On the 6th of January I left the states, to finally head home after 13 long months.
My friend Jo took me to the airport and after some confusion about which desk to go to I checked my bags in and set about getting through security. The passage through Detroit was pretty simply, very safety concious, more than even Chicago. Once through I just went ahead and found my gate. I was pretty damn early, but other than waiting around for a while, nothing much to tell.
Once on board I spent some time speaking to the woman who was sat next to me. I shared some of my experiences and it seems we had some of our travel destinations in common. She was in sales and would often travel by plane, so she racked up a great deal of travel miles. She then handed me a card which would allow me access to a flight lounge in any airport that might have that particular carrier. I found that to be super generous, but then she also helped me once I got off the plane. She took me to the lounge and checked me in and told me how to get to the other terminal for my flight. I was really taken aback by her generousity and I was really thankful too.
So I spent an hour or so in the lounge before I moved onto the next terminal. I found in the second terminal, once I had gotten through security that there was little to do and see. So I just made my way to the gate and then I bummed about until they called for us.
On board it was pretty full and I had someone next to me, but she was no trouble. We didn't talk, but at least she seemed to be nice enough and kept to herself. The flight was actually super fast. It only took 6 hours because we had a fantastic tail wind all the way. So I watched some films and tv and I tried to get some sleep, but it just didn't really happen.
I landed in Dublin with a tonne of time, so I just milled about in the big area in the main terminal. I got some food and then I headed on over to my gate. It appears though that I was checked through immigration here, which I suppose they can do since we are in the E.U. but I found it strange when I landed in the UK, that I was not checked.
My flight was super short as ever, from DUB to MAN it's only about a half hour in the air.
Then I was picjed up by my friend Mike's parents. There was some cafuffle about where they could park, but we got on our way eventually. Then it did not take long for me to enter the land of nod once I got back to their house.
A couple days later I finally headed home. The journey was less than eventful, apart from the fact that I discovered that travelling by train in the UK now is super expensive and also that one of the wheels on my bag had become broken, so I had to drag the bastard for a while till my mum showed up.
Finally, I am here now at my parent's house and that's just it. It sure as hell doesn't feel like my house. I look at all the stuff that I left behind and it just feels like someone else's stuff. I fell as though I am just staying over at a friend's house and I will be moving on soon. Hopefully this will change. But given the job market and the lack of responses from the teacher training programmes thus far it may appear that I will be going abroad to work again pretty soon...We shall see.
The followi
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