NEWS FLASH! ….yet again

I ended up accepting the job at OMP and I am super excited! I get 4 weeks vacation and a fully paid company retreat this fall for the entire company for a weekend to go to Stockholm! How cool is that!!!! A merica has been a bad influence here since they no longer have 2-hour lunches thus extending their work week to 37.5 hours. We get an office wide teatime at 11:00 and 4:00 for tea/coffee and biscuits. So really I still only work 7 hours. I am just so giddy with excitement! I am also so stir crazy that it is only the lunch hour, and already I have everything done on my to-do list, just waiting on the final paperwork from them to be filled out so I can apply for my own Green Card. Hurry up and wait! Luckily I am able to apply for a spousal dependent Green Card so mine is free. I just have to wait the 6-8 weeks like Ben did, but there is light at the end of the tunnel. We will be able to afford our travel plans, YAY!

Strange Anomaly #5

You can take whatever you want into a movie theater for snacks, and you don’t have to hide it! You can just walk right up with your 45 cent popcorn and 99 cent Coke that you got around the corner at Spar instead of the 5 Euro for a large popcorn and another 5 Euro for a large Coke. I love it! Cheap night considering we have our unlimited passes and we only spend 1.44 on our snacks.

Movie Theaters

Ben loves to watch movies, especially in the theaters, but in the last several years we could not afford to go as much since we retired our student IDs for the cheap student discounts. Bruno let Ben in on one of the greatest movie theater inventions of all time. UNLIMITED PASS! So for 17 Euro each a month for one year, we can go to the movies as much as we want, whenever we want! Great bargain, since if you plan on going twice a month, it has already paid for itself. With rainy falls, winters and springs, we figured we could get out of the house, walk around, but still go do something with friends. They also have a bar in the movie theaters, so if we watch to chat over a pint before or after the movie with friends, we can. And you can get assigned seats, so when you Fandango, you really do not have to wait in lines for hours, you just go get your awesome seat that you bought way before hand.

Rain, Rain go away, come again some other day.....

Sunday the rain started, and it has not seemed to let up. Just goes from pouring to drizzling. I was just so happy that I could have almost 3 full weeks of no rain and all sunshine in order to learn the city in! At least it is not that cold.

NEWS FLASH!

After a few weeks off, I was starting to look forward to going back to work, but I had no prospects on the horizon. I sent my CV out to 17 different companies, which I was being picky about only applying to the best. Irish just move slow and they did not want a gregarious American pushing them for an interview, I just had to sit back and wait. Some were not interested since I did not have Irish experience, but I am not a very patient person, so I was starting to go a little stir crazy. As I was walking to meet Ben after work, I expected it to be him calling me, but instead it was a prospective firm! They loved my CV and after a good word was put in from Ben’s boss to one of his buddies at another firm, I had an interview set up for Friday April 21st with O’Mahony Pike Architects! This was my number one firm on my list! For those of you who know Will, this is the final firm that he ended up at and we visited him at. They are located in a renovated church, it is pretty cool!

www.omp.ie

It was a great interview and he really liked me, as I did him. He reminded me in a way of my old boss Dave. So that helped in feeling comfortable, just having a discussion about what I have done, what my skills are, what I am interested in, and what I hope to achieve and get from them. I really was not nervous which was a nice surprise. Just excited to get a chance to talk to someone since I know I can win them over. I will mostly be working on large scale residences with some conservation work, but with the urban planning to go along with it! I will just take anything that they throw at me though! I hope to hear by Monday with an offer. I know they are giving me one, but hopefully it meets my expectations. My hopes are not too high, as I don’t want to be let down, but my fingers and toes are crossed, hopefully there will be more to say soon! Off to go track down the paper work to get my green card started when I get a job!

Strange Anomaly #4

They do not have résumés, they are called your CV. Curriculum Vite. They have no idea what you are talking about when you say résumé (since that is French, I think), but say it in Latin and they know exactly what you are talking about……

Thank you global warming

I stopped by my local farmers market this weekend located at one of the most interesting designed schools I have ever seen. Simple, clean, and unlike any other in that it is true to the materials. It uses brick as real brick not veneer. It is quite small, but they make the most of their space. I will not digress on the theory of architecture, at this time. In addition to looking so cool, this just happens to be one of the most sought after elementary schools.

Today is yet another beautiful day, like is has been since I arrived. I am beginning to think that it really is not as bad as people say it can be, but then again I did just miss winter. I am in my flip flops, tank top and jeans with a mission to find Okra this time (still have not found any, even canned – see above reference to canned pea goods). I settled for some bread that looks good, but I have no idea what the little frenchy name means from the Bread Guy, a slice of banana cake for Ben from the Baker Gal, some of the second best dates I have ever eaten (the best being the ones from Israel of course) from the Fruity Gals, fresh goat cheese from the Cheese Guys, and finally some spices. The Spice Guy is located right next to the Wine Guy. But I cannot buy any wine quite yet, since I have not found a wine opener yet. Does me no good to buy the wine, if I cannot drink it.

As the Spice Guy helps me to pick out the beginnings of my Irish spice collection (pepper, salt, mixed herbs and paprika), we get to talking about where I am from. Now most Irish have no idea where Oregon is, but most know where Hollywood is, and I just say I am north from there. But this guy actually knew where Oregon was! That was when the Wine Guy chimed in as well. We talked about all the great wines coming out of the Willamette Valley and how well Oregon has gotten at growing grapes and how California is slowly declining in their vineyard productions. That is where the thanks to global warming comes into play. Since Ireland is becoming more and more sunny, with less and less drizzle (which Oregonians know so well), they are just starting for the first time even in history to grow grapes in Cork vineyards. I look forward to drinking some Irish wine in the near future, which by that time I will have my wine opener!

