The only dumb question is one you don't ask!

Hello everyone.."You're very welcome" to my blog!

I'm officially in Galway, Ireland! I've been here for 5 amazing days. (Don't worry. I will recap you on everything!..eventually) The past two days have been orientation days..which sounds boring but was actually quite exciting. Hopefully I'll be able to take pictures on my phone and upload them for you guys to see.

First, I want to fill you guys in on my travels from home to Dublin as well as my stay in the city of Dublin.

Traveling internationally was easy enough. I recommend traveling with someone, preferably, a friend. I only had one minor setback. (Also, I'm convinced that anyone traveling for the first time could have made the mistake I did.) Okay! So I traveled from the Memphis airport to the Chicago airport without any mishaps. The flight from Chicago to London was easy enough as well. To digress, I sat next to 17-year-old Tom, who was from London. He had been staying with his family in Chicago for the holidays. He gave me the "low down" on the U.K. and popular music. He was awesome! We talked for 5 hours straight and then passed out. We only woke up to eat. Now, to get back to my travels, Tom and I agreed that the flight "flew" by. I am convinced it was due to the great company we both had. :) Unfortunately, we never officially said goodbye. Maybe someday we shall meet again. At the terminal in London, there is a sort of triple security check. There was a very detached looking woman taking the transit cards (or whatever they are called). There was an Asian lady in from of me in line who had to step to the side to complete the card she had not known to take. At this time, I go forward and hand the lady my passport and boarding pass. She lazily checks it and hands me back my passport, my original boarding pass, and an additional boarding pass. I was confused as to why she handed me a new boarding pass, but I figure it was due to the international flight. (Dumb and quite false) This where I should have asked questions, but I didn't want to seem like a noob. Also, I had to go through 2 more security check points and neither of those check points notice I had 2 boarding passes, even though I definitely handed in both at the check points. Top notch security. Let me tell ya. Since my “new” boarding pass had no gate number, I stayed in the waiting area until it was near my time to board. Then my gate number was presented on the sign. I went to gate and waited in line and handed in my boarding pass and boarded the plane. The Asian lady who had been in line with me ended up sitting right next me, and she said I was in her seat, but that was fine. I thought it was quite strange that they had assigned 2 people the same seat. Turns out, they hadn’t. Back at the first check in the inattentive woman at the desk had handed me the Asian lady’s boarding pass. Story of my life. So I had to get off the plane, and I had missed my intended flight, and on top of that, the man who “removed” me from the plane kept insinuating that I had stolen the extra boarding pass. Why the heck would I want of need it? Whatever. I kept my cool. (So much for not looking like a noob!) As I was searching for Aer Lingus, my rightful place as a flyer, I did tear up a bit, but after I got my flight rescheduled I was fine. I wasn’t going to let anything get me down when I was that close to my destination! My only remaining concern was contacting my friend Fallon would was supposed to meet me at the airport in Dublin, and letting my mom know my flight had been delayed. The 3 hours til my flight to Dublin flew by and soon I was on my way. I passed out as soon as the plane took off and didn’t wake up until the pilot announced we were about to land. What a great start to my adventure in Ireland!

Cheers (this is how the say goodbye),

Rox