Day Six: Raining Again

Today was a spotty day, at best. I cried on two separate occasions this afternoon when 1) I couldn’t find a place to stay and 2) when I couldn’t find a bus I needed. I wandered around a totally new part of the city, frustrated and confused. A nice Irish man helped me, but to the wrong place. And then a newspaper man helped me, this time to the right location. I’d been literally walking in circles for 35 minutes, in the rain.

I’m totally sick of online searching for housing. I’d already searched 3 months prior to my trip and every day and nearly every hour since I arrived. I’m done. Done, I tell you! Tomorrow I’m going to see about a new place and I’m praying this is it.

So the whole day was pretty much shot, then I went and picked up some of my luggage at Jo’s house. She’s kind enough to let me keep it there as long as I need. We sat and chatted for about three hours and she gave me falafel, figs and made me goat cheese fritters with blackcurrant sauce. The goat cheese was coated in ash, which I’d never tasted (or seen) and the blackcurrants were from her garden. I headed toward home on the tube when I accidentally changed onto a tube going the wrong way. No problem, except that I was carrying two bags on a roller thingy she gave me and had to carry them up and down tons of stairs. What’s worse, the metal holder kept coming undone and the weight of my bags were literally crushing my fingertips inside. I was getting so flustered and walked all the way back to my hotel. Then, I met Gail 2. Not the Gail who owns this place, but Gail, a massage therapist who lives part time in Weardowney. Imagine, God dropped a masseuse in my lap! Amazing.

We talked a good long while and somehow she invited me to her coastal English village to visit and asked me to go and have a cup of coffee with her sometime. And oh yeah, she’s going to be my massage goddess! She makes house calls and does evening appointments, so she can come after school one night a week. Hallelujah! To top it all off, she really calmed me down and help give me some perspective on my journey. I’m really doing quite well direction wise for just four days here. In two weeks, I should have it all down pat. She also helped calm me on the apartment front. That was an unexpected end to an otherwise emotional day.

Plus, when we said goodnight, she called me petal. Is that a British term of endearment? “Goodnight, petal,” she said. I love being a petal!!!!