An Extra (Bad) Week In Ireland
Ireland is a beautiful place that does not have many things that can go wrong. Nice people are everywhere and the green grass and stone walls seem to go forever. If something would go terribly wrong you would have to be a really unlucky person. However I never considered myself lucky.

It was the last day of my ireland trip and my family had booked a hotel that was close to the airport to make sure that we would not miss our early morning flight. So far my mother had booked the entire trip years ago, when covid was not a thing, and nothing had gone wrong. Walking into the ancient hotel with the bright green door, we talked to the people at the front desk and they told us how we would find our room. The hotel was so old that it had no elevator, so a kind old man at the front desk offered to help us carry our bags up the stairs, however my mother declined.

When we got to the top and opened our hotel door my younger sister looked into the room and claimed the bed she wanted.
“I want the big bed.”
My mother chuckled and said we figure out who gets what bed soon. First, let's unpack our beds and take our covid tests.

As I unpack my bag and reach in to grab the covid test the box opens up and some of the equipment falls to the floor. You are not supposed to open the test box before you join the call so when I showed it to my dad he said.
“Ooh no Nolan! You need to put that back in the box.”
I hurried and put the test back in the box hoping that the person that does my test does not notice.
When the time comes to take the test I feel a bit nervous. I was feeling a bit sick before but had taken a covid test only a day before and it showed up negative. My mom tells me that it is my turn to take the test so I sit in the seat with my mothers phone facing and write at me and follow everything that the lady says.
“Ok now put the stick up your nose and spin it 5 times.”
My mind was racing with all the different ways that I could try and fake the results to ensure that I test negative. Maybe if I dont stick it up my nose all the way it wont have an accurate result, I thought to myself.
When the test finished I had to wait 10 minutes until I got to see if I was positive or negative. However for me it did not take 10 minutes until I got to know what my results were.
My mom came up to me and said, “Hey Nolan, I think you might have tested positive.”
e. The thought of having to spend a week locked inside in a house that was different from my home was devastating. My mom did not even let me bring up my laptop because she said that it might get stolen. However the isolation that I had to do was not as bad as I first thought it would be. I was able to try many different foods from Ireland and when I was on walks was able to get a feel for what someone who lives in Ireland might actually live like.