Sheets and Shampoo: 2 Jan

Fun fact: Irvine is apparently an Irish name. The gentleman at customs asked me if I had any Irish in the background. When I said no, we're Polish, he gave me a funny look and said it was definitely not a Polish name. So I asked at home. Turns out we are Polish, from the Erikson line, but that my dad's great-grandma had remarried and so her son changed his last name to Irvine. I thought that was interesting, but was a bit disappointed that there was no Irish in me.

Anyway, I made it safely through the airport in Cork, Ireland. My taxi driver was a bit rude, but I'm sure his job can get boring real fast. Of course, I had to check into my room right away. The guy behind the counter must have gotten a chuckle watching me because I was so flustered and exhausted by that point. And of course, the room I was assigned was on the fifth floor. Fortunately, there was an elevator so I made it upstairs with my bags. It was well past noon at that point so I decided to hunt down some lunch and get some of the essentials for my room, such as sheets and shampoo. When I asked at reception where the best place to go shopping was, I was directed to the Penney's up the road, about a 20 minute walk. As you can imagine, going to a big shopping center in a foreign country by myself was kind of intimidating. I had to go though. So I wandered the shopping center, trying to look like I knew what was going on. I found several of the items on my list at Penney's. However, there was no food. So I wandered some more. Just as I was giving up, a Tesco pops out of nowhere. If Tesco and Penney's were squished together, they would be like a Wal-mart without an electronics department. Penney's was the home goods store, and Tesco had just about everything else.  After finding just a few things on my list, I decided to call it a day. I'm not sure how heavy my bags were, but I was sure there was at least 25 pounds in each hand. As tired as I was, I knew I wouldn't be able to walk 20 minutes back with those bags in my hands. So, I took the bus. First time I have ever ridden a city bus in my life, at least by myself. It was kind of scary, but I was out of it enough that it wasn't too bad. By the time I returned to the room, my other roommates had checked in and were just deciding to go down to the shopping center to get what they needed. I decided to stay home and do some unpacking. After dinner, a simple pasta, we all went back to our rooms to do our own thing. I was so tired that I decided to go to bed at about 7:30. Unfortunately, at about midnight, I woke up. After reading for just a half hour, I fell asleep again, not getting up until noon the next day.