Update

I've been home for basically a week, so I think it may be time to update this blog with my thoughts from the trip. I've had a whirlwind time of it since being back in NC, activities including work with my parents, meeting up with friends, graduation, and my coming home/grad party. Since this blog is mainly about Ireland, I'll try and stick with the related stuff.

I'm still readjusting to living in NC, and in the US. Just like I didn't imagine Ireland would be so different to live in, I didn't anticipate the amount of adjustment needed to reaclimate to living here. But it's been a challenge. Everything from food to driving to my wake-up and bed times are requiring extra attention. But I can say it is so good to be home.

When people have been inquiring "How was it?" and "Did you have fun?" the best answer I can come up with is that I really would have enjoyed visiting or vacationing in Ireland, but I did not like living there. Why? I couldn't tell ya. A bunch of things really, that conglomerated to spur my temporary misery. The weather, the attitudes, the education system.. all exhausting after a semester. "But we read your blog and looked at your pictures, and it seemed like you had so much fun!" they would say. Well, yes, I did have fun on those trips, but those traveling experiences were vacation for me. They became the norm only because my group of friends forced ourselves to take advantage of the area around us, and we didn't waste time sitting at home; if we were going to live in Ireland, we were going to live it up in Ireland.

Do I miss it? Sure, sometimes. I miss sitting at the dinner table with Ruben and talking about life and what surprised us about the Irish culture. I miss walking around City Center, or running in the countryside. I miss all of my friends there. I even miss going to the pubs (sometimes). But mostly, I take the experience for what it was- a good opportunity to see the world around me- and I leave it at that. It's good to be home, in the chaos of the holiday season, baking goodies and wrapping presents and taking advantage of cheap American gas prices and even cheaper greasy American food. It's so interesting that most people come home from study abroad experiences, and they always wish they could go back. Frankly I'm glad I didn't love it that much, because then it would be even more unbearable to stay in my parents' house until I could be hired on somewhere.

Speaking of jobs, I am still looking, still interviewing and whatnot, but nothing solid yet. I imagine I won't get into the knitty gritty of it until after Christmas. Who interviews over the holidays anyhow?

Because of my tight schedule, I wasn't able to unpack until yesterday. Crazy, right? Fortunately, I had done my laundry immediately after discovering that Ireland has a very distinct smell. It's not exactly a pleasant smell either. My mom smelled it on me immediately when I got off the plane, and I caught wind of it later in the car. Whew! Needless to say, even my clean clothes were tossed in the washer. When I told Elyse about it, she said she noticed the smell on her clothes when she flew back from Ireland a few weeks ago. Maybe it was the fumes from the heaters in my apartment? Who can know...

There's not much else to say about the great ol' Land of Eire. The Heritage department emailed me one of my class projects, and I have to get on it as soon as possible so I can send it back to be graded. Things are still so busy though, I hope I can find the time to get it all done! Though I will no longer be writing on this blog regularly, please stay tuned in the next couple of weeks for updates... I'm sure I'll come up with more to say.