Rag Week

Every college town in Ireland is currently celebrating Rag Week. Though it started as a fundraising initiative, with college kids collecting money for charities the entire week, Rag Week has developed into a week of heavy drinking. For all you Illinois-ers out there: think 7 days of Unofficial. My introduction to Rag Week was Monday at work. I was working at the till and heard yelling from outside at about 10am. A huge group of guys, probably 17 and 18 years old, were walking (staggering) by, singing, yelling, and playing drums. Each one had a can of beer in one hand and were dressed from head to toe in Hawiian apparel. One of my coworkers informed me that they were on their way to a foam party (a bar fills one entire room with soap foam and people dance and play in it). Later on, during my break, I sat in Eyre Square and watched hundreds of kids chug beers, yell to each other, and make rude comments to passers-by.

So, in the spirit of Rag week, Erin and I went out that night with Sheila and our friend Eimear (who also went to Res and currently lives with her family outside Dublin). Every bar was packed with a line down the block. We stayed out until about two, and then found a GREAT late night food place called Charcoal Grill (our roommate, Wash Wash, used to work there and recommended it). Unfortunately, Erin spilled our fries all over the street. (Nice job, Er.)

Eight A.M. came REAL fast the next morning. I worked for five hours, came home and napped, and then we went out again. We feel obliged to go out every night of Rag Week. Ya know, experience the youth culture. We made our way to The Quays, my favorite bar yet. There was a band doing covers of American songs, a lot of Goo Goo Dolls, Green Day kind of stuff. We LOVED it.

This morning, when I got to work and felt like death, my boss said, "Kathryn [they call me Kathryn], we need you to work until close today. Is that alright?" Ummm NO that's not alright... but with the rapidly shrinking booze budget in mind, I agreed. I am currently on my lunch break and not looking forward to an additional six hours at River Island. They STILL haven't changed the soundtrack. One full week of Lady Gaga songs is driving me crazy.

In addition to Rag Week, yesterday was a national holiday called "Pancake Day." It coincides with Fat Tuesday, and every restaurant in the country (that might be an exageration) serves pancakes. People get really into it. The Irish TV station had pancake recipes scrolling at the bottom of the screen all day. Erin and I did not have pancakes. We were very disappointed in ourselves, but after a long day of work, neither of us felt like going out to buy the ingredients. So, it was another pasta night (surprise, surprise).

I'm not sure if our bodies can handle another night out, but we'll certainly try! It's Rag Week- we owe it to the country, right?

Katie

Working Women

Hey everyone!
Today I am off work which is amazing. I though my schedule was the same every week, but apparently is changes! So I worked the past 4 days and then this week I get today, tomorrow, and Friday off! I'm hoping this means they are flexible for when the visitors finally get here :)

Work is going much better, I got the waitress thing down, and I'm fine at the register. It was a lot easier working with Euros than I thought, I don't think I've messed up anyone's change yet! But they have 8 coins in their money system where we have 4, so it's weird. They have 1 and 2 euro coins, 50, 20,10, 5, 2, and 1 cent coins! It's a lot to get straight but the only mistake I really make is calling them dollars haha I get corrected a lot. I just laugh because I never realize it, but Kate said when she calls them dollars she corrects herself immediatly by saying, "I mean Euros, this is not America" haha The other day at work I went to wipe off a table where people had just sat down, and this little girl barely spoke English but she goes, "You miss here" and told me I had missed a spot! I laughed and wiped it. Then later I brought her her hot chocolate and went back to get her marshmallows and she says, "You so slowly!" Her dad apologized but I was cracking up, I don't move that slow! Work is always busy, I'm not kidding I don't stop. Between delivering drink and food orders, wiping tables, taking orders, dishes....It's insane. But the girls I work with are all soo sweet so it's not too bad. Also I get to eat the food for 50% off the price so I always grab a coffee or something for break...I have yet to pay for anything, woops!!

