Landed. Welcome to Ireland!

I'm here! Finally! Made it to the hotel for orientation safe and sound. Quite an exhausting and stressful day/night of travel however. My flight was supposed to leave Logan at 5:30pm last night but we didn't end up taking off until 10:30pm. The plane had to land in Bangor, ME due to the snow. After the plane arrived at Logan at 8:30pm, they had to unload all the passengers, refuel the plane, clean it, board the crew and then board us. Well, it wasn't so simple. Then there was a technical problem, something that happened in Maine; it was never fully explained. Finally on the aircraft. Business class was great! First they started with hot towels and a glass of white wine. Then I believe I had a glass of champagne. By this point I was exhausted and the alcohol went right to my system. Dinner was served, Air France does an amazing job. There was an apetizer, then a cheese platter, the main course, and a pear dessert. I basically only stayed awake long enough to eat and then pass out. Oh, and I had a small glass of red burgundy wine with dinner. Then I actually slept for about 4 hours. The seats actually pulled out into a bed, I was pretty much lying down. When I woke up, they started serving breakfast, which is always confusing with the time change. Shortly after we landed.

At Boston, because of the long delay, I knew I was going to miss my connecting flight to Dublin which was around 10:15. Well, the flight from Boston didn't land in Paris until 11:30am. In Boston I asked to be put on the next flight to Dublin which left at 12:30. I just barely made it. I had to switch terminals on the bus, which took forever, then go through all of security once again. I broke down at that point. I looked pretty pitiful but I guess security felt bad and let me pass through everyone and go right to the gate. Had I been 10, even 5 minutes later, I would have missed the flight. Flight to Dublin was fine, only an hour. 

Once in Dublin, they told me that my baggage never arrived. It didn't have enough time to be transferred. So, they located it, still in Paris. The next flight to Dublin is 8pm tonight so it should be arriving 3 hours. The plan is to wait for it in my room, go down to the lobby and get it, and crash. Straight to sleep. 

From the airport I took the bus into the city. Beth-you were right, the buses are orange and blue, 7 euro!! Walked to the hotel for orientation. Met the group at the restaurant. We had lunch or "supper" and then did orientation business type stuff. We got our apartment assignments so if you would like it, email me!!

I'm living with 3 others girls. There are 2 other apartments for other girls and one apartment for the boys; there's only 5 of them. We apparently live about 10-15 walking distance from Trinity, in a nice location. We move in tomorrow afternoon. So now I'm just waiting for luggage and heading to sleep. 

On a disappointing note: no internet access in the apartment. This means I will have to be on campus to be on the internet. I may only be able to check my emails once a day.....oh well. Have to adjust. 

Everyone seems very nice; all Americans. I think we're all just fatigued and jet lagged. 

Happy 2009 everyone!