My family has arrived! They are visiting me here in Ireland for the next week! I'm so happy! They got here Saturday morning while I was coaching soccer. I had given them rough directions to the fields, but I didn't think they would get there in time and I would end up finding them later. But we were in the middle of a drill and one of the little girls tugs on my shorts. "Who are those people watching us?" I turn around. "MY FAMILY! I haven't seen them in 2 months!"
So we finished practice, went and grabbed my stuff and drove off to find the cottage they are renting for the week. Turns out, it's actually cheaper to get one of those instead of getting hotel rooms for 6 people. They also rented a car for the week since the cottage is about 15 minutes from where we are at. Now, the... fun.... part about having a car is all the differences there are between Irish and American cars. 1st- it's a stick shift. Not that we don't have those in the states, they're just more uncommon. Our director says about 95% of the cars here are stick. It's weird if you have an automatic. (No, I don't know if that statistic is correct, but go with it. It's basically true.) 2nd- You drive on the left side of the road. 3rd- The driver sits on the right side of the car. 4th- The switch to turn you blinker on to change lanes is on the right side. 5th- They LOVE roundabouts. All of those differences... scary! I am so amazed with my father for just jumping in and rolling with it. I remember he had to do all of those things when I was younger and we were on a missions trip in Jamaica. But I wasn't driving at that point and didn't realize how hard it would be to switch everything! Now I have a much greater appreciation for how hard that would be. But the running joke right now for anytime we're a little nervous about him making a driving mistake..."Don't worry. We have full coverage!" I guess the rental place knows it's smart to have coverage for ANYTHING and EVERYTHING on their rental cars. I wonder if that's from experience? They way it is right now, we could drive into a herd of sheep, run into a tractor, use the car as a submarine or drive off a cliff and it would be ok! Insurance would cover that!
So far, none of those things have happened. But who knows? Things can be pretty crazy in Ireland! But for now, nothing too exciting has happened. They were pretty jet-lagged so they crashed last night. (Not literally. But insurance would have covered that!) And my grandparents arrived this morning and having their day of adjusting to the time change. But I'm sure the adventures will start tomorrow!
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