New Ross? More like Venice!

Today I experienced my first Irish storm while going to school! It was "lashin'" as they say here; extremely windy and rainy. When I left to go wait for the bus, it was so rainy my aunt offered to drive me there, even though its only 30 seconds away. and when we got to the bus stop, there was only one girl from my school waiting for the bus (and also trying to brace herself from the wind), so we offered for her to stay in the car once the bus arrived.  So, once both of us were on the bus, there was literally nobody on it, and the driver said it's going to be quite the trip trying to cross the bridge.  As we headed to school, the roads started to look more and more like a river, buses had their own wakes, and people were stranded on sidewalks that turned into islands. Being the new girl, I didn't want to seem too in shock, as I secretly took pictures, but I noticed that girls who have lived here their whole life were just as, or even more amazed than me by the intense floods.

A lot of girls got off the bus, after we sat in traffic for about 20 minutes, trying to walk home or get a ride. However, many came back, as their parents forced them to go to school, or it was impossible to go back home. Nevertheless, the number of people shrunk a third in size. When we could finally at least see the bride, it was about 9:15, and was nearly underwater, but still crossable, so Stevie (the bus driver) pushed on. At 9:30, we approached the bridge and the traffic worker told us to turn around, but Stevie told him that we've already come this far, and he is going to get us to school. So, after some persuading, we were let on the bridge! We sat in that bus for about half an hour on the bridge waiting for the tide to go down so we could physically get off the bridge. We were even able to get off the bus and go to a shop on the Wexford side and get some snacks and hot cocoa. Finally, when a girl named Leona and I got back from the shop, the bus had moved to await its last obstacle. The street to the hill my school is on looked like a canal in Venice; cars were half-way submerged and a workers helped try and carry kids trying to get to school.
 
So, we slowly rode in the the "river" and drove ever so carefully to the hill. Water came in through the door and we could feel the current pushing the bus. And at last, we touched dry land and made the slow trek up the hill on wet wheels. We arrived to school about an hour and a half late, but we still made it. Stevie said to us as we left "It's my job to get you to school, rain, hail, or snow." (Which kind of reminded me of my grandpa back home who used to take me to school and back every single day no matter what.) School was pretty boring because there were only about 6 people there in my class and 2 of my teachers, but man, was that morning exciting!