3 "Colleens"?

My adventure began at the Newark Airport. After walking in blindly to the airport lounge, I found that the first two people I introduced myself to were named Colleen. They both laughed when I politely asked if I could join them and told them my name. I quickly realized that they were not laughing at my name, but instead the coincidence. I immediately felt better after meeting my classmates, for I could tell that everyone was eager to meet others. I boarded the plane anxious for the upcoming semester. At this point, I knew there was no turning back.

Sleep did not come easily on the plane. When we were finally begininning our descent, the lights of Dublin caught my eye. What was I I getting myself into? We gathered our luggage and found our leader who was waiting in a very welcoming red coat. With luggage loaded in the coach bus, we quickly realized we were not in America when we tried entering the bus on the drivers side. He woke us up by asking us in a very thick irish accent if we were planning on driving the bus. Slightly taken aback, we entered the correct side of the bus and arrived at Dublin City University less than 20 minutes later.

Dublin City University is a relatively new university in Dublin, dating back only 26 years. We were given our roommate assignments and were able to unpack our things in our new apartments. There are nine students on our floor, housed in rooms of two, and we all share a kitchen. The rest of the day consisted of an orientation at the Inter Faith Center on DCU campus and a walking tour. The campus is nice, relatively small and compact, but seems to be pleasant. Things are a bit quiet here now, because DCU students are studying for their finals which will take place in the upcoming week. They will start their next semester in February.

The first day was a little rough. Lack of sleep made the homesick feeling that much stronger and I was unsure of what I had gotten myself into. I ended up sleeping over 14 hours that first night and woke up with a wonderful new attitude about the entire situation.