ireland!

i'm finally here, all settled in. flight was no problem..i tried vidya's technique of knocking myself out with nyquil, so i pretty much slept the entire time.

and i'm driving too! this is a feat because a.) its on the left hand side of the road, which you get used to pretty fast, but if something sudden happened, your natural reaction might be to swing to the right, and in my case now, i would be swinging into oncoming traffic. also, its weird, but when i use the mirrors, i always glance right, and you would be amazed at how awkward it is to try and look left to use your mirrors. also b.) most of the cars over here (and the little dotey car we bought.. a 95 2-door peugot...are stick. now i always was familiar with the basic operations of stick, and i could maneover around a parking lot no problem, but put me out on the road with traffic, and it gets a little bit more tricky. i have no problem on the straight roads where traffic is flowing smoothly, but in ireland, and especially in irish country, there are tons of windy windy roads in which you have to downshift to get around safely...so i finally got that down. but what gives me the biggest problem is when i am stopped on a hill. the traffic in ireland has probably increased ten-fold since five years ago, if not more. it is really insane. so just to get out of a crowded parking lot i am sweating cause i dont want to stall the car but i dont want to zoom right into the ass of the car infront of me. gotta get the clutch control down. i can do it, but i'm freakin out while doing it. (and it doesnt help to have my mother who is a nervous wreck on the road to begin with sitting in next to me..athough i'll give her credit for being more calm than i had expected). so anyway, theres the hill start, where youre supposed to use the parking break and just put the gas on and realease the break..but i dont have that down yet...so if i'm starting on a hill, i'm nearly gunning it in first to make sure i dont stall when i realease the clutch..

but it will come. i've only been driving for two days now, so i'd say i'm doing well. infact i'll probably drive to work on tuesday (thats when i start!)

anyway, i better get off the computer.
its good to be back.