It's hard to believe I've been here for 6 days!! The days have flown by! This week we had a bunch of International student orientations. I didn't reaalize how many Anericans were studying abroad here, there are a ton! I feel like a freshman in college again...I have no clue where anything is and I don't know how things work. During these orientaions, they told us about registering for classes and about clubs and societies on campus. They also gave us a tour of the campus. The campus is fairly small but the buildings are a more modern than I thought they would be. I was thinking more along the lines of Harry Potter, haha! But, there is one really reaally old building on campus that loooks like I thought it should. Registering for classes here is different than at home. Nothing is online. We have to get timetables from each department that have the times all of the classes for that department. So, I had to go to 5 different departments just find out the times. This week, we can go to as many classes as we want and try them out to see if we like them. Then on Monday the 18th, we officially register for classes. I'm slowly starting to figure out my way around the city. The city is cool because you have the old downtown city center, but then as you get away from downtown, there are more shopping centers, malls, grocery stores, electronic stores, and movie theaters. It's pretty easy to find what I need.
Galway is still very, very icy! It's actually nspowing as I write this!! I was walking down a hill the other day and completely busted. I figured it was only a matter of time before that happened to me! The walk to the university is about 20 minutes from my apartment, but the scenery along the way makes the walk better. Everyone here is so nice and so helpful! It kinda reminds me of home in the way people interact and the pace of life. All of the kids in my group from Massachussettes, New Hampshire, and Vermont cannnot believe how nice people are here. They all keep commenting on how people back at home are never this friendly, haha! Someitmes if we're all walking somewhere, they'll ask me how I'm handling the cold and they call me Alabama when they do it. They also said that I have a nice accent, that it's not that annoying country accent haha! And they all laugh when I say y'all but at the same time they say they want to say it because it's so much easier to say!
The people in Galway say that they have not had a winter this cold since 1963 and that they don't know how to handle this kind of cold! I totally understand how they feel!!
I did stay up until 5:30 in the morning on Thursday to watch the championship game and I'm so glad I did, Roll Tide!! The kids all laughed at me when I told them what I was doing haha!
I think once I get my classes figured oout and get in a routine, I'll feel more comfortable and the time will fly by! I'm still loving Galway every day and it's still weird to think I'm finally here. I love you and miss you all!!