Memorable Moments at Every Turn

Why do I like my job? Well aside from providing a way to live in Spain and earn some money, there are also the special moments that make all the repetition of basic English phrases worth it. This past week one of my favorite little second graders, Marcos, came in to talk English with me. He is super sweet and also pretty advanced for his age with English so I always look forward to working with him. Anyway, he came and in and answered all my questions quite well and the last question I usually ask the students is “Have you got any questions for me?” to which he came close and whispered  “Te quiero”. Okay so that wasn’t a question, but it was definitely a heart-melting moment for me. And for anyone wondering, “Te quiero” is “I love you”. He’s just the sweetest little kid and if I could, I’d adopt him. All I can say is that it’s gonna be awfully difficult to say goodbye to these students when the time comes. After working with them and getting to know them, I find myself wondering what the future holds for them. They have so much potential and it will be tough not to be around to see what’s down the road for them. Goodbyes are never fun, but it’s just so much worse when the goodbyes are for certain, permanent. But this wasn’t supposed to be a sad paragraph. I just wanted to share how precious these kids can be and I’ll definitely treasure the memories I take away from this experience.

Speaking of goodbyes, Cecilia left on Sunday. We tried to do a few things together before it came time to bid farewell. We went to an Italian pizza place and each got “individual” pizzas that seemed a little bit too large for an individual. It felt like Milan all over again. Not that I minded at all. The part that differed from our Italian pizza experience was the price. It was much more affordable in Murcia than in Milan, and what was a more than ten euro meal in Italy was only a little over five euro in Spain. Later in the week Cecilia made a lovely supper for me, two guys from Britain (Jonny and James) and Clement from France. It was sort of strange to have people over and not have another language besides English spoken. Usually our dinners involve more French-speaking people, so there’s a mix of French, Spanish and English in order for everyone to fully communicate. But aside from being sort of strange only speaking English, it was a pleasant evening. The day before Cecilia left we went out for tea together. She had a cold and I was quickly following down the same path so tea was just what we needed. Then before I knew it I was bidding farewell to a great flatmate and friend. While it was sad to see her go, I’m grateful that I got to know her and my other flatmates from last semester. We had some good times together and that’s what counts.

with Cecilia at the Italian pizza place

Okay now for some events of the past week that weren’t school or goodbye related. This past Wednesday, I was invited to have lunch with Tania and Sandra (Tania’s flatmate). We had arroz cubano, which was a dish of rice, egg and fried banana. The combination resulted in an unusual but pleasant flavor. Then I hung out with Tania awhile and later in the evening I had an English conversation with Sandra, who had spent six months in London and wanted to see if she still had a sufficient grasp on the language. She’s hoping to improve her English skills in order to get a job as a nurse in a private hospital. I think she did very well for not having spoken or studied English in awhile and we were able to understand each other without a problem.

On Saturday I went to the weekly talk and supper at the club (location of Opus Dei organization). This week we had breakfast for supper. Nutella sandwiches, toast with cheese, crepes, donuts and banana milkshakes made up the meal. Definitely an impressive and filling breakfast/supper. Then in honor of Paula (one of the members) who’s birthday was in a couple days, we watched a funny video that we all helped create. Tania deserves all the credit for the video. She found a ton of random funny clips off the internet and in between these she had clips of us wishing Paula a happy birthday. But they weren’t normal clips of us. She used the video settings to distort our faces (I looked like an alien) and distort our voices (really deep or really high). In my clip I sang the Happy Birthday song in an incredibly deep voice. Overall the whole combined video was more than forty minutes long and had us laughing the whole time. 

