October 20, 2002

Fall Break, Part I (Ireland and Scotland)

Few times in my life have I looked forward to something as much as I did my fall break trip to the British Isles. Ever since I visited Britain in the 10th grade I have planned to come back, and our 10 day break was the perfect opportunity. Ethan Blackburn, Zach Shewmaker, and I would be in Ireland, Scotland, and England for well over a week with the chance to visit with friends and speak our mother tongue to anyone we wished. Utopia was on the horizon.

Perhaps I spent so much time thinking about the vacation that I forgot about the little midterm exam scheduled for the Wednesday before break. Three thousand years of French history kept my nose in the books during one of my trademark all-nighters, and I learned that sleep deprivation recognizes no national borders when it preys upon college students.

When we finally departed for the land of tea and crumpets, the wonders of budget internet travel took my colleagues and I to the metropolitan sprawl of Beauvais, France, a burg not much bigger than Dan-Vegas yet boasting an international airport, albeit one that looked more like Gomer Pyle’s filling station than LAX. I expected to have to spin the propellers myself before takeoff.