Intro

For those of you who know me, I'm back in Ireland for the fifth time and have been living here since September, 2008. The only difference is that this time, I have no return ticket home.

For those of you who do not know me, let me give you the back story. Buying a one way ticket to a foreign country may seem quite adventurous and daring, but let's just say I've been easing myself (and my friends and family) into this idea for quite some time.

My first Irish adventure began in 2005 when I studied abroad for a semester in college at the University of Limerick. Four glorious months as a visitor in Ireland brought me the following: friends and acquaintances from around the world, an addiction to European chocolate, a fondness for tea with milk, and most likely an onset to cirrhosis of the liver. But the most valuable thing I walked away with (well, more like sat away with...if you think about it, I was sitting on a plane bound for Los Angeles for 10 hours) from Ireland was my boyfriend, Darren.

Of course leave it to me to fall in love with someone who lives half way around the world from my home. Someone who's accent is so strong, after three years together I still have to ask him to repeat himself on a daily basis. Someone who puts butter on his sandwiches in addition to mayonnaise (an Irish thing, I'm sure I'll get into it at some post). And someone who pronounces the word "three" as "tree" (yet another norm for the Irish).

In any case, as I subtly mentioned above, our relationship managed to survive 2.5 ish years of long distance. Darren spent a summer in California as I in turn spent one in Ireland. Mixed in with those two summer stays were a couple of winter and spring ones here and there as well. With the long breaks that college offered, it was easy to make transatlantic trips for extended periods of time. Plus, airfare was pretty reasonable as this was prior to the global recession and the whole world going tits up thing.

Eventually, I decided to take a transition job at an international Disability Insurance company after college. I got an apartment in Burbank with 2 former Chapman University students and lived up the glamorous southern California lifestyle. That is, if you call driving a 2007 Honda civic and frequently ordering take away at my neighborhood sushi restaurant so that I could catch up on my tivo-ed episodes of "Rock of Love" glamorous. But something was always missing and I often times wondered what life would be like if I actually moved to Ireland for more than a 4 month period of time.

As I sat behind my desk in my cubicle working for the man (at a painfully decent salary that sadly, I miss) I realized that it was now or never. I was technically still in my early twenties and therefore, had some time to spare to make drastic, impulsive, and life altering (side bar: is it just me or are the terms life altering and life threatening really similar?) decisions. After consulting with Darren, my family, and friends, I purchased a one way ticket to Cork, Ireland and have been here ever since. Currently, I'm going on month 4 and so far, am happy with my decision.

But being happy with my decision does not mean there aren't bumps along the way in this journey. No matter how many times I come to Ireland, my transition is always a long and continuous process. For a country that some people call America's 51st state (just because it's westernized? I don't know) its differences to America outweigh it's similarities.

So that is what this blog is about. The bumps along the way. The story of a yank in Ireland. I figured it's a) much easier than emailing people monthly updates and b) something I can do before work in the morning. Plus, perhaps my inter-cultural mishaps may prove to be entertaining and hey, maybe everyone will gain a little more knowledge about the Irish along the way. Contrary to the stereotype, they're not all bar fighting, beer guzzling, jigging leprechauns.

My new year's resolution, well one of the 10 plus, is to update this blog frequently and to keep with it. So go ahead, be daring and add it to your favorites. Forward it to those you think will be interested in hearing about a life abroad. Enjoy it while you sip your morning cup of java. Or indulge while your boss thinks you're drafting the morning report, assisting that client on the phone, or finalizing tomorrow's proposal. Hopefully management hasn't advised the IT department to block blogspot yet.

Ready, one, two, three...go!