Sitting in the Dublin Airport

Hello, My Dear Readers! (Whoever still reads this thing.)

It may seem as though I have been neglecting my blog. I just want to let you know that I have been.... although it's for good reason. I've been in Europe for the past two weeks! I can't believe how the quickly the time flew bye. Two weeks ago, I was arriving in Dublin and taking a four hour bus ride to Rosscarbery,  Ireland. It is here where I hope to summarize my adventures in Ireland and Rome and hopefully you enjoy reading them (almost) as much as I enjoyed the actual experience.

As referred to above, I spent my first week of the trip in Ireland. It was there that I finished up a course on Global Ireland. Our assignment was to choose six specific topics and talk to the people about those topics. We then were to proceed handwriting a thirty-page journal about what we learned from the locals. Two issues here:

• First off, I really dislike talking to strangers. It terrifies me and I was terrified for probably the first three days. But there were pages to fill and how was I to fill those pages without talking to anyone. So I took a deep breath, said a brief prayer, and approached the young woman in the tourist office. She was actually very nice and told me lots of things about each topic. What should have been a two minute sales transaction turned into about a half an hour.
• The second issue was the fact that I had seemed to pick a normal size spiral notebook in which to write my thirty pages. Practically every single other student had brought composition notebooks which happen to be much smaller in size. Further, my handwriting tends to be rather small. After accusing the others of cheating, I somehow managed to fill my assigned thirty pages with solid information, rather proud of the fact that I had written more than the rest of everybody. 

Note: I did talk to more than one person on the trip.

I did a lot of walking and adventuring throughout the rural sections of Ireland. It was extraordinarily scenic and wonderful to experience cooler weather. I will provide an account of my second favorite adventure during my stay in "Ross" (as the locals call it).

I believe it was my second to last day in Ireland or my last (I think it was the latter), and myself, two fellow students, and the sister of one of those students decided to go for a nice walk along the coast. It was quite lovely and we made our way off the paved path a few times to explore the shore, tidepools, and climb some craggy rocks. (Just a side note: Flat stones along the coast in Ireland and it is a rather delightful thing to watch them skip along the surface of the water.) Opposite the shore, on the other side of the path, there are tall grassy slopes which lead one further and even closer to a more scenic view of the ocean. We took these unknown slopes and soon found ourselves on narrow paths, walking through mud and thorny brambles. However, we were determined to find an unknown scenic resting place, so we continued on our journey. We finally made it to some cliffs, took pictures, and sat to rest. We chatted with one another, discussed a variety of things ranging from utterly ridiculous to fairly serious. 

Before we knew it, the day was coming to an end and we wanted to make it back before dark. Somehow, the group of four was separated evenly in two and we took separate paths. I was slightly behind my fellow student's sister and as I was pondering my route under the twisted barbed wire, when my footwent through the bank. My right leg sank into the mud just above my knee. I was stuck. The mud felt like a suction, holding on to the new tread of my boot. I needed my boot to stay on my foot and I knew that if I pulled out only my foot, I would never be able to pull my boot out of the mud. Fellow student's sister called to the other's for help, but they were out of earshot, so I knew it was up to me. I tensed my foot in my boot and wriggled around, felt it loosen, and entwined my fingers in grass. 1-2-3 HEAVE! I pulled my leg out, boot and all. 

We caught up with the others and I enjoyed entertaining them with my tale. Needless to say the rest of the trip back was uneventful, except for the fact that my right leg was rather heavy, due to the fact that it was caked with mud.

And so I come to the end of my adventure. I have been writing this post for the past hour or so while sitting in the Dublin airport, waiting for my next flight. (Hence, the title of this post.) Since so much has already been told and I do not want to bore anyone, we will leave my most favorite adventure in Ireland for another time and another day. As for my adventures in Rome, I can assure you all that they are quite plentiful and soon to come as well. I promise as well as hope to write again soon!

May the Lord pour his blessings out in abundance upon you!

Ciao!

A.K.C.A.L.