Friday, April 13, 2007

Arrival in Ireland - April 11, 2007

April 12 – Day 1
I have arrived in Dublin!!! My incredibly heavy suitcases weighing in at 52 and 76 pounds arrived too! I even found a wonderful cart to help me get my luggage out of the airport to the taxi line. I arrived at my hotel a little after 9am and there were no rooms available. They stored my luggage and I set out on foot. I found the DART station and rode it a couple stops to Pearse Street and Trinity College. I found Grafton Street and an internet café and some much needed coffee. When I arrived back at the hotel around noon, they found me a room and had 2 guys bring up my luggage. I guess it was too heavy for just one person to push. :)

I received a call from my apartment agent to meet at 8am the next morning to look at accommodations. About an hour later, a future co-worker called and invited me to dinner. We met in the hotel lobby about 7pm went to a great Indian place. They were very helpful with information about Ireland, the office and cell phones.

April 13 – Friday the 13th – Day 2
Not so much sleeping yet with the jet lag…I think I got about 3 ½ hours total. I met with the agent this morning to look at apartments and he had set up three to look at and only one was available for viewing. The one we looked at wasn’t available until May 10. Besides that it was soooo small. It will take some adjustment to get used to the smaller accommodations. Hopefully he will have more options over the next couple days. He did take me on a driving tour of South Dublin and Dun Laoghaire (a coastal town about 15 min. train ride to Dublin City Centre). It is a beautiful day here in the low 60’s and sunny. I’m told that this is a rare occurrence and that I need to enjoy it!

Then I worked on getting a cell phone. I think the main goal of cell phone companies (anywhere in the world) is to confuse you so much that you have no idea what you are getting in the end and how much it costs you! At least I got a phone and I can now communicate a lot easier. I even got Skype to work! Technology is so incredible.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Tara, I was so excited to see that you posted and that you got there safely. I'm impressed all your luggage made it with no mishaps! How wonderful that you met a coworker, when are you starting work? Also, what is the time difference there? It's 9pm Sunday here, and I'm not sure if it's already Monday there?

Jen

Tara said...

Hi! I just posted some more and found your comment...I even sent a link to this page to all my Bible Study girls!

Ireland is 5 hours ahead of East Coast time (so 6 hours ahead of Chicago).

Started work today...you can read about it in my new posting :)

Tara said...
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