On our way

We left Ireland at 6:30 this morning and are currently on the last plane on our way to Salt Lake. The trip was good, with few incidents. We left from Limerick to Shannon last night after a full day of packing, cleaning and checking out of our apartment. We were very happy that for the first time ever the checkout process was quick and simple and the agent was impressed with our cleaning job. We were also very lucky to get our deposit back, which we used to pay part of the loan one of our friends gave us to pay our rent last month. We are glad that we paid most of it back. One less debt and worry is always welcome, right? So, we stayed at a much too nice hotel right next to the Shannon airport and showed up at the airport around 5:00am. The lady at the counter didn't have her glasses and also wasn't familiar with Permanent Resident procedures but we were able to sort things out fairly quickly. We were very pleased that we didn't have to pay to bring the computer with us so we should have it when we get off the plane. We saw it in JFK and it looked ok. We hope that it's in one piece and it'll still work :) The flight to Paris was short and nice. I love flying small planes! They are so smooth! I never thought that that would be the cas. We arrived a little late in Paris but we had over 3 hours between flights so it went ok. We had some peas soup, quiche and croissants and played some Playstation 3 games for a while until we boarded the plane that took us to New York. You know? It's a little sad going through cool cities such as Paris and NYC and not have time to go visit them. It's a dream of mine to see Paris, especially because I love the French language, and NYC is my most favorite city I've been to thus far. So, both of these cities are on my list to go visit sometime soon. Anyway, the flight to NYC was long and we were about one hour late but we made it safely. I enjoyed listening to the French language on the way - we flew on Air France. Oh, I remembered a cool thing that happened in Paris. I was taking a picture of our plane when a family approaches me asking me in French to take a picture of them. I took the picture but didn't do a good job including some background in it so I asked if they wanted me to take a better one from a different angle. The lady was impressed with my French and she complimented me on how well I spoke French. The truth is that I did a horrible job mumbling my words and thinking really hard of what to say but it made me really happy that she said that. Back to getting to NY... We arrived late to JFK as well and had to wait in a long line outside the terminal to only find out that we could have walked right at the front because we are American residents. The lady asked if we didn't hear her asking if there were any Americans in line and we thought that we might have heard something as we were stepping out of the plane but we were some of the last people in line so we didn't know what she was talking about. She never repeated her question and we were in line for about 20 mins until David asked her and she directed us to a desk. We breezed right through. It was the easiest and fastest entry in America I've ever had and it made me happy and made me forget all about the line real fast. In NY we are some Burger King because we knew that we weren't going to be fed on this plane and I was feeling nauseous and had a headache, and we then prepared to board the plane. As we walked to the gate we noticed that my name was posted on the screen above the gate so we asked about it. The lady said that I didn't have a seat and I needed to wait a few more minutes. Now, we only had 10 minutes until the plane left but were lucky to see my name dissapear off the list. We asked about it and she, very confused said: I'm taking care of the flight to Denver and you're going to SLC! Get on the plane! We didn't have time to ask what all that was about and didn't really care. We got on the plane and about an hour later flew out of JFK. I felt lucky that I got to see the City both at arrival and at departure, first time in daylight and second time at night when all the lights were on and the view was gorgeous. We're still on the plane waiting as patiently as we can to arrive in Salt Lake, get our car and drive to Midway. I'm glad that David is getting a little rest so that he can drive us to Midway. I feel tired and a little nervous but am excited to get back and see our friends and places we know and love. See you all soon!

Leaving Ireland

Some of you already know that David and I are returning to Utah. Yes, it is true... Things didn't work out and we both feel that going back will help us put our lives back together. I'm personally allright with the idea of going back because so far every experience here turned out to be a desaster and I just can't take it any longer. In my last entry I was being more optimistic that the checks were on the way and we were going to receive the money. The checks did arrive and we were happy. What else could go wrong??? Well, it turns out that the two of the three checks weren't filled out right so David couldn't cash them. He turned the good check in at the university and found out that the other two checks will take up to six weeks to be re-issued and cleared. This was the drop to fill our glass. We decided that we cannot wait any longer just hoping that things will work out and getting in more debt. So, today we went and talked to the landlord to get out of the apartment contract and David also turned in his withdraw letter. Just to make things even better, the school won't return all the money to us because David went to school here for a month. He didn't have an ID card until a couple weeks ago, didn't benefit from anything and didn't receive any help from anyone and yet he ows the school money! Of course there is nothing we can do about it, as always, so we'll have to suck it up and pay the government whatever the school won't refund us. And, as if we weren't in enough debt already... the company we rented the apartment through isn't sure if the landlord will get our deposit or at least part of the rent for this month back to us either so we're pretty much screwd and there is nothing we can do. As you can easily tell I'm really upset but this too shall pass. Just as a heads up to everyone... Please think twice if you're thinking to do any kind of business in Ireland. The bureaucracy is terrible, there is cigarrs smoke everywhere, the most important part of people's jobs is when they go out for a smoke and drink their coffee during the two hour lunch break and of course being careless and insensitive. There are some very nice people but too bad that the overall feeling is of carelessness... So, I guess this is all for now. I'll let you all know if anything else comes up but I really hope that if I will have any other news it will be good news.

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!