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 9th 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.
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