Back in Ireland

Hello again, faithful readers. As evidenced by this new post, I am currently back in Ireland. While I was staying here last semester, I met Emer, the most amazing and beuatiful girl in Ireland. We saw each other for two of the three months I was in Ireland and decided to try a long-distance relationship shortly after I returned. After five months, it is decidedly less long-distance.
I arrived in Dublin airport yesterday after quite a journey. I spent the long weekend in New York City, visiting and being touristy with my dad and Vicki. Although the city was much larger than I expeccted, we managed to pack quite a bit into the two and a half days I stayed. We saw the Statue of Liberty and floated by Ellis Island, but apart from that we stayed within Manhattan. We saw Wall Street, the Emipre State building, walked to the top of the Rockefeller Center, and took a couple of bus tours around - one around downtown and one around uptown. I was only able to see Central Park from the outside, which was a bit of a shame, but it's a good reason to go back to NYC :)
After all of the walking and sightseeing, we made it through the harrowing New Jersey Turnpike and to LaGuardia airport. My flights had to be rerouted because of the stormy weather coming through the Great Lakes, but my final destination time was (thankfully) unchanged. After landing, I managed to stumble through Customs and I found Emer. My luggage apparently took a detour, though. We took a cab home and I promptly collapsed and fell asleep.
Today was unnaturally warm and sunny (at least for Ireland), so we've spent most of the day outside so far. We've walked around campus, revisiting all the old buildings I used to take classes in. After spending an hour or two basking in the sun in the Garden of Life and Death (seriously), we spent a bit of time walking around town as well then stopped for ice cream in the shopping mall right by the canal. A very good start to what is hopefully a very good month.