We went out a whole bunch last week with our roommate David and his friends and Sheila. We really like just going to a pub and getting a couple pints while listening to the trad music. We also really love staying in with some wine and movie! The music at clubs here is really weird, think bad American 90's music set to techno. And they all kind of dance like hippies so we tend to stay away haha

I think the countdown is something like 11 days til visitors now so we've been trying to get all the dirt off our walls and make our house presentable haha Today is my sister's birthday, HAPPY BIRTHDAY SHAN!! And Kate got s surprise when she walked in to work what she thought was a 5 hour shift....she will be working a 10 hour shift! haha Other than that not too much, except I must comment that the weather has been amazing here. It has seriously not rained at all! Apparently that's unusual, but I'll take it! I hope you are doing well and we definitely miss you all tons.

Last thing, I finally have our address for anyone who cares to send a card (or raisinets :) ):
85 Forster Court
Galway Ireland
Love you all!!
-Erin

Home Sweet Home (and pictures!)

Hi everyone! Sorry it's been a few days since we've written. This week flew by. I started work on Monday and Erin started Sunday. It feels like we've been here for months! We're both getting used to our jobs and working 40 hours a week. It's starting to become normal having our names yelled twenty times a day, and we're screwing up less (or becoming better at covering it up). But I don't think I'll ever get used to the five songs that are played on repeat ALL DAY at River Island. I hear them in my sleep. I'm still amazed at how much money Irish women spend on clothes. There's no evidence of recession in the fashion industry!

We're all settled into our house now. After quite a bit of cleaning, it's finally starting to feel cozy. I spent about an hour scrubbing walls, and Erin had to go at the toaster and refrigerator with a knife to scrape off the scum. David turns the fireplace on every night, so we usually sit in the living room and chat for awhile before bed. His friends come over sometimes too, and they all play guitar and sing. Cute Irish guys singing in the living room... doesn't get much better than that! Wash-wash (our other roommate who we call Tony) cooks all the time. He's a chef for a living, so he's teaching us a thing or two about the kitchen. Every time he shows us how to do something or saves our food from burning (which is more often than you'd think) he says (in somewhat broken english), "What is going on here? Who is the woman here?" And then laughs really hard. 

Last night, David's friend Tara came in from Dublin and we all went out dancing together (we can add dancing to the list of things the Irish aren't great at... it falls right after "cuisine"). It's funny how big of a language barrier can exist between people who speak the same language! 

With all the "Irish" words we don't know, the heavy accents, and the loud music at bars, Erin and I get lost pretty fast. Sometimes we would prefer Spanish!

PICTURES ARE UP! On the left side of the screen, you should see a slide show. If you click on it, you can see the large version of the pictures with captions. Sorry it took so long. Enjoy!

-Katie

A Few Pics!

Good morning!

Well yesterday was my day off so I had a lot of internet time and then went grocery shopping. Back home I ate some lunch and then started to clean- I think it's safe to say there is a thick layer of dirt or grease on nearly every surface. Boys have always lived there and while it's STILL better than many other apartments we saw (believe it or not) it really needs some elbow grease. I realized I forgot paper towels so today will be one of many cleaning days. Our roommate Antonio came home and we were talking for a long time. I found out he works at the internet cafe I know the owner of, but when I asked the owner, Mixer, he said no Antonio worked for him. So I ask Antonio and he says "Yes no one call me Antonio, everyone call me Wash Wash." Huh?! haha so I ask him what he wants us to call him, and we settle on Wash Wash. Now I had already started calling him Tony in my head and to my friends, but I tried Wash Wash for a whole day. It doesn't work. From this day (and blog post) forward, our roommates are David the Irishman and Tony the Algerian, k? 

We had a nice long conversation about him being a practicing Muslim and what that entails. I told him I know a bunch about it but he explained anyway and told me how everyone always thinks it's strange how he prays and follows the religion. Then we talked about American politics, which is never fun over here. He is very intelligent though- how many of you could tell me the political parties of Algeria or their presidents from the 1960's? Yea, me neither. He's seriously a character, always joking! So Kate got home and we made pasta and then went out to King's Head with Sheila to stalk the "duo" (can you call it a band when it's two guys with guitars?) we had seen last night, they're really good! The duo started singing "I come from the land down under" and all of a sudden this huge group of people jumped up and were singing (screaming) and dancing. We were like, "Hmm, from Australia maybe?" haha Anyhow Sheila is in love with the guitarrist we call Bob the Builder but won't talk to him. Fun night :)

