The Consumption

Damn you Frank McCourt! I'm sick! I'm sick and miserable and for some reason I blame you! I dunno why but it just makes sense for me to blame you.
I've had it with the state of doctors in this country. I've not been to such an inept bastard of a doctor in my life! Long story short, this idiot of a doctor couldn't tell I had a chest infection even after listening to my lungs. This worries me that he's allowed to practice medicine. Makes me think I should go to a back alley medical school and set up practice here. Lord knows I'd be a better doctor than him. OK! Rant over!

I'm feeling very sick and cranky and I honestly just want to go home. I want to lie in my bed and kick my cat off and sprawl out under a real blanket. I should quit this post while I'm ahead or it'll just be me bitching about my sickness and missing my real bed. Bah humbug!

So I wasn't lame and I went out. So glad I did. Even though I didn't get back to the hostel (home) till 6:30 this morning and had to work at 7. I had enough time to shower so I didn't look too hung over. And make a cuppa tea.

The night started off kinda slow but I won't self incriminate myself =). Plus I'm knackered and wanna go to sleep. Let's just say I had a really good night. I do want to mention that at one bar I went to there was this drunk guy at the bar when I ordered a drink for me and my friend. The bar man put my first drink down and continued to make the second. I turned my head for a second and from the corner of my eye I could swear I saw that stupid drunk guy pick up my friend's drink and take a sip. I turn around and was in disbelief at what I'm pretty sure I saw. Then he tried to pay for my drinks. Only problem was my drinks were 18 euro and he tried to give the barman a 5 euro bill to pay for my drinks. I said no and paid and just got away from that dude as quickly as possible. What a fuckin' wanker.

I took a cab home at 6 in the morning. The cab driver was this nice little old Irish man. He asked me to come live with him. He assured me he was no a pervert and that it would just be nice to have a pretty girl living with him. I laughed and he said he was serious. He really wanted me to come live with him. He Also refused to let me pay for the cab ride.

Dublin is finally starting to get interesting in a good way =).

Should I Stay or Should I Go?

Should I go out tonight? I'm hella tired and still a bit sick with a cough but, the lads and the girls from the hostel are all going out tonight. It's Friday night. I think I might stay home and be LAME! Insert sad face here.

On a brighter note, my date with the french guy went pretty well. He gave me a refresher course in french and I taught him some Jamaican phrases. We went to this really cool bar called THE CHURCH cuz it used to be......a church. It was nice. He was really sweet and a complete gentleman. Translation: he paid and was polite. After drinks we had Indian food at his flat, which was close by and I tried non-alcoholic pineapple beer. I dunno. Tasted like pineapple soda left out in the sun on a hot NYC day. Not great. Plus, it was non-alcoholic. Fuck. that. shit! I'll tell you what wasn't non-alcoholic though. The homemade liquor a friend of his gave him which was made from passion fruit. Apparently its from some island off the coast of/ near to, Madagascar. It was super strong, but super good tasting. No, I did not get drunk. No we did not do ...... things. Come to think of it, I haven't been drunk not once since I've been here. Weird. I don't wanna get too drunk here cuz I feel like I always have to be on guard. Maybe now that I have a large enough group of friends, I won't have to.

Irish slang

I have the day off!!! Which is lovely. I also have a date with a french dude I met last Friday night. Fun, fun! I also get to meet my American pen pal that's doing the same program I am doing here in Ireland. We've been emailing for a while now and she just called me to tell me she got to Dublin this morning. All in all, not a bad day. The job has gotten better. I made friends with the other girls that work at the hostel and two adorable boys that live there. They're the most adorable couple, its too cute. One's Irish and the other is from Manchester (England, for those not geographically inclined). I love his accent. Took me a while to get it but now that I do (kinda), he cracks me up.

Any who. I can't really complain about things. I have a job, which is a big deal in this recession. And a place to live. Its taking some getting used to living where you work but at least there's no commute =).

So, Irish slang, yeah? Lol. I still crack up every time I here the phrase, "your man" used. I dunno why but it tickles me and I giggle every time I hear it. "Your man" is basically the Irish version of saying "that guy" or "this guy". Example. "I was on the bus and your man started screaming on his phone." Insert "this guy" for "your man". It took me forever to figure this out.