On Sunday I went hiking with four members of the Opus Dei club (Tania, Lina, María Jose and Uge) and Uge’s friend Nuria. We went to an area known as Calblanque. It had small mountains (more like really huge hills) and was right up against the Mediterranean Sea. Needless to say the scenery was breathtaking, especially when we were at the top of one of the hills. However, I could have definitely been more in shape than I was for the hike. I started feeling faint (mixture of being out of shape, hot, and maybe hungry/thirsty), so I ended up taking a siesta on the peak of one of the giant hills. Tania, nice person that she is, kept me company rather than continuing on with the others. We had a grand time lying in the sun and eating lunch and just taking it easy. Thank goodness we stayed back, because when the others finally returned for the journey back to our starting point, we ended up getting lost and I would have died from exhaustion if I hadn’t had a nice long break in between. Like literally I would have died.The path back wasn’t marked all that well, so we ended up taking this trail up one of the steepest hills and pretty soon realized we’d never been that way before. Then the path stopped and we tried to at least move in the right direction to get back but that involved us dealing with the steepest/roughest climbing of the whole day. We almost thought we were gonna be stuck out there over night because it was close to sunset and we got to the last hill and realized it was way to steep to try to go down. We started to turn back, but then Uge decided we should go a little further to see the other side of the hill. Thank goodness we did or who knows how different this story would have turned out.  It was much more gradual on the other side and actually even had a path. Needless to say, we were all super relieved to be on level ground and heading in the direction of the vehicles. And just before sunset! After that experience, as much as I love the beauty of mountains, I found myself thinking that the flatness of Nebraska is quite a wonderful thing. Let’s just say I’ve had my fill of hiking for a while. It was most certainly a memorable experience!

 Tania and I (photo courtesy of Maria Jose)

 Journeying upward (photo-Nuria)

 Still going up (photo-Tania)

 Gorgeous view

One side of the view from the siesta spot 

A New Year and New Friends

Let’s see. What to write about? Well school is back in session (since January 7th) and it’s going well. I’m doing the same stuff I did last semester, work individually with the students, and it’s fine. We did change it up a bit for this past Thursday because January 30th is el día de la paz (Peace day) and so I helped the students put up decorations for this. They had already made in previous classes, tons of cut-out colored paper hands, so we put some as grass, and made some into flowers and placed them on the walls. With one class we made a tree for the wall by braiding three rolled pieces of giant brown paper and then putting the green hands for leaves. In order to incorporate English into this, the students weren’t allowed to talk at all in Spanish (though most slipped a bit in) and I would ask them what things we were using were called in English. I must say it is always refreshing to do something different once in a while. 

I started back up with my lessons with the two little girls (María del Mar and Rosa) in the afternoons Tuesday and Thursday. They seemed excited to see me again and had fun telling me (and showing me) what presents they’d received from Santa Claus and the three Kings. 

I went to the health center that is assigned to me based on where I live, not because I was sick, but to obtain a health card so I’m prepared in case I do become ill. Better safe than sorry. I wanted to do this in October, but I’d emailed the program coordinators to find out my social security number, which I needed for the health card, and I didn’t receive it until I’d returned from Christmas break. Now the program coordinators aren’t actually to blame because it turns out they’d mailed the number to me back at the beginning of October but the problem was they mailed it to me at my school in Mula. For whatever reason, my school didn’t get around to giving it to me till January, and I wouldn’t have known to ask them for it because I didn’t think it was going to come through them. The good thing is that I didn’t need it before now. So I went to the center, showed them all the necessary documents and received a temporary health card. I guess my actual card won’t come for three months, so I’ll barely have a need for it at that point, but the temporary one will work just fine. 

Oh and this is kind of big news. I have a new flatmate! Her name is Ismehen and she is from Tunisia, a little country in North Africa. She speaks Arabic and French fluently (the two languages of her country) and a little bit of English. She is here in Murcia for the last year of her doctorate in Biology. Since she is doing all her studies/research here in English, she doesn’t need to know Spanish, so that’s kind of a bummer for practice purposes in the flat. But she is really nice and I’m sure we’ll get along just fine. 

