"How do you say 'hello' in Ireland?"

Tuesday, May 26- Wednesday, May 27.
Chicago to Dublin, Ireland

We got to the airport around 2:00, and had to use a kiosk for international check-in. Scanning the passports was a little weird, but we managed, and my bag was 34 pounds, which I was proud of. We got TSA Pre-check, which was AWESOME. Didn’t have to remove shoes or jacket or laptops. That was the best. Then we just hung around and waited.

Chilling at the airport and tormenting innocent travelers...

There were some girls at our gate that had to be either fresh out of high school or young college kids, and one said to the other “How do you say “hello” in Ireland?” “I don’t know, that wasn’t in the book!” We just shook our heads. Some people… We MAY have told them you need to say "Top of the morning' to ya" when in Ireland and they MAY have been really excited and believed us.... But I'm not admitting anything!

The plane was roomy and we had two seats together on a window and aisle on one side and Steph’s parents were in front of us. We watched a storm roll in while we waited in a HUGE line of planes. We were number 10, and there were more lining up... Cool pictures though.

Storm rolling in over the plans in Chicago

There were a handful of drunk UK people around that made things loud until we took off, but they fell asleep right away. We got dinner shortly after we got in the air and I had this chicken and rice dish that was actually really good. Couldn’t sleep at all, so we watched movies and played games on the ipad, and the flight actually felt really fast. We also got breakfast, yogurt and granola and a muffin, and that was a nice surprise.

Funny story: one of the flight attendants had a really cute apron with shamrocks all over it and I told her that I loved it. She said she made it and had made some for the entire crew since they would be traveling together for a bit on this assignment. I told her again that I just loved it and she did a great job. She asked me where I lived and I said Cincinnati, and she said she was from just north of Dayton. Then she said “Give me your email and I’ll give you mine, and I will make you one.” So we did that exchange and this morning she told me she could get it to me by mid June. How crazy is that? So nice of her!

All in all, I got maybe five minutes of pretend sleep on the plane, but that’s okay. I just stayed hydrated and made sure to eat.

We jumped right in with getting our rental car…and it’s so weird to sit on the left side in the front and not drive! And the roads are SO NARROW and driving is NUTS. I am so glad that Steph is driving and not me. I would be so stressed.

Steph getting acquainted with our car...on the wrong side...

This is my "I'm navigating what now?" and "why am I on this side?" and "holy crap, we're going to die" and "so this is jet lag" face. Very complicated, I know.

We’re staying at the Ashling Hotel, which is fancy and on the far end of Dublin, which isn’t great, but we deal with it. We knew we needed to keep moving or things would get ugly, so we immediately set off for a bus tour of Dublin, where you can get off of the bus at any of the stops and then get on a later one that comes there. They run every ten minutes at least, sometimes closer depending on traffic. Hop on hop off, they call it. This particular company, City Sightseeing Tours, has right red busses and crazy fun drivers. This is my ad spot for them... I'm done now.

The first time we rode the entire route, all 23 stops, and our tour guide was hilarious. His name was Declan and he would randomly break into traditional Irish songs that related to what we were seeing, and then randomly some Elvis or Frank Sinatra. He told us so many stories and said so many jokes. One of the favorites was “People always say the Irish drink a lot, and we do.” Haha!

It was so cool to see Dublin this way! We all got tired sitting there on the bus, and I was shoving my face with trail mix to keep me awake. We got fish and chips for lunch [SO GOOD] and shopped a little, then got back on the bus route to see a few things.

Temple Bar -- An area with tons of shops and...bars... Go figure.

Today was Dublin Castle, Christ Church Cathedral, St. Patrick’s Cathedral, the Guinness Storehouse [we didn’t take the tour there, it was 18 euros and the line was HUGE, but it would have been interesting to learn about the company since they have been an Irish staple forever], and the Jameson Distillery, which was a really cool older building, but again we didn’t take the tour.  

Dublin Castle. The best secret castle ever. You'll miss it if you don't look for it.

Christ Church Cathedral. So pretty! I love old churches so much!

Then we went to a steakhouse in an old Victorian building for dinner and OH MY GOSH, that was so good. Rib eye with garlic butter and potatoes... Mouth watering remembering it. I was so full but wanted to keep eating!

