Getting to School and Orientation

84 hours! --> That's how long my suitcase has been missing! Moreover, my Teddy is in it... along with most of my clothes! Ha!

I'm thinking I must be entitled to a substantial amount of money at this point. How hard it is to find the biggest, greenest suitcase you've ever seen? Especially as it weighs about 48 pounds!

10 hours! --> That's how long we were at Dublin City University (DCU) today listening to the longest orientation speeches and oral presentations about how to use the library, log into your online account, be safe when walking around campus, etc. And the last 2 hours of the day (5-7) were spent attempting to fit courses into our schedule manually, while half the courses don't even have timetables posted yet and the other half present time slots that don't even make any sense. In conclusion, I haven't really made any headway.

On the flipside, I did find out that I will be able to do my thesis with Dr. Fiona Regan without much issue (now I have to decide what courses to drop) and the one useful thing I learnt is that chewing gum, of all things, is banned on DCU campus! We did get a lovely tour of the whole Campus, which is much smaller than Ottawa U and seems to have much less slush than the latter as well; that is none at all. In fact, the Campus reminded me a lot of Carleton U and, FUN FACT: was founded in 1980.

Judith, Tra and I took the bus (yes it's a double decker) to DCU for 1.90 euro and managed quite well I think! We've also not had much luck regarding apartments so far as most are already rented out (although they are still being advertised) or undergoing renovations and won't be available until a later date. We visited a place this morning, which turned out to be pretty run down considering the amount of money (100/week) he was asking for, but it might be a good place to stay in if we don't find anything by next week! I'm not giving up hope though as I'm sure something will come up; hopefully before Sunday!

All in all, a fairly stressful day, but we did meet a number of the other exchange/study abroad students, most of which are from the US and France. We will be seeing them all again tomorrow for an International Breakfast hosted by the school and a 3 hour tour of the city!