I am home, but before I go there, I need to recap the past few days...
The night I left Dublin was crazy and hectic and nothing worked out to plan (which is so like us) and there were people that went to bed (I wasn't one of them) and there were people who went out and stayed out (again, not one of them) and there were people who went out, stayed, had fun, then came home and still didn't sleep (that's me). Rachel, Nora and I went to the formal Gaiety Black and Red Gala at The Morgan Bar (which was crazy fancy and I totally didn't need to buy the 10 euro ticket I bought the day before) and we got all dressed up and looked beautiful and got there and saw Cathal. Brilliant. We decide that we want our picture taken with this man who all of us hope to never see again. We approach. We get side-tracked. James and David, Moe and Simon. Damn. Creeper with a camera from St. Mary's in the states (seriously, we were introduced because we were both from the states, but no one knows which St. Mary this man was from and I think there are at least 200) takes our picture. Slide past to discover that Cathal has slipped away. Talk for a while. Cathal has slipped back. He bought a drink for our friend Jane (who is 19 and he is at least 40 with a wife and two kids). We decide to sidetrack him for her benefit. Once in front of him, we discover that he is completely wasted. Cathal, the wu-chi master, relaxation king, flower-living, fairy dust eating caterpillar man that he is, is drunk. This makes our goal of getting our picture with him WAY easier. Ask James to take the picture. David joins our snapshot and James cuts my face in half. Way to go. The picture of a lifetime. The picture of MY lifetime (even though I'm only half in it). Rachel is whisked away by David to talk with creeper photo guy, Nora and I are left to engage in conversation with Cathal. He remembers that Nora is from Chicago and starts talking about the World's Fair. OK. Nora is from Chicago but not 120 years old. Nice. So he's gesticulating grandly, I'm trying to move out of the way of someone behind me, and his hand wildly slams into me. In an awkward place. Now, I'm leaving THIS conversation, Nora sees my retreating back and grabs Rachel and we all head to the front of the bar. We say our good-byes and decide to leave for another party. This one is hosted by EBS (where all the European kids are at) and we head out into the cold.
Still in our fancies and walking down Temple Bar's Fleet Street. We run into Charlotte and Hayfa and we chat with them before deciding that we're going to the Barge instead to say good-bye to all the IES Dundrum people before they have to leave for the Luas. This would prove to be a fatal mistake. Kind of. Anyway. We're at the Barge, dancing, having a few laughs and enjoying ourselves when we look at the time and realize that we better get back to Temple Bar for the EBS party before it ends at 2am. We walk outside, our companions are drunk. It takes us 1/2 hour to try to get everyone organized, and by this time Rachel and I realize that we would never make it back to Temple Bar in time, so we decide to stay where we are and get in touch with everyone later. Again, Fatal Mistake. 2:30 we decide to go home when Rachel realizes she doesn't have her phone anymore. We search for twenty minutes and it's nowhere to be found. A thoroughly pissed off Rachel, a slightly inebriated Kate and I all walk home along the Grand Canal one more time. We start to enter our terribly bare apartment when out of the corner of my eye I see Pete's blinds shoot up then down again. Curious, I walk down, followed by Kate and we discover that Mikah, Pete, Kenna and Cozy were waiting up to say good bye to everyone. Hurrah! I run back to the apartment to change (I'm still all fancy and made up) and to get Rachel (who was in the apartment) and go back. We walk in and Pete is playing a song on his guitar that I don't recognize. He starts singing. It's "Leaving on a Jet Plane" and I about flip a lid. YOU'RE GOING TO PLAY THAT NOW? Bad timing Pete, bad timing. Rachel, Kate and Cozy and I attempt to beat him up and steal his guitar, but alas, it doesn't work. He does, however, stop playing the song. Mikah is the first to go to bed, so we all say our good-byes and it's crazy sad. All of a sudden Francis, David and Mark walk through the door. Our Gaiety peeps. How cool?! So they hang out for a while, until Francis has to leave. We laughed had a lot of fantastic stories and then Nora came around 3:30 to say good-bye. That was horrifying. I was close to her, so she was the first that I really had to deal with. I love everyone on the Gaiety course, but she was uber cool and amazing and I really didn't want her to leave. It was hard. She caught the 4am AirCoach. Pete went to bed so he kicked all of us out and the party moved into my apartment. Katie V., Mark, Kate, Cozy, Kenna, Rachel, David and I all just chilled until Mark and David had to leave around 4:30 and Kate had to leave to go clean. Rachel and I raced around the apartment trying to figure out where everything was that we needed to catch the 5am bus ("where's the key? Where the F is my key? Shit! Oh. Pockets, right.") until we realized that the EBS kids hadn't come home yet. Stephanie was the one person we couldn't leave without saying good bye to, and who is the one person who doesn't come home on time like she promised? Yeah. Anyway, she got there in time to rush us off to the bus and to hurriedly say good-bye to Florian, Rachel and I. What a bus. Her closest friends in Ireland and they all leave in one bus. It was terrible. Everyone was crying with the exception of Nico, who was holding Steph back from getting on the bus with us, and saying "You come to Paris! You and Rashel come to Paris and stay with me, I will show you my home and the city!" Then there was Florian who was still drunk sticking his head between our seats and saying "ho ho ho" over and over and over again while grabbing our hands and saying "Don't cry girls, you will see her again." Oh what a scene.