We're getting more and more excited about our visitors by the day, 2 weeks and 1 day now!! OK uploading pictures takes forever but I did a whole bunch on Kodak because all of the blogger programs were taking even longer. The link takes you to our Kodak album. Hopefully we'll learn how to get them on here, but until then, enjoy! (just copy and then paste)

http://kodakgallery.com/ShareLanding.action?c=18ic034z.3w95dk1n&x=0&y=v1w9o&localeid_US

-Erin

Workin Hard for the Money

The last few days have been a whirlwind. Sunday morning we woke up early and took a cab out to Salthill for Erin's "interview" at Coco Cafe. Salthill is an absolutely beautiful area. You can look straight across the Galway Bay and see rolling green hills. It's what you picture when you think of Ireland. We'll try to post pictures later today. We found the cafe and it turns out that by "interview," they meant "first day of work." Erin walked in, they threw her an apron, and she worked for 7 hours! I waited around in Salthill for a few hours, still under the impression that this was some kind of interview, but when I walked by the Cafe and saw Erin sweating, red in the face, and carrying dishes, I figured I should head back to the hostel. She came back around 7:30 and looked like she had just been punched in the stomach. They gave her ZERO instruction and just kept yelling orders at her. "Wash the dishes!" (There's no soap.) "Bring this to table five!" (The tables are not numbered.) "Maam, please bring me some cutlery and a serviette." (A what?) "It's under the till!" (What the hell is a till??) Needless to say, she was spent, but the day wasn't over.

That night, we moved into our new house. We each have a very small single room, and we share with two guys. One is a little Algerian man who really, really likes to talk and tell (off-color) jokes. He said his favorite thing to do is tell Americans that he's their neighbor. They ask if he's from Candada. No. Mexico? No. Colombia? Nope. He says, "I'm from Afghanistan. You have 150,000 troops there, so we're like neighbors." He really cracks himself up (and no, he's not from Afghanistan). The other roommate is an Irish guy named David. He's a lot more normal. His band is actually touring in the states soon. He'll be in Chicago in March! (www.withoutgeorge.com)

That night, we finally treated ourselves to a good dinner. It was our first meal out in Galway (we've bought and cooked everything so far), and we went to a pub called An Pucan where there was live Irish music. The food was delicious and we both had a much-deserved glass of wine.

Good thing we were tired when we got back because it was probably the most uncomfortable night of our lives. Neither of us had pillows, since we'd been staying in hostels. I slept on a folded towel and Er slept on a balled up sweatshirt. Our mattresses are basically a bed of springs covered by a thin layer of fabric. David hasn't bought oil in awhile, so there's no heat for the time being. Luckily, it doesn't get too cold in Ireland. The next day, Erin made a point of educating David about rheumatoid arthritis with the hope of guilting him into buying oil.

Yesterday was my first day of work at River Island. For a country that's in recession, the women here sure do like to shop. They threw me on the till (cash register), and I was checking people out for seven hours. No joke. There was a constant line of women purchasing clothes, and this place isn't cheap! By the time I left, my head was spinning. I had to learn a different procedure for every transaction- cash (euros!), credit cards, gift cards, vouchers, credit slips. It was exhausting. Erin worked seven hours yesterday too, but she says it was a lot better than the first day. They had her on till and she got to do some waitressing... still no instructions though!

Last night, we went out for a beer and some pizza (I know, we're really splurging this week) with our friend Sheila (from Res). It was delicious. There were two Irish guys playing guitar and singing old Irish folk songs. After a long day, it was exactly what we needed. We bought pillows and Erin found a fleece blanket, so we slept pretty well!

I start work in a half hour and Erin is off today. We don't have internet at the new place, but we met a guy who owns an internet cafe (Mixer Dooley), and he gives us free coffee and internet. Our posts will be more infrequent, but we'll try to be on a few times a week. We love you and miss you all tons.

-Katie

We're going to try to give you a google image of something we're talking about every post so it's a little like you're seeing what we see. This is the Salthill Promenade along the Galway Bay, it's what my cafe looks out onto allll day :)
http://www.crookhaven.net/images/galway/prom.jpg
Love you!!
-Erin

Things are Coming Together...

