Well hello from the other side of the pond! I am still not quite sure its hit me that Im actually here! But Im going to give u an idea of what all Ive been up to for the last week.
I arrived last Monday, after a tearfull goodbye to the very green Irish shores, to beautiful sunny blue skies. I spent the whole day travelling from Dublin to Chicago and then on up to Lansing in Michigan on a 4 hour train ride. Needless to say I was rather exhausted when I arrived having been awake for 25 hours.
I spent the night at my friend Jess's house and then we headed off to camp in Northern Michigan, another 5 hour drive. By the time we reach the camp site Im now 9 hours from Chicago, and I am reliably informed that 9 hours driving is nothing to American drivers.
Myself, Jess and Sharon managed to get the tent set up in record time, at a beautiful campsite on the shores of Lake Michigan. Boy do Americans know how to camp. They have electric hookups for tents and their campervans are enormous and then have all these extra rooms popping out of the sides. It was definitely a case of luxury camping! We did a little shopping for supplies and headed to the rather touristy machinac (pronounced mackinaw) city where I discovered that one scoop of Icecream is really treble what I was expecting! They also had a cool shop called Del Sol which sells beach stuff which changes colour in sunlight, which was cool. We then headed back for a campfire and smores.
The following day began our activities and once again we hopped in the car and drove a measly 2 hours to Tacquamenon falls (probably not spelt correctly). The Upper Falls were quite big and impressive and well worth the 94 steps down to reach them. The Lower falls however were much more fun as you could play in them. We played in about 4 sets of them, sitting in them, swimming, climbing over very slippy rocks, it was great fun. On the drive up we passed through a village, appropriately named Paradise and I saw 3 of the great lakes, superior, huron and Michigan.
On the Thursday we headed to machinac Island, where there are no cars allowed, only horses and bicycles and snow mobiles in the winter. We took a rooster tail boat over and nearly got blown away by the gale force winds. When we arrived our transportation for the day was a horse and cart which I enjoyed immensely and it took us around all the sights, including the fort where we saw a canon display, a court martial and a rifle display. We topped off the day with a campfire and more smores.
On Friday it was already time to head back to Lansing, and so we packed up, in gale force winds again, and drove back down again. Sharon headed back home and Jess and I headed to a local park with a lake, and had a swim and a sunbathe for the afternoon.
Saturday I was introduced to the joys of US malls and the delight that as the dollar is so weak against the pound, everything was half price. I have managed to stock up my wardrobe with a few essentials.
Sunday was move in day and so I was on the 1st train in the morning out of Lansing back to Chicago, where it was now sadly raining. However I was still overwhelmed by the sheer size of the buildings and the whole city. I found my apartment on the 17 floor of the university apartments and they are rather swanky. All built in the last few years they have lifts and shops in the bottom of the building as well as a whole floor for relaxing, with TV rooms, a gym, a cafeteria and all sorts. My flatmates are Eileen, Ashley and Aoife, and they are all doing law as well. We made a quick stop at Target where we stocked up on sheets and towels and important stuff like that.