Then we went for a long walk in Phoenix Park, which is this awesome preserve where there is a zoo and some huge houses belonging to the US ambassador and the president of Ireland… And there is also a really cool sculpture for Wellington there (did you know he was Irish??? I didn't!), so that was fun and we really needed the long walk.

Memorial to Wellington in Phoenix Park. Really neat, lots of cool details on it.

Then we stopped by a train station to get route information for tomorrow, since we need to use the train to get from downtown back to the hotel tomorrow. They have a system a bit like the tube in London, but above ground. Not nearly as elaborate, but cool.

Dublin by evening light next to Heuston Station! I look tired, but Dublin looks great!

Tomorrow we take an all-day bus tour of some of the countryside and it is going to be AMAZING. I’ve seen some of the sights before and they were favorites so it will be great to see them again.

I’m already getting presents, and it’s fun to find things for people! The accents here are so fun and we’ve already had some fun interactions with locals. Can’t wait to see what tomorrow will bring!

Wanderlust

Wanderlust is an interesting word. Technically it means liking to travel and such, but for me it has always encapsulated more than that. Wanderlust is a bigger thing, something that encapsulates your heart and soul, something that lives with you all the time, grows restless with monotony, and gives your heart wings with the thought of adventure.

I’ve got wanderlust. I’ve got it badly.

It’s why I loved travelling with my teams. It’s why I’ve been all over the place. It’s why I can’t sit still. It’s why I have so much more I want to do and see and experience.

I went to the British Isles for over a week with some friends recently (just got back, to be honest) and it was the most awesome, wonderful experience ever. That is home for my heart and soul, and coming home is exquisitely painful, even though I know I must.

My best friend and her parents were going over for fun and to see some things they missed the last time they went over, and I was fortunate enough to be invited. I had spent two months in England at the end of my time at BYU seven years ago, and I’d never really come home afterwards. You’re always homesick for England afterwards, ask anyone. Employment and grad school and general lack of funds had prevented me from going back since, but thanks to my good job now, I could afford the trip, and had the schedule to do so. I jumped at the chance, and it was once in a lifetime.

I’ve not come back yet, not really, and I’m not sure I ever will. But now instead of just being homesick for England, I’m homesick for Scotland. And Ireland. And even Wales, though my time there was incredibly brief.

Jet lag is still raging, my emotions aren’t recovered, and I have no idea how reality is going to go once that comes into play, but that’s how it goes.

Wanderlust makes it harder.

It keeps you there even longer.

To relive it and enjoy it again, I’ll be posting on here the emails and notes I made every day so everyone can have a taste of what I did and the great experiences I had. Pictures, stories, quirky fun bits, everything I can.

Maybe you’ll all get wanderlust too.

I hope so. It’s addicting and fun and makes you feel alive.

It becomes part of who you are.

And the world is brighter for it because there is so much more of the world to see.

The trip begins in Chicago on a Tuesday afternoon and it turns into a very long Wednesday in Dublin. Tomorrow you will see the first day in its massive entirety, and we will begin.

It's some fantastic stuff.

Sit back, relax, and get ready to be infested with wanderlust.

You'll love it.

In the Defense of Princesses

A friend and I decided to start a blog about princesses.... I know, why? Well, because we're tired of people criticizing them, and no one defending them. So now we are the defenders. Take a look!

http://princessdefenders.blogspot.com

It's been a while...

It's been a REALLY long time, actually. But if you want to know what I'm up to at the moment, take a look at this:
http://scentlessadventures.blogspot.com/2015/01/anniversary.html

It's been a bumpy road, and here's not much else to say. Hopefully I'll have some real updates soon.
Til then, thanks for still being here.

Just a Thought

So things are going well for me, all things considered. I’m almost done with school [62 days!!!] which means I have to find a job [now taking suggestions and applications….anywhere…] and get ready to move.

It sounds so grown up, getting a job and moving. I mean, I’ve done it before, I’ve graduated twice already (three times if you count massage school, four if you count pre-school) and I’ve moved a lot in my life. But this one….this is the beginning of EVERYTHING. I knew when I had my job in Lafayette that I was in a holding pattern, just trying to figure out what the next step was, and I knew the same thing with every other place that I have lived. But this is huge. This is a great big step out into the real grown-up world. I could be in this next place for ten or twenty years. I could be there for one year. Who knows? This is officially where planning ends.

