We're here in Northern Ireland. Right now I'm sitting in the Teenies' living room, typing this blog on Allison's computer. The house we're staying in is in Ballyclare, Northern Ireland. Dorothy (Allion's second counsin) and Fred (her husband) picked us up from the Dublin airport. The drive from the airport to their house was about 2 hours. They drive on the opposite side of the roads here and the driver's side is on the opposite side of the cars. Last night's ride was slight nerve-wrecking. I got this continual sensing that every on-coming car in the other lane is about to hit us head-on.

We got to Fred and Dorothy's house around 8 last night. There we met their daughter Karen. Dorothy made sausage meat balls, chicken, mini potatos, and carrots for dinner. After dinner we drank coffee and she brought out "biscuits" to eat with the coffee. We went to bed at 10:30pm and slept til 10:30am. I can't remember being this exhausted in a long time.

We're finally here, and I still don't know what to expect. Apart from my experiences of last night (during most of which I was only half-conscious due to jet-lag), I know as much about this trip as I did 2 months ago. But I'm ok with that. This is an adventure, right? Bring it. *tough face*

"Euro-syncrities" meaning, things I've found in Europe that struck me as "odd":

-we ate yougert from glass jars in Spain. cool, huh?
-gas is called petrol, and it costs about $100 US dollars to fill up your tank here
-there are no electrical plugs in the bathrooms (or Lue (sp?)). They said that it they think it would be ridiclious to have electrical plugs in the Lue because people could get electriculted.
-the TV is the "telly"
-an umbrella is an "umbrelly"
-and walmart owns some popular superstores here

It's been fun so far, and the voice in my head that narriates my life (you know you have one too) now has a Irish accent, a sign that I'm quickly adjusting.

That's the update on life in Ballyclare for now.

More to come.