Climbing Mountains and Making Friends

      Like most people with a normal human anatomy, I’m not a morning person. I hate the sound of alarm clocks, being groggy-eyed, and I only like seeing the sun rise if I haven’t gone to sleep yet. This is why when we had a 6:30am flight Friday morning from Dublin to Edinburgh, Becca and I made the decision to just not go to sleep. By Thursday night we still hadn’t booked a hotel or packed, so once that was taken care of we headed towards Grafton for a few drinks. When we were still down town at 3am and had 5am alarm clocks set, there was no point in putting ourselves through all the early morning misery just for a 2 hour cat nap.

      Despite sitting middle seat, I passed out before our brightly colored Ryan Air plane even took off. A short hour later and a drooling Remi in my lap, I was awoken by the flight attended as we approached Edinburgh. We took a cab to the hotel and sweet talked our way into an early check-in to catch up on sleep before sight-seeing. 5 hours later, we were more than rested and put on our work out clothes and tennis shoes. First thing on the agenda: hiking Arthur’s Seat.

      Approximately 4 minutes into the hike with the street still in very close distance behind, we were already taking water breaks and complaining about being out of breath. My realization of just how out of shape I was became apparent when I was being passed by perfectly un-sweaty senior citizens. Why don’t they have 24-hour fitness’ in Dubin?

A little farther up the hill we stopped to take a picture of a decent mid-way view. When a woman approached us asking if we’d like one of all 3 of us together, she had no idea what she was getting herself into. We made small talk, and she was an attorney for an oil company in Dubai, originally from D.C. She was in her mid-thirties and seemed to have a very interesting life. We climbed the rest of the way, 830ft to the top, and shared our bottles of wine while talking amidst the gorgeous view of the city. We arranged to meet back up with Jaque for dinner and drinks later on. She made reservations at a well-known pub and we spent our night getting life advice while she told us about her experiences and lessons she’s learned since college.

The next day we went to the Edinbugh castle, did a bus tour, and Remi dragged us to one of those dungeon things where they were stage make-up and attempt to scare you on a 3 mph boat ride through a dark warehouse. We met back up with Jaque at a famous bar called Three Sisters for another night out with our new friend. She reminded me of my older cousins – older and more mature, but still in touch with her college girl ways. Looking through pictures on the way home, I realized this was what travelling is all about. You meet amazing people all around the world whom you would’ve never talked to in a local restaurant or shopping at a store. Jaque shared some valuable wisdom with us and is probably someone I’ll never forget meeting. Our weekend in Scotland was my favorite so far, and I look forward to making many more new friends this summer that will inevitably have impacts on my life.

3 of us climbing Arthur's Seat

With Jaque at dinner 

Another Day, Not Another Dollar

I’m sitting at work with the realization, once again, that I really have no intention of getting a desk job for the rest of my life. This internship is far better than Aramco last summer since I’m actually working on things pertaining to my major, but focusing on a computer screen all day and only leaving your seat for lunch break, bathroom break, or water break is not the life I desire. Although I did get to work on some interesting and fun stuff for a facebook campaign this week. I got to make up hypothetical facebook groups and interests that would be categorized with a given stereotypes. I also made slogan and status updates for various company’s facebook pages. I worked over time, didn’t take lunch breaks, and even enjoyed the long hours of being creative and researching funny blogs for ideas. 

But the days flip back and forth from busy to not, and a boring day is more frustrating than annoying because I hate wasting a day in an office when I’m in a foreign country. Adventure, travel, and excitement is what I want to do with the years I’m here, and that realization has been highlighted this summer on Thursdays through Sundays.  Traveling livens me up, and waking up early to catch a flight beats the hell out of waking up early to sit at my desk. I know you gotta start at the bottom of the food chain before you get to the big stuff, but I was cleaning out closets and scanning contracts last summer, so can we skip to the business trips and all that good stuff now? 

You Know You're A Tourist When...

It’s 6:30 am and you’re asking directions to the immigration office, then pointed towards a line wrapping 2 blocks back behind a dull gray building. Maybe not on the typical tourist agenda, but definitely not feeling like a true Dubliner. At the time, I was illegally in the country after holding off on this tedious errand a few too many days past my expired visa date. I was a little pissed off at the fact that I was the only one in the program with this visa problem to begin with, since nobody else had difficulties coming through immigration. I guess the large Saudi Arabian visa stapled to the outside of my passport could’ve been a red flag coming through customs.

This place was far worse than the Houston DPS. If you've never been to the Houston DPS, just know it was a real dump with an operating system that had to have been invented by a retard. After waiting in the line of immigrants for 30 minutes, arguing with the woman that I did not need a student visa just a regular tourist one, and pushing through crowds to get a seat, I was finally sitting down and not in the best mood. Perhaps it was the mere fact of where I was… or maybe that the bus nazi took away my bus card 30 minutes before because I didn’t have the proper student ID to have the student bus card, and that the University of Alabama ID I showed him would not suffice. I was making fast enemies with the public officials of this country and was facing being deported all in one morning. I needed a Starbucks ASAP.

My number was finally called, and my prayer of staying in the country was answered when I walked up to the assigned booth to see a sweet little old man. Unlike the crazy lady I first dealt with, and the man at customs who got me into this situation to begin with, this man was understanding and kind and happily changed my information in the system to let me stay until August 6^th. My bus card may be gone, but my visa is back! Starbucks here I come…I’ll just have to get there on foot.