Last week, I was very lucky to have my mom come out to visit Letterkenny for a couple of days. I was certainly pretty surprised at how smooth everything went. To begin, she was making the trip bye herself because the rest of the Casiello crew was busy. Anyway, she flew into Dublin at 6am, and then she had to catch a 3-hour bus up to Letterkenny. Well as you can imagine there is not a bus running every second to a little town in the northwest like Letterkenny. So it was REALLY important she got the right bus. To make matters worse, she is not the most tech savvy person in the world. I tried to explain everything to her before she flew over because we would only be able to communicate IF she could connect to Wi-Fi. By the way, it definitely is extremely difficult to explain to someone, who has never been here, where to go, how to get the right bus, and where to get off.
When I woke up on the morning she flew in I looked at my phone and did not see any texts from her… Somewhat concerning; not exactly what I was hoping for!
Therefore, I checked her flight and saw that it landed on time so I knew she would have plenty of time to get to the bus. So I went to my classes and came back…still no word from her. Very concerning! I was definitely beginning to get a worried and felt absolutely helpless because there was no way for me to get in contact with her. I began thinking to myself, "What would happen if she didn't get on that bus?"
Regardless, I went to the bus station, which is more like a drop off location on the main road than an actual station, in hopes that she would be on it. I was sitting there waiting, it was absolutely pouring rain out and I was getting soaked! The bus wasn't coming… finally an hour late it arrived… I looked like I just jumped in the ocean by this time.
I was praying that she would get off…one by one people were getting off, but no Mom. Finally, I think the last one off the bus was my mom. Thank God she did! Looking back it was pretty impressive for someone that has never been to this country, doesn't travel very often, and had no phone. Go Mom! Never underestimate a Casiello!
At least next time the family visits they will now know what to do and not put me in a panic like this.
Overall, I want to say to people coming to visit me in Letterkenny throughout the year. Please just make sure you get on that bus or else you and me both will be in for big problem!
Anyway we had a great couple of days. I'll talk about what we did a little more in the next blog. Stay tuned!
