A Report

So, now that I have a little time, I'll just try to make a more or less proper report on the things that happened on the first few days I spent in Ireland.

I arrived at Dublin on Tuesday, where I was picked up by Pauline, then we went forward to Letterkenny.

This was the very first Irish Gaelic sign I saw at the airport. Unfortunately, I couldn't take a better photo, those lights were always in the way :/

It was pitch dark when we arrived, so I barely saw anything when we got home, but next morning, when I woke up and looked out of the window, this is what I found:

And I can stare at this all day long when I'm taking the kids to school. Irish countryside is just lovely! I can't wait to discover more of it, and everybody keeps saying that it'll be much more beautiful when spring comes.

And the sheep; they're going to be my favourite ever :D

I also had my first driving lesson today (I already have my full driving license, but I'm not at all a confident driver, especially because here we drive on the left), which is a bit exhausting as the instructor has the local Donegal accent, a difficult one to understand (I really mean it - when he says my name, it sounds somewhat like "Kitty"). It's hard to concentrate on driving and understanding the guy at the same time. Luckily I already have some experience with Northern Irish Ulster English, which is quite similar to this one, but still, I think it'll take time to get used to it.

Oh, yeah, that's typical of me - starting to write about my driving lesson and ending up speculating about different accents.

Anyway, Letterkenny looks gorgeous. It's not as big as I expected, but we have everything, like theatre, lots of shops, library, cinema, leisure centre and all. I'll definitely love it once I discover the best places to go.

Oh, and the children. All of them are cute, I can't even tell which one I like the most. I'll spend the most time with Michael, the youngest one as he still doesn't go to school, but I really do love the other two as well. They're very neat and obedient, I haven't had any problem with them. Well, so far. I was told that they might test me in a few weeks when they get more used to me.

I also have my daily reading exercise every night - did you know that reading bedtime stories to chilren can help you a lot to improve your pronunciation even after a few days? And what's more, being forced by three noisy kids to listen to the same movie soundtrack CD every morning makes you learn all the lyrics by heart whether you want it or not. This will come in handy for sure when I'll go to the local drama club.