Introduction: Getting It Together and Going

Here I am in Ireland, sitting pretty in the beautiful Harrington Hall. I haven't slept in many hours and my hands are fumbling, struggling to type this out. Bear with this first post. It's been a LONG two days, and needless to say, quite the adventure. My mom and I set out for Dublin with nothing but one-way tickets and our backpacks, the travails of the past few days weighing heavily on our shoulders (the 60 pound backpacks withstanding). Haha, what if I seriously wrote like that? I would have to shoot myself in the face.

To start off, let's look at a few interesting moments over the last few days:

1. I bungled the original flight reservations resulting in lost tickets. I maintain American Airlines led me astray (how can they talk about penalty fees if they haven't charged me yet?!), but I'll take responsibility. Trip around the world = scrapped.
2. My mom needed medication for the trip and the insurance wouldn't pay for it. They finally paid for it but we didn't get enough. Have you ever tried getting through security with 50 pre-filled syringes in a backpack?
   
3. How do you pack for six weeks in a backpack?
   
4. The ride to LA was late due to the driver's previous client having a heart attack on the way to the airport. Bummerski.
   
5. We would have missed our flight if not for an Aer Lingus flight attendant rescuing us from the security line. We made it 5 minutes before take off. Keep in mind we had been waiting in the lounge for over an hour because we were told we would be escorted through security due to our "premier status" (remember, pinkies out). That would have been fine had we not lost our escort on the way to security.
6. My mom had a crisis at work the day we were leaving and of course left her computer's plane charger in a checked bag. Blast! So much for 10 hours to get some work done. At least the plane had some quality in-flight entertainment like Eragon ... and Wild Hogs.

Packing actually wasn't so bad once I got the system down.

Step 1.) You start off with all your crap strewn all over the floor:















Step 2.) ?















Step 3.) Profit! (Yes, that's all the stuff I brought with me.)
















AND WE ARRIVE! Too bad I have no clue about digital cameras. I had the aperture at 2 times regular size and some macro something-or-other set at ungodly levels. Most of our pictures from the first day look like this...