I’m not sure I like that. I am a HUGE planner. Like one of those people who planned out her high school courses as a freshman. For all 4 years. And I did the same with college. The unknown is not exciting for me, it’s terrifying. I like knowing what I am getting into before I get there.

Well, life doesn’t work that way. So one of us has got to change.

Turns out, that would be me.

I’m getting there, I really am. I’m excited for the adventures ahead. I’m terrified that I graduate in 62 days and I have no idea where I am going or what I am doing. I’m thrilled to move to a new place and learn what to love about it and meet new people. I’m REALLY excited to have more time and money than I do now.

But in looking back, I have to admit that I have learned and grown so much from my time here. I’ve been stretched and pulled and yanked and beaten down in ways I never knew I could endure. But I’ve also grown in ways I never thought possible. I’ve become a woman I never knew I could become. I have met people that have changed my life, and I have had experiences that I will treasure for the rest of my life.

So what does the future hold for me? I don’t know, and I can’t plan for it. But Someone has a plan for me. He knows what is ahead and what lies in store. So the question might not be as much “Am I ready for this?” but “Do I actually trust the Ultimate Planner?”

The answer is, of course, YES.

So I really don’t need to be afraid anymore, do I?

Just a thought.

New blog!

Hey guys. I'm starting a new blog all about my new adventures in the world of senses. Follow my stories and experiences at scentlessadventures.blogspot.com.
I'll still have this one going for all the rest of my craziness, so don't change the channel. Now there's just more to love and laugh at!

Life lately and thoughts

So I feel like I should let people know what's going on, but I hope you will take it in stride and not feel like I'm announcing my own problems to get attention. Like Elder Scott has said, "...everybody has problems and nobody wants to hear about yours." But I've learned a few things that I think are important to share and I wouldn't have learned them without going through this.
Most of you, I think, know that I got a concussion almost a month ago. We're not sure what happened, nobody saw it and I have a lot of memory loss from that day. But I've had a concussion before, so not too big of a deal, this one was just worse than last time. After two weeks I still had some symptoms that didn't seem to be normal or resolving as fast as they should be, so I went to a doctor, who sent me to a neurologist, who ordered all sorts of tests. X-ray, CT, EEG, and MRI, the whole gambit. After some brief scares, we discovered that I still have some blood in my brain (common after a concussion) but it was in the area of my brain that is near the olfactory nerves, which control sense of smell, and that area also helps with emotions. One of my only remaining symptoms is the fact that I can't smell, [and therefore can't taste very well] so that made sense. Emotionally I seem to be fine, but jury may rule otherwise, I've always been too emotional for my own good (haha!). Anyways, the blood should reabsorb and resolve on it's own, but doctors say we can't really be sure what is going to be permanent at this point until that happens. I promise I'm fine, just experiencing life a bit differently these days.
I've had some interesting insights because of this. I happen to have injuries that are completely internal and no one could tell I even have them. There's no sign I wear that says "I can't smell and my head still hurts" and I'm fully functioning at work and school. But I know I'm not 100% yet. No one else does. Which begs the question: what are others going through that I can't see? Not all problems and injuries are visible to the world, but that doesn't make them less real or damaging. I'm as guilty of rash judgments as any human, but it seems so heartless now that I've seen a brief glimpse of the other side of things. I've had moments where I just think "You have no idea what I am going through, what this feels like. You don't even know." And now I wonder how many other people have that thought on a daily basis, and how many times have I been the cause of that thought.
I don't know how long I'll be like this, and that doesn't matter. What matters is what I've learned and continue to learn from it, and one of those things is that we all struggle in some way, some physically, some mentally, some emotionally, and some in ways that no one will know or see. So I'm determined to be more like our Savior, Jesus Christ, who suffered everything and had no bitterness, never complained, and loves everyone, weak and struggling and imperfect and tired though we all are. God loves us perfectly, He knows our struggles, and He would not put obstacles in our path without giving us a way through. Might be over, under, around, or just patiently pushing through. But there is always a way.
To quote my mom, "This is Plan A. The Lord doesn't do Plan B. Only our plans get messed up, not His."