After flying for six hours, waiting in the airport in Shannon for two hours, and riding the bus to Galway, we finally got to move into our apartments! After tossing our stuff into our rooms, our guide took us to Dunnes Stores, a Wal Mart-esque store where we bought some food and bedding.
Most of us are here, in the Menlo Apartments, but some API kids in the program are in the Gort Na Coribe Apartments down the street. This is the view from my bedroom window, which is on the second floor of my apartment but the third floor in the building. The inner courtyard is really icy right now but should be a nice place to sit when the weather gets nicer.
This is the view from the entrance to my apartment; the railing is because it's on the second floor and there is a walkway connecting all of the apartments on that floor together.
We're lucky--my suite gets this large balcony to use! Most of the other apartments don't have one, so I'm sure we'll have lots of visitors once the weather gets nice.
This is the kitchen...it's got basic supplies, like a couple plates and pots...and some leftover food that the students last semester forgot to throw out. Yum.
This is the living room area--it's connected to the kitchen. Apparently Michael, the handy man, is supposed to be coming around sometime to hook up a new flat screen for us, but so far we haven't even turned the TV on. The window on the left here looks out on the inner courtyard.
The foyer. Exciting.
Even better--stairs to the bedrooms on the second floor.
My shower! 
Each bedroom has its own bathroom, so my roommate (who is Irish and hasn't moved back in yet) and I will share this one.
This is my part of the room. I've got the chair next to the heater because it's 40 degrees in here! The door leads to the bathroom.
My roommate's part of the room.
Entering from the door. It's her bed and my desk.
I wish I had more interesting pictures to put up, but so far we've only seen fields and cliffs from inside the bus, so I'll have to bring my camera on any trips that we take. Tomorrow we take a couple tours of the campus and of the city, and then can go back to the campus to get the school's tour if we want to. For supper we're supposed to meet Finn, our Resident Director, at some bar/restaurant in town. She says it's our first test of whether we can read maps!The bars are open to anyone over 18, so my suitemates are all gone clubbing for the night. I'm staying home so I can beat this jetlag...plus drunk, lost American students wouldn't be very fun to hang out with. They don't actually know where any bars are; they're just going to wander until they find one. Oh well.
I don't know if I have a mailbox here yet; I'll have to check during Orientation. But please email! It's a bit lonely here so far.
That's all for now! It's 9:20 here, so I'm off to bed soon. Night!