Hey everyone!
This morning we met with David, our new roommate, to give him the security deposit and get the keys to our new apartment! We move in tomorrow! So it's me and Kate, and then 2 guys in their 20's, I would guess David is 26. We haven't met the other one but David says he is in his room most of the time. They are very clean and they work during the week, from what we can tell they are totally normal and we're really excited. David is in a band called Without George and they play at Monroe's every Friday so we're really excited to be groupies! haha It took my mom a couple explanations to get this, but each have our own room in this house, we share a bathroom, living room, and kitchen, and we pay rent.

Thursday night I went out for Sheila's birthday, Kate wanted to get some sleep. That day we had met 3 guys from Canada at the hostel: Connor, Ryley, and Matt. They are hilarious. Two quick stories that might paint you a picture. First of all, the reason they are in Europe is that 2 of them got real drunk one night and bought tickets to a Kings of Leon concert online...in Amsterdam! So the third got his ticket and then they got plane tickets and decided to make a tour of it. So they have 17 days and no plans, clearly our kind of people. While waiting for their flight out of LA, Connor and Ryley took Matt's passports and decided to write (this is illegal) on the last page. They swore that if either one got married before he was 30, he would have to pay the other $1,000, and then signed it. So going through Immigration the officers stopped Matt and he didn't know why! He now has a sticker that says his passport is damaged or something... They were very nice and we hung out last night too, they were buying rounds of drinks for everyone around them! We found out that Matt knows how to say "You have beautiful eyes" in 5 languages! haha But when he tried it on the Spaniards he butchered it so everyone got a laugh.

Also on Thursday Katie and I tried making a meal we love from Spain and it did NOT turn out. We are probably the two least domestic people ever. But Friday our friend Vicente walked us through the whole process and it came out perfectly! We have pictures of each of us doing the dreaded flip! Last night we went to a bar called King's Head and there was a cover band that was good, we were dancing quite a bit! It was some good craic :) Last night when we got back to the hostel there was a guy with Coke in one hand and a bottle of Rum in the other; he was possibly the most obnoxious person I've ever met. He insisted on singing the 50 states song over and over, and I swear he didn't get past Connecticut for at least a half hour. He kept getting right in my face singing and I definitely almost punched him. I just kept saying "THIS IS TOO CLOSE, GET AWAY FROM ME" haha We didn't get to bed until around 5 and so today has completely dragged.

Kate and I were sitting in the lobby and the phone rang, it was a guy calling to ask Katie to come in for an interview. She said she already had a job but that I was still looking so I went and brought my resume, missed the manager by like 2 minutes. As soon as we got back to the hostel he called! He wants me to come in tomorrow to his new cafe in Salthill and try it out for a day! No interview, no nothin...I've never made coffee so I hope this goes well!

We have 4 new roommates tonight and we are so ready to get out of this hostel. We love it and we love a lot of the people here but we just need our own space now. I can't take much more, every weekend this huge tour bus called the Paddy Wagon pulls in and unloads a million kids to stay for one night. They take over the kitchen and get all loud and dressed up and drink a ton and leave the place a mess. Then in the morning when they have to leave early they are super loud. It will be so nice to have our own place!!

I'm really sorry we haven't posted any pictures yet but honestly we haven't taken many at all! We have been so busy running around for jobs and apartments that we haven't seen much. We'll post the few we have soon, mostly going out pictures and a few of the Galway Bay. Just let us get moved in and settled :)
Love you all!! Hugs and kisses.
-Erin

Hostel Life

Yesterday was an all-around good day. After hearing that I got the job, we were in pretty high spirits (see, I'm picking up on the Irish lingo). The hostel was starting to fill up for the weekend, and we were determined to make new friends. Turns out that if you spend more than 5 minutes in the kitchen (which was our average food prep time), you meet a ton of people! First, we started talking to a girl named Julia. She's from Canada and traveling alone. She's only 18, and she's taking a "gap year" to do exactly what Erin and I are doing- a "working holiday." (Dad- aren't you glad we at least waited until we were 21?) She came grocery shopping with us, which was probably an interesting experience for her, as Erin and I spent most of the trip arguing about how to spend our 6 euro. 

