Checklist for Ireland:
Passport: check
Other necessary travel documents: check
Credit card: check
Student travel insurance: check
Luggage: check
Raincoat: check
Boots and good water repllant walking shoes: check
Gloves, hat, and other necessary things to shield me from the cold and rain: check
New purse, wallet, and document cover: check
Journal: check
Textbooks for Travel Writing: check
Book to read on plane: check and check; Jane Austen would love me for taking two of her greats abroad with me (none other than P&P and S&S will be my flight companions)
Airplane ticket: check
Webcam: no check, still need to get one
Skype: no check due to lack of webcam
Digital camera: also no check
Irish cell phone: unchecked, will get over there
Blog: check... duh
Stomach butterflies: check
Anything I'm forgetting?
One week.
Friday, December 25, 2009
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Twenty-Three Days and Counting
In twenty-three days and approximately forty minutes I will be getting on a plane in Newark that is going to take me to Shannon, Ireland. Ireland. Twenty-three days. This is the most real this has come to feel yet, and I'm still in Baltimore, cracking away at my final exams.
I've known that I wanted to study in Ireland since I found out about the Loyola program about two years ago. I applied this past May and found out that I was accepted to the program in July. Since then, I have been feigning preparedness. People would ask me if I was going to be studying abroad and I would reply excitedly, "Yeah! I'm going to be studying in Cork, Ireland this spring." People would then inevitably ask me how I feel about it and I would inevitably say, "I'm super excited!" Okay, maybe not something that hokey, but close to it.
And it's true, I am super excited. But I'm also super nervous. I'm going to a foreign country for five months. I've never been outside of the United States. I've never been away from my close friends and family for that long. I never even went to sleepaway camp. I guess college has prepared me to be independent, but still I can't help but feeling like I'm five years old in summertime again--eagerly awaiting the coming of kindergarten, telling my mommy I'm excited to play with the other kids, but really trying not to pee my pants the whole time.
I've heard great things from all my friends who have studied in Cork, or in other places this year or past years. I am genuinely excited to meet new people and to learn about the country I will be studying in. I can't wait to travel and to get to see all those sights I've always dreamt of. Dublin. London. Rome. The Blarney Stone. Big Ben. The Eiffel Tower. The Vatican. Who knows what else? I'm excited to take classes that I will never again have the opportunity to take. History of Ireland. Irish-Anglo Literature. Irish Traditional Music. Celtic Saints. I mean, how cool? But through all this genuine happiness and eagerness to go abroad and discover and learn all these new things, I am still very nervous.
It feels almost surreal. I've been talking about it for so long that it doesn't feel real anymore. I don't think I will really understand fully until I am standing in the streets of Ireland. Maybe when I step off the plane, it will hit me. Holy crap, it's way greener here than it is in Baltimore. Wait, I'm in Ireland? When did that happen? Something like that.
Well, don't worry. You'll be there with me for the entire trip, if you choose to read. I promise to keep you posted.
I've known that I wanted to study in Ireland since I found out about the Loyola program about two years ago. I applied this past May and found out that I was accepted to the program in July. Since then, I have been feigning preparedness. People would ask me if I was going to be studying abroad and I would reply excitedly, "Yeah! I'm going to be studying in Cork, Ireland this spring." People would then inevitably ask me how I feel about it and I would inevitably say, "I'm super excited!" Okay, maybe not something that hokey, but close to it.
And it's true, I am super excited. But I'm also super nervous. I'm going to a foreign country for five months. I've never been outside of the United States. I've never been away from my close friends and family for that long. I never even went to sleepaway camp. I guess college has prepared me to be independent, but still I can't help but feeling like I'm five years old in summertime again--eagerly awaiting the coming of kindergarten, telling my mommy I'm excited to play with the other kids, but really trying not to pee my pants the whole time.
I've heard great things from all my friends who have studied in Cork, or in other places this year or past years. I am genuinely excited to meet new people and to learn about the country I will be studying in. I can't wait to travel and to get to see all those sights I've always dreamt of. Dublin. London. Rome. The Blarney Stone. Big Ben. The Eiffel Tower. The Vatican. Who knows what else? I'm excited to take classes that I will never again have the opportunity to take. History of Ireland. Irish-Anglo Literature. Irish Traditional Music. Celtic Saints. I mean, how cool? But through all this genuine happiness and eagerness to go abroad and discover and learn all these new things, I am still very nervous.
It feels almost surreal. I've been talking about it for so long that it doesn't feel real anymore. I don't think I will really understand fully until I am standing in the streets of Ireland. Maybe when I step off the plane, it will hit me. Holy crap, it's way greener here than it is in Baltimore. Wait, I'm in Ireland? When did that happen? Something like that.
Well, don't worry. You'll be there with me for the entire trip, if you choose to read. I promise to keep you posted.
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