Week One

A busy first week for us in Dublin. We made it to our temporary apartment around 3pm on Monday, and Brian started work on Tuesday.


I spent my days finding the supermarket, looking for a permanent apartment and searching for a job.  I've basically been spending a lot of time on the Luas, the train that takes us from Sandyford (where Brian's office and our current apartment are) to the City Center and back.

We found the perfect neighborhood for us, Ranelagh.  It has everything we like: Supermarket, coffee shops, bars, restaurants and a gym. It's a very nice area of Dublin, so it's safe and most of the people living there are young professionals or families.  It reminds us of our hood in SF.

We're both working on understanding the Irish accents, and learning the different words they use over here.  For example, they say "alight" the train, instead of "gett off".  And "top up" instead of "add money".  

Brian's been working really hard to figure out Celsius, read a 24 hour clock, and use local lingo.  I couldn't stop laughing yesterday when I heard him say "That would be splendid" to our hopefully new landlord yesterday.  It still makes me giggle thinking about it.

I also can't help but laugh every time I am in the Superquinn supermarket (and I've been in at least 4 times), and see samples of Potatoes.

As far as I can tell, they are always €1, and they are always out for sample.  The perfect stereotype.  Unlike the "all Irish are red heads" stereotype, which we can't figure out where it came from - certainly not from Dublin.

Anyway, we're settling in for an Easter/Passover dinner of pasta and red sauce.  Monday is a holiday for Brian as well.  Nothing like a 3-day weekend your first week of work!

Cheers.