The best thing that’s happened since I’ve returned to Spain for second semester is that I’ve made a wonderful new friend. Before anyone gets excited, it’s not a guy. Her name is Tania and she introduced me to an organization known as Opus Dei. I’d heard of it, but didn’t really know all that much about what sort of activities they did. Well Tania invited me to come to their Saturday night program, which consisted of a talk given by a priest, then supper and since one of the ladies had a birthday, we played Just Dance on the Wii at her request. I’m not a good dancer. I definitely lack the coordination necessary to dance. Needless to say, my attempts were horrible, and I came away with the record for lowest score of the night. But aside from my dance fail, I had an amazing time. It is an only women group, (there’s a separate men’s group) and the age range was from college students to some who were mothers of college students. Let me just say that the older women tended to ace Just Dance. Everyone was super nice and I felt right at home. If I hadn’t felt so at ease, there would have been no way I would have willingly humiliated myself in front of them by attempting to dance. The great thing is that although some speak English in the group, not all do, so we had to speak in Spanish so everyone knew what was going on. Thanks to the invite from Tania, I met a lot of other great and like-minded people, and had an amazing evening full of Spanish and laughter. 

I’ve since met up with Tania for lunch and she showed me a video about people from countries all over the world explaining the impact Opus Dei and its mission have had in their lives. The mission is essentially to sanctify every part of one’s life. We can have fun and still be living for Christ. When we are going through a tough time, we can make the most of it by offering it up. Most importantly, we need to make love the driving force in our lives. You don’t have to be Catholic to participate in this mission. The founder, St. Josemaría Escriva, known as the saint of ordinary life, believed that Christians could go out and change the world by coming together in this mission. I personally think it’s a great organization and am so glad to have an opportunity to get to know a bunch of really great Spaniards through it.

This past Saturday was my second time going to their Saturday evening event. It always begins with the talk, then supper and a fun activity. This time I was in charge of the activity: showing pictures of the US and more specifically, Nebraska and answering questions. When I had first told Tania I was from Nebraska, she misunderstood me and told people I was from New York. Then after I’d corrected that misunderstanding, someone asked me if it was near Alaska. No, not exactly. So I was more than happy to give a little informal presentation and they really seemed to enjoy it. After I’d finished, everyone was saying that now that they know a lot about Nebraska, that’s where they’re gonna visit if they ever go to the US. Yes! Maybe the word will spread and we’ll suddenly have a booming tourism industry in Nebraska. Okay, so probably not. But I was proud to have cleared up the question of where Nebraska is located in the US at least. Well that's it for now!

Visit to the Emerald Isle

On New Year’s Day I bid farewell to Nebraska and began the three flight trip to Ireland. It started off stressful when my flight to Chicago was delayed twenty minutes and I only had an hour layover in Chicago to begin with. Then, once we landed, our gate was being used by another plane so we had to wait on the plane for close to a half hour before a new gate opened up. As we were waiting to leave the plane I told the flight attendant I needed to catch the London flight that had already been boarding for ten minutes by this point. She said that I should make it, but I’d have to run and run I did. I got to the gate breathless but before it closed anyway and then it was smooth sailing, make that flying, to London. At Heathrow Airport I had plenty of time to get to my gate for Dublin (quite a pleasant change) and before I knew it I was in Dublin and on a bus heading to the city centre. Once at my hotel, The Charles Stewart Bed & Breakfast, which was just off O’Connell Street, the main street in the city centre, it wasn’t long before I called it a night so that I’d be able to make the most of the following full three days in Ireland. 

Chicago

The next day, Saturday, I spent exploring parts of Dublin that I hadn’t visited when I was there two and a half years earlier. I strolled across the bridge over the River Liffey to the area next to Trinity College.The first thing on the agenda was coffee, so I stopped into one of the many Starbucks in the city and with coffee in hand, made my way to St. Stephen’s Green. St. Stephen’s Green is a nice little park not far from the city centre and it has a little lake in the middle full of ducks, seagulls, swans and at least one heron. I walked from one end to the other of the park taking a good quantity of pictures, mostly of the beautiful swans, before deciding to warm up inside the huge shopping center right next door. I didn’t buy anything, but had a fun time walking around and enjoying the sights. It was a really cool mall with a glass roof and neat decorations. It seemed vaguely familiar so I may have been inside it on my previous visit to Ireland, but I wouldn’t swear on that. My next stop was the Dublin Castle which was about to close, so I didn’t go in but took some pictures of the impressive structure and courtyard. After the castle, I headed to the famous Temple Bar area of the city, right near the river, in search of somewhere appealing to get a good traditional Irish supper. I settled on a place called Gallagher’s Boxty House and ordered a corned beef and cabbage boxty. A boxty, I learned, is a potato pancake and really folks, can you get anymore Irish than that? I think not. After the delicious and filling meal I made my way back to the hotel to crash early for the night since I was still feeling some effects of jet lag.

