Much time has passed. It is all a whirl. We are finally settled in a flat in south Cork, Ireland after quite an experience. Leaving home the way I wanted to leave was very stressful. I wanted the our bedroom painted and new carpet layed. It did happen but was the most physical and mental undertaking I have experienced in a long time. We went through things we haven't seen since we moved to our Cottonwood Heights home. My head was so mixed up. It was very difficult to leave the family, expecially the little children. They are my life blood. But, we did get out of SLC on time and really didn't have a problem until we arrived in Dublin, Ireland.
When we arrived, they sent us here and checked our Passports and Visas, then there to do the same and then somewhere else. We thought we were through until we walked into a big room with queues back and forth. We waited for at least an hour and then were sent to a window to check Passports and Visas. The man behind the window did not like our answers or Visas. He asked us who said we could stay for a year. Then he proceeded to rail on the Church for thinking we could just send missionaries whenever we wanted and for how long we wanted. He asked us how much money we had on us and where we were going to get money to live for a year in Ireland. He took our pictures again and finger printed us again and stamped our Visas for one month and told us to report to the Garda (police) in our area and they would decide if we needed to go home or could stay. I would have turned around and gone home if I had known how to do it. Mind you, his language was very Irish, not American and we had to work really hard to understand him. Mike was mad! The irishman was not kind a all. There was another irishman standing back of us listening and he was standing there with a big box of rat and rodent poisoning. I thought, "Oh no, what have we done". He sent us through and by then my ankle tendon was hurting me so much that I literally dragged my right leg on to the luggage claim. I really thought our luggage wouldn't be there and Pres. Griffiths and his wife wouldn't be there either but they were. Whew! He asked me about my limp and I told him I tore a tendon while jogging two weeks before we left and he said he had experienced that two times and had surgery for it. He was very sympathetic and said it would be a while healing and not to push it. Ha!!! I had already pushed it to the brink. They took us to the Finglas Chapel in Dublin where a lunch had been provided by the Relief Society President and we chatted for a short time. He left us for meetings and his wife hurried off with their kids that were visiting. We were given a car, taken to a B&B and told to be back at the Chapel the next morning for church. Mike had to drive, just like that! He sits on the wrong side and drives on the other side of the road. Crazy! Thank goodness the chapel was just up the busy street. We got up Sunday morning, went to church, loaded up our suitcases and started for Cork. We knew we would be late arriving in Cork as it is about 4 1/2 hours from Dublin. We were excited to get there and find a flat. B&B are about $100 American dollars and we needed every penny we had. We read a map and it seemed a straight shot so we headed. The first thing we ran into was a Toll on the road. We had some euros but we had to figure out what was what on the fly. We put money in until the arm lifted up and the light turned green , which we took to mean GO. We did go and actually loved the ride. I sat there and wrote a list of all the things I was learning about Ireland in two days. The scenery was absolutely heavenly. I started counting all the castle and ruins we saw. It is a fairy land. I don't think the Irish realize how beautiful it is here in their homeland. I hope some of them do and don't try to change it. There wasn't one place to stop to go potty anywhere. You have to pull off in some little village to find a potty. We did stop at a beautiful little village called Port Leishe (pronounced Port Leash). I was so excited and thrilled at what we saw. The people are so friendly (not like the immigration officer). We have to go back and take pictures of that little village.
