I am currently sitting in the Portland airport, waiting to fly back to NY. It’s 5:30 am… flight leaves at 7:40. At this point I’m pretty ready to go to sleep, having not slept at all.
It’s interesting the difference a year makes. Last year I had the craziest, and probably worst, week of my life – many finals, little sleep, and packing up my entire dorm room into storage and two giant suitcases to trek back across the country, and 2 weeks later to Ireland.
This year, on the other hand, I finished all schoolwork and finals on Monday night. I spent most of Tuesday lying in bed sleeping and watching tv. The past two days have mostly involved working at my job in the library (data entry, but I listen to NPR podcast, so it’s actually not bad), as well as a trip to Hawthorne to get my hair cut, then the linguistics holiday party at my prof’s house. Then this evening was all packing… and even though I didn’t get any sleep, it was a pretty relaxed packing experience. I mean, I was done early enough that I got to enjoy a cup of tea and wash some tv before I had to leave.
Amazing the difference a year can make… and not just in terms of stress levels or amount of sleep. Saying goodbye when you’re only going to be gone for a month is much different than leaving for 9 months. This time around I’m going back to NY for 4 weeks… more than the amount of time I’ve spent there over the past year in total. And there’s no preparing to head off to a whole new continent. Instead I’m making lists of things to do to make sure I don’t get too bored over break. In the span of 1 day (Tuesday) of not doing anything I got bored… what am I supposed to do for 4 weeks?! (Oh, I know… doctors appointments. 6, in fact. That’s what I get for being home for 4 weeks – enough time to see multiple doctors. Oh joy.)
There are times when I miss Cork more than I can actually fathom. I think all my friends are tired of hearing about “in Cork I did this” “in Cork things worked like so” etc. There are more things that I miss than I can count or describe, and some of the things I miss I can’t even really put into words. Yet at the same time I know if I went back there right now it would be wonderful, but I’d also miss Portland. Sadly I can’t have both… 6,000 miles of separation is a lot.
Anyway, to conclude (as it’s about time for me to go through security (fun times) and get to my gate: 4 weeks in New York… definitely different than my winter break of a year ago, but an adventure none the less. Just a different kind of adventure.
The River Lee & Georges Quay/Father Matthew Quay, Cork
