Dingle, Ireland

I'm going to Ireland tomorrow. Back to the same place I went to just last July. It is one of my favorite places in the whole world, and I get to show five more people how much beauty is in this wonderful place. We found tickets for about 30 euros. not bad

I know, the weather will probably not allow us to sit and read in the middle of fall.



Whitney, you probably hate Kirsten and I right now. As a preemptive strike, I hate you for going hiking and playing frisbee and hanging out with Sydney and other people, but mostly there are pictures of Sydney. But just know, that when I am riding my bike looking at someone in front of me on a bike, all I will be able to think about is your red raincoat. I will be the one with the computer this time, being asked by people to check their emails, and having to get my computer out at security while they wait. And maybe I'll be the one pulling ticks out of people's forearms. And when we go to the grocery store, I will think of you meticulously preparing a meal, and your muesli, and your little squeal when you were really happy and excited when we would see beautiful things. And when you would say, "I'm so heappy," like someone from Wisconsin, and then I would do it on accident. And I will feel like I should be reading The Book Thief while I am riding the bus. But the man at the desk in the nook by the stairs at our hostel will probably still be there, along with that math teacher girl, and maybe even that musical group in the pub. This time I will only have my study abroad backpack, and I won't have to wheel around a suitcase that is missing a wheel and hate my life while I am trying to wheel that suitcase that was 45 pounds in Edinburgh, and 15 kilos to Ireland. After I had bought a lot of things. And I won't be wearing the clothes I had been wearing for a month, that I got sick of when we were in Italy because reading and breathing and seeing and commuting became much more important than showering and wearing flattering clothing. (hence the skirt/raincoat/chaco combination in the picture. what?) But Bentley will not be trying to convince us to dance on the tables, and you will not be there with me to walk on the pier of Dingle bay on that clear, beautiful, chilly night and to look at the reflections of the fishing boats, and at the graying sky, and the beautiful, dark green hills and the ocean laid out in front of us, and think to ourselves, this is where we should be.