First Post!

Ahh I can not believe I am leaving on Tuesday! I have yet to pack, but luckily I have taken over my sister's room with everything I want to bring. I have one large suitcase and one medium to check and then I will have a carry on and a backpack with my laptop in it. I am sure I will look like the ultimate tourist at the Dublin airport, but that's ok! I think the one universal question that friends and family keep asking me is if I am excited.  I know the answer to this question, but it is hard to describe my excitement when honestly I have never done anything like this in my entire life. I have left the United States once when I went to Canada when I was little and the last time I was on an airplane was sophomore year of high school for a family vacation to San Diego and Sea World. So to answer this question...yes I am excited, but it is such a foreign concept for me that I can't even picture what it will be like! All I know is that it will fly by and hopefully be the best 4 months of my life (:

I will be studying at the Quinn School of Business at Ireland's largest University, the University College Dublin. It looks beautiful from what I have seen online… they even have an Olympic size pool! As far as the living situation goes, I think it is kind of strange, but also intriguing. UCD has a policy where they inform you of the gender of your roommates, but that is it! All I know is that I will be living in the nicest college apt that I probably have ever seen and my roommates are 2 female UCD undergrads (one of which I am friends with from Syracuse) and 3 male UCD undergrads. My friends like to tease me that I am going on the Real World Ireland.  Hopefully I actually keep up with this blog because it will be cool to look back on someday! As I am getting ready to leave obviously I am getting nervous.  However, one of my friends gave me some valuable advice…he told me to have an open heart and an open mind and that is just what I plan to do (: