6 days to go

Somehow, it is only 6 days until our wedding! Where did the time go? It seems like just a few months ago that John proposed and only a couple weeks since we moved. Summer just flew by and now it is definitely autumn. It is so hard to believe that I have been at my current job for 4 months!

Lately, we have been doing a lot of work for the wedding. Well, really John has been doing a lot of work for the wedding. Since he's home more, he has been doing the vast majority of the prep and has taken over corresponding with some of the vendors. We've gotten our attendants' presents (I have 30 rows left on the last shawl, though) and John even wrapped his! He made the card box. He made table name cards and place cards. We've gotten our program mostly done (the church is doing it for us!). He organized the rehearsal dinner. I took my ring to get polished and appraised (I should get it back tomorrow!). We meet with the hotel for a final meeting on Monday. John has gotten a hair cut as wedding prep, too. We also both went to the dentist for a cleaning. :)

I've done lots of beauty prep for the wedding. I've gotten facials. I've gotten my hair highlighted, my eyebrows waxed, and my eyelashes dyed! Last Saturday, I ended up in a spa and hair salon on the same day! I never thought I would say it, but after Friday, I don't want to be in a spa for a while. On Friday, I'm getting a manicure and a massage. After the week we've had, I am so looking forward to that massage.

I am starting to get nervous. I'm not nervous about how the day will go, I know that it will be beautiful. Even if things go wrong (which I'm sure they will), it doesn't matter. What matters is that John and I will be married. What I am nervous about is that we have 115 people coming to see us get married. That's a lot of people coming to see us. We have events planned all weekend and it will be good to see people. I'm excited, I just wish that the butterflies in my stomach would go away and that my brain would focus on work things since I have a lot to get done this week!

So far behind...

So 2 weeks ago today was my birthday. To honor the day, a group of friends went to a beer garden for dinner and drinks and just enjoying the nice summery weather. On Sunday, I got many presents from John. He took me to a lovely dinner at an Italian restaurant that I had always wanted to try but thought was too expensive. We had a lovely dinner and a lovely bottle of champagne.

This year, I got some wonderful presents. John got me two knitting books, a couple of New Zealand books, and wine from our favorite winery in Italy. The wine took some research because it is not easily available here. We got it easily in Dublin, but here, not available because it is a small cooperative of growers. Anyway, he did his research and found a place in the area that could order it and made it happen. It also just so happened that the wine was from the year that we went to the Italian Alps and saw the winery! The day after my birthday, I made a nice dinner and we enjoyed some wine in the Waterford wine glasses my parents gave us as a wedding present.

John's sisters were also good to me. One sister got me a chocolate cookbook. Another got me a gift basket of fruit English Muffins, coffee, and and jam. We are enjoying it a lot.

So, all in all, it was a lovely day. :)

Just what I needed

Since we moved back, J and I have been trying to schedule a weekend together. Well, yesterday, I took the train up to see her. I decided to take the train because it was only an hour (versus an hour and a half drive) and it was close to the price of driving, and I could knit on the train, so it was an easy decision for me.

Anyway, I got up to where J lives yesterday afternoon and neither of us had eaten, so we settled in, J walked her dog, and then walked to get some late lunch/early dinner. We headed a restaurant on the river, didn't get service, and headed inside. We had good food, a bit of conversation and then back to her house. We were both exhausted so she made cookies and we just hung out the rest of the night and went to bed early.

Today, we got up, went swimming and relaxed in the hot tub, and then went to brunch. After brunch, we hung out on the roof top terrace of the building until it was time for me to head back home. All in all, it was a very relaxing girly weekend, just what I think we both needed.

Where's home?

Periodically, people ask how we are settling in after our move. People often ask how it feels to be "home." This is something that I have been giving a lot of thought to lately. See, when Aileen came to visit, I found myself referring to Dublin as "home." I did this without even thinking. For example, when we took her to an "Irish Pub" for dinner (for the humor value since it is NOTHING like an Irish pub), I looked for the bathrooms and upon finding that they were downstairs, I thought, "oh, they're downstairs, just like at home." My next thought was, but I am home. I also referred to Dublin as home during conversations with her. I thought is was maybe because she is from Dublin so it made sense. When talking to my sister this weekend, I also referred to Dublin as home a few times. This seems to be happening more since we've moved, rather than less. I'm not really sure what this is about. I wonder if it is because we aren't truly settled yet (and I don't think we will be for a while). We haven't "laid down roots" yet.

Anyway, these references and my thinking has made me wonder, what is home? Where is home for us? Do we have one? Dictionary.com has 31 entries under the search home! The one that I think is at play with me is this one: "the place in which one's domestic affections are centered." See, we have multiple places with "domestic affections." Does that mean that we have multiple homes since I don't think there is one place where the affections are "centered?" The old saying says that "home is where the heart is" which means that, yes, I have many homes. One is where I grew up, another where my sister lives, another is Dublin, and finally where we are currently living!

Beer!

Some people comment about how everything is bigger here. Well, it is! In Dublin, our refrigerator was the size that students here use in college. We managed fairly well but wished that we had had more freezer space. Overall, it worked well for us because then we couldn't buy too much stuff.

Well, now we have a massive fridge! I know it is a standard size one but we just can't fill it. I know that they run better if they are full but it is just too big for the two of us because I am trying to only buy what we need so that we don't waste food.

So, this weekend, we drove about an hour to have dinner with my brother. After dinner, we realized that we were in the "the state of beer" and there was a big grocery store near the restaurant so of course we had to look for the beer that we can only get in the state. I think that we may have gone a bit overboard but at least now the refrigerator is full!

Any guesses on how long it will take us to drink it all (and yes, there is more in the door)?

Busy Weekend

It seems like we've been quite busy since we've moved back. If we aren't visiting people/collecting stuff, we seem to be organizing the house. I am really glad that I have Mondays off, too. However, my Mondays seem just as busy. During my commute, I often wonder where my time is going. I just don't know. All I can say, it isn't spent knitting (well, unless it is Tuesday night).

This weekend was no exception. I got a wonderful evening to myself while John went to a barbecue place in the city. On Saturday, we woke up, hung up art on the walls and then went shopping for more house stuff, like picture frames. We also had a pre-marriage counseling session and then went to a party. The party was good since we got to meet new people and see people that we haven't seen in a while. It was strange for us, though, that we left a bit past midnight and more than half the people had already gone home. We then dragged a friend to a "post drinking" breakfast place and finally got home about 2:30 AM. We haven't been out that late since we left Ireland. It was really nice to be out late! (bonus points if you notice what is different about me in the picture)

Sunday morning, we got a phone call at 10:00 AM from my brother asking what we were up to since he was going to a Renaissance Faire and would be about an hour from where we live. We already had lunch plans and I went to a movie with a friend in the afternoon. We then went up to have dinner with him and went shopping afterwards (that will be another post).

On Monday, I had an eye appointment at 10:00 AM and then we met with the caterer in the afternoon and did our weekly produce shopping. This weekend, Aileen is in town (she arrived today) and we should have another fun, busy weekend!

"Cabin" fever

Tomorrow is the 4th of July and we get a long weekend! Since I work Tuesday through Friday, I have 4 days off!! I am very excited for the long weekend since it has been a bit over a month since we moved back and we haven't gone anywhere. This week as I was driving to work, I realized that it has been a month and we haven't even thought about a vacation or a long weekend away! It has been a bit over a month since I've been on a plane and I'm getting itchy.

Tomorrow we are heading out of the area to go to John's brother's house for a picnic and fireworks. It will be nice to be away but I'm getting itchy for a "proper" weekend away (no, family doesn't count as proper time away). We'll have to figure one out soon. Maybe August. I don't know if I can go until our honeymoon...

A new local?

This weekend, we decided that we needed to explore our new area a bit. So far, we've been going to places that we know and mostly driving there. So, John had the suggestion since it was a nice evening to walk into the downtown area of our new town and see where we could find to eat. He knew of an "Irish bar" that wasn't that far away and off we went.

After a 15 minute stroll, we were at the pub and sitting outside in their "beer garden" area looking at their menu. I smiled at it since they had two Irish dishes on it: a full Irish and fish and chips. The menu was very beef heavy with only one chicken dish (besides a couple salads). We ordered home made mozzarella sticks as a starter/appetizer (very tasty) and John also got Guiness cheese soup. That was very rich and since it had a lot of sausage in it, I let him eat more of it. I had a chicken sandwich for my main and John had a Paddy Melt. They were tasty and the best part was that they were served with chips, not fries! I was very happy about this since I was missing the Porterhouse chips.

I don't think that they had dessert, but we were too stuffed to get it anyway. However, the chips made me miss sticky toffee pudding (I need to learn to make this myself).

We'll definitely be heading back there.

Bridge collapse

Last night, a bridge collapsed in Minneapolis MN. I heard about it today. My immediate thoughts were of my sister and wanting to know that she was OK. The bridge is was on Interstate 35W going over the Mississippi River. I lived in and went to college in that area for four years. For two years, I drove on the street under that river many many days in college. It was quite eery to read about it, knowing exactly where that road goes. Tonight when I got home, I had an email to let me know that she was OK. She then also called me later and told me that she had been on that bridge earlier in the day!

Tonight, I looked online a bit more and found some pictures on the BBC website. The pictures tell more than the stories probably could. It is just amazing that a relatively small number of people were hurt and killed considering it was rush hour and the bridge was probably packed. I hope that the recovery efforts go as well as they can.

accents

Today I took a taxi out to the airport to meet up with a friend who had a three hour layover on her way to London. I brought us a bit of breakfast and we chatted until she needed to go through security again. While chatting, she told me that I am starting to get an Irish accent. I of course wanted clarification. Apparently, the accent modification is two-fold. First, it is word choices and usage. These have been changing since I moved to Dublin. Second, it is slight pronunciation differences. That would be the vowels. I guess all the speech sound work that I do is rubbing off on my speech also!

Dublin's Expensive

This weekend someone told me that Dublin was the most expensive city in Europe. I found this hard to believe because it was only 13th in the World last year so I leveraged the power of the internet. I found the Mercer Human Resource Consulting website which lists the world's most expensive cities as well as those with the highest quality of life.

Dublin is the 18th most expensive city in the world this year. New York is is 10th while Moscow is the most expensive city. According to Mercer, Zürich residents have the best quality of life with Zürich coming in second. Apparently Germans tend to have a good quality of life also, with three cities in the top 10. Dublin ranks 24th in the world for quality of life. The top US city is Honolulu at 27th. New York ranks 46th while Chicago ranks 41, tied with Washington D.C.

So, Dublin is expensive but apparently it is a good place to live and Dubs have a better quality of life than any Americans. I do find it interesting that Europeans seem to have better quality of life than Americans. I'm not entirely sure how the rankings are made but I do have a better quality of life here than I did back home. I think part of the reason is because I work less and have made different choices.

Joys of Moving

Last week a new speechie moved to Dublin. She is currently staying with us because she can't find affordable accommodation and I thought it was silly to use all her relocation money on B&Bs. It has also been really nice having someone besides John to talk to. Not that he isn't fun to talk to but it's fun to talk to a girl! Since J left, I haven't had much girl contact and don't really have any good girl friends here. I have some friends but no really close ones.

N's shock upon moving here has also reminded me how I felt just one year ago and how much I have settled into my new country. People have questioned me why I am having N stay with us but I couldn't let her stay in a hostel (not that hostels are bad but you shouldn't live in one if you don't have to). Also, when coming to a new place where you don't know a soul, it is just nice to have someone reach out to you and help you. It is what I would have liked when I moved over. M helped me a bit but there wasn't anyone saying "OK, do this, look here, try this, I know it sucks but you are doing all you can..." That is what you need when you move to a new country with no direction or help (the recruiters did a terrible job). So, that is what I try to do for new people. It is all part of my trying to make my corner of the world better.

Happy year Dublin (Mis)Adventures

It is actually a little over a year ago that I started my blog. It is hard to believe that I've had the blog for a year and have made a little over 230 posts. I am averaging a little under 100 hits per week which I think is pretty good. I know lately my blog has been more of a travel blog but we've travelled a lot this year. Soon I'll be posting Irish stuff again.

