Sunday, September 25, 2011

5 days, 6 hours, 24 minutes, and 23 seconds.

 That is exactly how long it has been since I’ve stepped onto Irish soil.  When I write it down it doesn’t seem like a very long time, yet in my mind I keep having these expectations for myself that I’m disappointed I can’t meet just yet.

This week is all about transition….
into a house I’ve never been in.
having limited internet access.
into a new time zone (Miles hadn’t been asleep before 11 pm until last night.)
and from a family unit to living in a community.

Things have been really fantastic at times, but also really hard at times and really sad at times. 
Ways that I’ve made myself feel better….

  • It actually took me until yesterday to realize that they meant it when they said that we must do nothing but rest for the first week.  Once I finally let my guilt as a misunderstood multi-tasking busy freak be put to rest, I actually found ways to enjoy myself without a single commitment in the world besides getting to dinner on time.

  • Finding ways to get certain comforts. Dustin and I walked into town yesterday and bought an armful of ground coffee.  Trust me, if you were a coffee drinker and were given a tin of instant coffee the minute you got off the plane, you would walk 2.5 miles one way for the good stuff too.  Other things I bought: peanut butter, HobNobs (my favorite UK treat from way back when), and olive oil.
  • Television.  It seems silly because we didn’t watch tons of television back home (unless it was on Netflix or I was taking in endless Kardashian and Real Housewife episodes on my parents’ sweet cable), but I’ve found real comfort in the US shows I can find here, including, but not limited to How I Met Your Mother, The Big Bang Theory, and my personal favorite, The Real Housewives of New York.  I’ve also found their version of what I can only imagine is The Hills and although I’ve never really gotten into The Bachelor, there is a version here that I might watch, purely for research reasons of course.
  •  Changing my reading habits.  When I left Ohio I was reading a Science Fiction book called Sparrow, which I may have normally liked.  It is about these Jesuits that travel to another planet that is discovered to have life – feeling as though it is a calling from God.  As they get closer to arriving, the main guy becomes weery of whether this is the right thing to do.  Turns out he should have listened to his instinct because these people were then mamed, raped, and even killed.  Although I have no fear of any of these things, the parallels outside of that freaked me out.  I finally decided to give up the book and read something more “light” – like A Girl Named Zippy.
  • Finally getting into a groove.  These people eat lunch at 1. 1!  That is about two hours after we normally eat (which I acknowledge to be unusually early).  They boys were sleeping from 2-5 and then not falling asleep until 11.  Not cool.  We finally figured out how to get them fed by 11:30, down by 12, and tonight will be the ultimate test of falling asleep by 9 – at the latest.  (I’m hoping for 8, but we’ll see.) J


So there you have it….I wish I could share about all of the cool work we’re doing, or all of the cool things we’re trying, but the truth is that we aren’t really doing much of anything outside of visiting the beach daily and trying to shake off jetlag.  Perhaps my next post will be full of witty and clever adventures and photos of all the cool things we’re doing....but don’t hold your breath.

1 comments:

BWyse said... Best Blogger Tips[Reply to comment]Best Blogger Templates

I just have to say I find this post hilarious... not because its ridiculous or anything...but because I recognize many of those things. My housemates and I have tried about every kind of UK candy we can, peanut butter was a must have as well as ketchup. We are also addicted to How I Met Your Mother, Scrubs, and Big Bang Theory. Late lunches and late dinners are something we are still struggling to get used to...great fun :)