Friday, 8 June 2012

We had an Orientation?

Orientation. 8 hours. Yikes. 

That's a long day under any circumstances, but adding in that it began at what my body though was 4 am.... let's just say I could count the number of things I remember on one hand. I will attribute those few things to the coffee my roommates (Jorie and Becca) and I got on the way to the IES center. We stopped at Insomnia coffee, which is along the same line as Starbucks here. 

Once that dose of caffeine wore off I tried my best to keep my eyes open until our lunch break. At that point we were all tired and starved so we walked to the pub Portobello just across the street and went in. I had no idea what to order so I asked what was the best. I heard the words "curry" and "chicken" and thought "chicken... thats pretty safe. It can't be anything too crazy," so I went with that and waited for my food. 

This is what I got.... 

Buried in this mess I found brussels sprouts, rice, cooked cauliflower and carrots, curry chicken and vegetables and chips (fries).
Not something I would normally order but I figured, when in Rome. So after I ate for what felt like years and barely made a dent, I headed back to the center for the second half of orientation. 

Again. It all went in one ear and out the other. 

Finally orientation was over and everyone headed to Grafton Street (one of the main shopping streets in Dublin city center) to buy phones and have an IES dinner.  For our program we had to have a cell phone, and most of us didn't want to pay for an international plans so we went with Vodafone. For the next 6 weeks I'll be using this bad boy. 

Thats right. Back to the 90's I go. 
After dinner we looked around Grafton a little more and then went to the Barge with a few girls from the group. It only took about 2 minutes to realize that we brought the average age of the pub down about 20 years. So we were off to explore again. 


Kaitlyn, Sofia, Jorie, and I about 2 minutes before the leaving the Barge.  


The Barge may have been a bust, but after we found The Bernard Shaw. Way younger crowd. The place is very "Hipster" complete with graffiti decorated walls and a painted school bus-turned-resturaunt out back that supposedly has some of the best pizza in Rathmines. I'll have to check that one out another day. 

Tomorrow will be another early start for the bus tour around Dublin! 

Until tomorrow....


Cheers, 
     Becca :) 




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