Tip #9 - Technology. Use it.

Merry Christmas! Nolaig Shona! (Gaelic)
Apologies for the delay in my weekly posts, but as you likely all can understand, December is always a very busy time of year for anyone. The pub I work at has lost a couple of full-time servers - ironically, they both are traveling to Canada to work and do the same thing as myself - love life. That being said, I've been working pretty much 6 days per week and it's pretty exhausting. The weekly paycheque has been nice for Christmas presents for those back home and also to start saving up some funds for some upcoming tours/trips.
I'm trying to think what has all happened since my last post, other than working. We had our staff Christmas party and it was fun to hang out with my coworkers outside of our busy pub and get to know people a bit more. I also managed to injure myself slipping on the icy streets here and sprained my ankle and knee so after a week or so now, my legs and knees are a nice black/blue/yellow collage. They are slowly but surely healing and I had to take a few days off of work because I would have been pretty much useless to them seeing I could barely walk and definitely could not do stairs - which are quite common at our pub.
Other than that, I just did some xmas shopping for the fam back home, spent some time with the girls/Jonny and getting prepared for Christmas. We hosted the Cdn girls and Rachelle's cousin that's visiting for Christmas yesterday. Made my first ever turkey and it turned out great. (pic of before and after below).

I also made butternut squash, stuffing, gravy, cauliflower/cheese sauce all from scratch and, well,  attempted mashed potatoes. Now, I have made mashed potatoes with no fail at least 20 times in my life (I have many witnesses) but when I went to check on them as they were boiling, they literally had evaporated into potato BROTH. We concluded that we got a bad bag of potatoes even though they looked completely normal. When I told my family about this later - the average comment was, "Isn't Ireland known for their tasty potatoes?" and yes - this is true but I guess not in my case on Christmas day. Either way - we didn't really miss them because we had so much food as the girls brought CHEESE (lots of it), salads, and desserts. We also did a fun little Secret Santa exchange and listened to lots of Christmas music. Even though we were all deep down somewhat sad that we weren't with our families back home, being together seemed to bring our spirits up and we made the most of the day.

 Some of the feast - lots of leftovers. :)

 Our Canadian-Galwegian guests

So my tip for the day is, if possible when traveling...try to take advantage of what the great world of technology has to offer. In that I mean - the world wide web, Skype, Facebook, email, etc. If it wasn't for Skype, email and my great international phone plan that I have now with my new iPhone 4 (product placement inserted here...haha), keeping in touch with my family and friends would be so difficult, especially yesterday when I wished that teleporting was a REAL thing. I skyped with my aunt/uncle/cousin and of course my family and even my precious pup - Chelsea. Maybe she can't talk but just seeing her with her reindeer antlers and covered in her traditional xmas ribbons made my heart smile. Yes, technology can be frustrating and some do misuse it more than less it seems these days but I definitely would have a hard time living without it. I'm also thankful that my mom is 'in the know' with all the gadgets and such. For example, with her new laptop, she was able to bring me along to the Landreth Christmas so I could even skype with my Grandma - a first for her and she loved it...and so did I!
I do agree that sometimes receiving cards and letters in the mail is still a great feeling (thank you everyone that sent me some and I'm sorry that I'm so slow with sending mine out) but on an everyday basis, it's great to see emails from my Mom (everyday - thanks momma!!), my family, my friends and such in my inbox or messages on Facebook or comments on my photos because I feel like I can share my experiences with you all back home. It's hard to think how life was before the web and the digital world.
Anyway - that's my tip for the day and my update. I hope to have another update next week but if I don't have the chance, I wish you all a happy and safe New Years! Here's a few more pics from the last month.

Snowing in Galway

 Xmas Eve at our flat

 Merry Christmas :)

 Sunny Xmas day looking out our Balcony

 Deformed kneecap (right) and colourful legs - one week post incident.

Miss you all so much....xo

Tip #8 - Travel with layers...

Hi All,
I'm trying to stay true to my weekly posts and I may be a few days late here and there due to my work schedule so please forgive me. I'm trying to remember what has happened since I last posted but I think the newest thing is that I now have a roommate and friendly face from back home - Jonny Boy. :)
Yes, he arrived last Tuesday afternoon so I took Tuesday till Friday off of work to go and meet him at Dublin airport and then show him around Galway and meet the other girls I've made good friends with here. I took the bus in the morning to meet him and it was a pretty good drive considering my stomach doesn't do well with public transit. It was quite a foggy day (see below) but it was a nice quiet ride and I enjoyed the peace and quiet as I had been working for 10 days straight.

Being the Landreth that I am, I made sure to be early because you never know when flight times can change. Sure enough, when I arrived it stated that his flight would be in a half hour early which was fine as then I wasn't waiting for an hour and a half. I felt like I was in one of the credit card commercials where you were eagerly awaiting the arrival of a loved one at the arrival gates...haha. Of course we had the long embrace and then I had to quickly run to the 'toilet' as, again having the small bladder of a typical Landreth, I had to go pretty much the second his flight landed and I didn't want to risk not being there when he walked through the gates. I knew that he was likely sick of flying and didn't want to jump back on a 2.75 hr bus ride so we lounged in the foodcourt for a bit to catch up. 
I was pretty tired as I was up late unpacking (yes, I finally unpacked) and tidying up for the new 'roomie' so I fell asleep on the way back to Galway. I knew that Jonny would want a shower after his full day of traveling and warned him about the size of the shower stall. Afterwards, I took him out for his first dinner and he had his first official Guiness (pic below).

Then we met up with Rachelle, Ashlie and Carlee as they were eagerly waiting to meet the new 'Canadian' to add to our posse. :) We had a few pints and called it a night as it was a long day for both of us...more so him of course.
He seems to slowly be settling in. Much like I was when I got here, he is eager to get a job and into a routine and make some money so after my days off work, he started going around all the shops and pubs to hand out CV's. I'm sure he'll find something in no time because he's got tons of experience. I also took him out for a nice birthday dinner as his birthday was last Friday and then met up with the girls again for pints.

He then had his first Supermacs experience and it was the craziest we have ever seen it. What a great night for him to experience it for the first time! It was so packed that we had to wait 5 min to get OUT of the place and the security (yes, they have security there every night) was literally pushing intoxicated boys away from the entrance. Talk about mayhem in Galway but it was also entertaining.

Now - my tip for the day...when traveling to destinations where the weather can be 'unexpected'...my tip is to travel with layers. In which I mean, bring clothes that can be easily layered for cool and hot and VERY cool temperatures. For example - Galway. Apparently we have hit record-low temperatures in Ireland and it's been on average between -4 and -15 in the last week or so. We even got a couple centimetres of snow last week. To prove it - see the miniature snowman that Jonny built on our balcony below.

The locals don't know how to deal with it all exactly and apparently Dublin shut down their buses for a few days and even the airport yesterday due to icy roads and runway. They were literally putting TABLE SALT on the roads as they aren't equipped with the salt and sand that we have back home for icy conditions. Unfortunately as well, due to the frigid temperatures, the pipes going from our kitchen froze. So for the last few days we haven't been able to use our sink or laundry machine. We tried everything - a drain snake (which they don't really understand here), several different types of Drain-O, litres and litres of hot water and even heating up the pipe outside with a heater. We FINALLY had progress today and as we speak, our laundry machine is doing a cycle to clean out all the backlogged water that was sitting in our machine for a few days. Oh the things you learn from living in a country that's hundreds of years older than your home country.

Anyway, that's about it for now. I have to go to work tonight for just a few hours but then I'm back on full days tomorrow and Saturday. It was a pretty good week with work and I even got to put in some admin hours helping out the girl that does all the marketing for the pub. It was tedious inputting but I'll be helping her out more with some other marketing tasks and it will be a nice change of pace from climbing those flights of stairs at work all the time. :)

I guess that's it for now....have to get all my Christmas shopping done so the package HOPEFULLY arrives on time in Canada. Missing you all and hoping you're staying warm like me. Remember - layers!!!