We finally settled on Tortilla Española for dinner, a pretty daring feat for two girls with very little culinary talent. It's basically an omelette with potatoes and onions. They serve it cold in Spain, either as a pie slice or on bread as a sandwich. While we were cooking, we met a kid named Lucas from France. He was also on a break before going back to school. He decided that Erin and I were going to teach him English and that he was going to teach us French. After a few failed attempts at "talking from our throats," we said we were happy to help him with his English, but we were set as far as languages go- we can barely handle Spanish. Erin liked him because he shared his steak with her. Six euro doesn't allow for much meat! Another girl was cooking in the kitchen, named Kristen, and she was also from Canada. 

After preparing a somewhat mutilated Tortilla Española, we met a man from Spain! Bad timing, but he said if we try again tonight, he'll help us out. Erin talked to him in Spanish for awhile and LOVED it. We met a few other people too- a man named Carl from Sweden who is going to med school in Galway (although, I don't think I'd want him to be my doctor; he told us that abbreviations in English mean the opposite of what they do in Swedish...), a man from France who is traveling around Ireland, and a really nice Egyptian girl named Amel. 

Our favorite new friends are two guys from Canada- Riley and Connor. They're on a 17 day tour of Europe that ends in Amsterdam for a Kings of Leon concert (and started in Los Angeles..?). They were hilarious. They've gone out every night for the last 10 days. They're just working guys on a vacation, so they are determined to have a great time. 

Of course, the day that we make tons of new friends is our last day in the hostel. We had been booking this place one night at a time because we weren't sure when we'd be leaving. We didn't realize that weekends book up really fast, so our room was reserved for this weekend, and the only rooms they had available were double the price (about 20 euro- $26- per night, per person). So, being on a budget, we booked a hostel down the street for 12 euro. After a glass of wine and some serious consideration, we decided to splurge and stay here another two nights. If you're familiar with our stinginess on this trip, you understand how much we love this place. If anyone's ever in Galway, Kinlay House is the way to go. 

In other news, I guess they call Friday the 13th unlucky for a reason- Erin heard back from the clothing store today. Donna, the super nice Irish woman who interviewed Erin, called this morning and said that she was unable to recruit at this time. But she really, really loved Erin (I mean LOVED her, I'm pretty sure she was ready to adopt her), so she said she'll keep her resume on file and call as soon as she has an opening. We'll be out again today trying to find something! Wish us luck! 

Also, as a sidenote, Erin has led some of you to believe that I hate emoticons. I do not hate emoticons. I like a smiley face at the end of an email just as much as the next guy. I hate OVERUSE of emoticons- like 10 different types of smiley faces in one email. Just thought I'd clear that up. So you can all stop apologizing every time you express yourselves via a colon and parentheses.   :)

THIS JUST IN!!

KATIE GOT THE JOB!! It's a men and women's clothing store called River Island and she works Monday thru Friday from 9-1, so 25 hours a week at 8.65 euro an hour means we can get the apartment!!!!!!!! Still hoping to hear back from my lady because now I'll be here alone doing nothing all day haha but this is just the hugest relief you can possibly imagine. 'Tanks a mil' for all the good thoughts!!

(that's another Irish saying, you can figure it out :) )

Top o' the marnin!

I have to start this out by saying that we LOVE all of your comments. I know I've said it, but I want to make sure you all keep commenting :)

I forgot a funny story about the other night, and I'll try to make it as concise as possible. When we were at Monroe's we met a whole bunch of Irish guys and when the bar was closing, we were all going to go somewhere else. So Sheila, Mike, Katie, and I start to leave and this old, drunk Irish man grabs my arm and starts talking to me. It caught me off guard so I'm not sure of everything he said, but then he started saying "See the lad behind the bar? He's been wanting your number all night". I told him that clearly this was a lie, and he insisted. So we keep trying to leave and he turns around and screams "CONAN!" So here comes Conan shaking his head like "How long has he been harassing you girls?" Old man says "Isn't that right you've been wantin the girl in the long white coat's number all night?" And Conan says something like "Let's just get this over with", kind of apologizing for the old man. Me and Kate and Sheila didn't really know what was going on, they talk so fast! Whether that was a big scam to get my number or just a crazy old drunk man having fun, Conan got my number and we moved on to the next bar haha

So Katie's interview went really well! The woman was interviewing a bunch more people, but she said if Katie hears from her tomorrow (Thursday) then she got the job and if not, than no. So it's nice to know definitively that she'll have it or she won't by today. We've had some really great weather as far as Ireland goes, even some sun! Lauren keeps us up to date with weather at home (thanks, girl) so we know whether or not to be jealous! We called David back about the apartment and it's so crazy, there are no leases here, no signatures or anything like that. You just pay some money and, as David said, "When we're all just hanging out and settled in, I'll be happy". It's soo incredibly laid back, I've missed Europe!

