psssssssssss.....

PSSSsssss..... That's the sound i THOUGHT i would have heard one morning... let me explain. It was a lovely, everyday morning as i got ready for work. The sky was actually not TOTALLY filled with clouds (which means it could be a beautiful next couple of minutes) so i was so happy to get a clearer morning to ride into work. As i geared up with my waterproofs (those boy scouts must have started in Ireland, you really DO need to always be prepared) i got on my bike and started to go. I felt pretty sluggish and although i kept changing to lower and lower (easier) gears my thighs were burning, and that was just on flat road. "my thighs must still be sore from yesterday" was my thought. But when i finally reached my favorite part, the downhill, i was STILL Having to pedal!!! What is the deal!? I got off my bike at the bottom of the hill thinking maybe my brakes were locked up, maybe something has rusted in the salty air. I finally realized it- my back tire was flat flat flat! Ah. Well.... look at the bright side, the cloud cover doesn't look too ominous. I started down the footpath feeling completely self-conscious of people watching the dork who doesn't realize to RIDE her bike, but to walk along with it like a friend keeping her company, i was wishing there was a sign following me saying "FLAT TIRE! give me a ride!" Well the cloud covering, as it always does, finally gave way and i was pretty wet when i finally made it to work. Oh the adventures of being a non-gas guzzling commuter.





Michael and I went to get our PPS # (equivalent to a social security #) so that i can get paid. It just so happens that it of course will take 2-3 weeks for them to mail us our #'s. As things go, i won't get paid for quite a while. Things are pretty inefficient here, not like the German's for sure! It seems that if someone is off on holiday, or off sick, their job isn't covered, no one else steps in, you just have to wait for them to come back. Like my ID badge which you can only get 2 times a week between 2 hours each of those days. I'm trying to get use to that, but its harder than i thought to be patient! (even after all we've been through to get here.)



Its the first Friday of lent and so instead of eatting meat tonight, Michael and i went out for FISH AND CHIPS!! yum!! We found the best place for them in Galway which was unanimously McDonagh's Seafood house. We loved it, grease and all! They serve them with vinager and then you can buy dips: curry, tartar, ketchup or mushy peas (Eileen- your fave!). It got packed in there, it was certainly a local favorite. After walking around Shop street checking out the fine food stores carrying lots of cheeses and wines we found ourselves at Monroe's Tavern with a pint an excellent cover band. Although they were Irish, they played everything from Blue's Traveler to the Beatles to Dave Matthews and Bob Dylan. We had the Craic!

Tomorrow is the HUGE deal rugby match- Ireland vs. England at Croake Park. This is the first year EVER, sports besides gaelic sports are being played there. Also this is the first time since England played there in 1919 and 14 Irish were shot down by the English military. There's hostility, excitement and suspense all around. We're hoping to get a seat a pub, but we have been told to get there like 3 hours early!

By the way, i've made it up that hill without stopping many times, however the butt and thighs are still going through the burn baby burn phase!

Settling In

Our big task of finding accommodations is finally completed. We did not get our first choice, which was an apartment of our own. All of the apartments that were decent that were 2 or even 1 bedroom were €800 and up and if they were less, we didn’t think we could tolerate them for a year for reasons like they had kitchens in little closets, or the room was the size of the bed. Before we left we thought €800 would be affordable, but we realized how much traveling would be costing and how important that is to us and we so we chose the less expensive path. So we’re now residing in a “double en suite”, which means we’re renting a room with a full sized bed and a bathroom (with shower) attached to our room so it will only be us using, that which is nice. The house that we’re renting the room in is a “semi-detached” house with 2 other bedrooms, a really nice kitchen, our own small fridge/freezer, a living room with a working fireplace that I think we’ll actually get to use, a washer and dryer, and small closed in back yard (like a small Brooklyn sized one) where we could safely keep our bikes, if not inside. The man, Collim, who we’re renting from, is a nice, quiet man who said he won’t be around too much and that we can use anything in the house. The area is interesting- it’s a development and all the houses look the same. It’s very safe feeling, but not at all like what I imagine a neighborhood to look like in Ireland. However, right across the road from the development is very “Ireland looking”. Grassy and rocky with short stone walls everywhere, hilly and smelling of cows. I really like having that so close by to keep me feeling like I’m actually in Ireland. We moved in Sunday, and a friend of mine from work, Carmel, helped us out since she has a car and biking with 4 suitcases would have been hellish! It’s actually not too far from our first place,which is good since it took us 2 trips to schlep all our stuff over. The other nice things is that it will only take me about 10 minutes to bike to work and probably close to 20 to get home since it’s up a pretty steep hill, and right now I have to stop ½ way to ease the burning in my thighs. My goal is to be able to do it without stopping in a month.

