Here Safe and Sound

It has been a week since I got here and I am still settling in, getting all the little plastic cards that prove I am a student and get me discounts on everything.

To the left is the Institute of Public Administration (IPA for short). I will reference it a lot I am sure since that is where I go to classes two days a week and it is also my home base for computer and library access. The head of our program is named Michael Mulreany, he is a really nice guy and pretty helpful.

Yesterday I found out that through some mistakes in booking they had 5 extra tickets to go with the Northeastern kids to Paris at out mid-break. So he offered them to the rest of us. We will pay like €20 and for that get to go to Paris for 4-5 days, transportation and accomadation included! Talk about a lucky break, I am so excited. I never dreamed I would even get to Paris on this trip and certainly not for that cheap a price.

So far everyone in the program seems pretty cool. The girl in the left of the picture is Janet, she is my housemate and we get along great which is a big relief considering how much time we spend together. The girl to the right is Jessica, the only masters student in our program. She is the only one who started with her TD already, she is very nice with an extremely outgoing personality. If any of us are gonna scare the Irish people by our loudness, my bets on her.

We live in the southeast suburbs just outside Dublin, but it is only a 15 minute DART ride in to the city in the morning so it is not bad at all.

This is the main drag in out little suburb, we walk through it every morning on the way to the DART. There is actually a height restriction on buildings here so even in Dublin the buildings are never more than a couple of stories, it is nice not to have the sun blocked out downtown though I have a hard time convincing myself it is actually downtown sometimes. Too much time in Chicago I guess.

Just wanted to post some info an pictures now that I am starting to get my bearings. I will try to post as much as I can, but no guarantees. I love you all.