Adventures in conversation

One of the joys of living in a new place is discovering differences in the way people communicate. This will be just the first of a series of posts concerning Irish words and phrases that we pick up along the way. We'll see how many of these make it into our vocabulary.

Given the Guinness commercials that were aired for a while in the U.S., it's almost required that we start with...

• "Brilliant" - Yes, we hear this one all the time. It is the most common way of saying great, excellent, good idea, cool, awesome, I like it, etc. We hear it at work, church, restaurants, pretty much everywhere we go. But there are other ways of saying the same thing. The next most common is...
• "Grand" - Can't tell if this is any different from brilliant; seems to be used in all the same ways. Sandy actually thinks she hears this as often as brilliant. But wait, there's one more variation on this theme...
• "Lovely" - I don't hear this one quite as often, but Sandy says she hears it lot. It is used more to mean very nice, or beautiful. Could be somewhat gender specific. Other items that have caught our attention:
• "Dear" - Means expensive. Those linens are a bit dear (meaning they are pricey).
• "Bits" - used in lots of ways; means things of any type. Here's one place I saw it in writing:

Real bits of WHAT, one wonders?

• "Bobs and bits" - We have only heard this one time, but it was awfully cute. You need to get your bobs and bits together, meaning your possessions or things.

• "Gone away" - What the postman told Sandy to write across the name on a piece of mail we received addressed to a former occupant. "Write 'Gone Away', he said, "and toss it in the mailbox." We loved this one. 

And lastly, our favorite food label so far:

One bite of this and a person might die from cuteness.

That's enough for now. Until next time - cheers! (meaning both goodbye and hello, interestingly.)

St. Patrick's Day in Dublin

So many people back in the U.S. expressed curiosity about how the Irish celebrate St. Patrick's Day we decided it was our duty to provide a first-hand account. A number of people, for example, told us they had heard the Irish don't celebrate it at all, or at least don't make as big a deal of it as Americans do. We also heard the parades here were made up mainly of American high school marching bands, and attended mainly by American tourists. With all that in mind, we headed out around noon on March 17th, and made the two mile walk from our apartment to St. Patrick's Cathedral, the end point of the parade. Here's our report:

First, let's be clear. St. Patrick's Day is a major national holiday in Ireland. It was made a national holiday in 1903, and it was placed on the liturgical calendar in the 1600s. So there's a long tradition, and it's an important day in the country. However, what seems to be more recent is the advent of festivals and parades associated with the day. These date to the 1990s, with the first official St. Patrick's Day festival occurring in 1996 - part of a government campaign to showcase and celebrate Irish culture. This year in Dublin the festival was three days long, possibly because St. Pat's was on a Monday. But starting Saturday, there were various events around the city, including an amusement park, music, tours, and, of course, an Irish Craft Beer and Food Market.

The big event was the parade on Monday. There was lots of talk about it on TV and in the newspapers. But I have to say that not a single Irish person we talked to said they would be attending. Still, when the day came we set out across the city to see what there was to see. 

Arriving at St. Patrick's Cathedral, I figured we needed one selfie with the cathedral in the background. 

The crowd seemed plenty big. The streets were lined many people deep on both sides. The papers next day estimated the crowd at half a million. That seemed plausible based on what we saw.

As we waited for the parade to begin passing by, we enjoyed the people-watching. The crowd was decked out in St. Pat's garb, with a particular focus on hats. We also noticed the number of children in the crowd. There was a clear sense of this being a family event, as opposed to an excuse for drunkenness (though we heard there was quite a crowd in the Temple Bar area later in the evening). Here are my favorite people shots.

The one additional observation we made was that a large percentage of the people we encountered did seem to be tourists. As we walked around we became conscious that almost every group of people we passed seemed to be speaking a language other than English. We saw only a few who seemed to be Americans.

So we'll end with one pair who we are quite certain are Americans. And I want to add that I'm including this photo under protest. Slan go foill! (Bye for now)

A few "firsts"

Sandy here again...So I've shared some of these observations with a few people the last few days, but I thought I would pass them on.

The other day I had 2 firsts in my life, both which were of a very different nature.

1) I ironed our bed sheets.  Yes, ironed sheets.  When the realtor mentioned in passing ironing her sheets, I thought to myself she must be a neat freak or something.  Well, it was not the case.  As it turns out the washing and drying machines are much smaller than I am used to and so when I pulled out the sheets they were a wrinkly mess.  And I immediately understood why one would actually iron a sheet.  However, since this observation I have found another use for the ironing board.  Today, I dried the duvet cover until damp, pulled it out of the dryer and then folded it once and proceeded to drape the duvet cover over the ironing board, so that it could air dry.  I believe this will be my method of drying linens hence forth!

