For Sharon

It was a 6 hour flight. I had orange juice when the lady first came around. I watched all three NCIS: Las Vegas episodes (it's quite good for a spin off. I'm pleased) and ate some Oreos and fell asleep before they came round again. They were offering dinner that time, but I declined. I wasn't hungry and airplane food is icky. I slept on and off for most of the flight. I didn't have breakfast on the plane either, though they offered that too. As we got closer, I woke up and looked out the window. It was pitch black because we were still over the ocean. Later I heard some girls saying how scary it was to look out and only see black, but I thought it was nice. Then we dropped into some clouds and everything was gray and foggy looking for a couple minutes. Underneath the clouds there still wasn't much to see. There were scattered lights, but no huge lit up areas like even the smallest US cities. It looked like there were streamers of tulle attached to the plane wings and I immediately thought of Sharon. I watched them for a while, because there wasn't much else to look at and then we were landing. It was bumpier landing than I'd had so far.

On the ground, I put my wool coat, my hat and my scarf all back on. We had landed about 15 minutes late, I think (we were supposed to get in at 6:45 am, and it was at least 7). It took a while to get off the plane. The airport was absolutely empty when we got into it. We had to go down at least four escalators to get to customs. There was a long line, or queue as it would be called here, in front of the two elderly men who were there to let us into the country. They had everyone who wasn't a student go through first. There were at least 70 (maybe more, maybe less, I'm awful at estimating numbers of people) of us left. Professor Petersen and her family waited a little longer, but after 45 minutes of so they decided to skip up the line. Professor Petersen stopped to tell me that she'd try to keep the cab driver from leaving. I don't know what took so long but I waited over two hours in line to get through customs. All I could see was that the men were looking at papers and taking pictures and typing on their computers. Finally, there were 15 or so people in front of me. Another flight had just landed and the line behind us had gotten really long. One of the men let everyone from the EU go through. All the other people had to wait behind us though and I wasn't last in line. Some decision seemed to be made because all of a sudden, the line started moving a lot faster. I got up to the window and I gave the man my letter and my passport. He asked if I had proof of insurance and of finance. I gave him my insurance card and told him I was going to open an Irish bank account. In a monotone voice he told me I had to have proof of finance 30 days from right then. I said okay and he gestured me through. I scrambled to get all my stuff and get out of the way. I went to get my checked bags and walked through customs. A bored looking man gestured me through a green gateway (meaning I didn't have anything to declare).

I came out and looked around frantically for my cab driver hoping and praying he wasn't gone yet. I didn't see him in front of me and as I turned to my left a man leaning against a counter was saying, “Unless this is her. Are you looking for me?” I started to say maybe and he waved a paper at me that said my name on it. I said yes. He took me out to his cab and helped me put my bags in the back. I almost walked around to the wrong side to get in the front seat, but remembered at the last minute that the driver sits on the other side. We started driving and he was telling me how he didn't expect it to take so long and that he had been working all night and had been about to leave when I came out. I don't think he meant to make me feel bad, I think he was just talking because he was so amazed. I apologized and explained what I could see. We listened to a CD by, I think he said her name was Kylie Minogue (or something like that) for part of the way. I recognized one of the songs. Apparently she's Australian. His CD was well-loved because it kept skipping. We were quiet for long stretches while I just enjoyed looking out the window. It was gray outside so nothing got a particularly flattering light, but it was still fun to look at. The houses were cute. I noticed that his name was John Conroy. Partially because I felt bad for making him wait, because the silence was awkward and because I was genuinely curious I came up with questions to ask him. I asked him about the signs on the side of the road, the weather and the we talked about bikes. I also told him a little about what Oregon is like in comparison to Galway. He was nice about it all and seemed glad to talk to me whenever I came up with a question or a comment. His name was John Conroy. It made me smile in a wry sort of way every time we passed a business I'd see at home. I saw McDonald's, Texaco, Subway, a Best Western (or some big hotel chain like that. It might not've been that one in particular) and a movie theater with all American movies in it.

Mr Conroy took me all the way to Gort na Coiribe and even waited while I ran into the office to see if I was in the right place/if I could get a key to my apartment, which was more than he needed to do, particularly since I was two hours later than I was supposed to be (we got there at 10:45 am). The reception people were nice and helpful. They gave me a key and showed me where my apartment was. Mr Conroy helped me get my bags to the door before driving off. I dragged everything inside and went to my room. I was the first person there and my room is a double so I picked the bed and the desk by the window. I started unpacking just enough to take a shower, which was what I wanted most in the world at that point.

Not bad for my first time flying alone, eh? I made it all the way to Galway, even if it was only through pure luck at the end.

Newark

I made it to Newark okay. Now I know why international planes take extra time to clean. They're a lot bigger than domestic planes. Instead of three seats on one side, an aisle and three seats on the other side it was two seats by the window, an aisle, four seats, another aisle and two more seats by the opposite windows. Everyone got their own, albeit old and grainy screens. There were a couple different things to watch and games to play. You could even shop on the plane. Originally I was seated by a (I'm guessing) late middle aged woman who seemed a little not-all-there. I walked up to her and said hello and she just looked at me for a minute before she moved aside to let me into my seat. They finished boarding and there were empty seats everywhere. The lady next to me moved up to the next set of two seats and I spread out a little. I tried watching something, but got bored really quickly. I played Blackjack for a while, but that didn't entertain me for very long either. I ended up using the extra space to try and make it more comfortable to sleep.

