Top of the morning to you. Yes! We just landed in Shannon Ireland about 20 minutes ago. First of all I want to say a huge thank you to Department of Defense, the Department of Defense has chartered ALL of the flights for the entire team of USA. Thank you. Your service to our country and our team means more than you know.
As I am exiting the Already my mind has been blown away at cultural differences in Ireland. When we walked into the hub at Shannon, the first thing I noticed was the plethora of kid friendly games and a kiddie pen. First impression is that Ireland cares for the traveling family. As our wheels touched down my sports manager Bobbi Jo mentioned that this was so green. I replied, if no one had told me that we landed in Ireland I would have thought we were in Pennsylvania.
One of the multiple conundrums of Ireland are the signs that you see. There is a picture of a man that looks like he is running on the right of the sign, then in the middle you have an arrow pointing down, then on the left you have a rectangle. Odd. I would love to hear your ideas of what the sign means. Creativeness of an explanation of the sign is welcome!:) another conundrum was when you are shopping many items were not tagged with prices. A little difficult as a traveler who has never used Euros, and are in a rush to make a connecting flight.
As I said in my baltimore post when traveling you never know how your life will be forever changed and enriched. I never realized how even the smallest detail of routine of cultures can be so different from your own culture but yet still be the same in many ways.
I have read and studied how to be sensitive to other cultures and I soaked the knowledge in about many different cultural norms. But to actually be steeped in the middle of un explained display of culture is so much more real to me. Back on the plane to Rodes! Yay