Ireland: Day 1

I will be sharing a series of posts about a recent study abroad trip to Ireland I took with my sister, Brianna.

While in Ireland, we were required to keep a daily journal for the World Literature II class that was included in our final grade at the end of the trip... These posts will be all of what I wrote in the journal, additional thoughts (which will be indented), and pictures that weren't shared with family via my Facebook page.

THURSDAY, MAY 12, 2016

Conveniently, we flew out of Memphis International.

Meeting at the Memphis International Airport, all seven study abroad students in one place, made this trip suddenly real!

Snacks aboard our Delta flight. *nom nom nom*

I was too tired from my first international flight to notice more than the new accents in the Dublin airport. The first, and most readily noticeable, was the Irish accents and the second was that of the neighboring Brits.

Our final assignment for the World Literature class was to write about the language in Ireland. What were the differences? Nuances that we heard? Accents? Did the Irish use different words for things than Americans? It was quite a broad assignment and it was difficult to get into because of that.

I had heard Irish accents before traveling to Ireland, so it wasn't really a shock to hear the accent again. In fact, it was really nice to hear the almost musical quality of the lilting language as the locals talked with us.

One of the most different things I noticed while in Ireland was how nice everyone was. People in Ireland seemed to be genuinely kind and, in every interaction I had with them, they were interested in me as a person and making sure that I enjoyed every part of my trip.

That first evening, Brianna and I walked a classmate, Celeste, back to her hotel. Because of a scheduling snafu, our group was split between two different hotels while in Dublin. On the return trip, we stopped at a McDonald's restaurant for Street Passes. I only recently got into playing games on the Nintendo 3DS and (thanks to Corey B.) became addicted to collecting as many street passes as I possibly could... What better place to get exotic street passes than across the pond?

I was hoping that the menu (and staff) would say chips instead of fries, but it was not to be. I contented myself to eating a small order of french fries.

Interestingly, McDonald's is one of Ireland's largest employers and they started operating in the country in 1977! This is not something that I think is all that amazing, it's just interesting. I've never been a huge fan of fast food, but it was fascinating to see the different menu items they offered that I've never seen in America...

• Fish fingers
• Sugar donut
• Twisty fries
• Chocolate filled donut
• "Toasties" for breakfast

We went to sleep that first night exhausted and excited all at once.