I Made it Out of O'Hare Alive, Be Proud.

Anyone who knows me would be surprised to know that I woke up at 8 am today (and for those of you who don't, 8 am is ridiculously late for me, not ridiculously early). I slept for like 11 hours last night because between my 8 hour flight to Edinburgh, passport control, security, and my 5 hour layover in Edinburgh, my 2 hour flight to Cork, and finally arriving at my aunts house, I got about 20 minutes of half consciousness that could almost count as sleep. When I arrived at my aunts and sat on the bed, I could have passed out and slept until the end of the semester. To get myself on a normal schedule though, I wanted to stay up later so I went for a nice run through her neighborhood, met my cousins, had dinner, and promptly passed the hell out at 8 pm (omg study abroad turn up lol jk).
The beauty of traveling, though, is that while my experience was extremely tiring (which still confuses me, since I spent 10 hours sitting), I was still so excited by all of the new things, people, and local quirks I encountered thus far. Flying over the highlands of Scotland in the early morning was breathtaking although I was in the aisle and couldn't get pictures without being "that person". Going through security at Edinburgh, i started talking to a really friendly guard with a cockneyed accent that I at least tried not to smile at. While we were talking, a boy got caught trying the jump the queue because he forgot his boarding pass. In Chicago, that kid would have gotten in some trouble but my new guard friend just laughed and actually let him check in. My layover was too short to leave the airport, but offered me more than enough to check out the decent selection of stores, most of which had cute tartan products, Scottish flag adorned gear, and Ryder Cup memorabilia. The people were dressed very fashionably even at 9 AM and uniformly friendly. Overall, I'm definitely visiting Edinburgh properly sometime this fall.

But onto my actual destination, Ireland seems to be everything I hoped. The views of Cork City and its rolling green hills are every bit as picturesque as I imagined. Also, my aunt and cousins are the sweetest and reconnecting with them has been nice thus far. Earlier today, my aunt and I went out to Cork City to check out my new campus. We only entered a few buildings, so I don't have a great feel for UCC yet, but campus is already buzzing with people and its main Quadrangle is gorgeous.

Afterwards, we walked the mile or so out to my new apartment building. Along the way were a lot of colorful cottages, pubs, Subway (!!), and St. Finbar's Cathedral. (Also, the reception office had an advertisement for a Friday night pubcrawl).



After leaving my apartment, we took an impromptu trip through downtown Cork. We hit St. Patrick's Street, their biggest shopping center. Even on a Tuesday at noon, it was packed. I was relieved to discover so many trendy stores within walking distance from my apartment, half of which I'd never seen before and half of which are in every major mall in America. A nice balance. Finally, my aunt and I went up St Patrick's Hill to the Michael Collins museum (sorry, Miceal- to spite the British, he insisted on signing his name only in Irish)  He was a revolutionary in the Irish fight for independence and my dad and grandpa both love him dearly. We looked at some of his memorabilia, but what stood out to me were a) The love letters he and his lover sent each other while he was fighting the British and b) a picture of JFK visiting the museum. The jetlag is still with me, so I'm exhausted already. Going to dinner with my aunt and cousins later before visiting Newmarket, the farm town where my grandpa was born, tomorrow.

Peace,
Katie