The Summer of a Lifetime Begins

Hello ILE Families and Friends! Just a quick update on our long travel day to Ireland. Thursday, the 28th, marked the departure of the 2012 Irish Life Experience. The day began around 10:30 AM, when Ryan, from Minnesota arrived. Shortly thereafter, a few more students started trickling in from California, Florida, Illinois, Michigan, and Montana. Since our Aer Lingus flight was delayed until 11:00 PM, students had plenty of time for introductions and to explore and become familiar with Terminal 4 at JFK International Airport. A few of them listened to their iPods, played card games, and read their books. Many of them checked out Duty Free and got any last minute essentials they might have forgotten to pack. They also got their fill on the American comfort food of Kentucky Fried Chicken, McDonald's, and S'Barro, before they would enjoy the delicious Irish cuisine..., of potatoes:). Amy-one of our wonderful ILE Counselors-said it was a very long day, but ran smoothly. In fact, it was probably the easiest departure day we have ever had from JFK in the history of the ILE, with all of the students on connecting flights arriving by 7:00 PM. Wey hey! Local students and families started to arrive around 5:00-6:00 PM. They were met by Amy, Kevin, and Taryn, where they signed-in with the Irish Life Experience, received their T-Shirts and Tourism Ireland goodies. We eventually were allowed to check-in with Aer Lingus and before we knew it, it was time to go through Security and board our plane to the Emerald Isle. Parents asked last minute questions and said their final good-byes, before we were able to capture a picture of the group. A few tears were shed and students were filled with a lot of excitement and nervousness about the adventure they were to embark upon. We breezed through Security and boarded EI 108, direct to Dublin. The ILE occupied the middle of the plane, got settled in their seats, and relaxed with a great selection of movies for the six hour journey across the pond. We even sang Happy Birthday to Rosie, from Montana, as she celebrated her 18th Birthday traveling from Montana. Students were exhausted from their travel day, so quite a few of them got some much needed shut eye. Tyler said his favorite part of the day was flying into Ireland and noticing all of the different shades of green. We finally arrived Dublin Airport around 11:00 AM on Saturday morning. We then proceeded to collect our luggage and were happy to find out that no bags were lost in the process. We exited the terminal and were greeted with warm welcomes from Angie, Dan, and Scones. We also met our newsest addtions, Mar and Raquel, from Spain-along with their leaders from Go Inspired, Margo and Manuel. It was an overwhelming day, but we are all happy to be in Ireland! "It's a small world and we need to see all of it," said Petey from DC. Liam, from Massachusetts, said it's nice to be home.

← All posts