Leslie - Ireland - Fall 2009

Hello from Dublin! I’ve only been in Ireland for 2 days, but I feel like I’ve been moving nonstop for all 48 hours. The flight here was shorter than projected, but we still had a 2 hour line to have passports checked. The taxi driver was very congenial. Admittedly, I have not seen the whole city, but from what I have seen, its very very clean. Maybe this only affects me so much because of living around Chicago, but this city is so clean that I really notice little pieces of litter, which are uncommon. There is a now light rail tram-type system called the Luas (which I believe means ‘speed’ in Gaelic) which is (as I said) new, fast, gorgeous, and clean. There is a stop 5 minutes walk from my flat and a stop another 5 minutes walk away from the program center. The flat is also 5 minutes away from the brand new-ish giant shopping mall (the largest one in Ireland). The whole city of Dublin is both very old and quite new. The city was established by Vikings, and just expanded with time, absorbing other villages until it became what it is today. Its full of new constructions and 55% of the city is under are 30, making it the youngest city in Europe demographically speaking. I have 3 flatmates- 2 from Minnesota and one from Wisconsin, who are quite nice so far. The flat is great, although the shower stall in the 2nd bathroom is absolutely tiny. We register for classes tomorrow and start on Monday.
So- that being said, I’m going to bed. For real this time.