 Swans in St. Stephen's Green

 Cool mall

 Dublin Castle

Corned beef and cabbage boxty

The next day, being Sunday, I went to Mass at St. Mary’s Pro-Cathedral and then after another visit to Starbucks, I went on a half day tour to Wicklow County. Only one other person signed up for the tour, a lady from Germany, but our awesome tour guide/driver, Damien, didn’t let that stop him from giving an incredible tour. He was so informative and throughout the whole drive (through the city of Dublin and down south throughout the neighboring county) he told us all sorts of interesting facts. For example, as we were driving past Trinity College, he told us how just a few days before, three Vikings were dug up from the street right outside the school. Dublin used to be a Viking city (they gave it its name) so apparently it isn’t too strange of an occurrence to uncover Vikings’ remains. The reason for the digging up of the streets in Dublin is that the tram system that was removed from the city in past decades, is being revived and preparation for the path throughout the city is currently in the works. Then Damien told us how he believes there is a very high possibility those Vikings had been at some point to the Brazen Head Pub (right next to the River Liffey), the oldest pub in Ireland, which has been open since the 12th century and has remained open to this day. Kind of crazy to think that a place the Vikings were frequenting in their leisure time is still standing and open for business as usual in this day and age.

We left the city behind and our first stop in County Wicklow was to Lough Tay. Lough Tay is a glacial lake and from our viewpoint in the Wicklow Mountains it was a breathtaking scene. Lough Tay is also known as Guinness Lake because it borders the Guinness family property and as Damien said, “it’s tall, dark, and black with a white frothy top, just like a pint of Guinness”. Apparently the white sand was imported by the Guinness family just for the purpose of creating the appearance of white foam. The efforts some people will go to; but then again I’m sure they could afford it. After taking some pictures and admiring the view for about fifteen minutes (it was one of the areas where Braveheart and P.S. I Love You were filmed) I was ready to escape the freezing wind and return to the warmth of the van. As we were driving away, Damien pointed out a bed and breakfast down in the valley right next to Lough Tay that is only twenty-five euros a night. Apparently it is a favorite place for him and his wife, particularly because there is no cell reception down there so they can escape from the world, or more importantly, from their three boys. Honestly, it would be super cool to spend a few days there, surrounded by such beauty and for such a small cost. 

Wicklow Mountains 

Guinness Lake

Our next stop was Glendalough, located within Wicklow Mountains National Park, and the site of an ancient monastic city that was founded in the sixth century. Damien gave us a quick walking tour and pointed out some interesting facts before leaving us to explore more on our own. One really noticeable part of the monastic city was the tower which stands tall above all the other structures and used to have a bell that would ring to announce religious services. The door into the tower is fifteen feet above the ground and according to Damien this was solely due to the fact that if the door was at ground level the building wouldn’t be able to support itself and would collapse. There were some interesting trees that weren’t too much taller than people and apparently it takes hundreds of years for them to get to their present height. Also Damien told us that they have great medicinal purposes. We went inside the cathedral (which was about the size of a chapel) and the roof was completely gone. This was thanks to the Vikings who set fire to the church and the roof, not being of stone, was destroyed. Our guide pointed out, “you only catch the Irish with a problem once, then they are prepared for it the next time around.” So the next church built by the monks had a roof of stone, and stands to this day. Since the monastic city was also the location of a cemetery, I saw lots and lots of celtic crosses for tombstones. However, the oldest tombstones in the cemetery were hardly even recognizable as such and Damien pointed out one of these stones, remarking that I was standing right above the head. Nice. We saw some tombstones that were of people who lived into their hundreds. An impressive feat for back in the 1600s and 1700s when life expectancy was significantly lower. 