With the seasons changing, I have been once again reflecting on my life here in Dublin. This week, I was told that I said something "very Irish." Another mate teases me that I don't speak Irish enough. Guess you can't win. However, I have changed my vocabulary in subtle ways. I have started "thinking Irish" lately. I have also started spelling the Irish way. Slowly, I seem to becoming Irish.

Identification

My friend M is trying to buy a different car. She found a car that she wants to buy and secured a bank loan. Today she got a message from the bank that she could bring identification to the bank and then sign the papers. Since she didn't have any ID on her, she ran home during lunch and then took her credit card bill and pay stub to the bank as her identification. Only one problem: the bank didn't accept these as identification! They will only accept a utility bill. She got into an argument with the staff at the bank and then phoned another branch. A different branch will accept car insurance as her identification.

As she told the story to us, another person told us that she can't get a video rental card because she doesn't have two forms of ID for an address! She has her passport and bank statements with her parents' address. She has one bill in her name in her current address. That isn't enough to get a video card!

What is it in Ireland that makes businesses require so much identification? When I got my bank account, they wanted a particular type of utility bill and my passport. I also had to have my government number. Fine, I understand the government number but why are banks so particular about the other types of identification? Why does a video store need such particular identification?

Busted

Today as I was waiting for the bus to go home from work, I noticed a Garda (police officer) had someone pulled over and seemed to be giving the person a ticket. When he was done and the driver drove off, the Garda faced the traffic for a few minutes and then stood in the middle of it to stop some cars. He waved to the one of them to pull over to the bus lane. Another car had stopped in the middle lane so this car had to get around them to pull over.

After a minute or so, the driver handed a card to the Garda and he seemed to be writing a ticket. Confused, I asked the lady waiting at the bus stop with me why the Garda pulled the driver over. She said that the car was speeding and it was the fourth one pulled over during her wait for the bus.

I asked her how the Garda knew that she was speeding since he didn't seem to have a radar gun. She said that they had something attached by their eye that tells the speeds. I am not sure that I believe her since the Garda did seem to be holding something. However if this is true, I am sure that police back home don't seem to be using this technology.

Goodbye J

Today J left Dublin to move back to Boston. She has been my best friend here and the first real friend that I made when I moved over. The last year has been a roller coaster for her so here is a tribute to J's year in Dublin.

My Top 10 memories:
10. J getting so mad that she kicked a tree.
9. J watching my cat and dog for me all the time and spoiling Darshin rotten.
8. The St. Paddy's Day parade.
7. J's stories about her psycho roommate from Hell.
6. Stories of J's adventures of her travels alone around Ireland and Europe (espcially Cork and when she went to the Giant's Causeway).
5. Making dinner together at my place for the three of us and teaching J how to cook.
4. J living with us when she was homeless (twice in the year).
3. Venting about work and understanding each other.
2. J getting CDs from almost every live musician that she heard in a pub.
1. Drinking at the Porterhouse almost every week, sometimes multiple times in a week, and the interesting people that we met at the Porterhouse.

My favorite Porterhouse characters:

+ "Political Boy" The guy who insisted on talking politics to J even though she said she didn't discuss politics with strangers
+ The Germans who came over to avoid Carnival in Germany just before Ash Wednesday
+ The guy who read the paper while we talked and eavesdropped on us
+ The two bartenders who joke around a lot and flirted with J
+ Going with Cot and Ci and having a German guy ask John something in German








Good luck J and come back to visit!

Construction again

So, the construction by my apartment had stopped for a while. This evening when I came home from bringing Tiffin to the vet for her first round of kitten shots, I noticed that the road in front of my building was marked off and there was a no parking sign. Sure enough, at 9:30 PM the jackhammering started. I was hoping to get to bed early tonight since I have a really busy day tomorrow. Ugh.

Where's the beef?

On "Irish" TV, there is an ad for Spar. In this ad, the product displays change in front of costumers. The display starts out as something the costumer doesn't want and turns into something they do want. Well, except for the child who wants sweets/candy and the display turns into fruit. He hits it as his "mother" takes him out of the store.

Frequently when I am in my local SuperValu, I feel like the child in that ad. Not because I want sweets instead of fruit but because the store is rearranged so much that I never know where things are when I go in there. Desserts and bread are in one place one week, and a totally different place another week. Also, they recently added checkout lanes to the store. I think this totally messed it up since it took away merchandise area and the store is already small. Products also turn over quickly. For example, one week it may have fresh raw chicken or minced turkey, the next it doesn't.

