The fun begins

So...my stuff finally arrived last Thursday. I've been living with just what I brought in two suitcases for the last nine weeks, so I was thrilled. Of course at the end of the day we were left with stuff piled into every conceivable space and no idea where to put any of it. And with six people living in the staff quarters, you can imagine the fun. I'm reminded often by Oran and his mom that things "don't all have to be sorted in a day." Irish people say sorted a lot.

For the last week I've been very busy trying to get my new office set up, er, sorted. I'm not kidding, something goes wrong at least once a day. Yesterday I fried my American phone and had to go buy a new one . Things here are so much more expensive that the phone I paid $30 for in the U.S. cost me 60 Euro here. That's about $90. But hopefully after this week I can get into a comfortable routine and start being productive. (If I didn't already send you my number and you want it, just let me know. Thanks to Vonage, I have a U.S. number that works here, so my fans can call me for free.)

Today Olivia drove me to Sligo to pick up my new car. YAY!! It's actually a used car, the same color blue as the Jetta, a 2000, diesel engine with lots of miles, but it's safe and reliable and best of all, it's an automatic!! I know I've mentioned how harrowing the driving is around here, so shifting is just one more thing I'd rather not have to worry about. Oh, and another interesting bit of information....Sheep like to lay on the roads at night because it's warmer than the fields, which makes my evening commute a lot more interesting. I suppose I shouldn't complain though since I don't have to deal with traffic, the Beltway, or irate DC drivers. Also I saw four rainbows on the way home today. Four!! How many people can say that?

Everything else is going relatively well. Oran and I still really like each other, even though he can't remember to put the toilet seat down and I hog all the covers. He and his whole family have been wonderful at helping me learn my way around. For example, yesterday I was trying to make some soup, but there were only instructions for heating it in the microwave or the hob. I was at Oran's sister Maeve's house (where my office is) and she doesn't own a microwave (or a TV if you can imagine!) so I was left standing there wondering what the @%$* a hob is. Maeve had to explain that it's a stove and then show me how to use it. Now why couldn't they just write stove in the instructions?

That's all for now. I hope everyone is doing well and staying sorted.

Love, Kim

Photos of Ireland

Here's the link...finally!!! I'll add more photos over the next few days.

Love, Kim

http://picasaweb.google.com/globalgiraffe/IrelandAprilAndMay2008?authkey=g365vzSCut8

Quick Update

Eeesh, it's been a long two weeks. By tomorrow I will have spent more than 30 hours on planes in the last 15 days. That wouldn't be so bad if I was going to say, AUSTRALIA. After arriving in Boston on the 31st I've been to NYC, Fort Lauderdale, Seattle, and back to Boston. I have to remind myself each day what time zone I'm in. Ridiculous.

Just to give you an idea of how much fun it's been, yesterday I had a flight from Seattle to Boston with a connection in Newark. My Seattle flight was a few minutes late getting to Newark, but I still had plenty of time to make my connection. That is until we pulled up to our gate and found another plane there. We sat on the runway just long enough to watch my plane to Boston leave before we were finally able to get off. After much scrambling from one gate to the next and knocking out a few old ladies I was able to get on a 9:40pm flight (which was originally scheduled for 7pm, but was delayed.) I made it just before the gates closed, thank God, and off the plane took to the runway. Where we say for nearly 2 hours. This is because we were number 30 in line for take off. No, not 3rd, THIRTIETH. That seems like some pretty piss poor logistical planning to me, but what can you do. The airline was nice enough to give us water and TWO bags of peanuts though. I finally got to Boston a little after midnight, but of course my bags didn't make it. Lynne the saint drove me back to the airport this morning to pick up my luggage and she's driving me back to the airport again tonight. Anyone whose willing to drive to the airport and back three times in less than 24 hours deserves some kind of award.

I'll be back in July for more fun and merriment, but I'll only be in one city. If anyone wants to come to Florham Park, NJ, let me know.

I hope everyone is well. I'll post again when I get back to Ireland and send you the link to the pictures I keep promising.

Love, Kim