Strange Anomaly #3

There are switches to turn off the power to your hob (stove) so that the power goes off to that entire plug in. I don’t know how many times I have put something on a burner to cook and I wonder why nothing happens when I have the correct burner on. Because the switch is not flipped! Same with the bathroom instant hot water heater. No switch on, no shower.

Cheesy Artichoke Dip

Small yogurt container size of Sour Cream
Small Cream Cheese container
Bag of shredded Parmesan Cheese
Half a bag of shredded Mozzarella Cheese, about 1½ cups (300 grams)
Garlic (as much or as little as you would like)
(2) cans of Artichoke hearts (In water, if in oil I wash them off)
If I have some white wine on hand, I put a splash in there if it is really hard to stir.

Mix it all together in a brownie pan to bake, but you could really put it in anything
25 minutes or so at 350 degrees F (200 degrees C) – top should be browned just a wee little bit
Stir well and serve hot with bread or crackers
The portions for me are never the same. Mayo can also be substituted for either the sour cream or cream cheese. Use your judgment on how much mozzarella to add, if you put in too much, when it cools it all congeals together.

Traveling to Italy for the afternoon

I have always wanted to design a zoo, I will settle for even just designing a single animal enclosure, but since I have yet to do either of these things, I settle for going to every zoo in every major city I have ever visited. I LOVE THE ZOO! We originally planned to go to the zoo over Easter weekend, and we never made it there since we just were enjoying each others company way too much. When Ben got back to work this past week and talked about us going this weekend, what was going to be just the two of us, turned out to be a large group of about 10 of us. I know, what does the zoo have to do with Italy, but I am getting there…..

The plan was to go there on Saturday, which was forecasted to be a beautiful day. Then the zoo excursion was going to be followed up by a BBQ. Which is really cute when you hear an Australian say “Lets go throw something on the Bar-Bee” (think Outback Steakhouse commercial). They do not have shrimp worthy of being BBQed in Australia, so when Americans advertise, “throw another shrimp on the Bar-bee”, they actually would never say that, but they do get a kick out of us saying that. I am still digressing from Italy.

Saturday turned out to be the best day we have had here since I arrived. Maybe it was about 70 degrees, no wind, and clear sky. We had to bring a dish to the BBQ, and since we own the barest essentials in a kitchen, I did not bring any cookbooks with me and I have yet to learn how to use the metric system, I was very limited to what I could make. I fell back on my tried and true Cheesy Artichoke Dip, that has been a crowd pleaser for years. Now most of the ingredients I can find very easily, and have the recipe memorized for years. There was one ingredient that was eluding me. Artichoke hearts. I stopped by my local Tesco Shopping Centre and there were none there. Lots of weird random canned stuff like mushed peas, chick peas, salted peas, sugar peas, pealed peas, peas, peas with carrots (do you see a pattern) and lots of tomatoes. But no artichokes. I then stopped by the Spar, Londis, and Centra, again no canned artichokes, or fresh for that matter. Then I stopped by the little Italian café at the corner. When I walked in there where my artichokes. I asked for a few scoops, but alas, they do not sell them. They just use them for the salads and paninis. I asked them where I could find them, and through her very poor English (yes she was Italian working at an Italian café, go figure) and my no Italian, I got some very bad directions. But I was on a mission. I had never been over to the Beechwood village. I did not have a map on me, so I just sent out on the directions she gave with no street names of course, just vague references to stuff I might see and her indecisiveness on which directions I really should turn. It was a nice day, I had nothing else better to do, I had my mobile, so I set off.

Now for some of those that I have talked about the food before, there is not much of a selection of food. It has gotten better since Ben and I were last here to visit, but it is Irish food sold in an Irish grocery store. When I finally found the Doritos salsa with the crisps, I thought I was in heaven. All of this build up to my adventure, but it really was not that far, and ended up being easy to find, but you could see where it could have been a big adventure given if I had made a different turn…. As I approached the cutest little village street, I slowed my pace and just enjoyed it. It was a very crowed little centre with mums and their kids, the homeless guy asking for change, little old ladies that can walk further and faster then I can, and a group of old guys hanging out in front of the pub. There are probably about 20 shops along the double block, but everything you could ever need (not necessarily want) would be right there. As I neared the end of the street, I thought that I missed my store and was in the wrong place, but the very last shop, there it was, “A Taste of Italy”. As I walked in, there was everything you could ever want from Italy food wise. Great wines, sauces, noodles (more than just spaghetti, which is all I can find at other stores), spices, and my elusive artichoke hearts of all different kinds. They also sold all sorts of organic veggies and meats, which is good for future reference. I took my artichokes home and reveled in my new find. It was a small accomplishment and I guess to others it is not that big of deal, but I was happy with my new find and could not wait to take Ben there! Now if I could just find Okra for my gumbo…..but I am sure that will be a story unto itself for the future.

To finish up the beginning story very quickly: Zoo was overrated (they need to reopen the newly remodeled Asia exhibits), I got very sunburned, every animal was asleep except for the fighting rhinos. They had a lot of monkeys and big cats which are my favorites, with the Gorilla picking his bum and eating whatever he got out of there (had to post that, it was just too funny). BBQ was grand, but we ate way too much, made way too much food, stayed up way to late, and stumbled home with our blisters already forming. A good end, to a great day!