heading to ireland!

Ah Dublin we have arrived! :)

Hello dear ones, family and friends, I have arrived with the Harding in England group of students in the wonderful country of Ireland. Whoo hoo

Our flight was about 7 hours and went smoothly, aside from the fact that after riding on the Middle Eastern airline company Emirates this summer I am FOREVER spoiled. Our flight to Dublin did not have two meals and free snacks on request, there were no personal tvs, no hot towels when I arrived and the seats were so small! Bah!!!!! Whew ok now that my rant is finished I will admit that I am being a tad bit of a brat and continue on with what happened after the plane ride. Ha ha

We got into Dublin at 8 a.m., local time, and fyi the time difference is 6 hours different from Central Standard Time.

Our group of 11 (8 students, the Organs (teachers), and me) got off the plane and into the customs line just fine HOWEVER there was only ONE person working at the immigrations and customs desk…for about oh 250ish people. Oh my my my. So we stood standstill in line for almost 45 minutes and the entire process to get through customs took almost 2 hours. They eventually got some more people in help.

BUT

We made it out and everyone got ALL of their luggage. Praise! Then we headed off to meet Lauren Knight and her husband Tyler. Tyler is in school at Oxford and so Lauren has been hired to be the hands and feet of HUE! She is amazing and has done an awesome job coordinating and directing us so far…. I expect to see many more great things ;)

Headed out of the airport and into the crisp 50 degree Ireland air! Very refreshing, especially after only 3ish hours of sleep, which I was grateful for, but still coffee was a must. Loaded all of our bags and selves onto a “coach” which dropped us off at Trinity College where we are staying.

Got our rooms, well most of us got our rooms, several others had to wait for keys, but the room situation was eventually sorted out.

After we dropped our bags off and stared at each other (jet lag) we headed off (yes we hit the ground running) to get a bit of breakfast and meet our first tour guide!

The place we got breakfast had gluten free AND organic options! Needless to say I was very pleased and so was my tummy. We grabbed our cappuccinos and oat bars and headed down to meet our tour guide Lorcan. Lauren described him like this, “Look for the guy who is kind of dressed like a preacher, but cooler…” ha ha so we found Lorcan and he in fact did look like he was wearing a collar, but he also had some sweet glasses that rounded out his look. Ha ha.

We all sat down and got ready for the 1916 Rebellion tour, which goes through the history and significant sights around Dublin that led up to the Irish revolt/rebellion of 1916, which eventually led to the creation of a separate nation state from Britain in 1922.

Lorcan was hilarious. Entertaining but so knowledgeable! He has been leading this tour for 14 years and has co-written a book called Easter Rebellion: 1916 with another one of the tour guides. He said his mother has told him it’s the best book she’s ever read…so I guess we are to judge for ourselves ; )

After the tour we were all a little tired and hungry so we received some cash for lunch and were released upon the city. Sort of we only had an hour before we had to meet up again. Ha ha So I went off with a couple of girls, Lauren and Lyndsey, to find a bathroom, which can be an adventure of its own in Europe BUT we were successful.

And I was also successful in ordering a ham and cheese sandwich from a local vendor…but I had to repeat what I wanted a couple of times because I guess my “thick southern American” accent threw him off. Ha ha It was fun standing in line (messing with/ trying to figure out my UK phone that I am using for the program) and listening to some local high school kids on a lunch break. It feels good to be back in Europe, or rather back in a historically saturated environment. Not that there is no history in American, or even Arkansas, BUT the type of history and the type of essence that rests in most of Europe’s large cities in indescribable and energizing. Like Louisa May Alcott said being in Europe is like walking into a novel.

After lunch we met back up to go and see The Book of Kells…which is one of the oldest and most beautiful illuminated manuscripts! And I was excited because my mom was pumped for me to see it! She saw it on our itinerary and got very excited! Ha ha It was interesting but my favorite part was not the Book of Kells BUT the huge massive awesome library of classic works, letters, and different culturally iconic works of literary. Sigh. It was amazing. I just stood there. It was somewhat like when the Beast, in Beauty and the Beast, lets Belle into his library! Except this place was made of wood and had ropes blocking me from the books…otherwise exactly like Beauty and the Beast ;)

After we sampled the Book of Kells museum which is on the Trinity campus, right down from our rooms, we were let go for the evening…it was only about 4 o’clock and most of us did not want to go to bed yet (even though we are exhausted) in an effort to get our bodies on schedule with this time zone.

So here I sit…in a McDonalds down the road from Trinity with two of the girls, Mindy and Stephanie. We hoped to find free wifi to occupy ourselves with until it was time to go to sleep…however free wifi was not available…so we will see where we find some internet SO I CAN POST THIS and tweet and stay socially connected etc….or as an arrogant former youngest VP and current temp would suggest I should just “Woof”…because it connects ALL social networks : ) if you can tell me the reference you will get a prize and I will be extremely impressed.

Please pray for the transition and meshing of the group; pray for safe travels and a spirit of encouragement and support to flood through our group. : ) God is moving all the time.

Also just a disclaimer I probably, well who knows, but probably will not be blogging every day. I hope to blog every week AT THE MINIMUM and maybe more depending on what the schedule looks like for the week.

Love and prayers to you all. Kisses.