Let the adventures begin...

I'll try to keep this one brief because it's already 11:30 and I'm tired, but here it goes...

This morning I woke up at 9am after a wonderful night's sleep. The bed wasn't terribly comfy, but anything is better than the chairs in the airplane. The orientation program started at 10:15 in the main campus building, which, in my humble opinion, is pretty ugly and has the most confusing set up of rooms I've ever seen.

The "orientation" lasted for a few hours and was far from anything like the orientation week at Grove City...but this one had tea and scones! The women from the international office gave a brief history about the University of Ulster, which as actually a fairly new university, having been first established in 1984. The University is made up of four campuses - Jordanstown, Coleraine, Belfast and Magee (or Londonderry) - each with different schools. I'm at the Jordanstown campus because it houses the school of business. After the brief presentation, we were taken on a "tour" of campus, which basically consisted of all the international students talking amongst themselves, sharing stories about our journeys over here while the tour guides pointed out only three or four buildings on campus.

There are around thirty other international students here at Jordanstown for the semester. Today I met people from Washington state, Hong Kong, Turkey, Boston, Oshkosh Wisconsin (small world!), Finland, Texas, and Austria. I was so thankful after talking to two people from the States whose luggage didn't make it to Belfast. Thank you Lord!

After the orientation, I went with my roommate, Kara, who is from North Carolina, to meet our studies adviser, Mr. Ian Pyper, a wonderfully Irish old fellow. The meeting went well, but unfortunately only two of the four courses I had planned to take are actually available. So, I have some searching to do for at least one more course. For those of you at Grove City, three courses sounds ridiculous right? Well, each course involves not only class time, but also seminars and a lot of independent studying. I think it's going to be a lot different than school in the US, but I think it will be good. And, after all, studying abroad is also about being submerged in a different culture, not just about learning in the classroom.

Now for the fun stuff...I made my first trip into Belfast City Centre this evening. A group of us decided that sitting in our rooms for another night was too boring. So, Anya and Erin (aka Baz) from Boston, Amanda from Texas, Kerry from Wisconsin, Emily from Canada, Kara from North Carolina, Bernie from Austria (the only guy) and I took the train from Jordanstown to Belfast Central Station and then the bus from the station to Belfast City Centre. We wandered around the city a bit - saw City Hall and Victoria Square - and then headed down a well-lit alley to Whites, which claims to be Belfast's oldest tavern. We found it only after Bernie stopped for probably the tenth time to ask a kind Irish soul for directions (he would stop a few more times throughout the night). I thought about ordering my first Guinness, but I wasn't feeling it, so I went with a deliciously sweet pear ale...girly, I know. After drinks we headed to McHugh's pub and restaurant for a late dinner. It was fairly pricey, so most of us got a combination of starters and side orders. I had pumpkin soup and a side order of seasonal vegetables in basil oil. It was delicious! All in all, a wonderful night on the town!

A few things I've realized since arriving: (1) Everyone here likes to party. I'm pretty sure I'm the only one who hasn't been completely drunk and who has never played drinking games like pong and such. I don't think that will change, but I'm not opposed to having a drink or two with supper. (2) I'm not sure there are many Christians in this group of international students. I could be wrong, but if I'm not, I keep praying that God will use me and give me the perfect words to say at the perfect point in time.

So much for being brief...