10 days!

For those of you who don't know, I'm leaving June 19th for Ireland.  I won't actually get there until the 20th, though.  It's crazy to think I only have 10 days left!  I started my countdown as soon as I was accepted into the program and it seemed so far away.  Now that it's getting closer I'm getting so nervous and excited! 

I'll be staying in Galway on the west coast from June 20th-July 21st....should be back in the States on the 21st late that evening.  While I'm there, I'll be living in student apartments, not really sure who my roommate or "flat" mates are yet.  I'm taking one course in Irish Archaeological History, which has absolutely nothing to do with nursing but I think it will be awesome!  Apparently this class has a lot of field trips to various sites, so I'm super excited about taking it.  I'll get to see things from Viking ruins up through the middle ages.  I don't really know how long I'll be in class every day but I'm hoping just taking one class will give me lots of opportunity to explore Ireland.  The program I found to do all of this through is CEA Global Education (http://www.gowithcea.com/).  I didn't really like the programs offered through LR so I spent many hours researching others until I found one I was happy with.  I didn't really want to stay in Dublin because it's HUGE, we're talking over a million people...something I'm definitely not used to.  Galway is a smaller city, about like Winston-Salem.  It's also a major hub of the arts and is known as Ireland's Cultural Heart.  Apparently a major arts festival will be going on while I'm there so I can't wait!!

I'm also really excited to see Dana, a roommate and sorority sister from LR!  She moved over there with a guy she met while in Ireland.  Hopefully I'll get to go stay with her one weekend near Dublin and she'll be coming over to Galway at some point as well.  It will definitely be nice to see a familiar face and get to meet some of her Irish friends and boyfriend.