One Check Off the Life List

Joan had an exam yesterday so I was left to explore and be one with Dublin. It is a completely different feeling walking by yourself in a foreign country. I was never scared but just being on my own put me out of my element. I went from Grafton Street to O Connell and tried to stay away from the gypsies as best I could. I met Joan at the spire or "the erection at the intersection" as the locals call it, and we headed to find some place to eat. On the way, we saw a woman trying to get money from the ATM. A gypsy man kept putting newspaper in front of her hands so she couldn´t dial her pin and then a gypsy woman came and did the same. Joan stopped to help but another man quickly stepped in. The woman pushed the gypsy and was yelling at her. I suppose if that ever happened to me, I would have to be just as tough.

After we went to Arnott´s and had a light lunch and met Joan´s flatmate Adam in town. He leaves today so it was his choice to whatever we did. It was only 5:00 so we walked all over the city, going into shops and just killing time until we met up with friends later. We found some great shops that we never would have found just by following the main shopping streets.

At 7 we met Joan and Adam´s other flatmate from Hungary, Bence and their friend Timea. Adam wanted to go to The Brazen Head. It´s Ireland´s oldest pub and was established in 1198. They play traditional Irish music with a live band seven nights a week. It´s a very cool place, with the walls decorated floor to ceiling with money from around the world. Old photos of the Dublin from yesteryear. It was a twenty-minute walk to get there so when we arrived there were hardly any tourists, just Seamus O´Leary and his friends havin a pint. Soon, Joan´s friend Brenden arrived. He is in his thirties and one of the nicest and funniest guys. He is a true Irishman. We went only planning to stay for an hour and ended up leaving around 10:30.

Now, not many people know this about me but I have a list of everything I want to accomplish in this life. It is very long and some things are silly and some things are serious such as getting married and owning my own company. However, last night I crossed off a very silly dream of mine and was glad to do it because I thought it would be awhile until I was able to.

23. Have an Irish pint in an Irish pub listening to Irish music with an authentic Irish guy.

As silly as it may sound, I did it and it was awesome. We all had a great time, I soaked every ounce of it in. Even if I go back to The Brazen Head it will be hard to top last night.
(The picture is above)

We made our way home and Joan made me dinner and I had the best night´s sleep I´ve had in two weeks.

Now, Joan is at his exam and I decided (stupidly) to stay here. I didn´t want to be up at 7 a.m. He won´t be back until the afternoon and will have to study for his next exam, so I should get out of the flat at some point today even if it is walking to the grocery store or something.

Miss you all
Write me when you can

Love Love Love

C.M.

Life in Dublin Is Always an Adventure

.......It´s raining Guinness in Ireland. The drunks love it. Seriously though, to much rain. Today we left the flat and took the bus to the city center to go see what we could find to do. We went to Trinity College and even at night it is breathtaking. To actually attend school at such a historic place, would be incredible. I plan to go back soon and if we can get our hands on a working camera, will take photos as well. In the last post, I mentioned the movie P.S. I love you, well we saw the film yesterday. The book was so much better! Always is, shouldn´t have been surprised. Anyway in the book they mention Bewley´s Cafe and sitting at a table on the second floor watching people shop on Grafton Street, well I can now say I have done the same thing. It was really amazing, we went there and from the street we saw a couple getting their coats at a table by the window we literally ran through the doors and up the steps. We met the hostess and she asked, "Is this table by the window alright?" Couldn´t have been more perfect. We watched everyone with their umbrellas walking about, shopping and talking. I ordered the most perfect Hot Chocolate and a decadent slice of warm apple pie. Joan had a Caramel Macchiato and a Chocolate Croissant. We even hit upon a few serious topics...if you catch my drift.

After that we went shopping on Grafton St. in search of a coat for myself. No luck once again. I really have this vision of a caramel colored leather coat in my mind and nothing else is acceptable. I must find that coat! Maybe tomorrow.

We ended up going to this old whiskey distillery turned pub. It was amazing. Three stories, mosaics on the wall and a copper spiral staircase to the top. Dark Mahogany furniture was the decor with booths and unique art. Dublin was dying down early because of the rain that continuously fell from the sky.

We decided dinner at home was a bore so we tried Eddie Rockets, the European equivalent to Johnny Rockets, where I had worked in high school. The decor was the same, the music, the uniforms but unfortunately not the food. The only glorious thing about my dinner was the Kit Kat Sundae at the end. We took the bus back home and while it dropped us close to his flat we still walked ten minutes to his complex. Imagine this.

Joan, with his rain coat and black umbrella (very tiny) in front and me, with my new leather boots I bought in Spain, brown tights, very form fitting maroon sweater dress and my white coat with my (very tiny) black umbrella behind. We jump over puddles, dodge speeding cars and their splashes of dirty rain water and cling to side walls to get out of the rain. I am so close to his home when a taxi speeds past us and splashes me. Luckily, wasn´t that bad but my poor white coat should be dry cleaned soon.

It hits me now that if I weren´t staying, I´d be leaving tomorrow morning at 10:00 a.m. It is a very weird feeling that I´ll be missing my flight and staying in Europe. I know now that it is the right choice, someone very wise told me that nothing worth doing is ever easy. She couldn´t be more right.

In the meantime, I must go help Joan study. Right now he is on his bed, singing along to the U2 music playing and deciding what to eat next. I love him so much.