In case anyone was wondering, our 72 cent pizzas tasted really good! We were skeptical but we're just rockin this budget! 3 weeks from today our guests start: Colleen, Anne, and Tyler come first, followed by Stacy, then Jameson, and hopefully Lauren! We can't wait, we've already started making plans for tours of the countryside and we've got a good idea of bars we like to take everyone :) Not much more to report, but I have been wanting to share a little Irish slang we've managed to pick up...Enjoy!

~Eireann--how my name should be spelled, it's everywhere!
~craic--pronouned "crack". "Where's the craic?" "That was a great bit of craic!" 'fun' or 'good time'. commonly confused as a hard drug by Americans!
~quay--pronounced "key". 'street'
~feeking-- 'kissing'
~grand-- "You're grand." "That bar's grand." it means 'OK' or 'average'. commonly used after "I'm sorry" or "Excuse me", like "no, it's fine." I would compare it to "no pasa" in Granada :)

I'm sure we'll think of more but those are a few we hear often. Please think some good thoughts about these jobs for us :) I'd also like to pass this on, courtest of Colleen, it's pretty hilarious. Have a great day! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txqiwrbYGrs&feature=channel
-Erin

Job/Apt Hunting: Day 2

So much to update! Well my interview went really well and yesterday we woke up to a phone call asking for Katie to come in for an interview! It's for a store just down Shop Street (the main street in town) from mine! Her interview is in a few hours so cross your fingers! I mean, it's probably way too perfect to have any chance of working out, but it's definitely keeping our spirits up, which we really needed after our apartment viewings...

So Monday night we completely crashed and then Tuesday tried to get up and do it all again. Our first stop was to the internet place to alter our resumes... I had planned on doing a lot of lying when we got here ("O yea, I've been a bartender, waitress, coffee maker, etc...") but damn that Catholic guilt. It did become necessary to embellish a little about waitressing experience, it's clear that's one of our best bets. According to me resume I worked at Tully's Diner (put in a good word for me, Tul!) for 2 years waitressing haha Anyhow, we didn't do much before both our bodies were dunzo. We walked around for a bit and ended up coming back here to lay down. We had actually hit pretty much everywhere in the immediate area so we were kind of unfocused and tired.

We did some grocery shopping and decided to allow me 2 slices of turkey since meat doesn't exactly figure in to our 6 euro budget but I loove meat! And then we got veggies for a dinner salad because Kate was craving them, but hey, produce is expensive! haha Still stuck to budget with a handy 72 cent pizza :)

After that we saw another apartment, fairly close and DEFINITELY affordable: 75 euro per week (YAY! today's conversion is $1.29, so figure $96 a week). It was liveable, better kept than ANYTHING we saw yesterday, but we didn't love it. Later that night we saw another one which we did love. A little more expensive but it's sooo close, sooo clean, and in a really safe area. We're nervous to commit without having jobs but it's really either that or live in our hostel...which is not bad since all the French moved out!

Finally, Sheila and our new friend Mike, who we met at orientation in Dublin, came over to our hostel for some wine before going out. We went to a bar called Monroe's, which is right on the river, for some traditional live Irish music. It was so cute because a bunch of couples (young and old) were Irish dancing in the middle of the bar the whole nite! I wished I knew how because it looked like so much fun. We met a bunch of Sheila's American friends and then a bunch of Irish guys trying to get us to do a triathlon for Rag Week (more on that later, at it's most pure it's the colleges raising money for charity. Also turns into a drunken, crazy week). When that bar closed to we went to a later bar (remember nothing is really late here, we were home by 2) and chatted for a little while longer. It was a really great nite and everything is going really well here so far!

