I've arrived!

I've officially made it to Ireland safe and sound...although sans luggage. I had a feeling it would happen though. Things went well otherwise. I had good flights that were on time. I feel like it was a sign that good things were to come when I sat next to a Rabi on my flight from Mpls. to New York. I decided to spend the night at Chandra's instead of going up to Donegal right away so that I could pick up my luggage myself. Last time it was lost and they tried to deliver it, it ended up in Cashel and then Tipperary before I finally received it...and we all know "it's a long way to Tipperary." I was exhausted anyway and it probably wouldn't have been a wise idea to drive 4 hours after that long trip. I made it up to Glencolumbkille yesterday, had a nice relaxing night. There is a big group of Germans here at the language college so there was lots of fiddle music about last night. I also met a group of "Milwaukees" that are here for the Derry/Donegal program. It's kind of funny...they feel the same way about Glen as the rest of us and spend every weekend down here and have plans to move here someday also. I told them to start working on it now because it takes a good few years. Something about this place I guess. I'm just going to relax this weekend because I think next week will be pretty crazy trying to get myself settled. Hopefully I'll get some pictures posted from Glen soon. Until next time...

St. Patrick's Day

Thanks to all my friends (and a few band members!) who made my last St. Patrick's Day in the States (for a couple of years anyway) an extremely memorable one. I'm actually glad I was here rather than in Ireland. The night went something like this...Gaelic Storm at the new Guthrie (amazing despite the slightly lame crowd) followed by Kieran's. Thanks to Niki, I had my fifteen minutes of fame (and I think it actually was fifteen minutes...it felt that way anyway) when she told the band that it was my last week in America. Not only did they change Van Morrison's "Gloria" (they were a Van Morrison cover band after all) to "Sarah", later in the evening they MADE me get up on stage to sing "Brown Eyed Girl" with them. I warned them that I was no American Idol but no one seemed to care. Hopefully everyone had had enough green beer by then to forget that whole part of the night. I don't think I'll be signed to any record label anytime soon. Anyway, it was a super fun night and a great start to my farewell tour. Thanks again peeps.

Going away parties!

Because 1 is not enough, here is info on my going away parties:
3/17 @ Kieran's in dowtown Minneapolis (celebrating my last St. Patty's Day in the U.S.)
3/21 @ 6 p.m. at the Stroik household in Columbia Heights: food and drinks
3/24 @ 7 p.m at O'Donovan's in downtown Minneapolis (put on by my work friends)

Skype

I signed up for Skype which, for those of you who don't know, can be used to chat and make phone calls for free. It has video capabilities and everything so it will be like we're together when we talk! My Skype username is "sarahstroik". Join up! If you already have an account, let me know what your username is so I can add you. 

There is no going back now!

It's official...my plane ticket is bought...ONE WAY! Northwest Flight 734 to New York and Delta Flight 112 to Dublin. I leave March 26th at 12:57 pm and arrive March 27th at 6:05 am.