We took Lars and Maria and the boys to the airport on Wednesday for their flight to Denmark. We loved having company but are worn out now, and looking forward to getting back into the swing of things. It’s great to have people visit us though. I think with Northern Ireland being such a similar culture and language to our own, you often don’t notice the subtle differences. I think we feel so at home here, that we don’t realize the small ways that we don’t feel at home until we get to spend time with people from home. So it’s been refreshing. Thanks to our guests. We had a great time with you.
Sometimes it’s just nice to hang out with people who call french fries french fries and spell color without a ‘u’, you know?
Walking on the promenade with the Kristiansens.
Bridge over the Shimna
Lars, Maria and the boys at Tollymore Forest Park.
This is so wierd. We’ve been here long enough now that I sometimes hear a Northern Irish or British accent and think it’s an American accent because it’s sounds so normal. We were watching a British movie on TV the other day and I totally could not tell what the accents were. I wasn’t convinced they weren’t American accents until we noticed they were driving on the left side of the road.
It just happened again today. We’re at a big craft fair and this girl came up to Ange’s booth. I thought she had an American accent, but I couldn’t tell for sure at all. It’s like I couldn’t remember the difference momentarily, and we had to ask our Irish friend Kerry what kind of accent it was (it actually was American, by the way).
I’m sure it’s just a transitional thing as my brain gets more and more used to living here, but it’s sure wierd.
I’ve never really enjoyed getting my car fixed. Even in America, there’s that awful feeling that the mechanic could so easily take advantage of my lack of knowledge – “That’s right, sir, your second carburetor needs a new truss rod and parts alone will cost $300…” So this week I got to have the super-fun experience of trying that in another culture.
Fortunately, things are not too different here, but it does add to the insecurity quite a bit when you have no grid at all for what things should cost, things are called by different names, and laws are different. It seems like there’s more of a propensity for people to use a mechanic they know, who often just works out of his house, rather than a big business like Midas or something. There are tire (spelled tyre, of course) shops and body shops, etc., but they’re mostly specialized shops. As with most things here, it’s who you know that counts.
That’s what friends are for, though. I think I found a pretty good mechanic on the recommendation of one of the Night Light guys. Fortunately, once you find someone you trust you can just stick with him. So there’s one more problem sorted.
