Week End Review

I think last week when I wrote, it was Wednesday afternoon and I was being a lazy bum about to head out into the world.  I had a lovely day, walking through Merrion Square (a beautiful park right by our apartment), stopping by the aforementioned Lolly and Cooks for a Savage Roll (basically a delicious sausage roll thing wrapped in puff pastry, YUM) and some tea.  I sat at the window and watched the world go by.  I then walked around, trying to recognize streets and memorize street names, and I stumbled upon the Archaeology museum.  Hmm.  Not really my thing but I went in anyway and enjoyed myself.  Lots of artifacts found in bogs, silver and gold, manuscripts, etc.  Interesting enough. Here are some pics from Wednesday and Thursday.

Samuel Beckett Bridge, waiting for Drew at his office.

Sunshine!

Lolly and Cooks Savage Roll and tea.  Mmmmm.

Merrion Square.

Some...artifacts..?  Swords?  Blades?  I don't know.

We're gonna need a bigger boat.

Sheep mosaic.

Entryway to the Archaeology Museum.

Thursday morning, our shipment was delivered to our new place!  We had gotten the keys from our landlord officially on Wednesday evening so I headed over on Thursday to wait for the guys to bring our humongous boxes.  They came, I flung everything out of the suitcases so they could take the boxes, and the nice Irishmen helped me hang all my clothes up in the wardrobe, God love 'em.  I surveyed the place in total disarray and immediately left the apartment to go shopping with Tracy.  We walked all over the city, back and forth to the same stores trying to find bedding, duvets, pillows, sheets that felt like sandpaper, plates, towels, and anything else we needed to spruce up our places.  I had a great day in terms of the company, but I think we both walked away feeling unproductive and only realizing how much more we had to get to turn our tiny places into homes!  Thursday evening, Tracy invited me to get drinks with a girl we'd met at the 4th of July party who worked at PWC and some other people.  The bar was cool, a large boat parked in the water outside of the PWC building, but it wasn't too conducive for talking to the small groups crowded in the corners.  We had a good time anyway though!

Friday, I attacked our new apartment with a vengeance.  I bought cleaning supplies and Lysoled every square inch of my kitchen.  Though our landlord said she had the place professionally cleaned, she didn't.  I'm not gonna go into everything I found but it was gross and I'm not cut out for this kind of manual labor.  Sorry not sorry.  I tried to organize some clothes and shoes in our wardrobe but I mostly just stuck to the kitchen.  I'll attack the rest of those rooms today.  Does anyone know how to mop?  I'm gonna have to learn.  Dangit.  Friday night brought us to Ranelagh, the neighborhood Tracy lives in, and we had dinner at an Italian place and then got drinks with some of Drew's really nice coworkers at a crowded, noisy pub.  These guys were SO nice and sweet to invite us out and they introduced us to people and made us feel really welcome.  Being an outsider has really made us look at the way WE treat other outsiders.  I will go above and beyond and out of my way to help people feel ok from now on, as God as my witness!!  

Saturday morning, I woke up a little under the weather.  Maybe it was something I ate.  Maybe it was the red wine, the Bulmer's, and the Carlsbergs.  I DON'T KNOW PEOPLE!!  Leave me alone.  But needless to say I was very ill and couldn't move until at least 2pm.  Not good.  Drew went shopping for some more bedding and I did some packing here at the temporary place and met him at the new place to organize more.  Our internet shipment came on Friday, and evidently you're just supposed to plug it in and have it start working - "It's that easy!"  Or so it said.  I read the instructions and tried hard to get it working on my own but I think I screwed something up, and Drew couldn't undo my handy work.  And now the internet people have to come to the place on Tuesday to get it working.  Shoot!  Saturday evening, we went to dinner with one of Drew's coworkers, a girl from the New York office, and that was a good time.  She echoed some of Drew's current frustrations with work and assured him he would get the hang of things in a month or two....and that it sometimes just takes awhile to get settled.  Even though we know that, it's hard to remember all the time!  After dinner, we met up with ANOTHER friend of a friend of a friend (Thanks, B!), a barrister (who we keep referring to as "the barrister", even though we know his name) and his two other lady friends at another fun, noisy, crowded pub.  We truly had THE BEST TIME.  Even though they were there for a going-away party for a friend, the 5 of us sat outside and talked and laughed hysterically and felt really surprisingly comfortable with them.  We talked about politics and traveling and Irish and American stereotypes and movies and TV and jobs and laughed a LOT.  It was really, really fun.  I hope we do it again.  

