Prep, Flight, & Arrival

For those who have not been following me on Facebook, I apologize, as I realize I did not post about actually receiving my visa on this blog. I did receive my visa in the afternoon on Wednesday, the day before I flew out. I also received my renewed debit card that evening. Those were the two big snail-mail items that I needed before I left, and both arrived just in the nick of time.

I pulled an all-nighter on Wednesday night, continually weighing my toiletry bag and my suitcase until I could get it just under the allotted 50lbs. It was frustrating, to be sure. I kept trying to take stuff out of my suitcase, but I really didn't have all that much in there! Either that, or I did have a lot in there, but each thing weighed very little, and together the bag weighed a lot. Sometimes it was hard to tell which was the problem. And sometimes the two scales said two different things...Blah. Anyway, I had said I could pull an all-nighter, but I wasn't sure I actually would, until I finally finished cleaning up the mess I had made of my parents' extra room and went to take a shower...and ran into my dad, and realized he was up for the morning. Hence I had a very queasy, sleep-deprived car ride to the airport with my parents in early morning San Francisco stop-and-go traffic.

We got to the airport with enough time to spare, which was good because neither my parents nor I really knew where we were going; all of us usually fly out of Sacramento, and I've only ever been picked up from the San Francisco airport once (unexpectedly, when I was ill and exhausted), so it was a new experience. The place was so big, I was amazed we made it to the right terminal. My suitcase made it under the weight radar, and then I was off with my two heavy backpacks, jackets, and travel pillows. I thought a couple times that I might have to check my carry-on backpack, but it made the cut both times. The flight to Newark, New York/New Jersey was 4 hours, and then I had a couple hours' layover, and the second leg directly to Belfast was 5 hours. The 4-hour trip was a drag, because it was light out but all I really wanted to do was sleep, and I had trouble getting comfortable. But the 5-hour trip was international, so it had free movies, and they served us dinner and a mini-breakfast. I managed to get maybe an hour and a half of sleep on that flight.

The weird thing about the second flight was the realization that I was walking on a flight to Belfast, and that when I stepped off of that plane five hours later, I would be in Belfast. I was starting to believe it, and I felt all fluttery inside. There was this panic-voice saying that I could back out--that what I was doing was crazy, that this was too big for me--but that was ludicrous; I mean, of COURSE it's too big for me, but God's presence with me and His assurance were so strong, His voice so clear, His pleasure so real, I'd have to be a fool to second-guess it.

I didn't know what to expect when I flew into Belfast. I had been interested in Northern Ireland for 14 years, and in the last several years I had been calling it God's "call" on my life, saying it was meant to be permanent. But I had never set foot on Ireland--either Northern or Republic. I always get a very keen sense of the places that I visit, and typically either really like them or really don't. How was I to know which it would be? Sure, I loved these people from afar, without ever having met any of them. But what about when I dropped into the culture? What if I got there, and I really didn't like it, and then I was stuck there and had to tough it out for three months? But I needn't have worried; before we were even on the ground in Belfast, I felt it: a sense of belonging, such as I do not remember feeling in all my life. It is as though I was always meant to be here. My love for the people has not gone away; if anything, it has increased, despite my difficulty in understanding them sometimes when they speak.

This weekend, we are largely on our own--free to explore the building (bigger on the inside) and the grounds and the nearby town. I was the first to arrive, since I came in at about 7:45 this morning, and then Renee (from Oregon) and Nashed (from Israel) arrived in the afternoon while I was catching up on some of my missed sleep. We were the first 3 of 7. Four more will arrive this weekend: 2 locals, and 2 from the States, if I understood correctly. It will be a small group, with only one guy, and it sounds like we might all be in our 20s.

If you would like to contact me while I am here, please do so through Facebook, email, iMessage, or the Kik app, or you can leave a comment here. I will not be receiving phone calls or text messages, and will not be able to send them either; I'm sticking with wifi as a primary mode of contact.