Arriving In Ireland

My journey to Galway was a long day of travel. I flew out of the SFO airport at around 10:20 am after sitting on the tarmac for about an hour due to weather delays. I landed in JFK after flying through a sunset and lightning storm (the plane flew right over the sparking clouds!). I was nervous about getting to JFK because I had to get my bag, switch terminals on the airtram, recheck my bag, and go through security. Luckily, when I stepped off the plane my body went into auto pilot and I navigated the airport perfectly (yes, I might have done research and memorize a map of the terminals beforehand). When I finally reached the gate I was met by our group from UP and Willamette sitting on the floor playing cards and chatting with each other. I felt so much nervous energy and a sense of calm at the same time. It’s comforting to be in a group for this experience because we are all figuring it out together.

We boarded our flight and took off for Dublin. I drifted in and out of sleep on the flight, ate some airline food, and read my book. When I woke up and opened the window we could see the sun rising over Ireland. It was amazing. We passed over the edge of the country where the waves crashed on granite beaches as the sun was rising.

We landed in Dublin, went through customs and retrieved our bags. Our program coordinator and visiting professor met us in the terminal lobby and led us to the bus that took us immediately to Galway. We drove through rolling fields of green filled with sheep and quaint manor homes. We even saw a castle just sitting in the middle of a farm. My eyes were wide with wonder that whole drive. It started to rain as we drove into Galway and soon we pulled into our housing village called Gort Na Coiribe. We formed a long line to check in and get our apartment keys, then Sarah and I went to drop our stuff off in our apartment. We live in a five person flat with two Irish flatmates and one other American flatmate.

We met back at the reception area with our group and went to the shopping center to purchase bedding for our rooms from a store called Penney’s. Then we headed to the NUIG campus for dinner in one of the on campus restaurants. I ordered the chicken curry. Curry is a thing in Ireland, which confuses me. After dinner we were free to go, so I decided to walk around the city with a group of girls from UP and Willamette to fight off jet lag. We walked through the cobblestone streets of city center under the Christmas lights that were still up. We decided to go to a pub called The Quays, which was recommended to me from a friend. The Quays is beautiful inside. It’s built out of parts of an old church, so it has old doors and stained glass windows. We went back to our apartments around 9 pm and I fell asleep immediately.

Thursday was our first day of international student orientation. We were given a lot of information and a welcome to campus. All of the speakers started by saying “You’re all very welcome to NUI Galway.” After finishing general orientation, we took a tour of the campus and walked through downtown with our course coordinator. We went to the quadrangle and took a photo, it’s an administrative building that looks like a castle. Then we walked downtown and were taken through a bookstore and ended at the Spanish Arch. We were free to go and get lunch so I went to a pub called The Front Door with some girls from our group.

This pub is so cool, I definitely want to go back at night. It had a mahogany staircase decorated with plants and a crystal chandelier. I got some authentic Galway fish and chips for lunch, the potatoes here are amazing! The rest of the day I unpacked and looked through the class registration booklet, then went to karaoke night at the college bar. Karaoke night was quite entertaining, I came up with a rating system for each performance based on effort, entertainment quality and crowd interaction.

Friday was a long day of gathering information for school. We were given our ID cards first then could attend different department sessions for registration information. My original plan for classes ended up not working due to clashes in times so I had to regroup, which was stressful. After attending all the sessions I went out for dinner with two of my friends the a place called The Pasta Factory. I would highly recommend!

Saturday morning we met at the Spanish Arch to take a walking tour of Salthill. We saw the colorful houses on The Long Walk, the old Claddagh fishing boats and so many adorable dogs. I finally was able to break out my camera and snap some photos. We had lunch in Salthill at a restaurant called The Galleon. Salthill is really cute and the walk there wasn’t too long. I’ve definitely been feeling sore from the amount of walking I’ve done. I’m used to having class five minutes from my dorm, not thirty minutes like it is here. After Salthill we ran a few errands and tried to get organized.

On Sunday I slept in then went with a friend to 11 am mass at the Galway Cathedral. It was a beautiful mass because there was a full choir singing all the songs and responses. Sunday night I went to Supermac’s with a large group of people. Supermac’s is like western Ireland’s McDonald’s but higher quality and more chicken oriented. I got a snack box with fried chicken and fries that I could barely finish. We then went back to our apartments and got ready for school to start the next day.

It’s been a whirlwind adventure getting here, but I’m looking forward to our excursions and the different places I can travel on my free weekends. Be sure to check my photos page for the album of this post!