"That girl"

Well, I am officially "that girl," you know, the one that always leaves the party early and drinks about 1/100 the amount of what everyone else drinks? There, of course, is a story that goes along with this...

I should be in Dublin, Ireland right now. Instead, I am in my apartment, using my friend's computer, which she left here earlier, while she and another one of my friends are still out going to some bar or disco somewhere in the city of Barcelona. Here is why I'm not in Dublin... See, we were supposed to fly out lastnight, but a lot of things happened to keep us from getting on the plane... We got to the airport a little late, but in plenty of time to check in. However, there was no counter for aer lingus.. so we went to information and asked which it was. They told us two different numbers, and we went to both those check in counters and talked to the woman working the counter and she said it wasn't the right one. So we went back to information and they told us two different numbers. when we got to those counters, there was absolutely noone there. so, we went back to the information counter to ask where the aer lingus office was so we could talk to them and check in. We already had all of our printed documents and just needed our boarding passes. They told us that the airline didnt have an office in the barcelona airport, and after about 10 minutes of arguing with them to call the gate or something they gave us 3 numbers to call the airline, one of which ended up being a fax number. We tried about 5 or 6 times to call each of the other 2 numbers but nobody answered. At this point we were getting really frustrated, but realized the flight was delayed by 30 minutes, so we thought it would all still work out. Finally, after not being able to reach anyone at the numbers, we went to another information desk since the 2 girls at the first desk were being very unhelpful. The woman at the other information desk was very helpful and called the gate to see why there was noone at the checkin counter. They told us that the door was already closed and that it was too late for us to get on the flight. The woman got off the phone and told us that it didn't make sense because the boards and her records on the computer said that they hadn't even begun boarding yet, but she was only the information woman and couldnt do anything else. so she looked up some more flights for us, but the next one didn't leave until today sometime. We tried calling all the numbers again to reach aer lingus, but still nobody answered at any of the lines. Needless to say we were/are all really pissed off because we payed for the flights and there was noone there to check us in... plus, i was just excited to go to ireland.. i mean, this was supposed to be my one big trip this semester after all my travel in january. So we stayed at the airport to document all the times from the board about boarding/last call/and others so that we could write a complaint.

Then, this morning, first thing, we went to a wifi cafe to skype the numbers and try to reach someone... still there is nobody answering any number that we found for any of the offices throughout the world. We wrote an official complaint email asking them to do something about it because it is just ridiculous, the whole thing, especially since we were at the airport a whole 2 hours before the last call for the flight. Now we are just waiting to see what might happen.

Which brings me to now... Since we obviously aren't in Ireland, we decided to go out tonight with one of Melania's friend and some of his friends. We hung out at his apartment for a while, had a few drinks (by had a few I mean I had a total of one and the other finished almost 2 entire bottles of vodka), and then decided to head out to a bar or a club. I have no problem going to clubs and bars, but after the stress of lastnight, my 30 minute conversation at 3:45 in the morning with my host mom about what had happened, and my altogether lack of sleep in the last week, I just didn't feel like going to the club with them. So, I am "that girl." You know, the one that leaves early... I don't like having to be that person, but when I am ready to go, I want to go, and the more you try to tell me that I'm not leaving, the more determined I am to go. So here I am, writing this before I go to sleep so that I can get it all out and actually get some rest before the awkward lunch with my host dad's 80 year old brother and sister-in-law tomorrow.

Yes, I am really upset and disappointed that I didn't get my trip to Ireland. And yes, I am sad that I disappointed my friends by leaving early tonight. But, maybe there was a reason that I wasn't supposed to go to Ireland this weekend and God just kept me from going. And sometimes you've got to do what you know is best for yourself, even if that requires skipping out early and going home to bed. Which is exactly where I'm going right now. Goodnight.