To Limerick, Ireland...

Well, it's been a while since I last wrote something here... The truth is that I had little to no time to write and that our life's been pretty stressful lately (or for the past few months). In July David found out that he got accepted to the University of Limerick, Ireland (Master Program in Ethnochoreology). If you don't know what that means, don't worry. I didn't either. It's a program that focuses on folk dance. David would love to teach folk dance at a university and this program is apparently the best of its kind in the world and will help him achieve his dream. So, ever since we found out that he got accepted we've been trying to get money to go. We went to all the banks in Provo to ask for student loans only to find out that there were very little to no options for us. We applied for government loans and got approved. So we thought, at least... Next we tried to find a buyer for our Kia and were unsuccessful there too. Our dear friends, Eve and Shawn were so kind to take the car and try to sell it for us while we will be in Ireland. We are very thankful and really hope that Shawn will be succesful. So, after much negotiations and help from David's family and from Brother and Sister Smart we were able to scrap up enough money for the plane tickets and finally left. How thankful we are that they were so kind to lend us money for the tickets. The Smarts made it possible for us to fly to Ireland and that is something that we will not easily forget.
The trip to Ireland wasn't too bad, nor too long. We flew through New York City and it was so cool to see the beautiful Manhattan from the place in the gorgeous sunset. The Paris, Charles DeGaulle airport was a modern looking airport. We enjoyed some tasty chocolate croissants there, just because we were in France! :) Eventually we got to the very tiny plane that took us from Paris to Shannon, an small airport a few kilometers from Limerick. I watched out the window as we flew over Ireland. It is a green country but I thought that it looked pretty empty :0 at least from up above. Limerick is the third biggest town in Ireland and is well populated. Now, don't think it's that big. Salt Lake is bigger and more modern looking than Limerick, by a lot. Limerick is a classic European city. Many small buildings, old houses and churches, castles or castle walls at every corner, small roads, caffees everywhere, good food and people walking everywhere. Smoking and coffee breaks seem to be the favorite past times around here. People drink loads of coffee and smoke everywhere you go. I guess I kind of forgot that part of European life... For the first four days we stayed in a hotel and walked around like crazy trying to find an apartment and to figure out what else was there to be done for David's financial aid to be finalized and for the funds to be dispursed. Well, it turns out that even now, almost a month since we arrived the funds have not been given to us and we still live off the little Euro that we were able to put together back in Utah. Why all this trouble? We don't know. The school tells David to call some American institutions who tell him to tell the school to send papers. The school then tells him to send other papers and when we thinkg that everything is over there are more papers to sign and send, more very expensive phone calls to be made and more people to yell at. It' been quite the adventure. The bureaucracy is something else and no one seems to know what to do, what the process is and how to handle things. The ladies in the International office drink their coffees peacefully, smoke their cigars and yell at us from feet away, from their office that there is nothing else they can do. Very frustrating! I find it very hard at times not to stress out. And we have been very stressed out, both of us, almost every single day since we arrived. Back to finding an apartment, we did find a very nice one, 800 Euro/month plus utilities. Yeah! Expensive. One of the best deals though. How we'll pay for it we don't know yet but we're hanging in here. After arriving here, we quickly learned that the concept of time is different here and that everything costs almost double than what it costs in America. Also, we learned that this county is been hit very hard by the recession and that people loose their jobs every day and that there aren't many jobs available. I've been trying to find some work ever since we got here but didn't find anything yet... Hard life for the Irish even though as you walk down the streets it doesn't look like it. People buy lots from the closing out stores and eat and drink out a lot. I said earlier that the concept of time is different here... What I meant is that if one says we meet at 3 o'cloclk, be sure that it's going to be at least 15 minutes until they arrive. When one of David's manuals arrived, the UPS guy told us that our over-night packet had to be delivered in three days after it arrived because he already finished work for the day (it was around noon on Friday) and that packets are not to be delivered until next Monday. So much for paying double the price of the book to get it here on time... Yeah, so life is been crazy and still is. We try hard to stay happy but when there isn't much to do and no money to spend life can get pretty boring and bland. There is one movie theater here but we didn't go there yet because it costs like $15/person and they only have one or two showings of each show every week. We did eat out at KFC once and spent almost 20 Euro. I'm not even joking! I wish I was. But there are some cool things about being here. We have a nice apartment, David is getting his masters, hopefully and he's enjoying his classes. If everything works out he should have a master degree by next December. It was going to be by next April but the school decided that the students should have a few months after they finish their course work to do field research. That is really cool and we're hoping to go to Romania for Christmas to do some of that research but no one will pay for it, not even the financial aid from the States because David won't be taking classes during that time. Well, we hope to find jobs and set some money aside to go to Romania and to at least visit Ireland's beautiful countryside if no other European countries. We really want to see the castle that is here in Limerick, the famous cliffs of Moher and hopefully get to see some other places as well. I'll try to write here more and hopefully have better news next time. I really miss everyone and being in the States but I'll try to make the best of my time here in Europe. I think that we have a wonderful opportunity and am happy to be here with David and stand by him through everything. Until next time, farewell!