Dublin

Back in the oul sod. Jet lagged. First impressions are that it's cold, but that the stretch in the evening makes up for it!

You are my substitute
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I was quite busy before leaving, because I had to do lesson plans for the two weeks, and also meet and discuss classes with my substitutes. Most of my classes are being taken by Joaquín. Two of the other lads are on visa runs this weekend, so it was substitution all around. My classes on English Horizons have been cancelled while I'm away.

Journey
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The journey was fine. There was a 5 hour flight to Newark, NJ. We had to divert slightly to avoid Katrina over Florida, so that added a little time. We thought that we'd run out of things to do in Newark during our 4 hour plus stopover, but in reality that just gave us time to go through immigration, customs and security, and then have a quick bite to eat before heading down to the gate.

PC Blues
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We might have made the journey home fine, but I'm afraid my PC didn't.We watched a pirate DVD of 'Batman Begins' on the flight, and I'm nots ure if that messed it up, but since we've arrived the PC won't work at all. I just get a blue screen with the message 'UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_VOLUME'. I've been on to Dell, and they say I might have to reinstall Windows. Which I think means I'll lose everything on the PC. My writing, my class tests, all our photographs, all Jack's music. I can't do anything until I get back, because the Windows discs are there. But I'm hoping against hope that I'll be able to salvage it.

First impressions
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First impressions of home ... It's very cold!! When we got off the plane it felt like we'd walked into strong air conditioning. There was just a blast of cold air. We came into town yesterday for a walk around. I had to wear T-shirt, shirt and jacket. I remember the summers being warmer! Also, there are the changes nobody told me about. Judge Roy Beans is now The Porterhouse Central, Thing Mote is O'Donoghues. It's all a bit disconcerting.

Jetlag
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In an attempt to avoid jetlag, we've tried to adapt to Irish time as early as possible. We tried to sleep as much as we could on the plane,and then stayed up as late as we could last night to get onto Irish time. However, I think we blew it by not setting the alarm and sleeping until 4.15pm today (a nice 11.15am back in Costa Rica).

So that's it. We're back. Tired and PC-less. Heading to Connemara in the morning. We're back in Dublin Wednesday, and hope to meet as many of you can make it on Thursday, 1st. From 8pm or so in the Forum.

See yis,

Éamon & Jack