8/6/2010
Tomorrow it will have been a week since I set foot on a plane from Dublin, Ireland to Chicago, Illinois. Although I have been EXTREMELY busy with moving back to school for summer research and seeing all of my friends and favorite places again, Ireland has not left me yet... in fact, there is still a bruise on my arm from last weekend's Kilkenny inline hockey tourney!
My last two days in Ireland were spent in Dublin, at least that is what I tell people when they ask me about the end of my trip. To me, Dublin is not Ireland with all of the tall buildings, shopping,clear Irish accents, accents from all over the world, and lack luster night life compared with Galway. My last days in Ireland were truly spent in Kilkenny and stripping the apartment I lived in for the semester clean of my life. I threw away nearly every pair of shoes I brought from home, a thoroughly worn out jacket caked in castle dust, all of the weird bathroom stuff I had to buy when I got to Ireland, two cans of vegetable soup, and three potatoes ironically.
Now I go through my day with flashbacks that make me laugh and/or cry and experiences hardly anyone here can relate to. A song may come on my ipod and throw me back into a memory where I'll stay for the next five minutes, or I'll say something that would make total sense back in Galway but present me as a lunatic in Northfield. I enjoy these moments because they are reminders of my beautiful life and let me know that no, I did not imagine that crazy ride.
I am very grateful for the internet as I have been able to to stay in touch with all of my friends both in the states and across the ocean wherever they are... even if I am awoken in the dead of night by a LOUD phone call from skype. Yay time differences!
I am surprised at how I feel as if I haven't even left Minnesota sometimes and others I feel as if ten years have gone by since I left.