We loooove your comments and look forward to them every post! Miss you all and we will put pictures up soon (we haven't taken many so we're waiting til we have a few more) :)
Love ya!
-Erin

Job Hunting: Day One

I found my black socks this morning and knew it would be a good day. Let me explain. We have been sharing a hostel room with 3 French people who speak no english (bummer, we were hoping to make friends). Erin and I woke up really early to start our job search and the roomies were still asleep (of course, the ONE day they sleep in is the day we get up early). As we were getting ready in the pitch black room, I realized that I hadn't set out my black dress socks the night before (yes, we got dressed up- gotta make a good first impression, right?). I reached into my suit case and, miraculously, happened to pull out my black socks. Even Erin, who was REALLY nervous, knew that was a good sign.

We ate our breakfast and tried to mentally prepare for a day of rejection, and rejection was what we got- at least for the first hour. But, to our surprise, everyone was soooo nice! Even as they rejected us, they all smiled and wished us luck in our search or made small talk about our travels! Then came the most exciting part of the day- ERIN GOT AN INTERVIEW! At about 11am, when our feet were forming blisters and our spirits were starting to sink, Erin walked into a women's clothing boutique (Kris- think New Prospects). The woman behind the counter greeted her enthusiastically and asked if she was available for an interview. She went back that afternoon and was told that her interview was "stellar." The lady says as soon as she gets the green light from her higher-ups, she'll hire Erin! She happened to be wearing my black dress socks...

Job hunting wasn't the only thing on our plates today. This afternoon, we started calling around for apartments. We looked at several, but none of them were very nice, and trust me, our standards are not high. We looked at one yesterday that we're both in LOVE with, but it's a little pricey and out in the suburbs, so we'd have to take a bus to work. After seeing the quality of some apartments in this town, that bus ride isn't seeming so bad.

Tomorrow we're planning on hitting the other side of the river. There are a lot of restaurants over there we can apply at. We're also going to a bar with our friend Sheila (who went to Res and is studying abroad here) to a bar to see live Irish music tomorrow night.

Our 6euro/day budget has been successful so far, except for the 10 euro taxi ride we had to take today. We ate frozen pizza again last night (Kelly- it was chicken pesto with red pepper- you're a genius! Grazi's needs this on the menu... and one without chicken for me), cereal for breakfast, PB sandwich for lunch, and now we're eating pasta for dinner. It's a bland diet, but cheap! We might splurge on the candy machine tonight. The Snickers talks to me every time I walk by.
We've met a few people from Chicago over the last few days. The guy at the hostel desk moved here from Chi-town 7 years ago, a girl working at one of the restaurants I applied at was from the Southside, and a girl at the bar on Saturday was from Western Springs and goes to U of I! Small world, huh?

Well, I guess that's it for now. We would tell you about how great the weather is in Galway, but we heard it was 60 degrees in Illinois! We love you all and miss you TONS.

-Katie

Movin on to Galway!

Hey all!
So Dublin was snowy and cold and we were super tired, but we still managed a few good stories for ya. First of all, we never checked our kitchen at the hostel so we went out and bought a frozen pizza...too bad there was no oven! We microwaved it and it was pretty soggy but food's food I guess! I tried to fry mine in a pan with some oil (thanks mom!) and that was decent... I've been dying to write about the character who shared our hostel room in Dublin (it was us and 4 other people in the room). We never got any of their names, so we'll call the man South Africa and the girl Germany. The other two we never saw, but it's safe to say that all 3 guys were LIVING in the hostel, one of them for 9 months! So anyway, South Africa was very chatty and didn't smell good but the funniest thing was he was laying in his bed, maybe 9pm? We were getting ready to go to sleep and all of a sudden we hear this awfulllll techno music. I look next to his bed and he's got a 90's style Sony Discman plugged into 2 speakers playing 90's songs set to techno, for example "Rock Until the Broad Daylight". Slad and Veder commercial anyone?! Also under his bed is milk, eggs, and mayo...I'm not sure why people don't refrigerate those... So then South Africa and Germany (who we didn't think could speak English or was just real shy) start talking about going out to some disco club. So they're getting ready, and South Africa puts 5 sprays of on cologne under the armpit of every shirt he tries on! It smelled pretty bad and the whole room was already musty... Next, he looks at Germany and goes, "So you're wearin that shirt hey?" (he said hey after almost every single word. obnoxious.) And she just nodded but he clearly did not approve. He goes, "And those shoes hey?" I'll make it short but basically he did not approve of anything she was wearing and it was the most awkward 10 minutes of my life, Kate was brushing her teeth trying not to laugh! Last story about South Africa: I took 2 Tylenol PMs because I really needed a good night's sleep to get over the jet lag and he goes "O you've got drugs hey?" and comes right up to me. We explained they were $4 Tylenols but he told us we could sell them and then he sniffed the bottle. He said that Irish people were addicted to sleeping pills because they couldn't afford heroine! He said if we couldn't get a job we could always sell them haha Interesting guy...

