Day Filled With Important Information

My door! We were too scared to cross the street to get closer...

We THINK this is where Lisa will be working!

YES! Colleen's internship is actually real!

I am going to begin this entry with a semi rant.

Today I had orientation. I have been in Ireland for 3 days and I am finally having orientation. I don't understand why orientation happens after people have been at a place for a while. It was the same thing in Hungary. The thing that makes me upset is that for a few days we are stranded here alone with no help. We have no one to asks questions to and we have to figure everything out ourselves.

In Hungary, like I said, it was the same thing. When I got dropped in the middle of no where, I tried calling the leaders of the program, but no one answered their phone. Other students in the program tried calling them with questions and still no answer. If you have students in a foreign country where they do not speak the language, you need someone there to help them!

Now, I know that I decided to arrive early in Hungary and in Ireland, but the others and me need to. We need to have time to explore and to get settled in before we have to start work or school.

I think that a program should tell everyone to arrive on the same date a couple of days before orientation. This will allow the participants time to explore the city and allow the program to have someone on site to help the students if they need it. These programs can hire me :) I will be more then willing to help those participants who are in a foreign country for the first time. Seriously, programs really need to start doing this!

Anywho, the other participants and I had orientation this morning. Before that, Colleen and I took a walk. We wanted to go to the park by our apartment, but we were discouraged to find that the park opens at 1o am! Why so late and why close and open a park?

We walked pass the park and thought to find the Crowne Plaza Hotel. The first day that I was here, a guy named Brad that I met walking on the street told us to go there for drinks. We tried finding it earlier, but with no success. This time Colleen and I were able to find it! Funny thing is that is was right at the corner where we decided to turn back a couple of days ago!

We walked pass the hotel for a ways. It was really nice over there, but definitely filled with tourists. We also saw a lot of people going to work. These people were dressed like they were going to work, but had backpacks. It was a weird combination.

Colleen and I turned back to head towards the apartment to get coffee. If the park wasn't open until 10, we doubted that any other places were open. We decided to get coffee at McDonald's. Good thing this McDonald's is open 24/7!

Colleen got an Americano and I got a Latte. What we discovered was that coffee in Ireland is a lot stronger then back in the States!

We took our coffee and headed back to the apartment to get ready for orientation. At 9 am we all met up at the bus stop. Our group got bus passes. Every time you get on a bus you have to pay. Each time can be a different price, depending on where you are going to, but on average it is around 2 Euro. We wanted to get a pass so we didn't have to pay each time and worry about change. When you pay for a ticket, you have to have exact change. If you go over, they will not give you change back! The worst part was that these passes were 110 Euro! So expensive! In Hungary, for $15 you got a month pass for the buses, metro and tram! Here, for 110 Euro you only get a pass for buses that you can't rely on! I want to go back to Hungary!

Luckily the bus came semi on time. You can never really trust these buses.

We got off the bus and found the hotel we were looking for. We pass right by it the other day and none of us even saw it!

The hotel was the Ripley Court Hotel. We were a half an hour early and checked in at reception. They told us that the leaders were not here yet, so we sat in the welcoming area. The hotel was very dark.

As we talked a guy came up to us and asked if we were part of the program. His name was Ryan and he probably figured we were part of the program because of our American accents.

Eventually we were usher into our room for orientation. I was so happy to finally meet David, the person trying to help me extend my visa and who saved me at the airport. We did talk about my visa in front of everyone and I really didn't like this. They all didn't need to know the drama I had with it.

Orientation didn't last too long and we covered some basic stuff. They told us that the four corners of the city are places that you don't really want to go to. They also informed us where we needed to go if we needed a doctor. The most useful information that they gave us was directions to our place of work. I told them that I was having a hard time even figuring out my route. They informed us that the bus system was not really reliable and that we were better off walking.

After orientation was finished, I showed David my Irish visa to make sure it was okay. He said that it was fine and that I wouldn't go to prison. He did inform me that if I did go to prison, he had connections with the guards and I would be taken care of. Good to know.

While I was talking with David, Emily and Allie were chatting up the other participants of the program that we didn't know. They were getting numbers and making plans. Maybe that is why I always feel like an outsider in these programs. Maybe it is because I am not the one really going out of my way to get every one's numbers. I don't know. I have always been the one not to really go out of my way to impress people really. Maybe I should start?