I sat in Dublin airport after that horrible bus ride and call Val. To her horror (I'm sure) she hears "Val, I need you to convince me that I need to come home and that leaving is a good idea." I think I freaked her out. So, after a really long time waiting to check in, I walked slowly to my gate, ran into Cozy, laughed a little, cried a little, then waited in line with Lee who was crying a lot and laughing a little. We talked and waited, waited and talked before getting through American Customs (that's right, they make you do American customs in Dublin... I don't get it either...) I delivered Lee to Rachel and Megan Brindley (a girl in our Peace and Conflict Studies program with IES) and all three of them were on the same plane, which was cool. I waited by myself in the other gate before finding Awkward Matt (he was wearing blue scrubs and the same sweater as me... And we call him Awkward Matt, which should explain more than I could write in this space) who was sitting with his even MORE awkward friend named Rachel who he went to school with. Fun. I'm in the middle and it is AWKWARD. For all of you college students reading this, I'm doing an upside down awkward turtle right now, quickly followed by the awkward moose.
Plane was nice, I slept three times before we even got off the ground. The stewardess was strangely interested in my eating habits ("is that a chocolate muffin?" "yes, it's breakfast" "Well, that isn't a very healthy breakfast, didn't you have anything else?" "nope, I haven't eaten since 4pm yesterday, so this muffin looks awful good right now" "well, you don't have anything else? that's not a very big muffin..." "nope. But it looks really good right now, so I'm going to eat it...") Later, I pull out the sole chocolate bar that I brought home and munch on a square. You should have seen her face. Well? Don't criticize me when you don't give me any food! Anyway, I tried really hard not to cry on the plane. I succeeded, thank god. But getting off that plane and seeing Rachel's face waiting for me was the best thing I could have asked for. Knowing that I still had a piece of my journey was the best part of coming back to the states. It was only partially over.
We drive home with her Dad, Jeff (really really sweet) and get back to big balloons that say welcome home and a green, white and orange balloon to go with them. Rach immediately breaks out the suitcase and divvies up the souvenirs and, to my amazement, everything fit in that one little suitcase! We went out to Thai food and I met her middle sister, Melissa and her mom, Audrey. They all talk just like Rachel (with the exception of "obvi" and the shortened words that have been added to her vernacular) and say things like "Ma" and "Sneakers" and it makes me really happy. The next day is a relax day. We went out to lunch, they gave me a tour of their town and Rutgers University, then we made Pasta Ignazio for the fam and Rach and I headed over to Rutgers for the basketball game against UNC (the #1 college basketball team in the country... Did you see me on ESPN? I was the only one not in Rutger's Red or UNC blue... And sitting in the front row!!!) then off to a friends house to meet a couple of the kids Rach went to HPHS with. Adam really doesn't talk about anything else. And he also pretends to know Seattle. Funny kid.
Monday was New York.
HOLY COW I WAS IN NEW YORK CITY!!!!!!
Ok. So. Anyway. Railway ride into the city with Rachel and Melissa takes about 1/2 hour, walk from Penn station to Empire State Building takes 15 minutes. In those 15 minutes, we almost freeze everything off that isn't covered by wool. The line inside the building takes ages to get through. ***Side note: it's hailing here right now and it sounds like I have a tin roof. It's coming down so hard and fast that the streets are turning white. Welcome back to Seattle.*** The view from the top was stunning. Absolutely stunning. You could see for miles and miles and miles. New Jersey, Central Park, 5th Ave, Statue of Liberty, everything. Beautiful! A few bad self portraits and frozen fingers later, we're walking down some cool street looking for Time Square. And boy did we find it. Lights everywhere, people spinning like they're in a movie, beautiful women walking up and down dressed to be seen, Toys 'R' Us, Hersey's, MTV and Johnny's Pizzeria. I'm told the best pizza ever comes from this place, so the three of us sit down and partake in the best pizza ever made. Nothing special. :-) From there we walk toward Rockefeller Center to see the ice rink and the tree and NBC Studios. We toured the studios and Rachel got chills and couldn't get the smile off her face, while Melissa and I giggled at our own excitement. We got a few stares, but it was SO worth it! All the studios are being used as storage right now because of the strike, but you could still see everything, which was pretty cool. From there to 5th AVE and Central Park (it was getting dark so we didn't stay there for long) then back down 5th AVE to see the Saks Snowflakes (they light up to music if you stand there for long enough). From there, taxi to Union Square where we walked through a Christmas Market and caught a showing of Juno at the theatre. Very cute movie! I loved it and everyone should see it! From there back to Penn Station to collapse on the train and drive home to collapse into bed.
The next day we had a few hours, so we (Melissa and Rachel and I) went to a mall. Welcome back to America, here's Nordstrom and American Eagle! It was cool to be back though. Tastee Subs and iced tea for lunch then off to JFK.
Home. And I don't know what to do with myself. Dublin is so far away. Rachel and Pete and Cozy and Kate and everyone else are so far away. And everyone I left behind are still here and close by. I don't know how I feel right now. It's hard. But anyway, this is the end of my adventures in Dublin, Galway, Doolin, Trapani, Erice, Pisa, London, Belfast, Belfast, Giant's Causeway, Derry, Highland Park and New York City, and so the end of this blog. Thanks for reading those that did, it's been amazing having to write everything down and really remember it as it was and not as I might remember it in a year.
Ireland is probably the best country in the world, and Dublin is perhaps the best city in it.
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