Monastic City

Once we were left to explore on our own, I headed out of the monastic city and followed a trail around the lakes. Our guide suggested we walk along that specific trail and then when it connected with the road, take the road back to the monastic city. So that’s what I did. It was really beautiful scenery, (that’s Ireland for you), and as I was walking I passed a bunch of bushes with yellow flowers known as gorse. We had seen some gorse earlier when driving and Damien said that it only blooms once a year in April and May, so no one knows why it’s suddenly switching things up and blooming in January. The question is whether it will bloom for a second time in April/May or be done for the year. Strange. It was pretty cold so I walked at a brisk pace but overall it was a very pleasant walk with a nice view of the lake and hills. As I was turning onto the road to head back, there were some sheep in the yard across from me, so I had to snap a couple photos. 

 View while walking the trail

 Gorse

 It's just so green!

Hello!

Back in the van, we drove through one of the smallest towns in Ireland. It hasn’t got a single pub, a clear sign that it’s really small. I don’t remember the name of the town (it was in County Wicklow) but it is where actor Daniel Day Lewis lives. Apparently Damien says you can see him all the time out riding his bike or in the local cafe. Some other famous people who live in Wicklow County are Enya (who lives in a castle) and Bono from U2. As we were driving through the countryside, Damien pointed to a hill and said over there one of Ireland’s presidents is buried. He explained how presidents aren’t seen as any different from anyone else in Ireland, so they aren’t buried in some special place, but rather back in the county where they are from. We eventually arrived back in Dublin and the tour came to an end. It was one of the best tours I’ve ever been on and I’d highly recommend Day Tours Unplugged to anyone who is coming to Ireland and wants to take a small group tour. The guide was awesome and I had such a great time that I was bummed when it was over. 

The next day I was up bright and early, uh make that dark and early. I had to get to the Northern Ireland tour meeting place by 6:20am and it was a twenty minute walk from my hotel. We were a small group (eleven ladies and the driver/guide) and five of us were solo travelers, so I didn’t feel so alone. Once on the road, it was still pitch black out and I was having a hard time keeping my eyes open, so I was grateful that our guide/driver said he’d let us sleep and wouldn’t talk till we reached the border. At the border we stopped at a gas station where I took out some pounds sterling from the ATM and got a coffee and pastry for the road. We drove past Belfast and didn’t stop again until the Glens of Antrim. The Glens are valleys along the Atlantic coast in County Antrim of Northern Ireland and each Glen has its own little village. We stopped for a half hour break in the Glen known as Glencoy and visited the village Carnlough. It was a cute little fishing town and with the green hills surrounding it and quaint little houses, it was exactly the kind of place you’d expect to see in Ireland. I walked over to a little park/lookout next to the water and took some photos before heading back to the bus.

 Carnlough

It sure is green

During our drives through the Glens we were on a coastal road that was known to quite often have parts of the road fall off into the ocean, mostly during storms. There was a small border of rocks separating the road from the ocean below and our guide informed us that all the white rocks were from recently repaired collapses, and let me tell you there were a significant number of white rocks throughout our journey. One time our guide had another tour group with him and the road collapsed right in from of them. Yikes. All I can say is thank goodness we went on a storm free day. 

We eventually left the coast and Glens behind and went up into the moorlands. I was at first confused when the driver said “some of the local ladies are crossing the road in front of us”. One look out the window and I knew the “ladies” he was referring to were some sheep that had gone astray. The driver then told us that pretty soon the sheep will be giving birth and this particular breed normally has twins. Also the wool from Irish sheep is too coarse for clothing so it’s either used in construction or something similar. Clothing that is from wool and says made in Ireland, was made in Ireland, but from wool imported mainly from Spain and another country I can’t remember, that have drier climates. I think it’s kind of funny how in every souvenir store in Ireland there are tons of wool products and items with sheep on them, but the wool isn’t even their own. This was news to me. 

