Back in Dublin!

Hello all! Aaron and I arrived safely back in Dublin early early early Friday morning (like 6:00 early!). We have been so blessed in our travels, and we have yet to experience a delayed, missed, or canceled flight, and all of our luggage has always arrived with us! We left for our visit home on the 29th of December, and because of the time change, it was like we went back in time... we woke up in Dublin at 4:30 to grab our cab which arrived at a quarter til five, made it to the airport like three hours before our plane took off because we heard it was tough to get through security to go to America. We went through customs like it was nothing, and after all the standing in lines, only had to wait about an hour or so to get on the plane.

After that 8ish hour flight, we arrived in Atlanta at four in the afternoon, and then Little Rock around six. At this point, it felt like it was midnight to us. My parents, after all the hugs and teary expressions, took us out to the Purple Cow, always one of my favorite restaurants in Little Rock. I've been there on birthdays, dates with my dad, and it was also the location of my bachelorette party! There's always a million kids, delicious milkshakes and amazing food. It was fantastic. By the time we got back to Northwest Arkansas, we had been up for 25 hours! I didn't even do that in college!

While we were visiting Arkansas, we filled up on family time, hanging out with friends, and eating all the food that we can't find in Ireland. I think we had Wendy's on three separate occasions, and there was also a slight binge on candy that we can only find in the states (like Whoppers... mmmmmm) We ate out a lot, but we also had a lot of really delicious home cooking from both mine and Aaron's moms. It was just really nice to be around parents again and to not have to think about the responsibilities of making food and washing dishes. I think I really needed a break from taking care of my apartment and I'm very much looking forward to the day when I can have a dishwasher again! Everyone we stayed with were excellent hosts and we so appreciate you guys having us and taking care of us for the short time we were with you. We missed America so much more than we realized, and it was really tough to get back on the plane and leave all those wonderful relationships for a second time.

That's not to say that we weren't excited to go back to Ireland when we left on the 14th! Aaron's mom drove us to the airport and we again, had no issue with the airport or planes. Security was a little suspicious of Aaron's Christmas present from the Richardsons (the magic fushigi ball!) but when we told them what it was, they laughed and sent us on our way. The flight from Atlanta to Dublin experienced some really intense turbulence the last hour and a half of the flight. People were getting airsick and throwing up, the pilot told us to keep our seatbelts fastened probably twelve times, the flight attendants were looking super nervous and getting pretty snippy with each other, and a little boy almost knocked over my orange juice on his way to the bathroom to barf. All signs from a movie that something is wrong with the plane and we are going to crash. Thankfully we didn't (or we would have called you or you would have seen it on the news). Everything was absolutely silent, like the whole plane was holding its breath, while we were landing. You could hear a pin drop if it weren't for those pesky engines. Everything was wobbly and really intense, and when we finally hit the ground it was a hard thud, not the gentle easing down that you usually experience. Then the plane wobbled some more, then everyone started talking about how relieved they were!

We hopped on a bus, then hopped on a tram, then walked the rest of the way to our apartment. We crashed so hard, and didn't wake up until 2 or 3 in the afternoon, at which point we decided we needed food and internet to let people know we made it alive. Aaron attacked the technical set-up issues and I went out and bought a couple day's worth of groceries. The rest of the day we just sat around, and I worked on my papers, perfecting them until I had to turn them in on Monday by four.

I'm pretty proud of my papers, but nervous that there is a mysterious typo that I didn't catch, or that my professors will grade super harsh. The grading scale is different, so someone will definitely have to explain to me if I've done a good job. But, I did my best and that's about all I can do! Aaron started work Monday and yesterday I had my first class, so we're jumping right back into our routine! We're both looking forward to our next few months in Dublin and we hope to make the most of them.