These two days turned into one really really long day. My plane was scheduled to leve SEATAC at 11:20. So I had to get there at around 8:45. Mom and I went to go check in and we were standing at the new electronic kiosk check in's for a while just trying to work out how to scan my passport. I was holding it up to it, opening different pages and pushing it around the darn thing for a while with no satisfactory result. One guy was being helpfull and trying to tell me where to put it but it didn't work. So eventually one of the check-in people came over and he actually just signed me in himself which I was relieved about because I had no idea what i was doing.
So he checked me in then asked me to put my bags up on the scale so he could check them in. I had one chack bag, and I was also checking my guitar. I thought I was being really clever the night before by wrapping it in butcher paper and then taping it up tight with packing tape. This is because I didn't really trust the one little lock to hold the whole thing closed in all the transport. But as it happens, the man asked if I had loosened the strings before I put it into the case. I said no I had not, and why, does it really matter? He said well yes, because they might snap due to the pressure, or lack of it, or whatever, when it is in the luggage area on the plane. So I said well then I suppose I had better loosen the strings. He cut open the tape, my lovely clever packing idea, and I opened the case and began loosening. Once I had loosened them all he taped it all back up and was very funny and kind and then checked both bag and guitar.
I went off to have one last hour with mom at Starbucks. Then, after some tears, I went through security and was on the other side. Dum, dum, DUM! I went to Starbucks, got a water and a sandwitch. I used to water to take an airbourne, and the sandwitch I tucked away deep in my bag for future consumption J
I got on the first plane, no problem. Everybody was loaded in and ready to go. The plane began to move, to back up and turn around, and then…it stopped. The captain came on the overhead speakers and announced that it would be delayed 45 minutes, he didn’t say why. So we were sitting there for 45 minutes, and all the international connection people who had flights that left with less than an hour layover (like me) were getting very worried. Once we finally got going the captainsaid we should make it on time because the flight was actually shorter that it says it is on the tickets. And when we landed in Philidelphia it was 8:20, my flihgt started boarding at 8:20. So I had to race from the gate I was dropped at, A22, all the way down to A10, which may not seem like very long, and I though no surely it wouldn’t take that long, but no, it was a crosscountry marathon to get from A to B! And with 2 heavy backpacks on my back, one almost as big as me!
So I got on my plane with time to spare, only just. I sat all the way at the back in the middle seat of 3. A girl, slightly older than me sat on the isl (I think she was a dancer) and a boy of 16y sat to my right against the window. He was nice, his name was Gillen, and he goes to school in Georgia. Fun person to talk to, he is also travelling around Europe this summer, a fun trip it sounds like. But back to what happened. We were stuck on the tarmac again because of a plane line, they all wanted to leave at the same time, and we were 30th in line! Another hour or so waiting around in Philidelphia this time, then we were off, flying through the air for 6 hours and 45 minutes. Good conversation for a bit, no good movies. I read most of the time. Tried to sleep for some of it but I couldn’t. And then the sun began to rise. We landed in Doublin at 9:10, only 20 minutes after our scheduled time. I helped Gillen get through customs and the airport, because I have been there before, ha! I was a little smarty pant in the airport, I felt so important! It’s the little things in lifr, it really is.
And then I met up with Andrew at the exit, said goodbye to Gillen, and then I went back to Andrew’s. I took a shower and got the canned air out of my lungs. Then we went to a park which is actually closed till tomorrow for a cemetary something or other I think.
So then we went to the Hill of Tara which was nearby. I had gone over christmas when it was covered in snow so it was fun to go when the grass was tall and green. It was lovely with the tall swaying green grass, and the whole place which is really quite seizable, was covered in buttercups and daisys, and little low lying bly star flowers. It was like it was supporting the Irish colors! With the green yellow and white J I of course had to run and frolic through the knee-high grasses singing sound of music songs! It was lovely, just picturesque. The skyes were overcast today but it was warm enough for jeans and a tee-shirt.
We came back to his house after that because I was really feeing the jet lag setting in. So then I tried to unlock my phone, but it only served to annoy me because it was not working. No phone calls for me as of yet but I am working on it. Then I had dinner with Andrew, Matthew, and their mom. It was delicious, cabbage wioth potatoes and meat and gravy, yum!
So now I am sitting here writing this and watching a football match (or rather soccer).
I am going to go to bed around 8:30 or 9 after talking on skype with mom.
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