Checkin' in...

Hello all...just a quick update on my life thus far in Galway, Ireland. To be honest not much has happened because I have been working at the pub for 10 days straight (ugh, I know). Yes, I know I'm not here to work like crazy rather love life and I promise that's still my intention. I want to work many hours up till the holidays and then maybe I'll cut back a bit on hours after the New Year so then I can take some time here and there to go do some traveling around Europe and Ireland. I'm settling in well with work and even though I've been there just over a month, I trained a new server yesterday.
I'm also experiencing my first cold & flu in Ireland which has not been particularly fun but wasn't expecting it to. I have realized having a flu here in Ireland is much worse because I was a spoiled child back home where my mom would take care of me and I would have Chelsea (my pup) by my side. So, when you're far away from home, your entire body aches, you're stuffed up and don't have the energy to make any food or do anything at all...the feeling of being lonely and also homesick settles in. Fortunately and unfortunately I had work to keep me occupied but also drained what little energy I had left out of me as well. My coworkers and managers at work were great and gave me longer breaks and sent me home first when things started to die down at work. Yesterday, I definitely hit the 'inner funnel' of the cold so even though I got sent home a bit early, it was a long day and I was so happy this morning when I woke up well-rested and realized I had the day off.
Today, I have to finish organizing the flat as I had zero time this week, finally finish unpacking (I know, crazy that I haven't yet), pick up some last few things to complete the place and tidy up. Jonny gets here on Tuesday afternoon and because I booked Tues-Fri off to show him around and relax, they booked me all day Monday to work so everything must get done today pretty much. I'm taking the bus Tuesday morning over to the airport and then I don't have to go back to work till Saturday afternoon. Oh joy, oh rapture. :)
So, that's about it thus far. We might try to squeeze a day in at the Cliffs of Moher this week as the weather has been pretty nice (clear and sunny today) but I know that I'm here for a year so there's no rush either. It's starting to look a lot like Christmas around here (minus the snow) as you've likely seen from some of the pics I have posted with all the Christmas decorations and so forth. There is a big Christmas market that I might go visit today if time permits but it's up till Christmas Eve too so I've got some time.

Hope everyone back home is doing well and feel free to write or email anytime.

Miss you all very much...xo

Galway pics...

Hi all - here's just a quick peek at some of the sights in my home away from home. Click on the pic and it will redirect you to my album of pics. I will take more as time goes by and when I take some tours around Ireland. I tried using Flickr but it's even too confusing for me being a pretty big tech-geek. Enjoy...

Tip #7 - Capture everything

I'm trying to get better at posting so I'm aiming to do one post per week as I work usually 5 out of 7 days and the two days I have off, I'm trying to do fun things around the city. For example, Carlee and I both had Tues/Wed off this week so we did some grocery shopping and were tourists during the day taking pics of the city and coastline. I'll be posting those pics soon for sure because I want to ensure that everyone back home can see how I'm capturing almost every moment throughout my adventures. I know I haven't really posted many pics yet in terms of Ireland but, unlike the Cdn girls here, I haven't had a chance to do any tours. I guess it's the 'planner' in me where I wanted to station myself first somewhere, establish some roots and income and then I can start planning some road trips and tours around Ireland and parts of Europe. I keep reminding myself that I AM here for a year so there's no rush. Plus - Jonny is going to be here in less than two weeks so I figure we could do some tours together as the girls have already done a lot of touring around parts of Ireland.
Rachelle, Carlee and I went to our first official Ireland rugby game. Our home team is called the Connacts and even though they aren't ranked high in the standings right now (10th out of 12 teams?) the hometown pride and support is very strong...much like the Leafs in Toronto but less embarrassing. (Go HABS!) It was a pretty cold night but Carlee and I bought some Connact toques, got ourselves some Connact scarves right before we entered the stadium, layered up and had some Guiness to keep us somewhat warm. Rachelle, being an ex-Canadian rugby player was teaching us all the rules and lingo throughout the game. She even managed to catch the gameball when it went over the sidelines and kept a hold of her beer too! Such a true Canadian girl right there and we were all so proud! After the game we went down to Skeffs, a popular pub in town, because with our ticket stubs we got a free pint. After that we headed to our favourite pub - the Spanish Arch - hoping to hear the live Irish band that's always playing but they were just jamming in the corner and not on stage. It was still a good night and naturally we saw some 'interesting' sights at Supermacs (Irish version of Mc Donalds) filled with many intoxicated students and such as usual. 
The weather has been all over the place this week. Pretty much the weather changes literally every few minutes. On my two days off, I woke up to it being sunny and clear and by the time I went upstairs to get myself a cup of coffee and some breakfast, it was grey and misty. Its been really windy lately in the last couple of nights too so many of the restaurants (including our bar) and the nightlife hasn't been very busy. Oh well - thus is Ireland weather and, although I miss the snow in Canada and definitely will at Christmas, I can't complain too much about the weather here as it's pretty mild. It reminds me a lot of BC (Vancity) where it's just a really damp cold and misty precipitation.
I guess the biggest news lately is that I have my OWN flat now!...well, till Jonny moves in in a few weeks but still very super exciting as it will be nice to have a friendly face around!  The place is great and I'm still slowly unpacking. It's two floors (located on top of a tailor shop) with two bedrooms, a tiny European bathroom including a claustrophobic shower,  an open-concept kitchen/dining/living room, and a large balcony facing a quaint backyard. I did my first load of laundry last night (washer is located in my kitchen where a dishwasher would be). I also hosted my first dinner last night (no, takeout at 3am from Mc Donald's with the girls on my first night doesn't count). Carlee's mom sent her a care package that included some KD (Kraft Dinner) so we had a 'carbalicious' night with pizza, KD, garlic bread, brie and veggies. Dessert? Rachelle brought pie...mmm. We were literally lying on the floor digesting for a good few hours after.
Other than that, I'm just trying to relax here and there and get things slowly organized in the new flat. Jonny is coming in less than two weeks so it will be super exciting to have a someone to share some of my journey with and also the monthly bills....just kidding. :) I'll send a post soon as to when new pics are uploaded to my Flickr account.

