And it begins...

At this point, I don’t know whether to feel scared, excited, nervous, or happy. I am sitting in the airport gate, waiting to board my plane (the first one, to Chicago from MSP, then on to Dublin). Packing was easier than expected, but I am sure that I have forgotten something (the only thing I can think of right now that I forgot was a water bottle, but there is bound to be more). I tried to keep a detailed list of what I packed where. All my shirts, pants, shorts, and other items I listed in a document that I color-coded to keep track of things. It started out being just a general packing list, but has since evolved. 

            I was informed that the switch at Chicago is going to be a bit more complicated. My plane flies into O’Hare at terminal 2, and I have to take a train (I am guessing it is like a light rail, but I am not sure) to terminal 5, where my flight leaves from, approximately 4 hours after we land. The only memories I have of O’Hare are…interesting, to say the least. We had a layover there on our way to France when I was 8, and I remember getting lost trying to find the food court, but my mom remembers the airlines just changing the gate so many times we were running all over the place. The other was with my high school drama club, on our way back from NYC. Our plane had been delayed there, so we missed our connection in Chicago. Since it was the airline’s fault, we were put up in the Crown Plaza at O’Hare and given a coach bus to drive back to Woodbury the next day. The only benefit in that situation is that we got to miss another day of school.

            At this point I am just anxious to go somewhere. I have been sitting here for almost 2 hours, and have about an hour until we leave. What is cool is that I think there is another girl who is studying abroad in Ireland sitting across from me. She is writing in a journal, which is what I am doing pretty much, just electronically, and wearing rain boots. Definitively studying abroad. There are two women sitting nearby who are also most likely going all the way through to Dublin as well. A mother and a young adult daughter, they are speaking with British accents (or at least the area, I am not familiar enough with the distinct accents yet to know for sure). It will be interesting to see how many more times I see these three people. I have made a note of what they look like.

            I have already gotten bored of reading my kindle (right now I am reading The Perk of Being a Wallflower-I usually like reading the books before seeing the movie, but I saw the movie first (even though I had the book, I couldn’t get into it). Once I got used to the writing style (it is pretty different), I started to like it better. It isn’t a long book, but I know the story since I already watched the movie. So far, the movie seems to follow the book really well. I would recommend it, it is poignant but so honest.

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            So I am writing this (or rather, typing) on the plane from Chicago to Dublin. My flight from MSP to Chicago was really short (only an hour). Two interesting things happened on it, though. The first, was the person I was sitting next to. I had noticed her in the airport at the gate, and noted that she had really skinny legs (they were VERY skinny). She had the window seat, and I had the aisle, and since I reached the row first, I stood to let her go past me. As I loaded my bag into the overhead compartment, she set hers on my seat while she sat down. I glanced at her bag, and it said “US Olympic Team” on it. I then looked at her more closely and noticed that her knit hat had the same logo, and in tiny print said the same thing. I sat down next to her, and asked her outright if she was a member of the Olympic team. Turns out, she was on the Paralympic team. Still cool, right? I thought so. She then pointed at her legs and I looked more closely. She was wearing skinny jeans and knee high boots, but sitting next to her I realized her legs were unnaturally skinny. Turns out she is a double amputee, on the US Paralympic rowing team. I never asked her name, but she was very nice and we made small talk for the first part of the flight.

            The second event: I confirmed that the before mentioned girl writing in her journal was, in fact, studying abroad in Ireland (not at the University of Limerick, but still fun).  Her name is Megan, and she is a senior at St. Norbert’s in Green Bay, but she is from Hudson. She is less experienced with flying than I am, which is saying something, so we made our way from terminal 3 to terminal 5 at O’Hare, went through security again (this one was way more intense, as it was at the international terminal; I overheard at least 3 other languages besides English as I waited in line). Making new friends is fun!

            I expected the layover to be the worst part of the trip, as it was 4 hours. Megan and I were the first ones to reach the gate (the TV monitors weren’t even turned on, but we didn’t have anything better to do). We sat around and chatted for about 45 minutes before other people started joining us at the gate. All around the same time, three young guys (college aged, all three) sat down across from us. Megan stepped out to make a phone call, and I asked two of them (they seemed to know each other, were friends) where they were studying. Turns out, they are both studying at UL! Not only that, they are staying in the same village as me (what UL calls dorms, but are more like a bunch of town homes, hence the “village”), Kilmurry Village. Both are sophomores, from Chicago, and go to school at, wait for it…St. Norbert’s. We live in a tiny, tiny world. The third kid, we later found out, is studying at the same school just outside Dublin as Megan. So many connections! Megan came back from her phone call with another girl, who is also studying at the same school as her, and she is from a small town in central Minnesota and goes to UMD. Needless to say, there was plenty to chat about in our little group, as others filled in the seats around us at the gate.

            This flight, through Aer Lingus, is very comfortable. There aren’t very many people on it (that, or this plane is huge, probably a combination of the two), so there aren’t very many people sitting directly next to each other. There are three sections, two, four, and two seats with aisles in between. I have a window seat, with an empty aisle seat right next to me. On the backs of the seats in front of us are personal TV monitors, touch screen navigating, and we can watch movies, TV shows, listen to music, play video games, follow the flight maps and look up flight information. All the flight attendants, and even the pilot, speak with really awesome Irish brogues (sp?). Turns out they serve dinner, which was really good, actually. I got pasta with sausage in it, there was a roll, a stick of cheese (I didn’t eat that), zucchini and tomatoes (I think, I didn’t eat that either, but it was cold), a little packet of crackers, and a brownie. I was only hungry enough to eat the pasta and the roll, but I saved the brownie for later. We are currently flying over the Gulf of St. Lawrence, between the Canadian mainland and Newfoundland, at an altitude of 36,999ft, and it is -56 F outside the plane. Just over 4 hours until Dublin!

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            Adventures, adventures! I am now on my 5^th (and final!) mode of transportation this trip (car, plane, light rail train, double decker bus, and now coach bus!). We are taking the more scenic route all the way across Ireland from Dublin to Limerick. When I say “we” I am referring to me and my two new friends, Sean and Jim (the two I met at the gate). We split off from Megan and went our separate ways! The biggest problem thus far is having to wait at the bus station for the current bus, at about 25 degrees it was much improved from the -25 windchill experienced in Minnesota, but still cold eventually. I feel very strange, as locally it is 10:15 AM, but back home on my time it is 4:15 AM. The day is just beginning.

            My first glimpse of Ireland was almost surreal. The timing was very interesting, it was about 7 AM local time, so the sun was rising. There was just the slightest hint of light in the distance, a pink, orange, yellow, light blue strip that hugged the dark land below and was surrounded by the deep navy of the night sky. Most of the land we saw it was still dark out. By the time we were fully landed and got through customs, it was full blown daytime. For this last two-hour leg, I popped in a movie: Sweet Home Alabama; got to go with a classic (mostly so I don’t have to pay attention to that, and instead look out the windows). The country is not as green as I was expecting, but that is due to the frost that is covering all the grass. We’ll see if that changes throughout the day.

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            All checked in (not settled yet, but in the house!). Turns out, they assign your house by when you arrive. New housemates= Jim and Sean. Final tidbit for you: to get to campus, we drove through “The Mackey Roundabout”, just outside Limerick. :)