The trip I had been thinking about and planning for since October had finally arrived. My suitcase was packed the night before and I was ready to leave 15 min before I actually needed to. If you know me, this is pretty shocking as I am normally throwing wet clothes into my suitcase because they just came out of the washing machine. But that wasn't the case this time!
The team met on campus and then loaded the van and departed Messiah around 4pm. After a few stops, we arrived in Newark, NJ to catch our flight. Mom, Dad and Tyler came down to the airport to see us off. It was nice to see them even though it was only for a short while.
We made it through security without any problems and then started to head for the gate. We came upon one of those carts that drives people to the gate and one of the girls in our group (Amy) said how she wanted to "hijack" it and ride it to the gate. 2 lessons could be learned from this: 1. never say "hijack" in an airport and 2. you never know who is listening. The driver overheard and came over to us and offered us a ride. It was a quite humorous conversation that ended with all but 3 of the guys loading up this cart and being driven to the gate. This driver was crazy and almost hit a few people along the way, which lead Amy to scream "beep beep!" and "spring break!" to let everyone know we were coming and what we were doing. The trip had only just begun and we had already started to fulfill several American stereotypes. It was a hilarious ride that became the joke of the entire trip.
Our flight was uneventful and I slept for part of the time. 6 1/2 hours later, we touched down in N. Ireland! We met our wonderful hosts, Paul and Marina, and instantly fell in love with them. We loaded up the bus, which talks. Yes, this was a speaking school bus! Typcially when you reverse a larger vehicle it beeps, well, not this school bus! This bus actually says "STAND WELL CLEAR, VEHICLE REVERSING!". Not only does it say that, but it also says "please fasten seat belts!". So everywhere we went, we were heard.We went immediately to the house the girls would be staying in. One of the teachers gave her house up for the week for the girls to live in. She completely moved out and gave it to us who were practically strangers to her. This radical hospitality amazed me.
We moved in, choose beds and immediately crashed for the next several hours. It was so great to be able to take that time and just sleep and prepare for the week ahead.
(This is the outside of the house. We lived in the one on the right.)
(This is the view down the street. We lived at the end of the road.)After we woke up, we headed to Paul and Marina's house for dinner. Paul is an amazing chef and our stomachs were treated very well on this trip. After dinner we all hung out for a little while before finally returning to Jenny's house to go to bed.
(Paul and Marina's lovely country home!)It was a great first day full of many many laughs and meeting great people. The week had only just begun and I was just starting to see how amazing N. Ireland really is!
I wrote this in my journal on the first day and it was true throughout my time in N. Ireland. I never once regretted giving up my spring break and going on this trip. I had wondered when I applied for the trip if I would be sad that I wouldn't get a real spring break. But what I experienced was so far for this! I loved every second of my time there and I would do it again in a heartbeat!
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