30 April 2006

wet Vette

It's pouring rain outside; I don't have an umbrella with me. Yup - that's thing #1 that I forgot. Let's see how many more things I didn't pack in my gigantuan bags.

However, I did make it to the grocery store today - I'm rather proud of myself for this feat considering I didn't wake up till around 3pm Dublin time (yay PST still hanging on!). The revels lasted till 5:30 this morning in my apartment complex so someone was having a mighty fine Guiness and I wasn't tired anyways.

I must say - I do like grocery stores here - it's nice to have a different selection that looks much fresher than what you'd find in the states. And I even finked out and went to Marks & Spencer for my wonderful food stuffs.

So much for wandering the city to find my office - I need an umbrella before I do that. Perhaps waking up before it's dismal out would help too. I guess that's what May Day shall be used for. Thank goodness I love walking.

29 April 2006

Am I really in Dublin? [email]

Thank you to everyone for your phonecalls and well wishes during the "is she going or isn't she going" past 2 weeks of determining if I was really going to Dublin or not. Well, apparently Ireland let me into the country because I'm sitting here looking out over the Liffey with no sleep in me. I'm exhausted and not at all ready to sleep (although I foresee a shower at the end of this computer stint - airplane grunge does not suit me).

I don't really feel like I'm in Dublin right now because I'm not seeing anything different than when I left Seattle I-don't-want-to-think-about
-how-long-ago. It's 11:30am here (it was 10:30am when I left my house in Seattle); the same amount of sun is out; the temperature's the same; it's a city.

Oh wait, that's right - so I was on my way from the airport to meet up with the woman who was to let me into my apartment and give me the keys etc (I'm still not sure I'll be able to get myself back in - there are a friggin' lot of keys to this place). I had this awesome taxi driver who was going on and on about how much he thought I was going to love Dublin. I was staring wide eyed while going around roundabouts on the left side (I'm so glad I didn't rent a car for that very reason) and all of a sudden he says to me "love, have you eatten breakfast this morn?" I dumbly shook my head no and next thing I know we're making a right turn, he's turning off the engine and he's got his cell phone to his ear to call his wife and ask her to put on coffee ("or do you want tea, darlin?" "tea" "milk, sugar?" "sugar") Whoa - stop for a moment and think about this - I've just spent the past 15 hours travelling and a 60 year old taxi driver with a nice healthy Irish accent is having his wife make me biscuits and tea for breakfast. His wife was lovely and he was quite the gentleman. After a really quick stop (off the meter) we headed downtown and I'm not happily at my apartment trying to figure out if this is real again.

I guess it's time to get myself ready to go wander around Dublin for the day.

Hugs,
Yvette

Itty Bitty Combo Washer Dryer


Itty Bitty Combo Washer Dryer
Originally uploaded by yvettemn.
Welcome to Yvette's apartment. In exploring I noticed the obvious. It's a 2 bedroom, one bath, rather spacious by what I've seen in other European cities for an apartment. I was shown the fridge (college dorm room size for me) but I'd been warned that it would be small. After getting my very brief tour of the place, I started looking around to figure out what I'd need to make it habitable. I started in the kitchen. I opened up one of the cabinets - and voila - there was my washer/dryer. It's a miraculously tiny all in one machine under the counter in my kitchen. I'm staring at it and shaking my head. The Irish are going to say "silly American" about me - but there are some things that I'm lazy enough to like supersized so I don't have to spend all weekend washing things.

26 April 2006

explosion of stuff

My room is a disaster area of piles. Everything's exactly where it needs to be, but I hope I don't have to get up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom or I might die tripping on a pile.

I spent the past 2-ish hours piling things - I systematically went through every corner of my room for necessities that I don't need the second I land and creature comforts and made piles and piles and piles. (my piles contain far too many shoes and books - hrmmm)

I'm petrified of going to Ireland at this point. Part of me wants to be like "nope, staying in Seattle, the city I love and adore" but I'm getting on that plane Friday morning. And tomorrow morning my stuff is being boxed up and I'm mailing the customs forms to Ireland.

I've spent my week at work doing paperwork. I didn't realize moving to a different country would be this much paperwork. I am completely inept at faxing a foreign country (especially if it's Ireland to sign my short term housing lease).

19 April 2006

gimme a daisy

Off again, on again, off again, on again... I need a daisy to see if I'm going to Ireland at this point. Right now, I have less than 10 days in the states. Let's see if I actually get to leave or not.

This means that I need to rethink about what I need to do because I lost this past weekend to thinking I wasn't going. Woe is my swimming brain.

And they expect me to concentrate at work how?

Anyone got a daisy? It might work better than the Magic Arby's Mitt at work.

16 April 2006

broken dreams & broken plans

So, my work visa was rejected on Thursday. What this translates to is that I can't go to Ireland. The Irish government isn't giving out work visas to non-EU citizens as of this past Mon. I was supposed to leave 2 weeks from yesterday.

I'm beyond shocked at this point. I might end up going to Ireland anyways because they can petition to get me a work visa or send me for 90 days to do a different task. But I don't know if or when that will happen. I haven't cancelled anything yet - I'm waiting for more info.

10 April 2006

*heart attack over housing*

I just got my temp housing assignment for Ireland. Helllllllooooo Hotel Yvette: Dublin. I'm so unfocused now.

My schedule (since I'm asked about it constantly):
- sometime around Tues April 25 drop my car off at Uncle Rick's (need to call and figure out when that's going to be exactly - could be Mon - could be Wed afternoon - we'll see!)
- morning of Wed April 26 packer/mover people make me a box or 2 to ship
- afternoon of Wed April 26 Yvette does prelim packing exercises and laundry
- 12:30pm Fri April 28 depart SeaTac for Dublin
- 8:30am Sat April 29 land in Dublin and go to my temp housing
- sometime Mon May 1 go to work for the first time at the Dublin office
- June 9th-ish Amy comes to visit for a few days
- August somethingish I take off for a week in France
- Labor-day-ish Susan, Ellen & Laura hopefully come visit
- late Sept - early Oct Mom visits for 2 weeks and Amy's parents for 1 of Mom's 2 weeks
- November sometime - return to the states

Other places I'm pondering travelling (I doubt I'll make all of these, but they're on the list of potential need to make plans for):
- all around Dublin
- Germany
- London
- Scotland
- Barcelona
- Greece
- Amsterdam

My living accomodations have been finalized. I'm staying in Dublin 1 which is the financial / shopping district that's at the heart of Downtown Dublin. It's a 15 min walk from work and a 5-10 minute walk from the fun parts of town according to my insider who already works in the Dublin office. I have a 2 bed / 1 bath furnished apartment. It's associated with the Clarion Hotel which is next door to the building so I get to use all their facilities as well. Hotel Yvette: Dublin - here I come!

So now I think that's everything other than getting all my packing done. Sah-weeeeet!

I'm psyched.

09 April 2006

what to pack?

I'm sitting in the LoveSac watching my RENT DVD. And I'm trying to figure out what to pack for Dublin. I keep going through these lists in my head so I figure it might be useful to finally write it all out. Y'see, it's harder than moving to Seattle since they won't pack everything. And it's also harder than going on a long vacation because the longest my vacation has ever been has been a month and then I knew what distractions and homie-nesses would be there. It's almost like when I did Semester At Sea and had to pack for 3 months to live on a ship - actually, that's a good analogy - and then I spent the entire summer planning for the trip and shopping and packing and making sure I'd be comfy.

So here we go, I'm going to start making my list. I have 3 weeks left (less than) until I leave. Box packers come on 4/26 and my flight leaves on 4/28. OMG!