First two days.

 Mom drove me to Kayleigh's house in Hartford City and her mom drove us the rest of the way to the Chicago airport. We had about a 6 hour straight flight! I thought it was longer and only slept 4 hours the night before so I could crash on the plane... well I probably only slept 3 hours at best on the plane so I was quite exhausted for our first day but the adrenaline and excitement got me through! It's wonderful to have the fuzzy brain feeling gone though now that we've had a full night's sleep!

 This is a taste of our view from the courtyard between the new dorm building and the other building where we eat and can get on the internet, etc. It is BEAUTIFUL to say the least!!!

 This is the new dorm building. We are only the second semester of students to get to stay in it and it is VERY nice.

 Kayleigh basking in the glory of it all.

 My friends Kayleigh and Bridget are my roommates for the semester. We are all from the same wing at Taylor so we're already good friends. I think we have the best window view of all the rooms :)

 We then took a walk around Greystones. All of the houses are adorable, many with brightly painted doors. Everything is GREEN! There are also dogs everywhere :)

 Today we took a hike in Bray. It was a really challenging one up the mountain but it was breathtakingly beautiful.

 Cross at the top

 On the way...

 At the top

This was the pathway back to Greystones.

Our two first days here have been incredible. It's still really surreal but just beginning to set in. I'm sure the fact that I'm here for 3.5 months will take awhile to realize. Church this morning at a Presbyterian church just down the street was such a blessing; they are very, very welcoming, the sermon was challenging, and the tea and biscuit time of fellowship afterwards was very fun! I am really looking forward to choosing a church and making friends and getting involved! I enjoyed meeting people I remembered Alyssa talking about and seeing places and people I had seen in her pictures! Our group is wonderful and we are just beginning to get to know each other. We eat all lunches and dinners together family-style and it is really fun! I'm loving the food so far. It's not super different but even things that we eat back in the states usually taste a little different.

Love you all!!!