Potential Employers, Playgrounds, and PPS

Moving in to our new apartment: Aparment 3, 52 Vicar Court, Thomas Street, Dublin 8

Our first homemade meal together!

We’ve officially hit our one-week mark as residents of the Emerald Isle. Though we’re still figuring out the tricks and trades of the city, we must look like we fit in, because people on the street ask us for directions almost every day. They always seem a bit shocked when we reply with our cheery American accents.

The good new first:

We have interviews! Tomorrow at 2:30 for Al and 3:00 for Mer, we will be interviewing at the only American place we applied to: The Body Shop. Hopefully some local venues will come through, but beggars can’t be choosers and in this city, we’re the beggars. We’ll take whatever work we can get. On Thursday Al has a “trial run” to be a waitress at for a catering company east of the city centre. Though we’re jump-and-shriek-in-the-streets excited about these, we are still hoping for more offers to come!

We’ve explored some more great sights. Today we took a bus north to Malahide Castle, a beautiful ancient castle that was owned by one Irish family – the Talbots – for over 800 years. It was full of ancient furniture and portraits and held some fascinating stories about Ireland in medieval times. It was nestled in 300 acres of park, complete with the sweetest playground we’ve ever played on and miles of pathways that wound through thick, lush forest. (Our afternoon spent playing in this park made us think of the fam—you guys would have been in heaven in this place!)

And now for the not-so-good news:

Alas, it’s not always rainbows and butterflies for these optimistic Americans. We’ve had a handful of disappointing occurrences in the past couple of days, the majority of which have to do with the annoyances of getting our paperwork straightened out. To give an example, we have
walked back and forth from the “PPS” office, 20 minutes both ways, three times now, only to be
turned away for a different reason every time.
We missed the closing by 5 minutes. We didn’t have
appropriate proof of address. “Due to an unexpected intervention by the Public Service Committee, the office is closed.” This silly little PPS number is the supposed ticket to getting approved for a bank account, so we haven’t any other option but to trek back again tomorrow. With our luck, it will likely be closed due to the return of the famine. Blast.

We leave you with an Irish quote: “Ireland has one of the world’s heaviest rainfalls. If you see an Irishman with a tan, it’s rust.”

Sláinte, Cheers, and love,

Al and Mer