My absolute favorite word thus far has got to be mingin'. Use it every chance I get. It means, displeasing to the eye. I think its supposed to be used in the context when talking about chicks. Like she's pretty fugly. Or she's mingin'. But I've heard it used in other ways as well. One of my new friends used it to describe an apartment he'd seen. He won double points with me for using your man in this sentence as well. He said, "We walked in and it was so small. I couldn't tell your man that it was mingin' but that's what I was thinking."

I'm pretty much working till next weekend, which is good money wise. I'm hoping to go to Galway or Cork then. Keep you updated, yeah =).

Tired!

I've been working all week. Which is good! But I'm so tired. Tomorrow's Sunday and its my first day off all week. I don't know what to do with myself. I really want to go to Galway. Really wanna go, but I think I might stay in Dublin and take care of a couple of things like laundry and ...... stuff. I'm too tired to think. This is one lame ass entry. Sorry dudes and dudettes but I'm fucking knackered.

Everything's different in my world.

Ok. I've been to the pharmacy twice thus far and I find it both helpful and annoying that most things are kept behind the counter and I actually have to talk to the pharmacist to get what I want. You have to explain to them what you need and they suggest this this and that. the worst part is that I'm not at all familiar with any of their products. That can be helpful but also can be rather frustrating and kind of embarrassing at the same time. There are just some things that you walk into Duane Reade for in sweat pants, hood up and glasses on. While hoping not to run into anyone you know. Reminds me of the time me and Sharon went into Duane Reade looking for "feminine products" and one of the guys working there saw we were looking for something we couldn't find and asked if he could help. We looked at each other and said, ".....ahhhhhhh, no we're good." He immediately said aisle 6. We ran off giggling like fucking school girls. I mean, come one. No girl wants to ask any male employee what aisle you know what is in. Imagine having that conversation with a woman over the counter and then you can't even get it yourself. Frustrating indeed.

'Splain.........

My last post was kinda jammed packed with no direction or time line. I just kinda spazzed out words onto the screen with no explanation as to what happened before. This post will change that hopefully.

Last week I met a girl named Carrie from the Canadian girl in my program. Carrie had met Canadian girl randomly at Quiznos on O'Connell Street. She was from Michigan and I met her when we all went out for drinks. I brought the Kings of Leon guy I'd met the weekend before with me because we'd been spending so much time together anyway. We both really liked Carrie cuz she was such a sweet heart and you could tell straight away she was a super genuinely nice person. Lord knows I need to know more people like that. She unfortunately left early with Canadian girl because she didn't know how to get back to her hostel. KOL dude and I were pretty disappointed that Carrie had left early because we wanted to hang out with her more. I gave her my email and phone number anyway. We emailed each other the next day and planned to meet for dinner. She had mentioned the hostel she was staying at wasn't to her liking and when she told me where it was, I knew why. Cuz it was a crack hostel. Like seriously. People were free basing in the room. That's another story though. KOL dude and I were in McDonalds using the puter when Carrie aimed me and told us which hostel she was in. We decided to meet her earlier so she didn't have to stay there alone for too long. When we got there. I was like..... no way are you staying here. We grabbed her things and bolted. Never mind the fact that she didn't get a refund. It was better than being stabbed by a heroin addict. We took her to the hostel I was staying at. We had a lovely night drinking together and taking ridiculous pics hanging outside the window of my hostel room.
After that we all went to Howth on Saturday. It's right outside city center and its lovely there. It was super nice to get out of Dublin City Center. I felt like I was coming down with something though. Woke up with a sore throat and it kept getting worse. Never the less, I decided to buck up and go to Glendalough with Carrie on Sunday. I'm so glad that I did. It was beautiful. Absolutely beautiful. See video evidence below.



That was all good and dandy, but when i woke up on Monday, my body just gave up. My throat closed up and I couldn't really talk or swallow my own saliva without being in excruciating pain. So I had my first visit to a doctor in Ireland. I liked the not waiting part. I was in and out in half an hour. I didn't like the fact that i spent 100 Euro for the visit and meds. Least I feel better cuz I needed to in order to do my trial shifts at the hostel.

I got a jibby job!

