My flight to Ireland was on January 5 at 5:30pm. We arrived at JFK pretty early with my two suitcases to fly Aer Lingus. The flight was a little over 5 hours, and we were given a meal of beef stew on the plane. We arrived in the Dublin airport around 5am Ireland time, and had to get our passport's stamped by immigration. We then took a bus to Cork that was about 3 hours long, and finally arrived in Cork at 9:15am. I slept maybe a few hours on the plane and an hour on the bus. Once we arrived in Cork, we dropped our things off at our dorm. Mine is called Farranlea Hall. The whole Quinnipiac group of about 70 students went out to breakfast. I ate at Cafe Glucksman and got the "Full Irish Student Breakfast" which was eggs, toast, sausage, bacon, beans, mushrooms, a roasted tomato, and pudding made of pig's blood (didn't eat that). After breakfast, we walked over to the University College Cork campus to walk around a little bit. After that, the group ran some errands and got bedding for the rooms. The walk to the shopping plaza closest to us was about a mile or so away, which is where the Tesco grocery store is located. Wednesday started Orientation, where a few UCC students talked to us. The whole group went out to a place called "Ramen" for lunch that's across from where our dorms are, and it was a pretty good place. I cooked stir fry for dinner that night with my roommate Hannah. We did a scavenger hunt around Cork City Centre in the pouring rain, which is something I'll have to get used to. We got to see the English Market which has a lot of fresh food like meats, eggs, and veggies, so I will have to head back there for some food shopping. The walk to downtown city is about a 25 minute walk. We walked 7 miles this day. Thursday continued Orientation where we walked to UCC again to listen to different departments talk about the classes we could take. We tried out a place called "Mango" on the break in between orientation sessions that was pretty close to the school, and we all really liked it. I got a cajun chicken sandwich. We then went over to the UCC quad to look around at the school. Friday morning, we toured the UCC campus and got our student ID cards. We went to "The Bagel Box" for lunch that's a tiny place that's really popular. We had a little bit of time in the afternoon to relax, and then the whole Quinnipiac group went to a restaurant called "Amicus" that was definitely more fancy. It had 3 floors so our group took up the whole third floor. The food was so good there that we definitely want to return. I had a cajun chicken and chorizo salad with a cookie for dessert. This restaurant was down in City Centre again, so we walked another 7 miles that day. Saturday is a free day for us without anything planned, so my plan is to go downtown back to City Centre to shop around and explore a little bit. Classes start Monday!