Today John also noticed that they don't have the best advertising techniques. By best I mean honest and clear. The store is having a sale on a brand of pizza for 99 cents. John picked out two of the normal single sized pizzas that were right below the sign. When we checked out our groceries, they were 2.99 each! Of course John protested and after the check out girl stopped laughing was told that the smaller (minature) pizzas were on sale, not the ones we bought. He went back to look at the sign and there was another costumer making the same mistake...

Accident, I think not.

The riot

Today there was supposed to be a peaceful protest by people who want to keep the North separate from the Republic. They came down from the North and were going to march to the legislature. They were protesting the treatment of victims of the IRA and that they want to stay separate from the Republic (at least this is what I have gleaned from the news as to the purpose of the protest). However, there were some ultra conservative people there that didn't want this protest to happen. So, before the marchers could get off the buses, the others (not entirely sure who they are as the news has reported different groups) started rushing the police who were there to keep things peaceful. They threw things at the police at first and some police got hurt. The civil unrest lasted about 3-4 hours from what I can tell.

The stores closed on the streets with the unrest, as well as those near it. The police also closed some other areas. Later in the riot, the violent people burned cars, broke into stores, looted, and got into fights.

There apparently was more unrest a little bit further south in the city centre but we missed that. After the people got pushed off O'Connell street, they started to go into Temple Bar and near my building.

What a week!

This has been quite an eventful week. On Sunday, my friend J called me to tell me that she had a falling out with her roommate and she asked J to move out by the 28th! That gave her a little over a week to move. We quickly looked up her rights to know that the landlord (who hadn't told her to move out until later that night) had to give her 6 weeks notice and have a very specific reason (like J being a safety hazard or negligent or not paying her rent: none of which were true). On Monday, she stayed home from work and looked at some places. I went with her to look at a place after work so we got home late Monday evening and went to the Local for dinner. However, she took that place and I think she will like it. It is far away from me,though, so we won't have as many nights at the local.


During the rest of the week, J packed her stuff and brought it over to my place. Since she is in Paris this weekend and won't be back until Tuesday, we thought it made sense to bring her stuff to my place so that her roommate couldn't mess with any of it (roommate had gone into her room when she wasn't there in the past). Friday, J finished bringing everything over. She has moved out of her old place and stayed with me last night. On this coming Wed. she is going to move into her new place with our friend M's help. More on her saga with her former roommate will follow in her own words.

Tuesday I work up congested because I was around someone who "sprayed" my face while we talked. He can't help it and I had to be close to him while interacting. He seemed healthy, probably wasn't. Thursday I got my oven and made a yummy dinner. Mmm, Chicago style pizza. Later this week, someone made an unrealistic request. I tried to offer a compromise to honor the request and not put too much stress on myself but the person requesting declined.

This morning, I woke up late. Actually, I did a few things, then went back to sleep. I woke up again at 1:00 PM when my friend M called me. Oh, I am still sick so the about 14 hours of sleep was needed and am feeling a bit better. I digress again, though. So, M called me from city centre asking me if I could see the riot from my apartment and if she could come over because the streets weren't very safe. That's right, I said a riot!!

I got off the phone quickly and took a shower before M came to my apartment. When she got to my place, I finished getting ready and we took John's camera (easier to hide if needed) to check out what was going on. We walked down to the area that we knew had rioting and watched a bit. I took loads of pictures. I had never seen a riot before.

After checking out the violence, we did some shopping and had lunch. Things had mostly calmed down by the time I got home at 5:30.

For those of you concerned that I was walking around a riot, it wasn't very violent. The news said it was the worst violence in Dublin for over 10 years but nobody died. Some people (I think about 40) were injured and some police were taken to the hospital. Mostly, loads of people were watching the few people throwing things at the police, breaking into stores, looting, and starting things on fire. Ok, that sounds bad but I was never really concerned for my safety. I would have been if M hadn't been with me because she has been caught in riots before so she knew to move to the side if people were running in mass away from the police. That kept us safer.

I will publish pictures and tell more about the riots, like what caused them.