My first full day in Ireland! It was about 65 F and sunny, which my host family tells me is really unusual--apparently I brought a little Philadelphia weather with me. You're welcome, Galway.
I'm surprisingly un-jet lagged, probably because I had no problem falling asleep last night after a 7-hour flight from Philadelphia to Heathrow, a 6-hour layover, another hour and a half flight to Dublin, and a 3-hour bus ride to Galway. That's a good thing, because international student orientation at NUI Galway started at 9:30 this morning, which would be 4:30 AM (!) back at home.
So far, Ireland is living up to all the stereotypes (except for the mysterious lack of rain today):
- It's very green. There are lots of cows and sheep.
- The people are really friendly and have a great sense of humor. Complete strangers will go out of their way to help you if you just ask, to the point of finding someone who can answer your question if they can't. Also, their accents just make them sound nicer.
And, of course,
- One of the first things they taught us at orientation was how to order a Guinness in Irish. That's "Pionta Guinness le do thoil." I know you just tried to say that to yourself and did it completely wrong, so the way it actually sounds is more like: "Pyunt-uh Guinness leh duh hul."
Other interesting things:
- Even though people drive on the left, there seem to be no rules whatsoever about where you should walk. People frequently walk in the street. Crosswalks are nonexistent. Just look both ways (right, left, then right again--NOT left, right, left) and go. In fact, road markings in general seem to be pretty scarce. Two-way streets aren't usually wide enough to actually be two-way. Also, Galway doesn't believe in having streets that go in straight lines. Or in street signs, apparently, which can make it really hard to tell where you are. Everyone navigates by landmarks.
- People here are very environmentally conscious. Practically everything gets recycled, including food waste. You have to pay for plastic bags at the grocery store (if I'd known, I would have brought more plastic bags and sold them in front of the supermarket or something). All the outlets have on/off switches to prevent idle appliances from drawing electricity. And for a country where it rains all the time, I see a LOT of clotheslines. Are you taking notes, America?