Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Finding home

When we were in Madrid an Irish guy we met there said that he was traveling around with his friends and found that Madrid just fit him, and he never left. At first I didn't understand, how could you know that you would want to stay in one place after one visit? Love at first sight when concerning a city was not something I had encountered before. Until I went to Dublin.

As soon as I got off the plane I could feel it. The smell of damp ground and barley from the brewerys, the consistant smile on the faces of the Irish, well, it's just hard not to fall in love. I felt nothing but pride, happiness, and acceptance in the people of Dublin. No anomosity for tourists, just a gracious hospitality in every pub we went to. And we went to a lot.

in all I think we went to 10 different pubs, and in each one I had one or more pints of beer. I'm pretty sure I drank every hour, it was awesome. We went to the guinness storehouse and the national museaum and just generally walked around the wet streets and the beautiful parks. A full but generally tiring weekend as most of the time we had to walk a half mile from place to place in near freezing weather, something we're not used to in Rome.

This weekend I'm going to Paris again to visit my Emily. We're going to have a double date!! There is seriously nothing that I would like more to be on a double date in Paris.

On the much more relavant subject of my actual life in Rome, things are going really well. School is fine, though I know work is going to explode on me in a matter of weeks. And I've made some really good friends here. I have a routine and favorite foods, I know the streets, and the way to get around all of the obstacles of a day in rome(like CONSTANT transportation strikes, monsoons, and creepy men following you).it's strange to say it, but Rome is beginning to feel like home, and not a foreign country.

1 comment:

Emily McKnight said...

home? Im looking forward to going to my home and seeing more of yours in Oakland. Ive never been to Dublin, but your experience does tempt me to go. It sounds a little bit like Northern England where I went for the arch dig. Much more of a populace though compared to 2,000...

beer, gross. :)