It's blurry, but these are the "local ladies"

I think the most beautiful stop of the day was the next stop on our journey: Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge and Carrick Island. It had a bunch of cliffs overlooking the ocean and it was just all around breathtaking. Once the driver let us out and gave us a ticket for crossing the rope bridge we all began the twenty minute jaunt to said bridge. I stopped to take some pictures of Sheep Island, a small island that our driver said there’s enough grass for ten sheep to survive on, but with only nine they’d get nice and fat and with eleven, they’d all eventually starve to death. However, no sheep are allowed on Sheep Island because it has become a protected bird habitat. As I walked to the bridge I got to know Kimberly from Canada. She’s a geologist which has taken her to all sorts of cool places: British Columbia, Australia, and Iceland among others. The reason she was in Ireland was two of her geologist friends she’d met in Australia (one from Australia and the other from Ireland) were getting married and she was doing some sightseeing before going to the wedding in Galway. So we chatted and took pictures and admired the gorgeous scenery. Then we arrived at the big attraction: the rope bridge! We turned in our tickets to the guardian of the gate and braved the bridge. Really it was a fun experience and I’m not afraid of heights so I didn’t have a problem with it. Now if heights or swaying rope bridges aren’t your idea of fun then it would probably be best to enjoy it from afar, but overall it felt pretty safe. Once on Carrick Island we snapped more pictures before heading back across the bridge. 

 Sheep less Sheep Island

 Braving the rope bridge

 On Carrick Island

A view of the bridge and island from afar

The next stop of the day was to the famous Giant’s Causeway. Basically the Giant’s Causeway consists of tons of hexagonal basalt (volcanic rock) from millions of years ago. However, the more fun Irish legend is about how the giant, Finn McCool, built the causeway to get over to Scotland in order to challenge a Scottish giant to see who was the best. Finn crossed over, saw how large the other giant was and booked it back home. The Scot followed after him but Finn’s wife had him lie down with a blanket and bonnet and when the Scot arrived she said “shh, you’ll wake the baby”. The Scot thought if that was how big the baby was, he didn’t want to see the father and raced back over to Scotland, tearing up the causeway as he went. And the remnants of that causeway are now a World Heritage Site. It was drizzling during the time spent wandering around on the basalt, but it wasn’t enough to actually be a nuisance and being that I was in Ireland, it could have been much worse. I was still hanging out with Kimberly from Canada while exploring the causeway and then our party got even larger with the inclusion of Mariana from Mexico. It was quite a moment when we realized we had the whole of North America covered between the three of us. Then the moment passed and we decided to go eat lunch together at the hotel next to the visitors’ center. There wasn’t much time for lunch since we had to be back at the bus about thirty minutes after we’d sat down in the hotel restaurant, so I ordered the Irish stew since it was already ready to go. Plus I just love Irish stew and let's be real, I'd probably have ordered it anyway, regardless of a rush. 

 Giant's Causeway

Back on the road, we made a quick stop to take pictures of Dunluce Castle. This castle was the inspiration for Cair Paravel from Narnia and was apparently used in some of the filming for Game of Thrones but with digital enhancements to make it look completely restored. As far as comparing it to Cair Paravel, I couldn’t really see the similarities, (at least to the movie version of the castle), except for they are both right beside the sea. And I’ve never seen the other show so I couldn’t say how much it looked like the version in the show. Some of the history behind Dunluce is that after two families fought for control of it, the McDonnell clan came out the victors. Then, 500 years ago, part of the castle broke off into the sea and the family moved away. It has been uninhabited ever since. The interesting thing is that the home the McDonnell’s moved to has never been discovered, not even a slight little ruin has been found. Yet the castle that had started crumbling into the sea back when they lived there, (while not in the greatest shape) is still standing today. 