I´ll update again soon! Hopefully with pictures.

Enjoy the states for me

C.M.

Being Europen Is Like Having The Fast-Pass at Disney World

I say this because the Q for Non-EU arrivals was entirely to long and EU arrivals barely had to show their passport at all. I doubt if the security man even looked to see if it was a male or female breezing by his kiosk. I of course was asked a plethora of questions including "why I was here" "how long I planned on staying" and "what my blood type is" Maybe the last one wasn´t true but it may have well been.

The Q for the taxi´s was even longer and Joan and I played, ´guess their accent´ it was a good a laugh until I started mimicking every dialect that floated through my ears and I think I was starting to get a bit loud. The man behind me was probably very confused as I was British, Spanish,Irish, Hungarian and American, all in a matter of ten minutes.

Being in Dublin is so great. I love Spain and all it has offered me but I told Joan that in Dublin I felt like I belonged where as in Spain I always feel like a tourist. No one stares at me here, I understand what (almost) everyone is saying, I look like every other Irish girl here ( except well, I´m stunning, right?) ha. Anyway, I really will miss Dublin once Joan finishes his exams.

Yesterday we walked to the mall and the supermarket. I picked up the book, "P.S. I love you" and it really is brilliant. I finished it in less than 24 hours and I believe I cried at least four times. We´re going to the cinema to see it tomorrow. The best part is that it takes place here in Ireland so it´s very surreal to read about the places in the book like Grafton Street and such and have actually been there. I think we might hit up one of the cafe´s they mention so much in the book and try to sit at the window and people watch as the main character loved to do. I must be a nerd but I love things like that.

Joan is stressed for his exams, he has one tomorrow and another in 8 days. He has 4 in all. I told him to enjoy the worries of exams because very soon we will be dealing with the worries of reality. I thought it would be easy to get a work visa. I don´t think it will be terribly difficult but it´s been more of a challenge than we originally thought. We went to the Consulate last week and it was closed. We called and they told us to call Madrid. We called Madrid and they told us to call Washington. We have finally decided to get an immigration lawyer to walk us through the process instead.

I did have an interview a couple days ago. The local television reporter, Anna gave me an interview and asked my skills. I am not a broadcasting major so nothing in her field was a skill of mine. I could write though. However, all the writing is down in Catalan and unless Lloret´s viewers want to hear a few select phrases than I cannot write for the news yet. What I can do is run the camera. I can film the news. They need a camera...woman I guess, and offered me the job. She has to run it by her boss and see if that would work, if once I learn Catalan I could start writing for show, interviewing etc. It´s a lot of pressure and I´m not sure I want it. Another job I´m hoping to get is with this magazine in Barcelona. I really really want it. Well, what I really want is to continue this vacation and not work at all but Joan´s funds and my funds are running low. Granted, I haven´t spent much while being here and if I hadn´t had so many bills to pay off I would have $2,000 to use but since I only came here with $1000.....and I have to send a $200 check to Northwest by the end of this month and God only knows how I will manage that.

Joan and I move into our flat when I get back to Spain as well. It´s more than I thought we would ever find. It has three bedrooms, two bathrooms, tile floors, a balcony and windows from wall to wall in the living room that overlook the Mediterranean Sea and the city of Lloret. The flat comes with some extra furniture that is so hideous, we may hide it in a bedroom or try and throw it out if we are allowed. IKEA will be our shop of choice very soon.

I am very curious about this new life of mine. So often at night while I´m lying awake and Joan is sleeping beside me, I wonder about all the "what ifs" in life. What if I hadn´t met Joan that night by the lake? What if I dumped him ages ago? What if he dumped me? What if I stayed in Europe? So many questions to consider. The most important one being, What will make me happy? What do I believe will bring happiness to my life?

I stumble with these questions and even more with the answers.
In the play Macbeth, Shakespeare writes;

Thy letters have transported me beyond
This ignorant present, and I feel now
The future is instant.

I believe that is how I must think in order to survive this huge lifestyle change. We would all like a road map to the future, wouldn´t it make life easier? We try to find a loophole to life everyday. We read horoscopes, we listen to weather forecasters, fortune tellers etc. People don´t want to know for the pure joy of knowing, just so that they can do something about it. If it is forecasted to rain this afternoon, we want an umbrella,knowledge is power.

I know I am rambling and I could continue for pages and pages and still not be sure of what will make me happy or if I can control my future or knowing that whatever small choice I make could change the outcome of my life entirely.

I just want someone to tell me that I made the right choice by moving my life overseas. I know in my heart that this was the right choice for me, I just want the American Consulate to agree and give me a damn work visa.

This post has turned into a rather depressing look on a really not so completely depressing situation. I can´t say I´m unhappy because any tedious thing can become exciting when you´re in another country. For example, "I am going grocery shopping in Boringsville, USA" OR
"I am going grocery shopping in Dublin, Ireland or Barcelona, Spain!" I know it´s stupid but sooner or later the novelty of living here will wear off and I WILL just be grocery shopping in Barcelona,Spain. However unbelieveable that sounds to me now, it will be my life in the next few months, working and studying like everyone else.

I hope the next post won´t be so dramatically written about my worries and hopes for the future, I hope the next post will bring some good news about something.

For now, I have two weeks in Dublin to think about all my options, enjoy the sights, enjoy the boyfriend and write to you all.

Many blessings and best wishes all around

C.M.