Has it already been a week?

Well my friends, the time has come for a real post. I apologize for the delay, but the internet is hard to come by at the moment and expensive to pay for when you do want it. But now I have time. I hope you're ready because this is going to take a long time.

Got your popcorn and your giant-sized candy? Excellent - off we go!

Tuesday, 18 September, 2007

I flew from Memphis to Atlanta, my second plane ride ever, to meet the rest of the group. Uneventful, short trip. No biggie cause I was excited beyond my comprehension. I traveled with two other girls in the group - Julie Williams and Megan VanCleave - so it was nice to have company. Got to Atlanta, met the group, then we were boarding the plane for Ireland - hard to believe. I honestly don't know how long the flight was, I just know that we left at 8:45 and arrived at 9:30 the next morning. I think I probably slept for....2 hours? But that is a complete guesstimate. But I will say that I have never seen so many stars at one time - I think I cried a little because it was so beautiful. Let me stop here and say this: I wanted a seat by the window so I could watch stuff go by in the air - and get a window seat I DID!! I really wanted a seat so I could take pictures of the sunrise and my first views of Ireland from the air. I remember attempting to go to sleep, but I sort of dozed - sleeping on a plane aboe water just did not do it for me. So I couldnt sleep, but I left my window open so the sun could wake me if I did happen to doze off. I woke up about three times, all to see the same dark star-filled sky with nothing but utter darkness below - creepy. Anyway, about the fifth time I woke up, I saw a bit of sunlight, grabbed my camera, and took pictures of the litted sky. It was beautiful. I think God woke me up honestly, because I somehow sensed that I needed (NEEDED) to wake up, so I did and I was the only one I know of who witnessed the sunrise. Kept taking pictures. Got my snapshots of my first look at Ireland and a video of my first looks and the landing which will be on Facebook....eventually. So we landed, it started to rain (which it does A LOT over here). One minute it's dry and sunny, the next it's brick wall in your face raining and before you can get your umbrella out, it's over. But it's gorgeous. Anyway, yeah - we landed in Dublin. Saw a double-decker bus, a VW Bug, traffic on the wrong side of the road, and, well, dirty streets. But seriously, everything in Ireland really is green. The drivers are insane - and I'm talking there is no personal space between vehicles on the road. Drivers don't generally use their turn signals so it's hard to tell where they're headed. When they stop at lights, there's probably about a foot between one bumper and another. They also don't care about pedestrians and are NOT afraid to use their horns. Seriously, if you dont pay attention, youre going to get run over and the drivers don't care.

We stayed at Dublin's famous Trinity College where the Book of Kells is currently located on display and the coolest library is available for walk through - and you might have even seen it in a movie sort of recently (within the past 4 years). So did that, went around Dublin, learned some stuff that I won't bore you about now, spent sometime just traversing the great city, ate great food, went to a pub and just watched football and rugby (which is always amazing) and pretty much went to bed after that. Overall, the first day was a success - and I didn't shower for like 36 hours: I thought I was going to die.

Anyway, I will go into more detail in the future. The time I bought to use the internet is quickly winding down. I will tell you all about the rest of my amazing travels when I get a chance to. The first day really was not that exciting, except for the fact that, well, we were in Ireland.

At the moment, I am in Edinburgh, Scotland. I have already been to Wales and parts of England - yay!! But again, I must depart. It is getting late - almost 1 in the morning and I have to get up early.

Until next time,
Aimee

For those of you who are checking this, I am im Dublin. I dont have a lot of time because I'm paying by the minute to use the internet, but I just wanted to let y'all know. Ireland is amazingly beautiful. If you ever get the chance, please check it out. I will post pictures when I get the internet on my computer and tell you all about it.

Love to you all!!

Aimee