Monumental moments in life...

So, apparently I'm not great at keeping new resolutions (ie. blogging each week) which is why I never really had a New Year's Resolution each year because of that. But I won't dwell on that and just keep on blogging!
Lots has happened in the last couple of weeks - two big things: my first St Patrick's Day experience in Ireland and I landed a new job. First off - St Paddy's Day. It was everything I expected and then some and my Irish friends were shocked that I lasted till the wee hours of the morning because most Irish people don't even last that long and I was up and ready to go by 10am. Carlee, Rachelle, Ashlie and I went to the Galway St Paddy's Parade and coming from a small town, I knew not to expect a lot of glitz and glamour but it was fun and I'm still glad I went...just wish I had a few extra layers on because when the sun went away, it got super chilly. The parade consisted of essentially lots of school marching bands, football (soccer) and hurling teams, displaying the different ethnicities and culture in Galway and some of the arts/music clubs too as Galway is a very musical/arts town compared to the rest of the country. Below are just a few pics.

 Just a display of how 'green' the town gets when leading up to St Paddy's Day - ie. a storefront window of a used book store.

Three Canadians excited for what St Paddy's Day will bring us in IRELAND. :)

 Irish Pride

 Hurling team

 Rugby team

 Galway Indian culture

 Shop St after the parade = insanity

 first pint of Guiness of St Paddy's Day

 and my first Guiness of the day

 Meeting up with friends - Nathan & Jonny

Post-St Paddy's Day Sun and friends @ Spanish Arch

After the parade the streets were mayhem so we quickly got through the crowd and went to a big pub just outside of Eyre Square and found a little side table as the pub was already packed. We stayed for a few pints and then went to visit Jonny as he was working till 8p at Sleepzone (hostel) that day as he just started at the job a few weeks ago. After our visit we stopped off at Le Supermacs for a fine dining experience (kidding - it's much like Mc D's) to make sure we had some food in our bellies for the next few hours. We then just hopped pub to pub and I met up with some of my coworkers from the Dail Bar (where I work) and then I called it a night just after 1am, got some more food and headed home. All in all it was a fantastic day, I would haven't changed a thing and I'm glad that I had the experience as it may never happen again - that is, in IRELAND. :)
Next piece of news, I have landed a new job as an Account Manager at a small event marketing agency. My new boss always owns a small recruiting company, hence how I found out about the position. We had been exchanging emails since the day I landed in Galway and he proposed sales positions at different companies to me but I kept declining because I'm a marketeer at heart. He soon realized that I wasn't going to change my mind, we met a couple times to go over in details what my skills and career experience was in Canada and he essentially created a role for me in his small company to design, organize, implement and manage all the event campaigns for his clients. It's hard to understand if you're not from Ireland but the three clients we have are pretty high-profile: Eircom (like Bell Canada), Vodafone (like Rogers) and Bord Gais (like Ontario Hydro). I won't bore you with details but I started my first two days in the office this week and everyone is really nice and I'm looking forward to having a 9a-5p job for the summer season. The only downside is that the office is located a 1/2 hr outside of Galway so for the time-being I will be taking the bus but it's not too bad as I tested it out yesterday. I just have to be at the bus station by 8am and it will drop me just outside of work and pick me up along the way too. It's a coach bus so there are no labeled stops so you just have to tell the driver where you want dropped off along the route and then flag them down when you're on the side of the road...haha. I feel like I'm back living grade school when I ran after my school bus out in the country but it's pretty good.

Other than that, not much is new. The weather has been pretty nice in the last week or so. Therefore on my days off, I sit down by the water basking in the sun and thinking of my friends back home in the cold and sending positive weather thoughts so it warms up there quickly...especially when I come back in just a few weeks for a longer visit. For anyone who wants to meetup, I'll be back in Ontario April 22 for almost 2 weeks. I will be celebrating my birthday once again with my BFF in Toronto at our annual 'Shimmy Bash' so look for details on Facebook soon. Unfortunately I won't have a phone number when in Canada but you can always reach me via Fbook and email.

Well, I must get back to work as I'm just on a quick lunch break from my shift at the bar. I worked at the office on my two days off this week as I'm still currently working at the Dail Bar. My official last day is next Saturday at the bar as my manager is away in New York next week so even though I gave my week's notice last Saturday (a week is only required in Ireland) I said I would work a couple shifts next week to help them out and my new boss was ok with that. It will be sad to leave the pub because I love everyone I work with and, even though I hate to admit it, it was a good workout with all those stairs! But, I will get to visit often as I'm back in the city by 6pm each day and I have weekends off! It was such a good experience for me in the last 6 months and I met so many people and looking forward to what the summer brings.

Miss you all and will write again soon!
xo