Dunluce Castle

Finally, our last stop of the day was to the city of Belfast. A few short decades ago, it was not the safest place to be, but all that’s changed now and harmony between Protestants and Catholics has been restored. We only had an hour in the city, so I spent that time trying to see all the things our driver recommended. First stop was Belfast’s City Hall, which was an enormous and beautiful building. I wandered around inside for a little bit, reading memorial plaques and admiring the marble halls. Then it was off to The Crown Liquor Saloon, which is one of the oldest pubs in Northern Ireland and is renowned for its impressive interior decoration, so much so that was purchased by the UK’s National Trust as an important landmark. After a quick look, I headed back out and just across the street was Hotel Europa. We had passed it earlier in the day and our driver told us that it was known as “the most bombed hotel in the world”, yet the hotel takes great pride in saying that they were usually open for business the next day. I looked the hotel up and apparently during the troubles of the 1970s and 80s it had a total of twenty-eight bombings. Yikes! I left the hotel behind and went to St. Anne’s Cathedral. It was pretty dark by this time so sadly my pictures didn’t come out all that well. I didn’t go inside but there were two really notable things on the outside of the church. One side of the building had a gigantic celtic cross, which according to our driver, was the biggest one in all of Ireland. The other interesting thing was the needle-like spire on the top of the building. It was added to the the cathedral after the 9/11 attacks in the US to represent a beacon of hope for the world. I thought that was kinda neat. 

 Belfast City Hall

St. Anne's Cathedral

Before I knew it, I was getting dropped off back in Dublin and my long but awesome, thirteen hour tour, came to an end. The next day I was at the airport early and by 9am my stay in Ireland was over and I was on my way to Alicante, Spain. Once in Alicante, I caught a bus to Murcia and made it to the flat by early afternoon. I had a great time both at home and in Ireland, but it is nice to have all that traveling behind me and also nice to finally stop living out of a suitcase. I can’t resist, so I leave you with this little Irish wish. 

May the luck of the Irish

Lead to happiest heights

And the highway you travel

Be lined with green lights.

Home for the Holidays: The Journey

Thanks to my amazing sister’s generosity, I was able to go home for the holidays. I decided if I flew out of Dublin and returned through Dublin I could get tickets a little bit cheaper. Also I’m always looking for an excuse to visit the beautiful Emerald Isle. My plan was to spend three days in Ireland on my return journey. Talk about an amazing country. However, due to flying from Ireland, my overall trip became a lot more complicated. This was how it went. I took a taxi at 2:40am Sunday, December 21st, to Murcia’s bus station where I switched to a bus to Alicante. I arrived at the Alicante bus station at 4:45am and while waiting to catch the bus to the airport, I made friends with some other travelers also awaiting the bus: Michela, a student from Milan, Italy and an older man, Elmis, from Turin, Italy. We stood out in the frigid cold next to the bus stop for close to an hour before the realization hit that just maybe a bus was never coming. So we decided to split a taxi three ways and that ending up being about five euros per person. If we’d known it was gonna be that cheap we would have just done the taxi straightaway. It was nice having people to share a taxi with though and they were both really nice. At the airport I bid goodbye and Merry Christmas to my comrades from Italy and we all went our separate ways. However, after getting through security (and me having a terrifying moment of panic when I misplaced my ticket momentarily), I ran into Elmis again and we chatted for about a half hour while waiting for our boarding gates to show up on the screens. He told me about how he has been to pretty much every country in Europe, and lived and worked in Germany, Africa and eleven years in Spain. He speaks Spanish, Italian, French and German fluently, but never learned English since he never worked in an English-speaking country, although he’s been to the U.S. a few times on visits. I’d say four languages is quite an accomplishment. I’d be happy with just three (English, Spanish and someday hopefully French). It was cool getting to know someone from Italy a little bit and it was an enjoyable way to pass the time. We said goodbye for a second time and I headed to my boarding gate. 