Becase of the cleaning and people being slow about boarding, we were a little late getting in, but since I had a 7 hour layover, it wasn't a big deal. I got off the plane and headed to the gate that my boarding pass said I needed to go to. I spent a while just collapsed in a chair trying to decide if I was hungry and just letting my mind drift. It was noon and my flight didn't leave until 7:40 pm so it wasn't showing on the departure boards. I ended up getting thirsty and going in search of a Coke. I thought about getting something to eat, but I wasn't hungry. I played with my computer for a while but the wi-fi options were not promising. There was an unprotected network my computer couldn't connect to, AndroidAP and Boingo. I already knew that Boingo was a rip off after Houston. They only let me have 45 minutes for free (which is why the Houston post wasn't up yesterday when I wrote it) before they kicked me off and everything went super slow. AndroidAP worked really well for a little while but then it just disappeared. My computer couldn't find it anymore. I gave up and went to sleep. I explored a little at some point (it's all gotten jumbled in my head) but didn't find anything too interesting to look at. I found a more complete departure board and saw that there was only one flight to Shannon posted that day and it was leaving at 7:25, not 7:40 like my pass said and from C134 instead of C71. But, one of the airlines it flashed with the posting was Continental and 25, which was my flight number. After waiting a couple more hours and confirming that on other boards, I wandered out that way.



My actual gate, once it was showing my flight.



Looking back towards where I ate.

When I got to C134 the gate was still full of people waiting to go to San Francisco at 5:45. C135 shared the seating area and their flight at 5 to Orange County was way late boarding and so was San Francisco. Around 6 I talked to Griff and he told me I needed to eat something. He made me want a hamburger so I went in search of one. No luck so I settled for terriyaki chicken, steamed vegetables and rice. It was hard balancing my food and drink with my two coats and two bags and scarf. There was a pushy foreign lady who ordered after I did and jumped the line of people waiting for their food to grab one. I ended up sitting next to her and the guy in the eating area. They were kind of loud. Once I got down eating  I went back over to my gate. I found empty seats and pulled out my camera. I took a couple picture of my gate and one of my panda hat and then I settled down to start writing. I got a couple of sentences in before Professor Petersen found me. I'd been keeping my eyes open for her all day, but I was starting to wonder since I hadn't seen them yet. She sat down with me and we talked about the holidays and Bend and family and Harry Potter and where we wanted to go once we got to Europe. I like her a lot and I'm looking forward to taking her class. I'm glad she found me. It made me feel a little better to know someone else was going the same place as me.

My gate.

7 pm came and went and we still hadn't started boarding. I didn't get on the plane until 7:30, five minutes after we were supposed to have taken off. It was supposed to be a full flight so I expected to be squished into my seat. I was two rows from the back of the plane. It wasn't as big as the one I'd flown to Newark in, but the individual screens were much nicer. I sat down in the window seat because I was the first of the three in my row to get there. A little while later an elderly man (I think he was Irish, but I couldn't be sure and I never got up the guts to ask) was moved to my row in the aisle seat (apparently he had the wrong seat twice before). No one came to sit between us. Until we were actually in the air, I was sure someone was going to appear and sit there. It was nice to have the extra seat. The elderly man put his carry on under that seat instead so he could have somewhere to put his feet and I put my coats and hat and scarf into the seat so I could have my lap free. We finally took off probably around 8 pm.

My panda hat, mentioned in the Houston blog post.

Houston

The adventure begins! Griff drove me to PDX on January 2nd (earlier today for me still...). I got my boarding passes and checked my bags with Continental Airlines. I had to pay $50 for my second checked bag, but I expected that. Griff and I said goodbye outside security, and I managed not to cry just yet. I miss him already though. : (



Since my first two flights are domestic flights, I haven't been through international security yet and I didn't end up going out to the international terminal.  While I was waiting to get on my flight I got another compliment on my panda hat (a Christmas present from Griff that I will take a picture of later). I've gotten about 8 compliments on it so far. Apparently it's a good conversation starter. ^_^ On the plane I sat next to two elderly women. The plane was pretty nice, they played a movie and TV shows for most of the flight. I watched some of the movie (Guardians of Ga'hoole) but I couldn't plug in my headphones because the elderly woman who was right next to me (I sat on the aisle) put up the armrest that had the headphone jack on it. Probably wasn't a bad thing all told though because it meant I actually slept some. I woke back up when they turned the screens back on to play TV shows. After that I just played Solitaire and waited. We landed on time, a couple minutes early even, I got off the plane and found my next gate without too much trouble.

Across from my gate in Houston

My gate in Houston.



I was hungry so I decided to try The Little Creamery instead of waiting in the massive line for Starbucks. I got a croissant with egg, cheese and ham on it and an iced mocha. It was pretty good. Now I'm sitting here at my gate, waiting for them to start boarding (it should be any minute now). Apparently my plane was an international plane so it's taking some extra time to clean.