Arrival

Okay, so I'm sitting here in the hotel in Dublin, really worn out, can't take my melatonin and go to sleep quite yet because it's not completely dark. You knew it was coming. That's right. My complaints about the actual "travel" involved in traveling. So at first I was really nervous about traveling international on my own. Daniel spent the day with me and tried to make sure I was as calm as possible when I boarded my first flight. I was. I really was. Honestly, it didn't seem as bad as the last time I flew international, but that was my first time. So then I was sitting at the gate in LAX when I heard an announcement that boarding would be delayed. Great, I originally had an hour between landing and boarding in Frankfurt. How much time would I have now? Apparently about 5 minutes. I was such a nervous wreck in Frankfurt, it's not even funny. I had to push through the security line and explain the situation, and if any of you know me, you know I'm not good at being aggressive. People started asking me if I was ok. I wouldn't be surprised if they assumed I was an unacompanied minor. I lucked out that the flights were with the same airline and the gates were pretty close (B26 and B33) but the numbering didn't make much sense. So the people at the gate sent me down some stairs to a bus. This made absolutely no sense to me! I figured the whole "walking up the ladder on the runway" thing was just a Hollywood convention these days. I didn't remember people actually doing that anymore. So I sat on the bus and was still panicky. I was texting my parents like crazy, at 35 cents a text. :P I finally got on the plane and I was ok. Then we got to Dublin, and I got $40 converted to 23 Euros or thereabout. The cab driver wanted 30! He claimed it was because it was a busy Sunday afternoon, but Justine said she'd had to pay 30 yesterday. So I finally made it to the hotel, texted Mom and Dad, took a nice, long, bath, got in my pajamas, and here I am. It's a good thing this place has free internet, or I'd have one more thing to complain about. :P Adventures begin tomorow (or just sleeping and eating and relaxing until dinner with everybody around 5). I still need to change the time on my computer and phone because they didn't automatically convert. I expected the phone to, not the laptop. Anyway, to sleep!