Well, kinda. That's why I've not been updating. Been busy with finding work and stuff. On suggestion by one of the Canadian girls in my program, I dropped off my CV at a hostel a couple blocks away and got an interview on the spot. The girls working there seemed mega nice but I was already warned about the owner/boss by the Canadian girl. More about him another time. None the less, I did very well on the interview, mostly because I didn't even know I was being interviewed at first. The girl who interviewed me asked me to come in for two trial shifts the very next day (Wednesday and Thursday). With no prospects, of course I said yes.

It couldn't have come at a better time. This week had begun horribly and wasn't getting any better till I found the job. I was feeling kinda shitty the whole weekend. I had a sore throat that only seemed to get worse. I ignored it and trooped on and went to County Wicklow. To Glendalough. Jeez, I almost forgot that I also went to Howth. So yeah. I went to Howth on Saturday and Glendalough on Sunday. I need to not let so much time pass between writing or I'll forget everything. Anywho, wasn't feeling well but went out anyway. I'm glad I did. It was beautiful. See below for pics of Howth.







See pics of Glendalough below.










So, despite having an awesome Friday night with Trevor and my new BFF Carrie. See photographic evidence of the awesomeness below. We were literally hanging out the window of my hostel yelling at drunk people passing by. We were drunk too so I don't dare remember what we screamed to the drunken boys passing by.





I had a good weekend but Monday morning everything just came crashing down. My sore throat had gotten so bad my throat had literally closed up and it was so unbelievably painful to talk and even to swallow my own saliva. I had to go to the doctor. As sick as I get, as often as I get, I knew I needed anti-biotics. I have travel insurance but of course its the type that you pay and then send in a claim to get the amount paid back to you. So I basically shelled out 55 Euros to see a doctor and then 45 Euros for prescriptions. Not fun. Was absolutely miserable. By Tuesday morning, I was feeling a little better but still very discouraged at the fact that I still didn't have a job. Monday night was the first night since I've been here when I felt like I wanted to fucking pack my shit and go home. I was this close to booking a ticket home but was weak and sick so i couldn't go to McDonalds to use the wifi. I realized that I was mostly feeling like that cuz I was sick. But........
Thank god I got out and handed out my resume.... I mean CV. I still keep using American phrases for things. I went in to the bank today for change for work. I said to the lady, "I have 200 Euros in 20 dollar bills and I need 10 dollar bills, 5 dollar bills and 2 dollar coins." She looked at me funny and said, "Dollars?" Ooops. I mean "Euros!" Dollars, Euros...whatevs man! Just give 'em to me!

Dear Lads and Lasses,

I've been a busy bee. I feel awful about not being able to write this whole week. Let's see. I went out to Temple bar for the first time on Monday was it? I'm finding it hard to keep track of the days. I had a lot of fun. Got proposed to by a lad from County Mayo. He for some reason, kept calling me "VenusSerena". God. He was a laugh. He seemed sweet enough but was very drunk (harmless though). He kept trying to get me to kiss him though. So. was. not. happening. He was also the whitest white that ever did white. I mean, your man would have to tan for ages just to be pastey. Oh, I'm not exaggerating. I'll put the photos up later. Apart from the marriage proposal, I met another guy who was very funny, cute and wasn't anywhere close to being as drunk as your man from Mayo. We chatted for a bit, flirted, smoked, flirted and smoked somemore. He kissed me. And I let him. I gave him my number and we'll see what happens there.

I also had an interview with a temp agency. I was hella nervous and don't know if it went well or not. I always assume the worst with those. I went pavement pounding a bit more and handed out a couple of CVs. I hope I find something soon. That would be nice. I also am going to start looking for a flat. To share. Wish me luck yeah. Apart from that. I met up with the guy I started talking to in SuperMacs about the Kings of Leon. We've been hanging out a lot for the past couple of days. The weather here in Dublin has been absolutely spectacular for the last few days and, I said it once, I'll say it again. "I bring the sunshine where ever I go!" We spent most of the day laying on the grass in St. Stephens Green. Its a park. We had lunch there and just layed there listening to my iPod. Well, him going through the songs on my iPod and playing DJ. It was fun. I also managed to do something productive. I registered for my PPS number, which is like a social security number. So when I get a job I can actually get paid. Did try to get a bank account open but wasn't able to do so becasue they wouldn't accept my proof of address. Apparently I have to wait for my PPS number to come in the mail and then go back to open it. That'll take about a week. Hmmmppfff. Whatevs! Only other thing I have to do today is laundry. =( That will be an experience.