Must get some sleep as it's almost 2am now and  I have to open tomorrow at work which includes a 10-hr shift....ouch.

Miss you all very much. xo

Welcome to Ghoulway...

So....it’s just about 6:30am and I’m sitting outside the Immigration Bureau in Galway because I need to register my residency card as they only give you a temporary stamp for a month once you land in Ireland. The office doesn’t open till 7:30am but unfortunately this is the system – you have to get here super early to get in line to GET a ticket to then wait in line, after they open. The sad thing is that I arrived just before 6:30am and there was already four people waiting ahead of me. Anyway – I’m crossing my fingers that everything goes smoothly because, well, I’d prefer not to get sent back to Canada just yet.

Apologies on the delay of the blog update but I’ve been working a lot (which is good for my bank account…well, once I get one opened over here) and Halloween was super busy as well. If you don’t know already Halloween is just about as big as Christmas here with lots of festivities starting the week OF Halloween. So needless to say work was very busy and I’m very much looking forward to today and tomorrow off. I was worried about getting another part-time job but honestly the hours that I’m getting are pretty good and I’m just happy to have a job since it’s very hard to find work in a small tourist town during the winter season.

It was actually mandatory for employees to dress up in a Halloween costume at work on Saturday and Sunday and they even brought in professional make-up artists Fri-Sun to do all the staff's makeup. So, I put my awesome Transformers t-shirt in Vegas to good use, bought yellow/black striped knee socks and a yellow tutu and called myself ‘Bumblebee the Transformer’. I even had the make-up artist do my make-up on Sunday night with the Transformers logo on my face...all she had to do is look down on my shirt as a reference anyway! The shirt was a hit with everyone, naturally, as the Transformers symbol on my shirt actually lights up and it’s activated by sound (although after my friends told people this when we were going out I had some inebriated people yelling into my chest). I even had a customer offer me money for the shirt but it’s a rare find so I had to decline. The Canadian girls and I went out after I was finished work to a few bars on both nights and the costumes were interesting and funny. It was great to see some fun creativity although some took it a bit too far. Examples – we saw a group dressed up as the Ku Klux Klan and two girls dressed up as the Twin Towers with airplanes as props. There’s always a few each year who forget what’s appropriate and not so much. 

What else? I’m moving into my new flat on Sunday (see pic below - blue door) and I’m very, very excited about that because as much as my stay at the hostel has been not unbearable and the staff (minus the scary Polish cleaning staff) are really nice. You know you have been there too long when everyone knows you and calls you on a first name basis but after Sunday, no more flat-mates that don’t understand the concept of whispering when you’re sleeping, crazy old ladies barging into your room at 2am and yelling at you for having your 'radio' on (ie. My laptop) and blaming you for the ‘poor living conditions’ (it’s the 9^th best hostel in Ireland), not have to worry about the security of my things and my food and lastly – no more living out of my suitcase/backpack…sigh. 

Other than that I have just been spending time with time with the Canadian girls. They all have jobs now and two of them might try to get second part-time jobs but luckily we are all now working and settling in well. I think they are more excited than me to move into my own flat because they are all renting rooms in different houses so apparently my place is going to be the ‘hub’ for our social gatherings, movie nights, Christmas dinner, etc. which I don’t mind because I always enjoy company and when living in Toronto I didn’t have many guests other than my bff Rimi (miss you!)

Well...I guess that's it for now and again, I do apologize for the delay again on the post but hopefully I can do weekly ones as I'm sure my adventures won't be as frequent in the future versus the past month. It's hard to believe that I've been here for one month now and I have a flat, a stable job and a great group of friends already. :) I am going to do some tours soon to Connemara, Cliffs of Moher and Aran Islands and, also,  start taking some pics on my day off so stay tuned for those.

Talk soon my friends/family....xoxo

PS – thank goodness I usually come prepared with headphones and technology to keep me occupied. If I learned anything by living in Toronto and taking the public transit, always be sure that you have headphones and a fully-charged iPod to drown out the noise around you (aka. Intoxicated people, loud talkers on their cell phones, ‘not-all-there’ people, and in this case at the Immigration bureau, a very vocal and whiney toddler – even if I can’t understand the language he is speaking).       

PPS - everything went well as I wrote this post while I was waiting in line but I ended up getting called into work for Thursday and a longer shift on Friday...sigh. So much for having two days off work.