basically shoved me in and she was out. But I did stop her to go over the keys again. There were so many keys!

Once she left, I stood in my room. What was I to do? Where was everyone? I got an e-mail from Emily, so I knew someone was here. I also asked Selena and she said that 9 people had checked in. I guess they were all having fun in Dublin and I was stuck. But eventually they had to come back, right?

Right when I was deciding what to do, the room next to mine opened. Lisa introduced herself and we talked for a little bit. We decided that we wanted to go exploring. We ended up going to the mall, Omni Center, to explore. It was only 2 blocks from our apartment and it has everything! A place to get our phones, grocery store, coffee shop etc. I was so thankful that it was so close to our apartment!

Our first order of business was to get a towel. Our apartment came with nothing! No towels, toilet paper, cups, plates etc. Not only that, but Lisa said there was no hot water. FAIL.

We got our towels and decided that we should eat. There were not too many options to choose from. Lisa wanted Subway, but then I told her to stay away from vegetables because of the E. coli outbreak in Germany. That killed her mood for Subway.

My stomach was really upset, so nothing sounded good. A lot of the places were just little cafes. We decided that maybe the best would be to go to Burger King since my stomach was upset and maybe something familiar would make it feel better. It didn't help, but it gave us a good laugh because Lisa when she ordered couldn't understand the worker and when I ordered he couldn't understand me. Speaking the same language and yet we couldn't understand each other!

After Lisa ate and I had my two bites, we left the mall. As we were leaving we were talking about what to do tonight. Behind me a guy told us to get out of his way. He was young and I thought he was just a douche, so I said sorry and moved over. He said that he was kidding and that he couldn't help but over hear that we were thinking about what to do tonight. I told him that we just arrived and had no idea what to do. He said that he was staying at the Crown Plaza and that we should join him. Again, I told him we didn't know what we were thinking. He wanted my number and I told him that I didn't have a number. He didn't believe me and he asked me again. I told him that I had been in Ireland for 5 hours and I didn't have a number!

We continues to walk together and he told us that his name was Brad. Soon we had to part ways with Brad.

Lisa and I walked home talking and we laughed when we saw Brad, about two blocks ahead of us, going in the same direction. He turned around and saw us and crossed the street to run over to us! He said that we were following him and again he asked for my number. I told him the only way to get in touch with me was through Facebook or Skype.

Brad left us for good and Lisa and I went back to our apartment. We planned on going to dinner at The Swiss Cottage, the bar in which you can get drunk, at according to the taxi driver. Until then, I took a nap. We also sent out an e-mail to everyone seeing if anyone wanted to meet up with us for dinner.

6 pm rolls around and it was dinner time. Lisa and I waited to see if anyone wanted to join us, but no one showed. We headed to The Swiss Cottage and sat in the bar area. It was dark inside and very simple. There were not a lot of people inside. We didn't know if we had to go to the bar to order or if a person would come to us. Finally I decided to ask the bartender. He said to go to the back and that is the place where you can order and you can bring the food anywhere. We headed back and we thought the place was closed because there was no one seating and no one working in the kitchen.

It turned out to be open and a Chinese restaurant. I got Won ton soup because of my stomach. It was fine. The whole meal was fine until a giant bee came towards us! It was ridiculously huge; I can't even describe it! Lisa and I jump away from the table and one of the workers has to get the bee out the door.

On that note, we decided to leave and head back to the apartment. At the last minute Lisa suggested that we knock on the other doors because apparently there were others here. We knocked on the first door and Emily opens up. Emily is very small, smaller than me, so that is saying something. I gave a look to Lisa because we had talked about how Emily sent out an e-mail to everyone and how she didn't respond to my S.O.S e-mail. We introduced ourselves and told her that around 9 pm we were going to go out again. She wanted to join us.

Up a flight of stairs we met Colleen. Colleen is also shorter than me with very blond hair. She wanted to join us later as well.

Until 9 pm Lisa and I chilled. I worked on uploading pictures so I had room on my memory card. We met up with the other girls and decided to find the Crown Plaza to see if the bar was any good like Brad told us. We walked in the direction that Brad walked, but could not find it.

We later headed back and walked towards the mall to see what was going on over there. We ended up going to a restaurant/bar called Zao. Lisa and Emily got a glass of wine and Colleen and I both got Cokes. My stomach was still not feeling well. We talked for a while and decided to go somewhere else.

We ended up going back to The Swiss Cottage. Lisa and Emily ordered drinks and they had such a hard time talking because there was an 18 birthday party going on. We went into a side room that was more chill than the main bar area. This part seemed like a total guys room. Sports playing on the TV, a pool table and other shows playing as well. We were the only girls in the bar. We sat there for a while and just talked.

After hanging out at The Swiss Cottage, we headed back to the apartment. I was so exhausted! I wish I could have taken a shower but we have no hot water :(

My bed is not the most comfortable, but at least it is better than nothing. At this point, being up for God only knows how long, any bed will be just fine!

I am glad to have survived Day 1 and I can't wait for tomorrow!