Let the adventure begin

Hello people,

For those who don't know me personally: My name is Davina, I'm 16 years old and I come from Rhineland-Palatinate. In 2020/21, I will be going to Ireland for 10 months with the organization EF - Education First to do a High School Exchange Year.

Here we go...

On August 21, 2020, my adventure finally began.

At 6 a.m., I drove to the airport with my parents. There, an EF staff member welcomed us and supported us in everything. I flew to Ireland with 9 other EF exchange students, which was really great... I wasn't alone and always had someone to talk to and exchange with. And the pain of saying goodbye went away faster.

After checking in and dropping off our luggage, we had to say goodbye because our parents couldn't go through security anymore.

At around 9:50 a.m., we finally took off and flew to Dublin. We had some turbulence during the flight, mainly when we were approaching Dublin for landing, but luckily we all landed safely. After going through immigration and picking up our luggage, we arrived at the Arrival Hall, where we were joyfully greeted by one of our mentors for the year. Since we arrived in Dublin so early (10:45 a.m.), we had to wait for other flights with more exchange students. However, due to Covid-19, we had to do this outside.

And the temperature difference compared to our summery temperatures in Germany is really extreme... ;D

Quarantine life

All international exchange students have to quarantine for 14 days once they arrive here. So it also meant for me: 'Hello 14 days of boredom. Here I come!'. But my organization has come up with a lot of online events so that we don't get bored here.

Some of us students unfortunately cannot spend quarantine with their host family (including myself). That's why EF has rented accommodation for us in Dublin (marked on the map). We are each staying in apartments with 3 - 5 other students and a mentor. In these apartments, each person has their own room (also called a dorm) with a bathroom.

In addition, every day we have the chance to take a walk in our apartment groups (with a mentor) to get some fresh air, chat, and see a bit of Dublin. Our accommodation is more or less in the center of Dublin, which is super cool because we can go to different places on our walks. Whether it's to Temple Bar, Phoenix Park, Dublin Bay, or the Guinness Storehouse (even though we can't go inside). Of course, all with masks and social distancing.

Since Wednesday, we are also allowed to use the common room that comes with each apartment. Although we have to wear masks all the time, it's really nice to have some company and not always sit alone in our rooms. The evenings we spend together there are always cool and fun, even if we just watch Netflix :)

Now more than half of the quarantine is over and on Friday, we will go to our host families. I will tell you in the next post how everything went.

I hope you got a little insight into my first days here in Ireland. Maybe I have sparked your interest and you will read my next posts to follow my adventure. I would be happy about that!

Until then, take care

Your Davina