Day one

Hi everyone! So this is my blog about my study abroad trip to Ireland. Even though in Limerick, it's 9 at night, it feels a lot later to me. I flew here with Rachel, my best friend, at around 7:25 pm from Newark (the Atlantic Coast looks amazing at night, btw) and arrived at Shannon at what felt like 2am to us, but was 6:45am in Ireland. The hour drive to Limerick was beautiful. I was feeling a little homesick after getting off the plane and waiting in customs (fortunately, I had no luggage mishaps), but seeing how gorgeous the countryside is made me excited. These four months should go by pretty fast.
I wish I had some great stories, but seeing as it's only my first day, I'll have to settle for the few interesting things that have happened. We got here and have spent the day gradually getting unpacked. Kilmurray is pretty nice; the village manager is so patient with all the new students, too. Rachel and I managed to get placed in the same apartment, house, whatever you want to call it. There will be 6 of us living in it, but only 4 are in it right now. The two boys are still on their way. Btw, not such a fan of co-ed housing. But, what can you do? I'm sure the guys will be great. Anyway, first thing we realized was that our landline phone was broken....or rather not present. It's getting fixed. After a few freezing hours, when it was warmer outside than in our rooms (I'm not joking), we thought our heater might be broken, but I guess they only turn it on in the morning and the evening, but leave it off in the afternoon.
Found a great department store, Dunnes Store, and the Irish equivalent of the doller store, where everything costs two euro. The bus system is great (which I'm sure you'll be glad to hear I'm finally riding the public buses, Carly) and we got our grocery shopping done fairly easily. Tonight, Rachel and I got our first taste of the Ireland weather. On our way to get supper (we wanted to buy a pizza and watch Farscape), it started lightly drizzling. By the time we were headed back, it had started to pour and we had a fairly long walk with no umbrellas so we both have some soaked clothing.
I guess that's it; not very interesting, I know, but hopefully, I'll have some better stories later on. One more day of rest and then we start orientation! Thanks for all the prayers; trust me, they're helping a lot. Have a good night!
-Vanessa