Last 24 hours...

Well, I have finally made it to Ireland! The trip here wasn’t too bad and could have gone a  lot worse. My mom, brother, and his girlfriend took me to the airport in Chicago to see me off.  I had a little time to kill at the airport, so I  found a bookstore so I could purchase the Time Traveler’s Wife (so far..so good).  So my first flight was ok, but I arrived in Philadelphia at 10:20 and my next flight to London left at 10:40. So I had about 20 mins to get from the clear end of gate A to the way other side of gate C. So I ran..and ran..and ran. I got there in about 10 mins and thankfully the plane was still there and letting people on. But I was so sweaty and hot and just was dreading being on that plane for the next 6.5 hours. But I eventually relaxed and was able to cool down. I fortunately had an aisle seat  so I wouldn’t have to crawl over anyone but I still was not able to sleep very well since I had injured my back the day before and I just couldn’t get comfortable.

 The London airport almost seemed empty to me..not the craziness I had imagined. Going through immigration was easy and painless. No lines even. I had a 2.5 hour layover, so I purchased some time on my computer to get the Internet and was able to send out some emails.

 When getting my last boarding ticket to Cork, the lady asked me if I wanted a window or aisle seat. I was so happy she asked me this, so that I would be able to get a great view of Ireland coming in (hoping it wouldn’t be too foggy or cloudy landing).  This flight was only about an hour long and I slept for most of it. We slowly made our decent into Cork, and I was eagerly anticipating coming out from the clouds to get my first glimpse of the green land and hills. Here are some pics I took from the airplane. It was amazing! I finally felt like I was in Ireland.

I met the other ISU student, Lauren, at the airport and we shared a taxi to the youth hostel we will be staying at for 18 nights until our apartment is ready. It’s an ok hostel, but definitely something I will have to get used to and am happy it is only temporary. We have our own room and bathroom too which is nice. We took a walk into the city and got a few groceries, and I purchased a hair dryer and straighter. I can’t wait to start exploring more of this city!