Welcome to Dungarvan!

Well, we've finished up our first day of classes here at Mercyhurst's Ireland campus and are officially settled in! After arriving in Ireland last Friday morning myself and the other 31 Lakers got the lay of Dungarvan over the weekend. There's many small cultural differences that we've been getting the hang of, like which shops have toiletries or whatever food items we might be looking for. I'm very grateful to be traveling with professors that know the town so well- they've been a big help!
I think I've finally kicked most of the jetlag- our townhouses (or holiday homes as they're known here) are just gorgeous, and I think we've all been very comfortable so far. The Park Hotel which runs these homes has an amazing Leisure Center, so I've been able to get some laps in at the pool! Hopefully I'll keep this up as the term gets more busy- we'll have to wait and see.
In terms of schoolwork, we had our first classes today in Ethics and Irish Literary Heritage. Both classes include a lot of discussions, and I think the variety of students in our group will really keep things interesting. Tomorrow we journey to Waterford for our first class in Irish Language & Culture at Waterford Institute of Technology! I'm looking forward to seeing how Irish colleges are different from schools back home. Because our schedules are shortened to about 8 weeks of classes we have school days that are very long, but I'll be glad to have the extra time to travel at the end of the term!
This weekend we'll be heading to Dublin with Dr Reed, and I'm really hoping that I'll get to see the Book of Kells- it's been on my bucket list for a while now! (Just for the record Dad, the book contains the four primary gospels- neither of us was right.)
Well, that's all for now, but I'll be sure to keep updating as we learn more about the beautiful country that we'll call home for the next two months!