The Opinionated Lassie: The Journey and Day 1

After many days of waiting, planning, and anxious anticipation, the day finally came for me to depart for Ireland and begin my year abroad! My itinerary, if all proceeds as planned, will include studies this semester in Cork, returning home to Kansas for winter break, and returning to Ireland second semester for studies in Dublin. Two days ago - broadly speaking, as with the time change 6 hours of my life never happened - was the first day of the first part of my itinerary as I began my travels to the Emerald Isle.

Leaving for Ireland!

My first flight was to Chicago and I was lucky enough to be in the front row, had nobody sitting next to me, and the flight attendant was very cheery and nice. After only an hour and a half I landed and was quickly off to catch my other flight.

Generally speaking, I dislike long layovers. They seem like a waste of one's day and airports can only entertain me for so long. However at any given time, I would much rather take a long boring layover to one where I am running around like an idiot, asking every security guard for directions, and having just over one hour to change terminals, print new boarding passes, spend thirty minutes in security, and having no spare time to blink let alone eat a meal. This layover, unfortunately, was the latter.

However, I did make it! I arrived to the gate as my section was boarding, and was happily seated in the very last row, in a relatively nice airplane, with again no one in the seat next to me, and convenient bathroom access (until I realized that the only bathrooms were toward the middle of the aircraft).

I had my own little television screen and contently watched Living the Tradition, a documentary about the history of Irish airs. I ate a plane/plain chicken meal for dinner and watched a bit of Divergent before dosing off.

When I woke up I finally spoke to the nearest person sitting next to me. He was from Pittsburgh, PA, and was in route to Scotland where his 8 week cycling tour would commence. I never actually learned his name but he was quite amiable.

After an oh-my-gosh-the-airport-wifi-won't-work scare, I made my way outside where my cousin was kindly waiting to retrieve me. I, of course, went to the wrong side of the car and after being directed to the correct side's passenger door, spent the rest of the ride home thinking we were turning into oncoming traffic (as they drive on the left which just isn't right).

Once we arrived to her family's house, we got some food, and some tea, and visited the bucolic Powerscourt Estate for a delicious lunch of chicken and sun-dried tomato Ceasar salad. Later we drove a bit more around the city - seeing the college I will attend second semester - and ended at the very large and modern Dundrum Town Center which included a lot of cool shops, a STARBUCKS (thank goodness!), and a Penney's (not the same as JCPenney's) where I will buy many items (as it is very trendy and affordable) throughout this journey.
After more tea and chicken curry for dinner, I settled in to my comfy bed.