May 6: Arrival, orientation, welcome dinner
You may be wondering why my title is called 35 hours if all we did was have orientation and a welcome dinner. Well, I will be starting by explaining our arrival process. We woke up at 6 am on May 5th to head over to the airport. We all met there around 7 am. Our flight to Charolette was approximately from 10 am to 11:30 am. We then had a 5-hour layover, which turned into a 6-hour layover due to a delay. We then started our 7-hour journey to Dublin where we landed at 12 am PA time. Since we landed on the morning of the 6th, they welcomed us to an orientation and dinner. It was very kind and helpful, but I felt like I was having a fever dream. We learned some safety tips and Irish history while there, and we even got sandwiches. I felt like I was floating the entire time. When we got to our apartments on our break before dinner, I did indeed pass out the second I laid down. I only slept for an hour so I didn’t mess myself up, but we had to get some groceries. Our dinner went from 6 pm to 7:30 pm, Ireland time. I then went back to the apartment and watched ‘The Chase’ on T.V. until I could not keep my eyes open even though I tried. I fell asleep around 10:30 pm which meant I had officially stayed up for 35 hours straight (if you forget about the hour nap I took). I did learn some things that I would not have picked up on which were how to use the transportation here, what areas to avoid, and which areas will provide you with a good time. My reaction was that I am too tired to stop from disassociating and that it looks like Pittsburgh but with some extra trees. Overall, I am very excited for my stay in Dublin, even though I am too tired to enjoy my visit or to even realize I left the country. We will see how I feel tomorrow!