So Friday we had orientation with the company we came through and that was slightly depressing. They told us that Galway really does not have many jobs, but that if we work hard enough there was definitely a possibility. We caught our bus for Galway and then Sheila McNair (my dad's longtime friend's daughter, also went to Res) met us at our hostel! She is studying abroad here and lives about a 25 minute walk from us (we are in the city centre and she is at the University). So she took us to a bar around us to meet her friends which was fun, it's sooo nice knowing someone here who already knows the city. Our hostel here is realllly nice, and it's so cheap! Breakfast is included and then we steal bread for lunch with our peanut butter :) You would all be so proud of how cheap we're being! We made a budget for ourselves and we are determined to live on 6 euros a day for food, total not each! We have been looking for apartments and tomorrow we will start "hitting the pavement" to pass out our resumes and ask about jobs.

Yesterday we walked around a bunch, down by the Galway Bay, Galway is so cute! It hasn't been bad weather lately, but I probably just jinxed that. We also got our cell phone up and working which is so nice. Shoot us an email if you'd like to call, free for us! haha Let's see, o then we went to Sheila's apartment and made dinner, her friend from Limerick was in for the night so we went out to this hippie bar and just talked for awhile and then came back and went to bed. Most of the bars here close at 12! Even on weekends...there are a few late bars that close at 2. Definitely different then what Kate and I are used to in Spain! Nothing there got going til 2 and didn't stop til 7am! I guess this is already pretty long so I'll stop so no one gets bored :) Kate says I write like I talk so I hope it's enjoyable and not just rambling! We miss you all so much and we'll post again soon!
-Erin

We're Here!

After eight long hours of travel, we finally made it to Ireland! We left O'Hare at 6:30pm (Chicago time) and landed in Dublin at 8am (Dublin time). Neither of us got much sleep, but the flight went by pretty fast. They gave us a couple of decent meals and showed a few movies. To our surprise and dismay, it was snowing when we landed and hasn't stopped since. After going through immigration, we stored our unreasonably large pieces of luggage at the airport and took a bus to the city centre. We wandered the city like zombies for a few hours, and now we're relaxing at the hostel (which we successfully found after some wrong turns). So far, the people in Ireland are really friendly and, of course, we love the accents. (Sorry, Grandpa, we haven't found our husbands yet.) We've gotten some funny looks- not only for our crazy rain boot/adidas pant combination (which, as my dad says, makes us look like "a couple of tools")- but also because we are lost (or "exploring the city" as Erin says) 50% of the time. Hopefully we'll do better after a full night of sleep.
Well, that's it for now! We'll write again soon.
-Katie

It's getting close...

Hey everyone!
I thought this blog would be a great way to keep you all updated during our trip to Ireland. Hopefully we can keep the pictures coming and entertain you all with, what I'm sure will be, many crazy/exciting/scary stories from our trip. What I hope even more is that you will all comment and keep us updated with your lives while we're abroad!

Wednesday is coming fast and we're getting really excited! Well, I'm still freaking out but Katie is being excited for both of us. I still need to pack everything and then we get to go to one of my favorite places: Terminal 5 at O'Hare!!!! Hellooooo International, Goodbye snowy Chicago!

Guess that's it for now, I hope this thing works! Next post will be from the Emerald Isle (not the one in Edison Park :) ) Crap, Kate hates emoticons so I'll have to work on that haha... Bon voyage!

-Erin