What can I say about Ireland? It's a lot like the U.S., except not. Slight differences that make you say, "Hey I am living in a different country!" Name some you say?
- Driving on the "wrong" side of the road. Although, that wasn't as hard to get used to as I thought it would be. I think having the steering wheel on the "wrong" side as well seemed to help the transition. I have to admit, I did hug the curb and cringe whenever I drove past a car going the opposite way, but that didn't last too long. Heck, now I even drive single handed...sometimes.
- Beautiful country sides, for example: old churches, I mean REALLY old churches, with ivy and moss all over them, canals with locks (and lock houses) every so often, rolling green hills dotted with little white sheep, the smell of an nice earthy peat fire, tons of green fields and parks throughout the city, row brick houses with different colored from doors.
- Lack of "necessities", including but not limited to: Jiff, Mac'n'Cheese, Crest toothpaste (specifically "Fresh Mint" and "Sparkle Fun"), Chocolate Chips, Tapatio, good Mexican food, Lawry's season salt, Bread flour.
- Their English. I love the accents. When I'm standing in lines I just like to listen to the people talking around me. And we're having a lot of fun with their sayings ("It's lovely" and "You're grand" to name a couple) and how they call things by different names (chips = french fries, crisps = chips, biscuit = cookie). For the most part I'm not having any trouble understanding or being understood, so there's that!
- The price of gas (outrageous!) and restaurants (especially Thai, don't get me started on that one!). But then the price of fresh baked bread is half what it is in the states. Good deals on fruit and meats. I can find a lot of spices in the local grocery stores that I could only find in specialty shops in the U.S. Oh, and spices are cheaper. And Super Quinn, how I love Super Quinn. Not because it has a great selection of food, although it's not bad, but they have a personal scanner you take with you as you select items. You scan the item, load it into your bag and repeat. When your done, your items are ALREADY bagged and you just head to a special counter to pay for your stuff. Simple as that! They don't recheck or even look at your bags, you just pay and leave. I love it!
- All of the national museums are free. Let me repeat: F. R. E. E. And the few that we have been to have just been beautiful.
There are more, I am sure, but that's good for now.
We're living in a suburb of Dublin called Castleknock. It's close to the city (5-10 minutes through the park and we're in the city). Our house is close to the commercial area of Castleknock and close the Phoenix Park , which is HUGE and lovely. See I'm already using their words! Our house is also huge, well, huge for our standards (3 bathrooms, we can all pee at the same time!) with it's own little Irish quirks (let's leave that for a later post). Lenora's preschool is a short bike ride away. She wears the cutest little uniform complete with red tie. There are tons of beautiful places for me to run after I drop her off. And the weather is actually great for running, not too hot, not too cold. I especially like it if it's misting every so often. Ash's commute is very short, less than 10 minutes by car, 20 by bike. It's a great little area.
We're having a grand time. Seriously, we're enjoying Ireland so much. We need to explore the rest of the country more. We've only taken one trip, but that will come in time.
Our Neighborhood
