Day 1?

I titled this post "day 1?" because it's a bit unclear to us exactly what day it is and how long we've been here... The plane ride to Newark was great (except the landing was a bit "aggressive" according to Evelina). From Newark to Northern Ireland the flight was long. 7 hours. But, to be honest, it wasn't that bad. Jacob and I had to take a bio test that I certainly failed, and Jacob probably aced. After that we had dinner, which consisted of rubber chicken with rice, and then almost everyone slept. The exceptions were me and Ari because we were uncomfortable, so I slept for about 45 min., maybe an hour.

We landed, went through customs as a group (which is a story in itself), and then we were on our merry way. We didn't take time to meet our host families or sort our bags, we just started the day off at 8am Belfast time with a tour of the city. Even though we were all tired, the tour was very cool. We saw some sights, like the Peace Wall, that we had really wanted to see After that, we went to Queens College and met with the Presbyterian, Church of Ireland, Roman Catholic, and Methodist Chaplains. We talked to them about their roles on campus for a long, long time. Given that at this point none of us have had a sufficient night's sleep in at least 24 hours, we were all passing out at various points during the discussion.

The rotarians bailed us out, saying we needed "fresh air". So we walked around the corner and through the Botanical Gardens on Queens campus. They were gorgeous. One of the Belfast rotarians had gone to Queens in the '60s, so he had some information for us and was a great tour guide. We went into three green houses, all with a different type of environment to grow different plants. It was very pretty.

Our long day(s) ended with getting our bags and parting for the night as we finally met our host families. I can personally say that my host family has been nothing but warm and welcoming toward me, and has made me feel very comfortable.

It's 9:50pm now, and like I said I haven't slept in however long it's been, and I'm exhausted. So this is it for tonight... xo

Rachel