Final Essay

Hello everyone! This post is a copy of a draft of an essay I wrote for the "Language, Literature, and Culture" course I am taking. Our final assessment is an essay and we were given the options of these five titles:

1. 'What is different about Ireland, if anything?'
2. Preconceived perceptions and present realities.
3. Studying in Ireland
4. The things that have really annoyed me here
5. Does Irish literature reflect Irish society?

I chose to use #4. The essay needs to be between 2000-25000 words, so sorry this post is a bit lengthy. I hope you still enjoy it!

Having been in Ireland for almost three months now, I have, of course, experienced a few rather annoying things. Cold showers, bad coffee, rainy weather, and homesickness have all been dealt with and I am a better person for it, I like to think. Perhaps the most annoying portion of my study abroad experience was the actual journey to it. Nothing seemed to go as planned and annoyance after annoyance kept occurring. It may have been difficult to deal with and it was not the way I envisioned beginning my trip to Ireland, but looking back now, I am glad the most annoying part of my trip was the very start of it. After that, things had no choice but to get better, and that is exactly what they did.

A few days before I left my home of Weymouth, Massachusetts my aunt gave me a gift. It was a lovely and simple bracelet with only five beads on it. Three of them were adorned with Celtic designs. The tag on the bracelet informed me that my new item of jewellery would bring me good luck wherever I went. Perhaps the bracelet should have come with further instructions because that luck took a bit of time to warm up and actually start working. Although I wore it during my entire trip from home to Ireland, it did not seem to have any effect on stopping any problem that sprung up as I made my way to Cork.

Snow in Virginia is not a common occurrence. Of course though, record snowfall would begin and continue long after my college roommate, best friend, and study abroad companion Lindsay, left Washington Dulles International Airport on New Year’s Eve day. She was flying to Logan Airport in Boston where we would meet and fly together to Dublin. From Dublin we would then take a bus to Cork. Although the snow was certainly not a sign of good luck, Lindsay’s flight did take off despite less than ideal weather conditions and land safely in Boston.

The forecast in the Boston area also called for snow. Where was that good luck? Thankfully, the meteorologists were predicting snowfall in the late evening through the night. Go figure, they were wrong. The fat, fluffy flakes began descending as my parents and I headed into Boston in the early afternoon. It seemed like with each mile we drove the flakes came down a bit faster. I began my mantra of, “Please don’t cancel our flight, please don’t cancel our flight.”

My parents and I picked Lindsay up from the arrival area for domestic flights and then headed to the departure area for international flights. We unloaded our luggage, two large items of luggage for each of us, one carry-on for myself, and two for Lindsay who had had an issue with overweight suitcases at Dulles that was resolved by adding a second carry-on stuffed with jeans and other heavy clothing items. My mom and dad came with us into the airport to make sure we checked into our flight without any problems and to wave to us from the other side of security once we made it through.

The snow was still falling and there was no indication of it stopping. We were hours early for our flight but managed to entertain ourselves without too many spouts of boredom. Both Lindsay and myself were worried about the future of our snowy lift-off but tried to remain positive. I was wearing my new bracelet and although I was a bit annoyed that it was not working too well, I still had faith that things could turn themselves around.

Finally we were allowed to board the plane. My plan to sleep during the entire flight was abandoned when I found out I could watch great movies instead. Things were going smoothly until the pilot came on the intercom to tell us we would be rerouting to Shannon. Snowfall in Dublin meant we were unable to land there as planned until it was cleared. Not a big deal, I thought. The pilot reassured us that it should not take more than an hour before we would be allowed to land in Dublin. Wrong, more bad luck and annoyance begins now.

After about forty-five minutes had passed the pilot made another announcement: “We’re still here.” Really? Was it an announcement to let us know that we had not been left stranded without a pilot in the aircraft or was it an announcement for those passengers who might possibly have been disillusioned into thinking they were actually in Dublin? He also told us there was no response from anyone in Dublin about when or even if we would be allowed to land. Our luck just kept improving.

At this point I decided it would be best if I tried to get some sleep. I did doze a little but unfortunately I was wide-awake for when the cabin air-conditioning had to be switched off in order to de-ice the plane. Gradually the temperature began to rise and as time went by I began peeling off layers and fidgeting off my shoes, all well trying not to wake Lindsay who was out like a light in the seat next to me. She woke up not long after the air-conditioning was put back on. When I told her about what she had missed she replied with, “Hmmm, I thought it was getting warm in here.”

The bad luck kept coming. Our next announcement from the pilot was the information that if we were not allowed to head towards Dublin soon, his legal flying time would expire. He would only be allowed to lift-off in the next half hour before laws and regulations would require him to rest before flying again. With no word from anyone at Dublin Airport about the conditions of the runways, things were not looking too good for our flight.

