F1RST P0ST!!!

I know, it's terrible, but hey, I need a placekeeper until this blog really gets started up. (Also reminds me of an old XKCD...)

Um, hi. I'm Jen. I'm a University of Notre Dame rising junior, double-majoring in English and philosophy. I have the privilege of representing Notre Dame abroad when I travel to New College, Oxford in the UK. My studies will begin in October 2009 and will end in June 2010. This is going to be my travelogue while I travel and my day-to-day blog while I'm at school during terms.

Why dublin2oxford? Well, my hometown is Dublin, Ohio. It's a town of about 150,000 people. We have a few things that have made it famous over the years. For example, we have the world's largest Irish festival, which occurs every year over the first weekend in August. We are also home to the international headquarters of Wendy's, and we have one of the world's 10 worst monuments as mentioned on late night television (the Field of Concrete Corn; I'll make sure to post pictures sometime during the summer). Another thing that people at ND would recognize: I graduated from the same high school as Brady Quinn and Chris Quinn. No, they're not related. No, I didn't actually attend school with them; they graduated in 2003, I graduated in 2007. If you want to find Dublin on a map, take a look at the United States and find Ohio. Then find the star in the middle; that's Columbus. We're a smidge to the northwest. (Any further than us and you get into corn country, har har.)

Want to know a little bit more about me? Well, I classify myself as a supernerd. I love playing games on my Nintendo DS, and I intend on eventually beating Halo on Heroic sometime over the summer before I leave. Some of my favorite TV shows are House, MD and Mythbusters. Over the summer, I'm going to watch every episode of LOST, and I'll also be studying to take the September LSAT. I'm an avid reader, and I'll be putting that to the test as I start reading through Slavic literature canon (think War and Peace and Anna Karenina).

I also have a boyfriend of two and a half years. To protect his anonymity, I'll be referring to him as J. We're very close; he's my best friend, and I really enjoy hanging out with him during the summers. During the academic year, we're long-distance (he doesn't go to ND like I do, but to a university in Ohio), but that hasn't stopped us yet.

I think that's enough about me for now. I'll probably start blogging again as I go through some of the processes needed to go abroad. The next step right now will probably happen around July, when I get the information I'll need to start filling out a student visa. I'll also most likely get my tutorial information around that time. So, if you don't see any more posts for a while, it's because all's quiet on the eastern front. (I'm also going to prod a few friends going abroad with me to start their own blogs here on Blogspot, just to create a blog ring for other people's entertainment.)

- Jen -