Spring break, part one

I realize there’s a lot that needs to be written about; Florence and Rome being two of the most important, but we’re going to jump ahead to Spring break and then go back to those two cities later on, okay?  This is going to be at LEAST a two parter, probably more so that you don't have to digest it all at once!
I’ll start with Germany.  For the past two weeks, I’d had a continuous fever, so I wasn’t feeling that great when we were going to the airport for Spring break.  This black girl sat next to me as we were waiting for our flight and as I took out my Bible, she saw it and asked if I was reading the Bible.  I told her I was and we get to talking; turns out that she’s a Christian who lives in London and was visiting Venice for the weekend.  Her name was Abisola and this is the two of us together

Well, Ttea and I got on our flight, bound for Frankfurt.  I felt okay until we lifted off and then my head instantly hurt more than I ever know that it could.  The pressure in my forehead/eyes/nose was so bad that I spent the entire flight praying that I would die.  I’ve never selt such pressure before; mercifully, the flight was short and only took forty minutes instead of an hour and ten.  (I didn’t find much of it very merciful at the time, I’ll admit)  When we arrived, it hurt to open my eyes, talk, hear, and move.  I left the runway holding Ttea’s arm, with my eyes closed.  We sat and waited for her friend, Jesse, to pick us up and when he finally did, I fell asleep in the car.  We went to bed the second we got back to Jesse and Jessica’s house, and although I was exhausted, I had a fever all night and shivered my way through till morning.

The next day, I woke up and my head was even worse and so was my fever.  It hurt to stand up or sit down because of the switch of levels.  I went to church service with the girls anyway and it was a lot like church service at home.  When I got back to the Aiduk’s house in Otterberg though, I felt about twenty times worse.  I spent most of the day crying, feverish, and in a lot of pain.  I managed to sleep a little, huddled by the heater.  I don’t remember ever feeling that miserable in my life!  (I’m not saying all of this so that you’ll feel sorry for me, but at the end, you’ll see how good our Father is!!!)

Jess and Jesse live off-base, but Jesse works for the airforce and so I could call home for free.  I didn’t want to worry my parents, but I was in so much pain that I just called my dad and cried.  I described how I felt and I hold him there was no way I could get back on a plane and fly to Dublin the next day.  Dad listened and said it sounded like I had a sinus infection and that flying had aggravated it.  I gave the phone to Ttea so she could write down the names of the medicines I needed; the problem was that nothing in Germany is open on Sundays, so I couldn’t get antibiotics until the next day.  Jesse was able to go to base and at least get me some decongestants so that I could hopefully get on a plane without my head exploding.By the time the drugs kicked in on Sunday night it was late, but I called my family back so I could talk to them without bawling this time.  I got to talk to almost everyone and I was on the phone for almost an hour and that was such a comfort to me!  After I hung up with them, I called Christina and left her a voicemail; it was probably a good thing that she didn’t pick up because just hearing her inbox message made me cry!

I woke up the next morning and Ttea asked how I felt and I promptly burst into tears.  It hurt so bad to move at all; we all walked to a local bakery and I guess the food was good, but it tasted like chalk to me.  I got packed up and we left for the airport; my head got better, but once Jess and Ttea dropped me off, it got worse.  I got checked in and took meds as I waited in line.  Even sitting in the plane, my head was throbbing and I just prayed that my head would be okay during the flight.  We took off and I was fine!!  I actually slept for most of the flight and woke up about fifteen minutes before we landed.  (God’s mercy is shown here yet again!!)

When we dipped down from the sunshine and into the gray mist of Ireland, I could see green fields everywhere; I cried as I finally understood the forty shades of green.  I felt at home for the first time since I had left the States.  The more I saw, the more I fell in love.  We landed in Dublin and I managed to find my way around the enormous airport.  I asked a security guard where to find the bus terminal and he spoke my language with a Dublin accent and it was such a relief to not have to muddle my way through a foreign language with a hurting head!  I went through passport control and the nice man gave me a green stamp on my passport!!  (My smile was huge at that point; I know y’all are surprised.)  I waltzed out to the bus station, but I had an hour and a half until my bus left, so I sat down to eat, journal, and enjoy a new country.

When it was time, I headed off to the bus stop and the sweet driver took care of me and I found a seat rather easily.  I was determined to stay awake until we had at least left Dublin, and I did.  We drove behind a Guinness truck at one point and it made me think of my dad and my granddad.

It was pouring rain as we drove and so I quickly fell asleep after we got out of Dublin.  I got off the bus around 9:15pm, which would have been 10:15pm in Italy; since daylight savings hadn’t hit yet, it would have only been 4:15pm for all of you back in the States.  Anyway, I was really tired after the three hour ride to Galway, but when I stepped off of the bus, I was suddenly wide awake.  I asked for directions to my hostel and walked the four blocks to it.  When I checked in and the nice man heard my name, he handed me a message with Alvan’s number on it that said, “Mikaela to call Alvan.”  So after I settled in, I gave him a ring and much to my relief, we got along on the phone.  (We hadn’t seen each other since 2007 and even then we didn’t really hang out.)  He asked if I was tired and I wasn’t at that point, so he asked if I wanted to go talk and I said yep!

In a half-hour, Alvan met me outside my hostel and gave me a hug; I knew then that we were going to get along!  He walked me down to a little French restaurant and I had a salad that was huge!!!  It even had a boiled egg on it!  Vegetables had never tasted so good as they did at that moment in time.  Anyway, we got to know each other and talked about what we were going to do the next day.  We decided that we’d meet at 8am, get breakfast, and then go on a tour of the Aran Islands.  After dinner, Alvan walked me home and I went to bed around midnight.

When I went to bed, I was the only one in my eight-bed mixed dorm.  At three am, five of my roommates waltzed in.  They were plastered and the guy walked in yelling, “NO!”, really loudly.  I just lay there, not awake enough to make my presence known.  When they finally realized I was there, they were like, “Oh, crap!  Someone’s trying to sleep!!”.  Then they tried to be quiet, but drunks trying to be quiet are just hilarious!  I lay there biting my lip so that I didn’t laugh, but then one of the girls couldn’t find the bathroom light switch and as I decided it was time to offer them some advice.
I gave up on my whole idea of sleep and told them that the light switch was behind the bunk bed; to this, I was met by loud variations of, “OH, CRAP”.  They all apologized profusely for waking me up by I just told them it was fine, because it was.  I had expected my roommates to be out late in Ireland!  As they were getting ready for bed, it turned out that the guy was sleeping on my bottom bunk and so when he stands up, his head is just level with mine as I’m lying in bed.  Being quite a jolly man for three in the morning, he asks where I’m from and what my name is and all of the necessary early morning questions that you ask a stranger.  After he introduced himself, he ended up shaking my hand, which would have been quite comical if you could have seen it because I was lying down, half asleep, and Kevin was shaking my hand across my bed.  Oh, the most interesting things happen in hostels!!  We all ended up staying awake till at least four am and chatting and cracking jokes, which I thoroughly enjoyed.  Of course, I was supposed to get up at 6:45 to shower, but since I couldn’t fall asleep until 6:15, I set my alarm for 7:30 and skipped the whole cleanly aspect for the day.

Right, well it's time for class so I must end here for the moment; I apologize at the lack of pictures, but there will be a plethora later, I promise!