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.

This post could have so many different titles

Such as¨"Gelat and Shopping, what more could I ask for?"
" I´m pretty sure I´m now a part of the Spanish Mafia"
" Vacation´s over, time to move into the real world"
Pretty much any title would work. I haven´t written in awhile so I have a lot of ground to cover. Joan usually helps me remember everything, but he´s not feeling well today so he´s already in bed. I´ll go back to as far as I can remember.....Sunday before new years I guess will work.

Joan and I drove to Barcelona to meet his friend Xevi. Xevi´s father is still out of town so we stayed in his flat again last weekend. It´s so nice to be right in the city. Sunday night Joan and I went to the Hard Rock Cafe. Everyone gets onto me about this but after so much Spanish cuisine it´s nice to have something different. We get there, an hour and a half wait. I try and get Joan to slip the host some €uros but he insists he would be something like Chandler on Friends and just make an ass of himself so we wait. Three Mai-Tai´s later we get our seat and I have the most amazing dinner. It´s nice to have American food now and then, I took it for granted for sure. After that we got a couple drinks and relaxed around the city. Xevi was out seeing American Gangster with some friends and since Joan and I had already seen it, we had to wait around for him to get back to his flat (we forgot to get keys from him). Around midnight we are bored, didnt want any food, didnt want any drinks, shops were closed, no clubs we felt like going too-so we made our way back to Xevi´s neighborhood. We sat and waited for at least 40 minutes until Xevi got back and immediatly passed out. It was a good night. Needless to say, my week go immensely better.

Monday we went shopping at El Corte Ingles a gigantic department store to get some last minute items for New Years. I had to get black tights and a red thong. It is good luck to wear red on new years and since my dress was a metallic silver-black combo that was my only option. To make things even better, we went for some Gelat at this great ice cream place. I had something called a "Sweet Gofre". It is a small belgian waffle, but a bit sweeter, with chocolate and carmel syrup and chocolate ice cream on top with sweet whipped cream and thinly sliced almonds. It was without a doubt the best dessert I´ve had in a long time.

Later that afternoon, Joan and Xevi figured it would be a wise choice to take a siesta before the nights festivities. I didn´t know we would be out until 7:30 the next morning.....

We left Xevi´s around 8:45 p.m. It was me, Joan, Xevi and German. The most hilarious guys I have ever met. We had to take the metro because finding a cab is impossible on New Years. My feet are already hurting. Granted, I was wearing the highest heeled shoes ever but they were so gorgeous and they matched my dress perfectly. Anyway, we took the metro across town to the Barcelona Casino. It isn´t much fun standing in a crowded metro dressed up with a bunch of other people dressed up ready to go out as well. It is even less fun with creepy guys staring at you. We left the metro and there was a guy there, maybe 19 or younger even watching everyone....I had a bad vibe from him immediatly. Not more that 2 minutes later as we were crossing the street do we hear a loud scream and there is that same creepy boy running from four Italian girls. He stole one´s purse. The poor thing was crying hysterically. The girls gloves were in her purse and fell out as the bastard took off and so German went and got them from another man who picked them up. Can you imagine? What a horrible way to start the new year. I´m so glad I didn´t take a purse. Joan was the perfect gentleman and said, "I´m sorry you had to see that honey" while German said, "Don´t worry babe, you got three body guards here"

We arrived at the casino and met with David and Allison and his family. David is Joan´s other friend that I met in Florida. David´s girlfriend Allison, is from Philly but studied in Florida and met David. It was so nice to see her again, it had been two years since I had seen either of them.

We go into the casino and they ask for our passports. Joan left them home. Home in Lloret, an hour away. Shit. Luckily, we got in with a few strings pulled in our favor. We are led into the VIP section of the restaraunt, and there are only about 8 tables inside. The room is decorated with black gold and white. We take our seats and dinner begins. 10 courses and 3 bottles of Champagne and Wine later, it is 30 minutes until New Years! Allison and I have talked the entire time, we are going through a very similar situation so we got along famously. The waiters passed around gift boxes for each of us, everyone in the room got a watch. I am not one for watches really but mine was a beauty. Black crocodile band with diamonds and very funky numbers on the face, very cool. We also had gold bags under our seat filled with a party hat, confetti, noise makers, masks and streamers. Immediatly everyone started celebrating even though we had 10 minutes to go. The waiters passed around bags of 12 grapes for us to eat at midnight. These grapes had seeds so Allison and I took them out, it was a mess and the guys made fun of us but we thought for sure we could eat them faster that way. 12 seconds after midnight, I had five grapes left, Xevi had given up half way through, David couldn´t go fast enough either, Allison had most of hers still in her mouth and had spit them into her napkin and Joan was the only one who had eaten all 12. I still don´t think he chewed.

It was the best New Years I´ve had in a long while. Everyone was so happy and I seriously haven´t laughed so much at a dinner before. A band started up and we danced and talked until three or so. We went to the actual casino and watched David´s father throw down a $100 chip at random and win. I could never do that.

After we went to this club, Up and Down. It was 45 €uros a person but well worth it. I love Spanish music and danced all night. My heels were off by this time for sure. We all parted ways and it was only Xevi, Joan and I heading back to the flat. My feet were in such pain. I didn´t dare take my shoes off on the streets so I suffered through while we walked and walked and walked until we finally found a metro. We still had 10 stops or something before we reached Xevi´s flat. That is so far! I would have had to walk that entire way had we not found that metro. My feet only stopped hurting today, and it´s officially Friday. We got back at 7:30 and completely collapsed. I don´t think we woke up until 1 or so on Tuesday and all we got accomplished was a trip to Burger King and some sight seeing. It was truly a great time.

So much more has happened between then and now but that will have to wait for another post. I´ll post pictures tomorrow as well. You just have to see the heels on the shoes I wore.

Tomorrow is a busy day though, two interviews and we´re finally looking at the flat we will be living in!

I hope all of you had a splendid New Years, Happy 2008!

Best Wishes & Be Nice