(I wrote this over a week ago, It’s now my fourteenth day here)

It is my third day in California, and I am still awakening at seven a.m. to the sun through my window and the sound of my phone buzzing as mum hopes to find out ‘what I’ve been up to for the day’. I repeat, It’s only morning time here mum, in the same irritated tone repeated the past few days. I then hop out of bed and make a start to my glamorous life in California.

Despite my over enthusiasm about going to a University that’s only 30 minutes from Hollywood, I honestly had no clue where Irvine was until I got accepted to the University. If I must admit, It was my last choice; the back – up option that you never expect to get. I did some research and discovered Irvine is near the beach, has shops, isn’t far from Disneyland and is really sunny. Great, I’m off! So I began making my playlist full of any song California related including ‘Party in the U.S.A.’ and Katy Perry’s big hit as I imagined myself soaking up the sun blasting tunes in heaven.

On arrival, things didn’t go as planned. My flight was delayed for over two hours and I found it impossible to sleep, which meant watching five movies back to back. Two flights and a long taxi drive later, I finally made it to Irvine in the middle of the night. Saoirse and her two big suitcases taking on Irvine, I got this. So I arrived to an empty house and needless to say I passed out on the bed.

Waking up alone in a new city is exciting. The possibilities that awaited the morning after seemed endless. I began walking. If I knew then that I would be walking for eight hours I might not have left the house… It was a sunny day coming from winter in Ireland. “Awful weather at the moment,” a lady in the shop said. “It looks sunny and good to me,” I replied, forgetting I was in a country where anything under twenty degrees was freezing. My mission of the day began: buy a duvet and pillow. But where? Surely if I keep walking along these busy roads I’d eventually find the main city, I thought. I stopped at different retail outlets and minimarkets asking where I could find a duvet. Turns out barely anyone knew what the word ‘duvet’ meant nevermind where I could find it. A kind man googled it and told me there was a bedding store in the city I could find a ‘comforter’ – a fifteen minute drive but would take longer to walk. Carless and clueless – walking it is, I decided!

So, I walked and walked. Until I passed a bus with a familiar destination flashing on the back of it- NEWPORT. THE BEACH! Without thinking, I hopped on. I was short money but the driver was nice enough to turn a blind eye to the matter; this is meant to be, I thought. After ten minutes on the bus, I started to hear mum’s voice echoing in my head, “Get the duvet, do it when you arrive.” Next thing, I heard a real voice, “Where in Newport you are going? Quite a big area here.” The panic kicked in. Turns out you have to change buses to go to the beach. I decided to hop out then and there and start walking back in towards where I originally got the bus from. My phone was dead and there was no hope in me finding my way back at night from a random beach. I never felt more stupid and terrified as I ran across the roads hoping the green light was for me to cross the road and not for the cars. After half an hour of walking to god knows where, I gave up. I heard a local mention ‘Target’ as being a good shop for buying everything including bedding. I needed a taxi. I asked a random hotel to ring me a taxi. Turns out it’s just as hard getting a taxi number as it is finding a duvet; eventually somebody knew a number of a taxi service. Half an hour later I had a new friend called George the Taxi Driver.

George dropped me to Target and was an extremely chatty driver who explained to me that it was cheap paying fifty dollars a month in a phone contract. Didn’t seem cheap compared to a fiver top up at home… Soon, we arrived at the destination. SHOPS, yay. George gave me his card, twice. As if I’ll need that, I thought. So I took on Target and spent over an hour buying everything I thought I needed, then check out. 200 dollars appeared on the screen and I brushed it off like it was nothing. Then, the worst happened. PIN INCORRECT. Damn you mum I was cursing in my head as I was trying to act calm on the outside as I retried the same pin mum had told me three more times until the cashier saved me the embarrassment of making a scene. Suspended. The panic began to kick in, until I realised I have an Irish bank card too. A woman approached me with a folder that I dropped at the till whilst in the midst of my panic. Silly Saoirse. Finally, I paid. Next mission: go home. It was sunny when I entered the store and suddenly pitch black when I left. How long was I there for? That’s a question me or my phone couldn’t answer. So, I walked in circles looking for a taxi. It’s a shopping area of course there’ll be taxi’s, or that’s what I thought. After walking in circles for half an hour with my three bags and a large duvet, a lady approached. Are you okay? She asked. No I’m not take me home and get me out of this place, I wanted to say. ‘Yes I’m fine, just looking for a taxi’. ‘Oh okay maybe you could get somewhere to ring you one’, Yes I know that but I want you to bring me home. ‘That’s a good idea actually thanks!’ Why did she bother asking was I okay if she wasn’t going to help I thought to myself. Time to embarrass myself some more. I went into pizza hut, ordered a personal sized pizza with the little money in my purse and asked could they ring a taxi. Of course, they didn’t know any number. Not one of the ten people. So, it was time to ring George from Newport. You’re still there? He laughed and said ‘see you soon’. Thank god for George. At this point I had been in Irvine for less than 24 hours and already had my own personal Chaufer.

It’s safe to say, I haven’t hopped on any more random buses – yet.

Over and out- Saoirse.