2) I ordered groceries on-line and had them delivered to my house for a mere 4 Euros!  Now any of you who know me well, know that doing anything on-line is not my preference, but having tried to stock my house with food without a car to haul things, the idea of someone bringing things to my house was pure delight.  And as it turns out, the delivery charge is cheaper than me taking a taxi home, and a lot less energy!  Of course there is a give, some of the things i ordered were not exactly what I thought they were.  But as I get more familiar, I think this will be a HUGE blessing!

Another first (at least for Ireland): Yesterday I thought I'd try taking a bus.  It went quite smoothly, but is not really practical as a way to come home from grocery shopping.  I just had 2 bags with me, but carrying them from the bus stop to our place was just a little too much and kind of put me in a grumpy mood.

So Steve and I have been here a week now and in a week's time, twice I have been rained on when the sun was shining and I had my sun glasses on.  Just a little shower in the midst of sunshine!
There's a reason Ireland is so green!

Adventures in cable installation

Way back at the beginning of all this I concluded that getting our internet up and running would be a key to our settling in. The ability to connect with family and friends, access familiar web sites, stream NFL football...all very important for one's happiness and general well-being. So long before we moved I did the research and signed up with UPC, Ireland's largest cable provider. I opted for a bundled service with the fastest possible internet speeds, and scheduled installation for March 12, the day we were to arrive. 

We got to the apartment at 10:30 that morning, met our relocation agent and the broker for the apartment, spent an hour learning how to operate the heating system, kitchen, lights, etc, and then our agent took us to a phone store to get Sandy a new "mobile." With that important task completed, they dropped me off back at the apartment to wait for the cable guy and headed out for an afternoon of shopping. 

I wandered around the apartment trying to remember everything we had just been taught about how things worked. The heating and electrical systems were all unfamiliar, and I could barely keep it all straight. Did he say turn this dial for extra hot water, or to change to the summertime setting? If I pull this cord will the alarm go off? Does this button turn on the radiators, or the floor heat? What was that he said about the oven? I couldn't wait for the cable guy to arrive, set everything up, and get at least one system running smoothly. Maybe he could even answer some questions about other topics while he was working. Like advice on leasing a car, or how to use the bus system.

A couple hours later there was a sharp rap on the door. The cable guy was here! I opened the door with a big smile. Cable man was holding a big box and an electronic tablet. He said to me in heavily accented Eastern European English, "You accept UPC terms and conditions?" I nodded, and he made a mark on the tablet. "You accept cable box?" I said yes and he handed me the tablet. "Sign here", he said. I did. He handed me the box, and without a word turned, ran out to his car, and disappeared.

I stood there in the doorway for a full minute...where'd you go, cable guy? Where's my internet? I can barely turn on a light in my apartment, what am I supposed to do with THIS? I opened the box and set the contents on a table. Here's what I found:

The TV was unfamiliar. Its remote had strange symbols and sticky buttons. The coaxial cable that came in the box had an end I'd never seen before. The coax coming out of the wall was on a splitter that I had to remove but was so tight I couldn't budge it. And my toolbox was on an airplane somewhere. But I was one determined son of a gun. I sucked it up, told myself I wasn't in Kansas anymore, and an hour later, with the help of a can opener that doubled nicely as pliers, proudly fired up my new Macbook and found the wifi signal. 

This may be a hardscrabble land. But I live to fight another day! 

Sandy's first blog post

Hi everyone! Top of the morning to you! We made it safely to Dublin and things have been going smoothly so far. We have a lovely apartment, now I just need to learn how to use the appliances. None of the markings make much sense to me. I have learned how to turn most of them on, but using them to actually do something properly is a whole other thing. For example, the washing machine (clothes) allows you to choose among these settings: 1200, 900, 600, Rinse Hold, and Without Final Spin. Those were my options. I chose 600, because it was in the middle. I have no idea what that was all about, but I had a small load and it seemed clean when I was done so that made me happy! This week one of my goals is to learn how to actually work my appliances!

