Arrival

I have finally made it safe here in Ireland. It is Monday at 3pm, so it would be 9am at home. Ireland is 6 hours ahead. It was a long Saturday of traveling. I traveled with my friend Angela, so it was nice to have a companion. We left Chicago at 1:30pm on Saturday to fly to Charlotte. When we were checking our bags in at Chicago they asked me what my final destination was, but not Angela. So she said Charlotte. Apparently she should have told them Dublin, Ireland so that way her luggage would be transfered from plane to plane. But the woman was not too nice to Angela. Well, her luggage already was sent out so we had to pick it up in Charlotte, but we only had an hour before our next flight left. Of course our flight getting into Charlotte was late. So we collected Angela's bags and went to check them in. But now we only had 20 minutes until our next flight left. They would not let Angela check her bags in because she needed to check them in 45 minutes ahead of time. So the woman told Angela she would have to wait until the next flight on Sunday. The woman watched as Angela and I were freaking out and panicking. She then made some calls and she let Angela fly, but would have to wait until the next flight to send out her luggage. So we rushed through security, were driven by a golf cart thing to our gate, and they held the entire plane for the two of us. The rest of our flights went well, it was just over all exhausting. And I am still not sure if Ang has her luggage yet. It was a long 24 hours!
The young lad from my family picked myself and Katie up from the airport. He is 19 and attends a college in Limerick. We ventured out from Shannon Airport around the narrow, windy roads in Ireland. Memories from years ago when I lived here were flooding back to me. It was quite the adventure, but we are safe now.
I went today to see the school I am teaching in. It is very different than the United States. I will be teaching Junior Infants (kindergarten to 1st grade age), 1st class (1-2nd grade), and 4th class (4-5th grade). All of my teachers seem really great and the girls are very excited it appeared, to have an American girl teaching them. It is an all girls school. School starts at 9:30am and goes until 3:00pm. I am very pleased with that late start.
Katie, Sandi,and I walked around the town and visited the school. We are still getting used to the time difference. It is very comforting to see faces from home and hear American voices.