Trip to ireland allows student to experience Irish heritage

by Kerry McGlone

         &nbspEverywhere you look, you are taken in by the lush forests and beautiful scenery.
         &nbspYou approach a village and hop, skip, and jump away is a city but too much large than Lubbock.
         &nbspThe landscape is painted over with castles, large estates, and an enchanting historical past.
         &nbspIreland swept me off my feet. Her heritage and traditions are unbelievable, and the Irash take pride in their saturated history of survival from famine, plagues, and tyrants.
         &nbspIn my two weeks in Ireland, I traveled through the country-side passing through Limerick, Tripperary, Killarney, and SLigo where my family is from.
         &nbspEven though the European Union is bring in larger corporations and new housing developments, the majority of the Irish still have traditial lifestyles.
         &nbspMy Aunt Hilda taught me how to take in everything around me with a positive attitude. I miss her the most.
         &nbspThis is the first family vacation with no flat tires, car sickness, or sibling rivalry. I suppose Ireland got the best of us.
          "May the road rise to meet yo you,
         &nbspMay the wind be always at your back
         &nbspMay the sun shine upon your face
         &nbspThe rains falls soft upon your fields
         &nbspand until we meet again,
         &nbspMay god hold you in the palm of his hand."
          --Traditional Irish blessing.

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The Vacation that Wasn't
By Natalie Tenner

         &nbspThey sat with their impatiently tapping feet pulled up on the outside benches, trying to avoid the colony of roaches that had seeped inconspicously out from the crevices in the sidewalk.
         &nbspThe long day was lost in their clouded minds as they struggled in vain to stay awake until their ride came. They had never expected to be stranded at the airport at 12:15 am after a long day of flying, but they couldn't help but laugh at everything that had occurred to place them in this particular scene.
         &nbspThe summer vacation I took this summer ended exactly the same way. My sisters and I never had a chance to ease back into our normal lives after vacation. Reality didn't even wait until we arrived back in Lubbock before showing us with problems.
         &nbspWe spent four days in Corpus Christi, and aside from our car getting stuck in the sand, the vacation had gone smoothly.
         &nbspMy sisters and I arrived at the airport on Sunday to catch our flight home when we found out that our flight had been delayed indefinately. We all had to be home by Monday so we rushed to get on a flight that had ben delayed for two hours and was starting to taxi down the runway at the moment. We caught the flight, but our luggage didn't.
         &nbspAn hour later, we arrived in Dallas and rushed to make our connecting flight, not knowing that our connection was delayed as well. We had time to eat dinner, which wasn't good enough to even mention, and then sat waiting for an hour until we heard the first news of our flight.
         &nbspIt had not left Houston yet.
         &nbspTwo hours later, around 11:30pm, we finally reached the Lubbock International Airport. After filling out a Missing Luggage form, we finally dragged ourselves out to our waiting car.
         &nbspWe knew right away that something was wrong.
         &nbspWe climed out of our sinking car and saw the rubber of the right back tire bulging under the weight of the car. Not really surprised by this newest obstacle, we went about changing the car's tire.
         &nbspTwenty minutes later, the tire was still on the car, and we were on the phone begging for a ride.
         &nbspWe started the trip with three suitcases, and a car, and returned with nothing but our carry-ons.
         &nbspSome have said manybe this vacation was just not worth all the worrying and extra work we had to do when we got back home, but I would take three weeks of putting my life in order for three days of laziness anytime.