Cooking is also complicated. It took a while for me to figure out the stove top.  A bit more complicated than one would think. But the oven is still a mystery to me.  I have asked two neighbors if they know how to use it, but neither of them had the brand I have. I finally have a call out to our landlord, hopefully he will return it. Cooking should also improve  when our air shipment arrives. I don’t have a lot of kitchen things coming, but some that will make things a bit easier.  Still, I get the impression people eat out a lot. I don’t want to do that too much. Two reasons for that: Restaurants are very expensive and ultra expensive for a nice meal. Secondly, everything seems very high in fat and salt. Steve doesn’t ever seem to mind us eating out, but I don’t want to leave Ireland with us both bloated with an extra roll or two of fat.

So on the positive side, even though we are in a good sized city the people do seem kind and friendly if you initiate. We went to church today and worshiped singing songs we were familiar with and spoke with a few people including the pastor after church. I met two women who are in the Friday morning Bible Study and told them I would be joining them. Had hoped to go this Friday but we have an arranged to have someone take Steve and I to get our (for lack of better words) Irish Social Security Cards and Register with the Garda (police).  Two very important things, so Bible Study will have to wait another week!

Enough of my musings...tata for now.

The Apartment

It's our third full day here, and we are settling in. Sandy survived her first foray to the grocery store, and I've survived my first two days in the office. Our air shipment is not scheduled to arrive for another week, so we continue to live out of our suitcases. But it is starting, ever so gradually, to feel like home. With that in mind, I thought it was time to show you around the place.

We have one basic living area - a living room combined with the dining room. A little compact, but fine for the two of us.

The kitchen is also small by U.S. standards, but is the largest and nicest of all the apartments we toured when we were searching for a place to live. Special prize for all who can identify the refrigerator and dishwasher.

We have three bedrooms and three bathrooms, one of the best features of the unit and pretty rare in Dublin as far as we could tell. The rooms are small, but it gives us some needed flexibility. Here's a look down the hallway.

Lastly, the bathrooms are all nicely appointed, with marble and beautiful cabinetry. Turns out the owner of the apartment is a cabinet-maker, and his work is on display. Here's one example.

All in all, we are very pleased with our home and confident it will meet our needs. In a future post I'll tell you about storage space (or should I say, the lack thereof). Today is Saturday, and we are headed back to Tesco for another major shopping/stocking-up effort. This will involve a 30 minute walk, and a taxi ride back. But the sun is peeking out...or it was a moment ago...in any case, it's not raining. And that's a GREAT day in Ireland.

Arrived in Dublin!

Hard to believe after all the planning, but we are really, actually here. Landed shortly after 7 am, Wednesday, March 12. The only hiccup along the way - turns out Aer Lingus has a weight allowance for CARRY ON baggage. I suppose this was in the fine print somewhere, but no one ever pointed it out. We flew United from Cleveland to Chicago, then Aer Lingus to Dublin. When we went to get our Aer Lingus boarding passes (couldn't get them online), they weighed our carry-ons, and both of ours were overweight (limit is 10 Kg, or 22 lbs). After shifting items from one very full bag to another, we managed to get one within the limit. Then we had to check the other, for the special low, low price of $100. Thankfully I will be reimbursed since it's a relocation expense, but let this be a lesson for any of you who come to visit.

At any rate, we made it, and it's a beautiful, rare sunny Dublin day. Here' s a photo of Sandy, with all our luggage, outside our apartment.

And here's another exterior shot of our new home. 

Much more to come. Next post: Hooking up your cable, Irish style.

One week to go

The dash to the finish line to get ready to go has been something to behold. It feels like we have spent two solid months doing nothing, thinking nothing, and talking about nothing but moving to Ireland. From the moment the opportunity was set before me we have barely slept. It's a strange mixture of excitement and anticipation, with a tinge of sadness, topped by a list that is about as long as the one Santa carries. We're checking off tasks as we eat breakfast, I head to work and Sandy keeps buzzing along. We talk about tasks throughout the day, I reply to emails, scan and send documents, do it again when something goes wrong, send more emails, and then wait 12 hours until the recipients in Europe are back at their jobs. I drive home after work, and join Sandy in buzzing through more of the list. She sets aside the 20 pages of tasks that she has completed during the day, and picks up the next batch. We talk about it during dinner, work on it after dinner, go to bed, talk about it in bed, fall asleep, talk about it at 3 am when we find ourselves awake, finally fall asleep, wake up, and do it all again.

Today, eight days from our flight, I'm actually starting to pack my clothes. We each have two large suitcases we'll be checking, one carry-on, and one large box to fill that they'll be shipping over. My job is to go through my closet and my dresser, look every single item of clothing that I own in the eye, and ask: "Have I worn you in the past year?" and "If I take you all the way to Ireland, and give you a spot in my very limited wardrobe, will I be glad I did?"

Should be an interesting day.