Catch up part 1 - The parentals

Wow, okay. What have I been doing? Breathing.... :)

So this is part one of what I've been up to, starting back right before my literature review was due. Easter Break, when Mom and Dad.

I saw more of the UK and Ireland in that one week than I have the entirety of the time I have previously spent in this area of the world. Mom and Dad took me to Bristol, Bath (gorgeous!), Stonehenge, Cardiff, Kilmore Key, Kilkenny and Dublin in one blind sweeping week. I, to my great dismay, did spend more time in the BnB's then I would have liked because of the 6000 world lit review due the Monday after I got back. So, I didn't really see Cardiff, or the country side of Kilmore Key, but I did get to go to the Roman Baths and visit the Irish Museum of Modern Art. Mom, Dad and I visited one of the oldest things known to be made with Man's hands, and Dad bought a ceramic bowl in Kilkenny that was probably made a week before it's purchase.

Things I learned:

1. Ireland is horribly expensive.
2. I can live in the same room as my parents for more than a week!
3. Bristol is as twisted as Washington DC.
4. Bath is an impressive sight to behold.
5. Wales is much better than the capital city betrays it as.
6. My parents fall asleep awkwardly on ferry rides.
7. Repetatively, I like the small towns I visit more than the cities. You can never understand a city from just a visit.
8. My parents still surprise me, and that looks good for the future.
9. Castles all start to look the same. I guess there's no point in changing a good design.
10. As cool as it is, and amazing history it has, and as genius as it is, at the end of the day, Stonehenge is still a bunch of rocks.
11. All cities appear small to me after living in New York, which is a gross misconception.

It's very amazing how we all adapt to situations. I'm never really anything other than myself, I'm really bad at being anything else. I refute it, on some level. But when you with a group of people that are new, you learn how to be with them. As the saying goes, we all wear many faces. But I guess I've never really been confronted with it so uprightly. Within hours of spending time with the parents I found myself acting in ways and saying things that I wouldn't do here in Wales with my friends. Not because it's wrong, it just isn't the way that things are done here. There is a level of comfort that you get with family as you first became yourself with them, and that's what you can return to. It did kinda feel like home came to me for 10 days.

The world is tiny because we make it so. As sad as it was to say goodbye to Mom and Dad again, and even though their flight put an ocean back in between us, they're still only a flight away. Or even a phone call so I can slip into homely habits. If things ever got so bad, I know that home really isn't that far away. I wasn't feeling bad before, but this knowledge gave me a sense of comfort I didn't know I wanted. Damn good Easter present, as it was. :)

Love and cookies!
Emily

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