As a group we decided to go out to lunch. When we left the hotel it started to rain and there was a horrible wind. This was not pleasant to walk in. Luckily, we did not walk far.

We went into a bar/ restaurant. It was nice; big with wooden floors. We went up to the second floor and found seats. Then come the moment that always happens: what do we do? Do they come to us or do we go to them?

It was a buffet, so we had to go downstairs and get the food. I decided to get potato and leek soup with a soda. My stomach was still not feeling the best. The soup was very good!

Our group was a good size, so we took up two tables. I sat with Colleen, Katherine and Ryan. I started to talk to Ryan more and he seemed like an interesting person who had travelled a lot.

The majority of the conversation dealt with us starting our internships tomorrow. We were all very nervous! I was telling Ryan how I got three different offers for internships and how I finally decided to work at a school. I overheard Allie at the next table ask if anyone else got multiple offers. No one else did.

After lunch our group split up. Colleen, Lisa and I went back to our apartment to start the search for our internships. As we were waiting for the bus, we met a guy who we now call Nameless. He helped us figure out how to get to our internships. He told Colleen that she just needed to walk by the river for 5 minutes. We were happy to hear that because Colleen seemed to have the most confusing route!

Our "friend" also told us that he was trying to start a pub crawl and asked for our e-mails so we could add us on Facebook to promote his business. We gave him our e-mails.

The bus finally came and we piled on and got off at O'Connell and walked across the O'Connell Bridge. The first thing was to find Colleen's internship. We then took a left down the main street that ran along side the river. The guy said that it was only going to be 5 minutes, but that was a lie. It took us half an hour! We didn't even walk by the river! We were on the other side trying to find the building, so it really wasn't that scenic of a walk! But it turns out that Colleen's internship is in a very nice part of town, which was a relief. We joked that her internship actually existed. Colleen has received little information about her internship, so we all joke that she made it up so she could go to Ireland.

Next on the agenda was to fine Lisa's and mine internships. On the map it looked like they were close to one another. We were about to find out!

We walked back to O'Connell Bridge and turned left and continued to walk. We then veered to the right; then left and crossed the street to Grafton Street. I sure hope that I remember this tomorrow!

Grafton Street is a shopping avenue, if you will. There was a lot of people, so it was really hard to walk through.

At the end of Grafton, we saw St. Stephen's Green. If we were reading the map correctly, our works were pass St. Stephen's Green. We decided to take a walk through the park. It was so beautiful! What a nice place in the middle of a busy city.

At the end of the park, we crossed the street and found the street that Lisa's internship was. We found what we thought was the entrance to the building, but we were not sure.

Finally, it was time to find mine. We went to the next street over, which is Baggot. We walked down that for a little bit and then went down a side street or two, until we came to Fitzwilliam Square. It seriously is a square in the middle of the road. Now, we needed to find the street!

Fitzwilliam Street was on the other side of the square. We walked around the square and tried to cross the street, with no success. It was a busy street and we dare not cross without a crosswalk telling us which direction to look. I found the door from across the street and took a picture.

We had been exploring for almost 4 hours and we were so hungry! We walked down the street and went into a pub trying to get food. While Colleen went to the bathroom we asked if they served food, just to find out they didn't. We were so tired and hungry we didn't want to move!

We left and continued down Baggot. Earlier we had seen a burrito shop and decided just to go there. We were too tired to find anything else. At the burrito store, the names of the different things were all locations in California! I laughed to myself. I got the Cali Carnitas. I asked them to put guacamole and a little salsa. I have no idea what they put on it. It hella wasn't guacamole or salsa. It was crappy, runny sauce of some sort. The people working there were even speaking Spanish! Shouldn't they know what real guacamole and salsa is!?

After our long adventure, we went back to our apartment to chill and get ready for tomorrow!

I am so nervous I don't think I will be able to sleep tonight! I am worrying about getting there on time; worrying about remembering how to get there. Will they like me? Will I make a fool out of myself? There is probably many Irish cultural things that I don't know that I will probably mess up at work. I just want the first day to be over with! I really hate not knowing what I am doing. Now I understand why people stay at their job forever! They don't have to be the new person again!

Oh well..... Here is to tomorrow.....