Move in day!

January 5, 2010 8:12 pm
Today was the day that we were able to move into our apartments! We got up this morning giddy with anticipation of what the day was going to hold for us. After gathering our stuff, rolling out the door, and checking out of the Trinity Capital Hotel we were in a taxi on our way to the BlackHall Apartments. The taxi driver was a very nice man who was eager to tell us about all the sites in Dublin and explain how close they are to where we are living now. When we got on BlackHall place road the taxi driver was unsure as to where we were to go, we finally found the place though (it is hidden!). He carried our stuff to the door, we paid him and looked at the huge black wrought iron gate in front of us not knowing what to do. A lady peeked out the window at us, smiled, then pushed a button which opened the gate (so cool!)
I just have to say that it is quite the task rolling two bags on cobblestone sidewalks all the while balancing a twenty pound bag on your back and a purse!! We eventually made our way in and the woman explained the electricity cards to us but we had no idea what she said because her accent was strong and she really didn't do that great of a job explaining but we were so excited to see our apartment we just nodded our head like we understood and she pointed us to our place. We have a penthouse apartment if you will. There are 5 bedrooms, and I have my own room! I have never had my own room this is going to be quite the experience! The living room has a cool view since we are on the fourth floor (there is a lift so don't worry!) There was going to be no way we could finangle our bags up four flights of stairs!) Our living room has a table, a side table, chairs, and two couches very nice for a college apartment! All the rooms are carpeted except the kitchen and the living room..they are wooden floors. They aren't as nice looking as the pictures but that is ok..what place really is? The kitchen comesequipped with a fridge, toaster, oven, stove, and all the tools needed for those things.
Kristen and I were unpacking our stuff when we heard the door open and in walked our two roomates from Elon University in North Carolina. They are both named Meghan and seem nice. We haven't seen to much of them..one is sick and they both are very tired which is understandable! They must not have listened when she explained the electricity cards either because the four of us stood there staring at the huge black box near our ceiling with a million buttons wandering what in the world to do. Meghan D. stood up on a chair and tried to hit buttons to see if it would work after inserting one of the ten cards each of us get.
Kristen and I went grocery shopping which was an experience in itself. A woman gave us wrong directions so we ended up walking a good extra 2 miles more than we needed too. Two men stopped and talked to us, they were trying to raise money for some fundraiser but when they heard we were studying abroad they quit trying to get us to give them money and just talked to us. One was from Canada and the other was from Russia. They pointed us towards Lidl supermarket saying it was a lot cheaper than Tesco. It wasn't too bad 28 Euro for quite a bit of groceries.
With our arms loaded down with the reusable bags filled to the brim with the necessities of diet coke, milk, cereal, chicken nuggets, random toiletries, water, and apples we attempted to find Argos, to buy a straightener and hair dryer. We found it and immediately noticed something was different, at Argos you flip through a catalog, look at the number of what you want, put the number into a machine to see if it is available, write down the number, then bring it to the front to pay. After paying you sit and wait for your number that the cashier gave you to appear on the screen then go forward and pay. I went up to pay first while Kristen gaurded our grocieries. But neither of my cards could be read. I signaled to Kristen to go up so we could trade places and neither of her cards could be read either. We sat down and counted out our money and we had barely enough..but we made it! With our arms loaded down with even more stuff we navigated our way back to BlackHall. I saw a man in the front office so I asked him if he could explain the electricity cards so he followed us back to our room. He was kind of a grumpy man. He explained what to do, you insert a card then rip it up because it is no good anymore then your electricty should work, but our electricity worked before so I have no idea what is going on. And did I mention our apartment is like the arctic? All of us have been wearing our winter coats and shoes around. I have the warmest room because I turned my vent up all the way. The heat in the rooms work but not in the hall or the kitchen area. It is literally 30 degrees in that area of our apartment. Right now I have the warmest room but I am still cold in my columbia, cuddle duds, and fuzzy socks.
While attempting to put our food away we realized our fridge and freezer weren't working. It said they were on but it definitely wasn't..our apartment was colder! So we set our chicken nuggets and milk next to the window and as of a few minutes ago they were pretty frozen if that tells you anything! We asked the man and he said that it should be on (great that is a lot of help) then he left. We finished putting our food into our cabinets and started figuring out the internet when we heard a knock at the door. It was only Kristen and I here at that point, the Meghans had left to find food. We ran to the door and we have no peephole but we heard guy's voices. We attempted to open the door for probably a good minute. It is strange, it has a lock and a handle and weird things on it. As we were doing this we heard laughter in the hallway. Eventually we got the door open and Tomas and Graham introduced themselves. They are our neighbors who live across the hall. We invited them in and they stood and talked to us and eventually our other roomates when they got back for quite awhile. They are Irish and were wondering why we would want to study here. As we listed off the places they just kind of shrugged their shoulders and I said it was probably because they were born and raised here that they didn't find things as exciting. We compared it to the Neil Smith for us haha. They laughed. It was nice to get to know our neighbors, they seem really cool and fun so hopefully we will be seeing more of them! They said the people who lived here before us were French and didn't like them at all so they were excited that we were friendly. The boys even said that our room was warmer than theres, crazy!
After they left we killed some time talking to our roomates and then made some chicken nuggets. They were delicious! Meghan D. came out and talked to us while we were doing dishes and we got to know her more. She is a junior, but is our age so that is cool. Over 80% of their school studies abroad before they graduate! But she said that only 5,000 people go to their school. I am excited to get to know more people! Tomorrow we have an orientation at 11:00 at our school and at 12:00 we have a bus tour of Dublin for 2.5 hours. That should be pretty neat!!