The flight to Madrid was delayed by twenty minutes, and I was already nervous about making my connection to Dublin with only an hour and ten minutes in between flights. It was a mad rush to catch a train from the satellite terminal to the terminal where my flight departed and then I had to go through security all over again as well as passport control. And of course my boarding gate was the absolute furthest possible distance it could be. I did make it on time, but just barely, and it was exhausting. Then I attempted to sleep through the flight to Dublin, but wasn’t too successful. Once in Dublin, I caught the shuttle to the airport hotel I had previously booked, and didn’t waste much time in getting some long overdue shut eye.

 Flying over mountains in Spain

Snow-capped mountains, possibly the Pyrenees.

Glass elevator at airport hotel in Dublin

The next day it was back to the airport for a 12:20 flight to London. I was nervous about my flight connection at Heathrow because I had to transfer from terminal two to terminal five and it’s one of the worst/busiest airports in Europe. However, I had considered this when booking my flights so I’d made sure I booked flights with a good sized time gap at Heathrow. I was sure two and a half hours would be sufficient. It very nearly wasn’t. My flight from Dublin to London ended up being delayed an hour so I came off the plane at Heathrow with an hour and a half till my next plane would leave. This scared me since I’d put my information into the airport’s website previously, and it had estimated I’d need ninety minutes, the exact amount I had. And that was if I didn’t take a wrong turn anywhere along the way. So I began the long journey to my boarding gate. It involved catching a shuttle bus, a lot of walking, a lot of waiting through security and passport control, and finally catching a short train within terminal five to my gate. I arrived at the gate just as they were calling my boarding group number. Talk about cutting it close. Needless to say, it was such a relief to be able to plop down into my seat and catch my breath. 

I thought it would all be smooth sailing from there. Oh if only. My relaxing in my chair turned to anxious fidgeting when a half hour had passed without the plane moving. The pilot came over the speaker and apologized for the delay saying that some people decided not to fly and they were in the process of removing their luggage from the plane. Another half hour passed and by then I was really becoming concerned. The pilot once more came over the speaker and said the truck supposed to guide us out to the runway had broken down and we were waiting for a replacement. What luck or rather lack thereof. So we finally took off an hour and a half behind schedule. I had eight and a half hours to fret about what I would do about the inevitable missing of my next flight. My planned two hours in Chicago (time to go through customs, baggage claim and recheck my bag) were reduced to a half hour and I knew it would be an impossible feat to catch my plane. Despite my uncertainty of what would go down in Chicago, I have to say that flying an intercontinental British Airways flight was pretty awesome. From the selection of movies/TV to the food and overall service provided, they win over all other airlines. 

So back to the missing my flight crisis, I got off the plane in Chicago planning to go to the nearest help desk and find out what I would have to do to get on another flight. But British Airways beat me to it. Right after getting off the plane there was a wall covered with papers that had destinations on them and we were told to find our destination and then take the packet on the wall with our name on it. In less than a minute I had my packet that included a plane ticket to Omaha for the next day, a hotel reservation at the Westin with information on how to catch the shuttle, and a fifty dollar voucher for food at the hotel. Yes, without a doubt I love British Airways.  I went out to wait for the Westin shuttle and found myself standing next to a fellow passenger of the London flight who had missed his connection to Tennessee. We chatted while we were waiting and he told me about his studies in Germany and I shared about my position over in Spain. There’s something about airports/travel that connects people. First the Italians, then the American from Germany, and our conversation was overheard by another fellow who joined in when he heard me talk about Spain. It turns out he was returning from studying in Granada, Spain. Gotta love bonding with strangers who share the same love for travel or even better, Spain. The Westin Hotel was super fancy and the next morning I decided to go all out and ordered breakfast to my room thanks to the British Airways voucher. Starbucks coffee, orange juice, french toast and a berry parfait; talk about a filling breakfast. Then it was back to the airport and my final flight for home. Let me tell you folks, there’s just nothing better than going home for the holidays. Even if it takes you seventy-two hours, five flights and two hotel stays to make it happen. 

 Ridiculously fancy and abundant food courtesy of British Airways voucher

Sibling Christmas picture!

Nothing quite like a white Christmas