The thirty minutes of our pilot’s remaining flying time seemed to go by about as quickly as molasses moving uphill in the winter. Finally, the announcement was made; Shannon would be the flight’s final stop. Moans and groans were heard all over the plane. Trying to look on the bright side, Lindsay and I discussed the fact that this was not a terrible thing. We could at least get off the plane soon if we were not going to fly to Dublin. Wrong again, more bad luck is coming.

Shannon Airport was a ghost town. It was around 8:00am and no one was at work. Apparently no early flights were scheduled to leave or depart the airport and our arrival was certainly unexpected. Due to security reasons, we were not allowed to get off of the airplane and enter the airport until staff arrived. While some other passengers chose to complain, rather loudly, Lindsay and I could not help but laugh about the situation we were in. Yes, it was annoying that no one was working at the airport, but the two of us agreed that neither of us would enjoy having to be at any job that early.

Lindsay and I decided to make ourselves as comfortable as possible and enjoy more in-flight television and movies. We sat on the airplane for another hour before hearing from the pilot. Around 9:00am he began to make another announcement over the intercom. This had to be it, the news we were all waiting for, that we could get off of the plane! No. “Still no sign of anyone working in the airport yet”, he told us with a sad tone in his voice.

This was becoming more and more of a comical experience. Yes, it was annoying that we had been sitting on a plane for almost three hours without actually going anywhere, but honestly, it is a bit humorous that at 9:00am the only people who had showed up for work at the airport were members of the cleaning staff. It was New Year’s Day though, so perhaps a late evening the night before was the explanation for why everyone showed up late to work that day.

Employees began to arrive around 9:15am and at that time the pilot made the announcement, sounding a bit more chipper than earlier, that we would be able to disembark soon! Cheers and applause filled the plane. We still sat for almost a half hour before people at the front of the plane were allowed to get off. Lindsay and I finally stood up to gather our belongings and walk to an exit. At last, we were off of the plane and setting foot in Ireland! All that was left to do was to get to Cork and to our apartment, easier said than done.

I was hoping the rest of our travels for the day would go more smoothly. After getting through customs and picking up our luggage we made our way to the bus stop outside of the airport. We had bought our tickets, checked the number of the bus to Cork as well as its departure time. How could things go wrong? Our luck had to be improving, right?

The bus pulled up not long after we got to the stop and we loaded, with some difficulty, our luggage on to it. All systems were go until we handed our tickets to the bus driver only to be informed that the bus was going to Galway, not Cork. Off we went and scrambled to grab our luggage before the doors to the stow-away area began to close and the bus pulled out leaving us in the middle of the street. We wheeled our bags back into the airport with our heads hanging low, checked the schedule once again, and sat for another hour waiting for the right bus.

We did manage to eventually get on the correct bus and although both Lindsay and myself tried to stay awake during the ride, we could not help but sleep through most of the trip. We arrived in Cork around 3:00pm and had absolutely no idea where anything was located, including our apartment. We were not allowed to move in until 6:00pm anyways so we decided to find some place to sit and eat something. Having forgotten that it was New Year’s Day, we wondered why everything was closed until we remembered that it was a holiday.

Lindsay and I were running out of hope and energy when we stumbled upon a McDonald’s that was open. Our first meal in Ireland was McDonald’s apple pie, quite a ways away from authentic Irish food. We ordered our pies and coffee off of the “Euro-saver” menu and felt that our measly purchases still entitled us to occupy a booth there for close to three hours, which we did. When it was getting close to 6:00pm we decided to leave the fine dining establishment and find a taxi to take us to our apartment on Brandon Road.

There is no Brandon Road in Cork. Although we fought this issue with our taxi driver he assured us that we actually lived on Bandon Road and that is where he would take us. Turns out, once again, we had the wrong information; at least we ended up at the right place. The warden of the apartment units signed us in, gave us keys, and showed us our apartment. He also came back a few minutes later to turn the water heater on for us, although it did not really make much of an improvement.

The heaters in our five-bedroom apartment had been off for weeks and both Lindsay’s and my own bedroom were freezing. We were exhausted and wanted desperately to fall asleep so we put on as many layers as we could and ended up sleeping side by side in an attempt to make the most out of body heat. Our sleep was restless to say the least and the next morning we were too tired to do much of anything. If we had not run out of our supply of granola bars, we may not have ever left our apartment.

Things got better gradually. We went back to city centre and got our bearings a bit more. We found a grocery store and by the time we came back to our apartment, it had warmed up substantially. A few days later our three other apartment-mates arrived and not long after that classes began. Our lives began to fall into a routine that was enjoyable. We did not have to worry about rerouted flights, getting on the wrong bus, or having to sleep in freezing bedrooms.

Lindsay and I began to travel around Ireland, meet new people, and I have had the time of my life while studying abroad here. The annoyances I experienced at the beginning of my trip seem incredibly insignificant when I compare them to all of the amazing places I have seen and the wonderful friends I have made. I am not sure whether my bracelet actually is lucky or not, but I know for certain, that I am lucky to have had such a great time, with so few annoyances, in Ireland.