tick tock, tick tock, tick tock.....

Top o' the mornin to ya! (or evening, I suppose).
(don't worry; i'm not going to say dorky things like that while I'm over there.)

As you may know, I am going to be studying abroad in Limerick, Ireland this upcoming semester. I didn't plan on writing an entry so soon before I go, but the blog looked so sad and blank, and plus, knowing me I will probably need as much time before I leave to make sure I haven't forgotten anything, so I may as well get the "before-I-go" entry out of the way.

I admit, I first got interested in visiting Ireland partly after seeing "P.S. I Love You" and wanting to find a sexy Irish man of my own, but I also found the country itself very beautiful and interesting. My mother's red hair clearly indicates I have some Irish heritage. I am extremely excited and a little nervous, but mostly excited. I am mainly worried about missing my family and friends terribly, and that I will come back to the U.S. penniless, but my parents assure that they won't let that happen.

I leave on the 18th. I am taking the shuttle from Eau Claire to the Minneapolis/St.Paul Airport at 6:45 AM..which means I am going to have to navigate the airport by myself, which to some might not seem that hard, but I have only been to an international airport once before, and that was just this past spring break! I am going to have to get my luggage checked, go through security, and get to my gate for my 10:50 AM flight. I will be meeting up with many of the other students going (there are 15 of us total) A few are also flying from Chicago. We will then be flying to Newark. Incidentally, both of these airports have been in the news lately for security breaches and what not. I'm hoping things go smoothly that day! At 7:25 PM, I believe, our plane will be taking off to Shannon, Ireland! We won't get there till about 6:45 AM, and they are 6 hours ahead. We will then have to fill out immigration cards, since we will be there for a few months, and apparently that's the amount of time required to temporarily immigrate to Ireland (i should probably be more aware of the laws!) The University of Limerick will pick us up and take us to the University. We then have orientation and what not. Classes start January 25. We've been told the first couple weeks we get to try out classes, and then we register for the ones we want! I have a general idea of the ones I want to get requirements at UWEC i still need, but I might end up surprised!

While I am abroad, I really want to travel all over Europe. Despite having many fun memories from my childhood, most of the vacations I experienced growing up were going to our family cabin, and while it's nice having your own place to vacation to, I have been longing to see other parts of the country, and now apparently, other parts of the world. Here are some places I am specifically really hoping to go to, although if given the opportunity, I'd go pretty much anywhere:
1. Paris, France. I have been talking to another girl going to Ireland with me about going to Paris over Spring Break. The UWEC band will be there too and she has friends in it, so she is going to see them too.
2. Auschwitz. As depressing and morbid as that sounds, I think it would be extremely cool to go there and see it, and a life changing event.
3. Italy.
4. Portugal--I never really knew much about Portugal or thought of it as a place I'd want to go, but I started researching it and they have beauuuutiful beaches.
5. Greece. I don't know if this is going to happen, because it's a bit of a stretch, and from the looks of it, expensive, but Greece is another place I have always wanted to go.

Well, I wrote way more than I was planning to, and I don't want to bore whoever might be reading this, so this is all for now. I'm not sure if I'll write again before I go, but I thought I'd kick things off :)
Later!