Until then...Shannon xo

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.                                        

A lot can happen in 7 days...

So I realize that I haven't really been a great blogger in the last 7 days as I haven't posted anything but the good news is that I have good news to post. :)
Well, let's see...after moving to a different hostel because they didn't have room for little ol' me last Saturday (Galway is a big party city on wknds), I stayed at another hostel for one night and came back to my preferred hostel Sunday where I met three great ladies - Ashlie who is from Nova Scotia, Carlee who is from outside Montreal and Rachelle who is from outside Saskatoon - all smalltown gals and naturally we all 'clicked'. They had known eachother for a week but were all in the same boat as myself - traveling to Ireland on their own in hopes of staying in Galway to live and work for a year through the SWAP program. We've had lots of laughs and memories thus far and I'm sure we have many ahead of us. They did things a bit backwards than myself where they secured a place to live and then worried about finding employment. They are all renting rooms in different houses but we are all about less than 5 min walk away from each other...which is great. And so far, I think our work schedules should jive pretty well for meeting up during the evening too.
Yes - work schedules or as they call them over here 'rosters' means that I am now an official server at the Dail Bar in Galway city centre. It's a great place and the inside is pretty much all wood design and it's two floors. You can Google it and they have their own website complete with lunch and dinner menus and even though I have to say it, the food is REALLY good. :) It's a workout and a half when I go in there because it's a 2-floor restaurant to begin with and the kitchen where you pick up the food is on the 4th floor...soooo....we all have to take turns being the 'runner' where you are literally running everyone's food for them. I have volunteered twice in both of my shifts because I need the exercise and it gets me comfortable with what food is what and getting to know the layout of the restaurant. I was pretty much thrown right into taking tables and things are quite more fast-paced here in Ireland which is surprising because all the people are so laid back to begin with. But, I think I will fit in well with this restaurant and I count my blessings everyday that I have a job as some people have been here for 2 or so weeks and haven't had any luck finding work.
Second piece of good news is that I found a place to live last night and it's about 200m from my work. It's a two-floor apartment above a quiet tailor shop right in the heart of the city and I felt at home as soon as I walked in the door. Everything is a bit out of date and different in Europe - a standard-sized fridge here is what we call a mini-fridge or beer fridge back home, if you have a dishwasher you are living in luxury (which I am not), the washer for your clothes is in the kitchen, the 'cooker' (stove) looks like one you would buy at Toys R Us for little ones and the decor is just - well, let's just say I feel like I'm living at Brady Bunch's house in the 70's. BUT - the landlords are great and remind me of Mom & Dad (miss you guys), they lowered the rent for me because they 'want to find someone to take great care of the place' as they live out of town and I'm HOPEFULLY moving in next week. Since the girls are sharing apartments with other people, I've already volunteered my place for Christmas dinner, movie nights and  official 'the place to be' (for all you Seinfeld fans) for the next year.
So, as you can see things are slowly starting to fall into place. Hopefully I get enough hours at the bar to survive financially but if not, I don't mind picking up another part-time job so I can save a bit of money for some trips here and there. :) I work 8 hours shift tomorrow and Sunday which I don't mind but I know it's going to be hard work as the bar is pretty busy constantly and those flights of stairs are a bit tiring after a while but motivation is key. Luckily in a week or so, I can easily go home around the corner after my shift and relax and not have to worry about odd hostel flatmates or the weekend party-ers disturbing my sleep. Looking forward to next weekend as Halloween is huge in Ireland (note the sign below - Welcome to Ghoulway) so I'm sure the girls and I will be doing something fun or 'get into some good craic' as they say over here. Here are a few candid pics thus far and I promise I will go and take some good ones of Galway soon. Until then...keep fit and have fun.