First couple days in Portrush/Coleraine

What a journey it has been these past couple of days. I decided not to write so much in this blog during the month of January because I wasn't in Northern Ireland yet and it just would be boring. So, now that I'm here the interesting stuff can begin!

We arrived safely in Belfast on Thursday morning around 845am. Nigel Glenny our program director for HECUA met us at the airport and took us on a bus heading towards Coleraine. We stopped at an ASDA for groceries for our flats and than continued our journey to where we would be staying for the next 3 ish weeks in Portrush. Portrush is on the Antrim coast and is about a 15 minute train ride from the University of Ulster where we will be taking out classes and seminar lectures with Nigel. Then from the University it's about a 5-10 minute walk to downtown Coleraine.

My flat mates are Abby who goes to the U, Lily who goes to Macalaster, and Erin who goes to Denison which is in Ohio...I think! The other group members are in flats near by. The first day was very low key since we were all jet leg and exhausted so Nigel went easy on us and pretty much gave us the day to relax and catch up on sleep. Some of us though went walking around the town and found some cute little shops and walked along some of the beaches and rocks. Those festivities along with lots of sleeping and getting situated is what Thursday looked like.

Friday we all took our first train ride to the University to meet up with Nigel and Barbara his assistant I guess you could say. Our first train ride actually ended up being a free train ride because no one came around to ask us to pay! :D We got a wee tour of the University and than had scones and tea with some of the professors that Nigel works with in the UNESCO centre which I think is kinda like the education building. They all introduced themselves and we than had logistics to figure out. After a while Nigel left us and we walked to downtown Coleraine where we got our stipend checks and figured out our UK mobile phone numbers!

Later that night after running around Coleraine getting situated, we all got together in our flat and hung out before we preceded to go to a bar down the street called Tapas bar. There was a live cover band doing songs from like Kings of Leon, Coldplay, jet, etc... they were kind of bad and we all thought the lead singer looked like Alec Baldwin. haha. It was a fun first Friday night in Northern Ireland, and I'm sure there will be many more to come!