Went to pay for the trip today and the Chamber was closed :*( I called Camille and left her a message so I guess we'll try again tomorrow.
The Chamber has spoken with the tour company and has us rolled into another tour group so we will officially be with people we don't know. Yay for us! Automatically we will get to know other people :)
Did a bit of "research" today by reading some of the Independent newspaper online -- really need to learn some Irish words and pronunciations. Glad I knew the Dail was a representative body in their legislature, but there were definitely other terms I better learn before we go. I didn't see one article or one letter to the editor that I didn't have to translate something in.
Not a problem...I love doing "research!"
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Sunday, July 18, 2010
Last informational meeting
Went to the last informational meeting 2 weeks ago. We are still the only ones signed up to go on the trip, so the Chamber is working with the tour company to see if they will have to "roll" us into another tour group on the same trip. That would mean we'd have to hang out with people who are from somewhere other than here...oh, how terrible (spoken with much sarcasm!). That would actually be a cool reason to get to know other international travellers :)
Final payment is due this week. Looks like it may just be Rachel, Tiffany, & me. Erica doesn't want to go if Brandon can't go (he hasn't been able to raise the money yet). She's going to call the Chamber tomorrow to see if the "drop-dead date" for payment really is set in stone. If it is, she's not going. I'm kinda bummed because I'd envisioned this trip as another family trip, but she will be 18 in just a few days and I'll have to let her make her own mind up about this. We had a good long talk about it yesterday and it sounds like she's thought it through.
I have the Notarized forms from the girls' dad to get their new passports (won't need Erica's after all, though). Wish I had pushed to get them sooner...passport fees went up last week by about $40! And the Euro is going up again as well...was at $1.29 yesterday. I should have bought some a couple weeks ago when it was at $1.19. Anyway, need to get new passport photos for the girls and make an appointment at City Hall to turn in the applications.
After this week, the hard part is done (paying for the trip). Then comes the fun part...the pre-trip research, packing, checking the camera to make sure it's working properly and has enough disk space, etc. I've been watching movies about Ireland (or at least set in Ireland) and am watching/listening to a documentary on PBS about the genesis of modern Irish music. Now all I need to do is commit to a guide book...there's too many of them! It would be easier if we weren't going on a pre-planned trip but I'd still like to know the options available in the towns we'll be in, just in case we have enough time to do our own thing.
My only real concern is that it will take me the better part of a week to really understand the accent as spoken...and then we'll be leaving! I've got to find other ways to hear the language before I go. I want to be able to pronounce things properly, at least (for instance, just found out on the music documentary that the city Donegal is pronounced "donny-gul" not "don-u-gul" like I'd been pronouncing it). I don't want to sound like an idiot!
Final payment is due this week. Looks like it may just be Rachel, Tiffany, & me. Erica doesn't want to go if Brandon can't go (he hasn't been able to raise the money yet). She's going to call the Chamber tomorrow to see if the "drop-dead date" for payment really is set in stone. If it is, she's not going. I'm kinda bummed because I'd envisioned this trip as another family trip, but she will be 18 in just a few days and I'll have to let her make her own mind up about this. We had a good long talk about it yesterday and it sounds like she's thought it through.
I have the Notarized forms from the girls' dad to get their new passports (won't need Erica's after all, though). Wish I had pushed to get them sooner...passport fees went up last week by about $40! And the Euro is going up again as well...was at $1.29 yesterday. I should have bought some a couple weeks ago when it was at $1.19. Anyway, need to get new passport photos for the girls and make an appointment at City Hall to turn in the applications.
After this week, the hard part is done (paying for the trip). Then comes the fun part...the pre-trip research, packing, checking the camera to make sure it's working properly and has enough disk space, etc. I've been watching movies about Ireland (or at least set in Ireland) and am watching/listening to a documentary on PBS about the genesis of modern Irish music. Now all I need to do is commit to a guide book...there's too many of them! It would be easier if we weren't going on a pre-planned trip but I'd still like to know the options available in the towns we'll be in, just in case we have enough time to do our own thing.
My only real concern is that it will take me the better part of a week to really understand the accent as spoken...and then we'll be leaving! I've got to find other ways to hear the language before I go. I want to be able to pronounce things properly, at least (for instance, just found out on the music documentary that the city Donegal is pronounced "donny-gul" not "don-u-gul" like I'd been pronouncing it). I don't want to sound like an idiot!
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