A "Baby Guinness" shot that the barrister and his friends made us take.  I think there was Baileys in it.  It was delish.

In Ireland, when out, people buy drinks in rounds.  If you're sitting at a table with 5 or 6 people, you can expect to have at least 5 or 6 drinks.  I wasn't planning on drinking much at all due to my mystery illness earlier in the day (ha.) but they literally KEPT BUYING me glasses of red wine!  It reminded me of Spain - did I WANT to eat the blood sausages and beans my madre made, or buttered noodles with fried croquettes?  NO!  Of course not!  But I did because that's what she made and that's what was in front of me and it woulda been rude if I didn't.  So I drank because they bought it for me, even though I told them I was done, and because I felt like it would be rude and a waste of money not to.  Drew and I both managed to sip slowly and not get crazy but  I'm going to need to learn how to manage this issue, or just know not to drink a drop before you go out with a group.


On the way out, around 3AM (WTF?!  I can't stay out that late!), we exited in the wrong place and the security guard pointed us in the right direction.  A girl came up to me and asked what the security guard said, and I started telling her what he said in a British/Irish accent.  (PS, British and Irish accents aren't at all the same.  So I'm not sure what I was doing.  It just happened.)  Her guy friend then asked me "So where are you from in the States?"  Had he heard me?  Was he calling me out?  Or could he just tell I was American??  I looked at him incredulously and demanded to know why he thought I was an American.  He laughed and said we stuck out more than anyone else in the bar, and all we needed was a camera around our neck and a fanny pack.  I was pissed.  I told him that I HAPPENED to be from Texas but I wasn't sure why he thought I looked like an American and was being a sass.  Then the whole way home I discussed looking like an American and not wanting to with Drew and the barrister. Not sure how to blend in, but like with everything else, it will probably take some time.  Ugh.  


Even though we had an amazing time on Saturday night, we both woke up on Sunday a little down in the dumps and a little homesick.  You know when you were a freshman in college and you were about a month in and you may or may not have pledged a sorority you came to hate or you pledged a fraternity that you weren't sure about and you were having a good time and meeting cool people but you were still lost and confused and the two of you just wanted to pack your bags and head to Dallas for a hug and a pep talk from your parents and maybe some Joe Willy's chicken tenders?  That's kinda how we felt Sunday.  Reality had set in and Drew was thinking about work and I was thinking about our apartment that looks like a bomb went off and we were thinking about our families and friends and...yeah.  These things will happen though I'm afraid.  


We combatted our homesickness with a lengthy trip to IKEA!  We had a list the size of Texas on things we need for the apartment but we only managed to get about a fourth of the things listed.  Which means your's truly gets to take another trip to Ikea sometime this week.  We didn't plan it very well - you have to take a 30 minute bus ride outside of the city and you can only buy as much as you can carry.  I need to do more research and figure out EXACTLY what I want to buy beforehand, and then sign up for the delivery option.  Sounds good to me.


We moved all of our stuff from our temporary place to our new place, went to dinner with Tracy and the Lesters before Tracy and Michael's first day of work, and headed back to our temporary place for one last night of internet and a big apartment before we head over to our new place permanently today.


It's almost 11am, and I have to pack up the rest of our stuff, drop off the keys from our corporate housing at some random address, and head over to our new place to turn it into a home we both wanna live in.  Which also includes washing the sheets with a washing machine that I have no clue how to use.  Oh brother.  


Though I won't have internet for another 24 hours, I'll try to take pictures of the complete disarray in our apartment and find a cafe with Wi-fi and post them for some good Before and After shots.  


Happy Monday!  Goodbye for now!