Getting Accustomed To A New Place

Alright so starting off from the get-go. I arrived to Ireland on August 31 around 4:30 a.m. It was a long flight, but by the time I walked outside of the airport and realized I would be in this beautiful country for four full months, it made the flight seem like a little bump in the road. Leading up to the flight, I of course had to get ready for this experience, and one of the main things I had to do was exchange my money from US dollars to Euros. What I did first was go to a local bank in my hometown and exchange it right then and there that way I had some cash while coming over to Ireland. It took a few days to obtain the euros, but besides that it was super easy. For other purchases I am just using my credit card because it doesn't have a foreign transaction fee and I will get the best exchange rate of the day with my card.

Once getting to Ireland it was very simple. My mom came with me and we got a rental car, so of course it was different with my mom driving on the right side of the car as opposed to the left and driving on the left side of the road as opposed to the right side. It was something to get used to, but once my mom left I didn't have a form of transportation, but luckily here in Ireland they have something called a LeapCard, which is a student card that you can put money on and use it with the bus system. You get discounts with the bus and if you either ride multiple rides per day or multiple per week you reach a cap, which means then some of your other rides are free, so that comes in handy. Besides the bus system, most times my friends and I take taxi's to get to other places, especially when it's late at night because the buses stop running at a certain time. We also use the trains a lot. They have trains to help you travel all around Ireland. So far my friends and I have used the train to go to Cork and visit the Blarney Castle and kiss the Blarney Stone (image below right) and this past weekend we went to Galway to go experience downtown Galway and the Aran Islands, (image below left).

Something that might shock some people from the US, at least I know it shocked me, but a lot of stores and shops close fairly early here in Ireland. Really everything opens later than normal, probably around 9, 10 or so in the morning and then close around 6 or 7 at night. Sunday's also are an entirely different thing. Places don't open, no matter what it is, until 12 or so and then they close around 5 or 6. It is a different atmosphere to be in because back home I'm used to things opening at the crack of dawn and then waiting to close well past the sun goes down. It is something that I will need to get used to.

Talking to friends and family from back home has been a bit of a challenge, no lie there. Of course there are different applications on my phone that I have been using to talk to everyone, such as Facebook Messenger as well as WhatsApp, but the phone calls and data has been a little difficult. I first started off with an international plan with my phone carrier back home (Verizon), but with how little I was getting with that plan and how much I was paying, it ended up being a better situation for me to just buy an Ireland SIM card for my phone. That within itself was the solution to my problem. It works out well because I get unlimited data for cheaper than I was paying with my home carrier's international plan. I now can talk to my family and friends for a cheaper rate, while also being able to use my data to get where I'm going if I get lost. I wish I would have either heard about the Ireland SIM card plan earlier or I wish I would have done it earlier because it is such an easy fix to a weird problem.

Yes, with everything different that I have noticed while being in a different country is odd, but it is refreshing. It is nice to not want to be on my phone all the time, to really embrace everything around me and appreciate each breath of the atmosphere I take in.