Time to say goodbye. Paesi che non ho mai...

Alriiiiight. This is my last blog entry. Do not cry. We can talk in person. Way better.

I think it wise to bring this blog to a close as my time in Ireland comes to a close. Karver and I talked about it, and while my life in Winston-Salem is super interesting, we decided that it is not quite blog-worthy material. I can see it now, "So today I went to the Pit because it was Japanese night and i heard they had origami sugar cookies..."

Anywho, time to relish the last foreseeable time that my life will be interesting enough for other people to read about.

On Monday I took my one and only exam -- History of Irish Thought (keep in mind I turned in six papers the week before). The actual test part, like actually answering the essay questions, was not bad at all, but the having to pay to get a bus to the exam site, the waiting for an hour and a half in the cold, then taking a bus back part was pretty bad. Not important, not important. What IS important is no more school until 2009.

My plans on Monday were to pack most of my things that night, then to take a bus to Belfast early Tuesday morning so I would be at my friend Hannah's house by Tuesday night. Everything went according to plan untillllllllll I missed the linking bus to Belfast. Not awesome.

What had happened was the bus driver was unsure as to where I was supposed to get off to get the linking bus to Belfast, but he was sure I should get on the bus because it was the only bus going up north. I got off the bus at a big station where I thought I heard I could get a linking bus to Belfast. When I asked the woman at the help desk, she stared at me blankly and told me I should have gotten off the bus about 40 minutes ago and that there were no more buses to Belfast that day. Sweet.

Buuuut she did tell me that I could take a bus to Ballyshannon, then take a bus to Enniskillen and take a bus from Enniskillen to Belfast in the morning. Soooo I waited for the next bus to Ballyshannon (where ever the heck that is). Then because it was raining and I had some time before my next bus, I decided to go into wee pub in Ballyshannon, as you do. So I walked out of the rain, looking fairly disheveled, and into the pub with my backpack and huge plaid satchel. There were five local men at the bar and there was a seventy-year-old bar tender behind the counter. When I walked in they all stared at me like I was from planet Zor and the room went dead silent. I ordered a half a pint of cider (the man gave me a whole pint, which I had to drink rather quickly before I went on the bus) and only when I was settled in the corner, bags down, book opened, did they resume talking. Such a weird experience.

So now after a kind of light-headed bus ride from Ballyshannon to Enniskillen, I am on my own to find a place to stay for the night. It's raining pretty hard, I have a heavy backpack, and a man at one of the bus stations told me that he would not "fancy a stay in Enniskillen" and that it was in "the rougher neck of the woods". Ok. Whatever. I knew that as soon as I found a bed and some food I would be fine. See, in the picture below, Enniskillen does not look that bad.
I had walked up and down the main street for a while, trying to stay in well light areas, and had not found a sign for a hotel or hostel -- enter low moment #3 of Ireland. The third low moment of my time abroad was when I was wearily waiting by a church in the Enniskillen rain to find a hostel for the night and nobody entering the church for a service would talk to me. The people at the church ignored me when I asked for help. I almost cried, not because I needed help that badly, but because of the hypocrisy of it all.

The first person I asked walking out of the Pharmacy was totally willing to help me out and pointed me in the direction of the best youth hostel. The hostel was really big and nice and inexpensive. When I walked in (still all disheveled I guess) the woman at the desk looked at me and said "I had a bad day too". She gave me a four person en-suite room all to myself.

Once I set my stuff down, dried off and made my bed, I walked about the city to find the open-late Chinese take-out place. Chicken chow mein and a book of Seamus Heaney poems made my night pretty ok. Then watching "Wedding Crashers" in the hostel lounge with 30 rugby players made my night actually pretty good.Ok, in the morning I caught an early bus to Belfast and Hannah and her dad picked me up at the station. yaaaaaaaay. Finally I am with my friend in her city!

Hannah and I had so much fun -- just a really good having no work, having no agenda, hangout time. My favorite. We went for lunch and coffee and desserts. We met up with Hannah's friends. We went thrift store shopping and to the big Belfast market. We ate with her family. We stayed up to watched the BBC show about Merlin the wizard. We laughed together. We went to Hannah's friend's Christmas party. We read the Christmas story out of the Message on the city bus. "The sheepherders returned at let loose, glorifying and praising God for everything they had heard and seen."
Despite having to use pounds and its crazy traffic, Belfast is a good city with good people. I took the 8 hour bus ride back to Galway today with no problem. I went via Dublin instead of via the West coast like last time. I know how to get off at the Dublin bus station and get on a bus that says "to Galway". Much easier.
Right now I am in my apartment, with all of my apartment-mates gone home and 1/3 of my things left to pack. My friends, Karen and Shane, just visited to hug me goodbye. I just listened to all 5 of Sufjan's Christmas CDs. I am taking a taxi to the bus station at 7 AM to head to the US of A. I cannot wait to see my family and friends (that's probably you).

Tie up your boots
Jump off the ladder
Pack up your clothes
Nothing's the matter...
Chestnuts and fire
Holly and hay
Jesus and Mary
What a great day.
~Sufjan

Mission Semester Abroad, Galway 2008: Complete.
It's been fun.
Thanks for listening.