First week of work went really well. It was gradually less overwhelming. However the differences have not ceased to surprise and shock me at times. Partly it’s that this hospital seems behind the times with things in general, and then the same with OT. Things like the fact that we only have about 8 wheelchairs to choose from to loan and test out with patients (when we could really use about 50), or that the wait list for patients to see a community OT is about 18 months. There just isn’t enough… anything to go around it seems. There needs to be about another 500 OTs to make things run smoother through out the system. Anyway, I got to see 3 patients on my own on Friday and that really helped me to understand everything, just getting my hand in things. Each patient was pretty different- one I did a home assessment with and then order equipment for safety in the bathroom, one I did a cognitive assessment with, and the third was a determined but VERY heavy duty patient who had had a stroke, he was pretty challenging, and so was his family but it was nice to actually physically be treating patients again.

Michael made a few connections around the city, put in a bunch of applications and refined his CV (resume) once again to fit Irish standards. He went on his first interview on Friday, which he biked to and it took about 30-40 one way! He’s a biking stud! It went well but the logistics of his work permit still need to worked out. We think we understand what he has to do, but it’s going to be a pain in the butt. Internet access at our new accommodation should really decrease the stress of him going from one internet source to another trying to get everything done. His legs are so sore from biking around all day long! There’s a question about whether the €500 fee for the work permit will apply to him but if it does, you can pray for the employer to be willing to pay for it as mine did especially since most of the places he’s looking into are non-profits (which they call ‘charities’ here).

We got initiated into pub life on Friday night! Carmel invited us out to a pub called Front Door, where we met her with her fiancé and a bunch of her friends from all over Ireland and even 2 from the States (she had some visitors this weekend). It was a blast being in a large, jam-packed, boisterous pub with a bunch of extremely friendly, generous strangers who were quick to find out what we like to drink. Pints are much larger than they seem, but we didn’t realize that till after we finished them. Michael did a great job of keeping up the Irish tradition of buying rounds for the people you’re with. Everyone we met was hysterical, crazy and made our first pub experience unforgettable. I was educated on how to get yourself to like Guinness- just drink LOTS of it and eventually you won’t be able to stop…. Great. We are continually being recommended to other pubs for one thing or another so we’ve got a long list to check out, and that’s just in Galway! If you come to visit we’ll take to our favorite ones!


Until next time- Sláinte (slawn-cha)- Cheers!

Livin' the life

I started work on Monday wearin' my bottle green outfit from the 5'10" woman. It was about a foot too long so i had to roll up the pants from both ends to keep it from looking ridiculous, other wise it wasn't so bad since i was surrounded by about 7 others in the same uniform. I was so busy on Monday learning the different wards and the charts, paper work, where to go for our coffee/tea break at about 10 every day and about OT equipment and all of that. There is so much to learn, but once i really get my feet wet i think i'll be fine. The documentation is SOO different. its a lot easier and a lot less. We are responsible for a whole lot more though. We do all the wheelchair fittings, all the equipment orders even if its nursing stuff like mattresses or IV stuff. We do a lot of contact with community OTs and nurses which is good and we see people in EVERY part of the hospital (ICU to the emergency room, to oncology patients to the geriatric population) . The tricky part is that most of these patients are not organized in a certain ward so we just go all over the hospital to see what ever area we're 'specialized' in. I'm supposed to be medical/ surgical. Anyway, so far so good. Oh and the people i work with are so lovely!

Mike and i got bikes yesterday and we're ridin' fools. we had our first event in the rain today going to get ourselves registered with immigration which wasn't as bad as we thought. The next task we had today was to go to get our Irish Social Security numbers which is much more of a hassle. We thought we had everything but we need something a bit different which hopefully won't take long to get. But the bikes are a blessing cause its really cutting down on travel time (which is great when its raining) even though our butts are really sore already.

Please pray for us about getting accomodation. We will be getting a long list of postings for 'lettings' tomorrow and will be searching for the right one for the right price. its my biggest source of anxiety right now! It would be ideal for us to have our own place but we're getting ourselves ready for sharing a room somewhere if we have to. We just hope we find something by Sunday since that is when our 'lease' is up at this place, even though we think we can extend it a bit. We're just ready to know where we'll be staying for a year so we can finally unpack and 'move in'.

We got cell phones and it has been very helpful to have them although we didnt really seem to miss not having them when we didn't... oh well. We'll post our numbers later if anyone is so ambitious to call us.

We love you!!

Day 2 of Galway fun

Yesterday was one LONG day of thursday just melding into Friday, we slept a bit on the plane but it was not quality even though we each had 3 seats to ourselves. We slept as well as we could. Our flight was a bit delayed, but thanks a million to Uncle Tommy who got us out MUCH faster than we would have otherwise. The pilot actually said at one point "somethings are going our way and we're 2nd in line to take off now" mike and i just looked at each other and smiled knowing that most likey was Uncle Tommy's air traffic controller connections!

Yesterday we kinda flew through customs and got on the first bus to Galway at 7:55, it left right on time. we got into galway at 9:45 and took a taxi to the University College Hospital (UCH) where i'm working. We meet up with Colette, the woman in HR there, and she got us squared away with our luggage and then we picked up a few groceries and then set up a bank account and then met with Pauline and this all was done walking and before 12:00... it was an absolute whirlwind and totally exhausting for 2 people that just flew from JFK! Well i met some of the OT's and the saw the department. Pauline is letting me borrow here bottle green uniform.. should be amusing as she is about 5' 10". we'll see on monday

Colette took us to our new place. We schlepped our luggage to her teeny little car and literally shoved our luggage into her trunk and back seat. Poor mike was stuck in the back with bags surrounding him, he couldn't move if he wanted to. Then i proceded to open the passenger door when Colette said "you're gonna be drivin' are ya?". ooooh yeah... the cars are opposite here. oops. We finally found our little 3 bedroom town house like place. The carpet is really loud and hideous, i'm way taller than the fridge and the bathroom shower has this little 1/2 wall screen to keep the water from spraying out. Our kitchen table is even decked out with a Guinness table cloth! Well the good thing is that its about a 10 min walk to work for me.

After crashing we walked through the city and found ourselves in a bar with traditional music playing. We felt really out of place everywhere and felt like we had no idea how to do anything, but it was still fun and we had some drinks and then found a restaraunt and mike had fish and chips and i had this great fishermans bake, it was like a glorified shephard's pie with fish and delish veggies topped with mash!

our legs were exhausted last night and we crashed! This morning we're doing it all over, we're looking for bikes and cell phones to call each other. Mike's mission on monday is to find a new place to live, a place to work and maybe go grocery shopping a bit more.

We're only able to use the internet cafe right now since we don't have WiFi at our place and don't know where to find a plce to use our laptop yet. So we don't know how often we'll be able to write for now.

We love you all!!

Here we go!

Sigh and Phew! It is so true that our plan and God's plan will very often be two very different things. Once again, what we had planned to happen with this trip has not worked out exactly, but just enough to keep us guess, anxious and nervous as all get out!

My work permit was supposed to reach us via FedEx on Monday before 10:30, especially since i was told that it was picked up on Friday in Ireland. However, i was later updated that it was NOT picked up on Friday by FedEx because you know... its Friday, and people don't like to work late on Fridays... and we would have to wait until Wednesday to receive it. Ok... now that was cutting it close. We already arranged our flight to leave from JFK on Thursday at 7:10 and if the work permit was late by a day, oh geez. Our (mostly meaning my) stomachs were in big bally tied up gnarly knots on Wednesday morning. You see, at this point we had decided to leave for Brooklyn on Wednesday around 10:00 to make it to Grimaldi's (the world's best pizza, conveniently located beneath the Brooklyn Bridge) around 12:00 and meet my Brooklyn residing Aunty Am there so that she could then take us to JFK, leisurly enough, on Thrusday. Sooooo, having our last breakfast in PA with Mike's parents was so anxiety ridden that i thought the oatmeal was going to come back up. 9:00 past, 9:45 past, 10:00 was here and i just couldn't take it! I got on the Phone with FedEx about to plead and tell them over the phone that i was on my knees, all this time praying that God would miraculously take away my anxiety and let me actually enjoy this anticipation of moving to another country. It was at that moment in the midst of my prayer that i saw the FedEx truck stroll down the country road. I hung up the phone on someone mid-sentence, scream "THE FED-EX TRUCK IS HERE!" and ran to put my sneakers on, knowing fully well that Mike's parents don't have numbers or a mailbox to denote thier driveway. I grabbed my coat and started to race down the icy driveway to catch the truck as i imagined it driving right past the non-marked driveway. This time I was praying that i wouldn't break a bone and cause myself more delay being casted up in a hospital some where. It was then that i saw the glorious, white, orange and purple truck with an angel in the driver's seat coming straight for me. He handed me my work permit, i told him he saved my life and thanked him profusely for doing his job on time and celebrated with jumps and hugs with Michael and his mom.

Phew.... and i thought the SAT's were stressful.

Needless to say, Grimaldi's was incredible, the last good pizza we'll have for a year. And we have finally been able to really get excited about this whole thing. There is nothing stopping us!
We know where to go once we get there, we have a cool house to stay at for 9 days and we're going to be meeting the people we've been corresponding with for 2 months at long last on Friday morning! ITS GOING TO BE GREAT!!!!
Next stop- Shannon Airport!

THE GOLDEN TICKET

Its almost surreal, but my work permit is in transit to us as I type today! The woman in human resources at the hospital emailed me this morning that she FedEx-ed it today! Its been a VERY long time coming. We have had to be more patient than ever. And of course, this has not quite been the plan that was laid out in a little brains 10 months ago. Either way, Michael and I will be leaving the US from JFK on Thrusday the 8th at 7:10 pm and getting in the next morning the 9th at Shannon Airport at 6:10 am. Its really happening.... WOW!!

I have gotten some fun details from my new supervisor, Pauline, about some things for when we get there. Ok, so i'll be wearing a really cute, just-my-color uniform, to work: bottle green trowsers and white tunic/poloshirt/ blouse with bottle green trim. I mean really, who doesn't LOVE bottle green. I'm surprised its not "Guinness Brown" that we have to wear. Also we may have a really fun 3 bedroom semi-detached, furnished house to stay in temporarily until we find our own phat pad! Housing is really expensive so we will most likely wind up in a small one bedroom apartment with hopefully something larger than a twin bed.

Well, we have a ton to do around here... packing a trip for a year is no small feat. We also have to bring every small piece of important documentation you can think of from our birth certificates to a reference letter from our previous landlords... oh boy!

Keep happy thoughts about all this in your head for us, specifically that we definitely get the work permit on Monday. That we don't forget to pack anything crucial. That all transportation goes well. That packing and all this isn't too stressful. And, of course, that i really DO look cute in bottle green.