The story so far:

1/21

My journey began at 5:30 a.m. Evansville time when my mom woke me up to prepare to leave. After a “good-bye” phone call from my amazing boyfriend and a kiss on the cheek to my sleeping brother, my mom and I left for the Indy airport. We got to the airport without any problems and checked in. My bags were underweight (Hooray! Thanks to my grandparents for loaning me their bathroom scale) and checked all the way to Dublin. Mom and I ate Chick-Fil-A and continued to our gate.

The time to board came, but there was no plane. Alas, it was still in Chicago getting de-iced!!! So we waited another hour and decided mom would not continue on with me. When the plane finally got there, I said good-bye and boarded and sat for a good 45 minutes. Two men were asked to leave the plane because it was overweight, so again we were behind schedule. Finally we began to taxi but kept stopping.

When we finally arrived in Chicago, I was at least an hour off schedule. Fortunately, I’d planned to be in Chicago well before our Irish Studies Program class’ meeting time. I quickly traversed O’Hare and met up with the group. We checked in and went over to the food court where Deb treated us all to Haagan Daz (sp?) ice cream because we were “the best ISP class ever.” I think she was just happy we all made it before the Aer Lingus ticket counter opened. Anyway, everyone was supposed to get one scoop, but Trista got two because she was the only person in the group that said “hi” to the lady scooping the ice cream. I felt sooooo humbled. Why didn’t I say hi? Why was I so stuck in my excited haze over ice cream that I overlooked the poor girl serving me? Trista, you put me to shame. I hope you enjoyed your extra scoop. You deserved it, even if it wasn’t chocolate.

We sat in the food court for a while and played a game of Go Fish. Dan and Ann tied with seven pairs while Trista and I each had six. We finally went through security and no one had any real hang ups, at least not that I know of. Again, we sat at the Aer Lingus gate until our plane boarded.

Air travel is always a lot of hurry-up-and-wait. You rush to get to the ticket counter two or more hours before your flight then you sit bored and tired until they finally call your seat. Then you sit on the plane as it sits parked and when it finally starts to taxi, it takes at least twenty minutes to make it to the runway. I wonder if I could have made it to O’Hare at the same time if we’d just driven through. Oh well. This was much safer in the long run. A snow/ice storm hit Chicago just as we left. I’d have hated for my mom to have to drive in that.

The Aer Lingus flight was fine. It was shorter than the international flights I’ve been on before. I’ve never crossed the Atlantic, so that was exciting. The flight was also my first experience with the accent. I’d heard people talking in Irish accents before, but I’d never been so saturated. I basically tuned out of the cabin announcements because it didn’t sound comprehensible to me. My Midwest accent must be just as difficult for them to understand because I ordered a sprite and they gave me diet coke! Oh well. They put a lemon in my drink. That was exciting.

1/22/05

I’m sitting on my bed in room 6. My roommates, Trista and Ann, took the bunk beds, so I have a normal bed which is semi-exciting. How did I get here? Uh… let’s see if I can remember.

I didn’t get a wink of sleep on the plane. We landed in Dublin at 7 minutes to 7 a.m. (or 7 minutes to 1 a.m. Evansville time). Going through customs kinda stunk. I was the first one to go through and I couldn’t understand the guy behind the counter. It was probably a mixture of disorientation, sleep deprivation, and the man’s thick Irish brogue, but I acted like a total moron.

Annoyed Man: How long are you staying in Ireland?

Me: Ugh… May. But I’m leaving and then I’m coming back (that statement totally confused him. Come to think of it, it confuses me right now).

Annoyed Man: Have you ever been to Ireland before? We have no record of you.

Me: No. This is my first time in Europe.

Annoyed Man: Huh (with a “go-figure” attitude).

Annoyed Man: Where are you going to school?

Me: Taylor University.

Annoyed Man: No. Where in Ireland?

Me: Oh, well, it’s at the YWCA in Greystones… Coolnag—

Annoyed Man: Never heard of it.

Annoyed Man: What will you be studying?

Me: History. Literature. Irish Culture.

Annoyed Man: Oh, that’ll be a lot of heady stuff.

Me: Yeah, I’m really excited.

Annoyed Man: Yeah, I’ll bet.

So there’s a taste. I stumbled and fumbled so much I probably looked like an illegal immigrant or something. Ugh. Baggage claim was fine though. Everyone’s bags got off the plane!!! We met the Harbins a little before 8 a.m. and then Brian (our bus driver) took us out to Greystones. It was drizzling and, of course, everything is really green. A lot of the houses are pink though. That’s unique (whoa… just thought I’d throw in a random Kari-ism for the 3^rd South ladies).

The YWCA is SOOOOOOOOO different than what I expected. It’s right in town. I expected it to be in the middle of a field (kinda like TU), but no, there’s shops across the street and the harbor is a block away. So far, Ireland reminds me of Waimea more than anything in that it rains all the time and everything is green.

We got the grand tour of the YWCA campus, including the Main Lodge (where I live with the rest of the girls) and the Man House (which we are not allowed in ever again… fine with me). The Harbins have an apartment across the street, so we checked that out. It was SOOOOOOO excellent! It’s exactly the kind of place I’d want to live.

Then we went back to the Main Lodge and had tea and biscuits (cookies) and discussed how tired we were. After some needed sustenance, we got to work moving our bags to our rooms. It didn’t take me long to unpack.

We ate lunch and had a meeting and went to a walk around Greystones while it was pouring. We all got drenched and I missed my call from Cliff. I eventually got to talk to him, though, so everything is terrific now. :)

We’re basically orientating today-- lots of meetings and sitting around. Everyone is utterly exhausted, so we just stare at each other. It’s pretty pathetic.

The one sunshine in our lives is the new Y manager’s family. Jonathan and his wife Lisa just moved to Ireland from England three weeks ago and their two young sons (Joseph and Theo) are an absolute hoot. They entertained us for about an hour this afternoon.

I got to sleep about 9 p.m., wrapping up a long, emotional day.

By the way, they do get Scooby Doo in Ireland… just so you know.