Settling In

Hello! I'm sitting in the computer lab at the University of Coleraine. I'm a little dissapointed to find out I don't have an internet connection in my room, but I suppose I'll have to make do.

The flight was long, but pretty painless. I can't sleep on planes, and naturally my movie player was broken so I had to work with a fading in and out picture and arab subtitles. Oh well. The woman next to me was from Texas, but grew up in Northern Ireland and goes back once a year to visit her family. Her and I chatted a bit about life in Ulster, and I was unsure whether or not it was appropriate to ask her if she was Protestant or Catholic. Deciding to put PC aside, I asked her, and she was more than happy to describe her Protestant upbringing (gulp), and her neighbor who was murdered a few years back by getting a cinderblock dropped on his head by a gang of Catholics. My goodness. What a way to start off the trip, eh?

We touched down at Belfast International Airport around 8:00 a.m. on Thursday, only to be greeted by a less-than-enthusiastic man at customs. He seemed pretty unsure about the 14 Americans who claimed to be studying at the University of Ulster, but luckily Brienna was the smart one and had all of her HECUA paperwork in her carry on. The customs man stated that we all "owe her a drink", that other customs officials might not have been so allowing, and let us on our merry way. Nigel greeted us at baggage claim (all of our bags arrived safely), and we all boarded a bus headed to Coleraine. We were all a bit taken aback by the blanket of snow on the ground ("I always envisioned it as green", someone said), but we were ensured it was very unnatural and there would be green in hopefully a few days time. Let's hope, because I've definitely had my fair share of snow over the past few months.

The flats at the University are pretty amazing. They call them "dorms" but I would compare them to something along the lines of Melrose at the University of Minnesota. We each have our own private room and bathroom, and we share a kitchen and living room with 4 others. Nigel had allowed us to make a pit stop at ASDA, a local grocery store before we arrived, so we had some food to put in the barren cupboards. After an informational chat, we were allowed to unpack and relax the rest of the day. I naturally decided to allocate a 3-hour time slot for a "nap", did all of my unpacking, ate a bowl of raisin bran, and read some more of my textbook before hitting the hay for a 9 hour nights sleep. Sigh, jet lag.

I am proud to say my alarm worked this morning, I got up in time to shower, figured out my Italian hairdryer in the UK converter, and make it out the door in time to meet for our orientation. It helped that my window opens up to rolling hills and the River Bann, which gave me some incentive to kick things into gear so I could go outside and enjoy my surroundings.

One of the most horrifying moments: Finding there was no coffeepot in our room after I purchased a pound of ground coffee at the store.
One of my more brilliant moments: Putting a cloth over a mug, setting coffee grounds on top, and pouring boiling water over it. It worked! Praise the lord. I feel like this is something my uncle John would be proud of.

OK! I don't have much time left in here because we are all headed "tea and scones" with a few professors. This definitely isn't the USA, anymore. On that note, can I add that there is a bar in the Student Center? I can see where the priorities lie here.

I'm sad that I can't add photos that I've taken, but hopefully I'll get a chance to somehow soon.

More later! Love you all!
-karen