I haven't been a very good correspondent regarding my new life in Ireland so I thought I'd best pop in with a new post.
Over the weekend, we wanted to visit a shopping center in Killiney, which is about 15-20 minutes away by bus. Patrick had been to the vet on Friday for possible full anal glands (it happens to him a lot), and he was so upset by the entire process that the vet didn't want to continue. She prescribed gabapentin for him, and we made another appointment for this past Monday.
There's a pharmacy and SuperValu at the mall in Killiney, plus it's somewhere we haven't been yet, so we decided to head there.
This is where we again have to learn how to adapt to the transportation system here.
We saw there was a bus leaving our stop at 12:30 so we hustled to get out there and arrived in plenty of time. Minutes went by with no bus. Eli got on his phone and checked the schedule to see if it were delayed. It was delayed - and by delayed, I mean cancelled, with the next bus not due to arrive until 1.
Since we had a good 15 minutes to kill before the next bus, we walked around to the bus stop that's in front of our building, a distance past the tram stop. That bus stop is the beginning/ending of the route, and we hoped the 1 p.m. bus wouldn't also be canceled.
So we're standing there, and a young couple walks up to the bus stop. They began to have a lovers' spat right there in public, not bothering to keep their voices down. I wanted to go over to Sophie and Jack (I know that was their names because they said it a million times back and forth) and say, "Hey, All My Children - no one wants to listen to this soap opera so pipe down." But they wouldn't have understood the reference, and I'm from Minnesota and we don't do confrontation, so it didn't happen.
The tram was sitting at the stop, waiting for a few minutes before it would head back out. I told Eli I didn't want to listen to these dopes arguing on the bus, so we trekked over to the tram and rambled our way to the retail district in Leopardstown.
After dropping off Patrick's prescription, we went to the Dunne's grocery store that was right next door to the pharmacy. Dunne's is a department store (like Target/Kohl's) and some of their locations have a full-blown grocery. Y'all, if you can be star-struck by a grocery store, I was star-struck. The deli counter stretched for days with all kinds of hot and cold fare. There was also an in-store meat counter, and they had sides of beef hung and rotating at the back of the room.
We wandered around a bit and bought a few things before heading back to the pharmacy. The techs were having trouble finding the filled prescription and finally went to ask the pharmacist about it. He kinda smiled and said, "This was for Patrick, right?" Instead of having my name on the bag, they had Patrick's name. 😼
Yesterday, Patrick had his second vet visit in the span of four days. For the first visit, we had taken a taxi to and from the clinic - the clinic isn't even a mile away, and it cost €30 (which is over $40). For the visit last night, Eli walked there - it was a nice evening, and it's only about 10 minutes away. He said that Patrick didn't seem to mind the trip at all.
We had given Patrick a dose of gabapentin before the visit, but the vet gave him some other sedative as well because he wanted to do a more in-depth examination of his glands, which would've been painful and stressful. He thinks Patrick might have an infection, so he gave him a shot of antibiotic. In all, Patrick had four shots (one antibiotic, one sedative, one pain killer, and one sedative-reverser), got his glands expressed, and had his nails trimmed - and it only cost €93. Just walking into our vet in Elk River would cost $60 or $70 - and then another $300 for the treatment.
Hopefully we won't have to go back to the vet any time soon.
In other news, we got a delivery of our belongings back on September 7. I have been through most of the boxes, and everything looks to have arrived in good shape. I know why these moves are so expensive: because the moving company uses ALL THE TAPE AND PAPER while wrapping items. Seriously, I'm grateful they take care to ensure your possessions are protected, but geesh. The cats are in heaven because we're saving some of big sheets of white paper they used to cushion some items. We spread out a few sheets on the extra bed, and they've had a blast playing with it.
I had hoped that having some familiar things around me would help soften my psyche and make me feel more at home. It's helped but I'm still feeling adrift, like I don't belong, like I don't fit in here. I know that going out and about would help me feel more integrated - but I need to feel more integrated before I feel comfortable going out and about. I've got a real Catch-22 going on here that I hope to break out of as the days pass. I need to keep reminding myself that we've only been here a little over a month, and that's not a lot of time.
I haven't been able to sleep well since we got here. I think I've had maybe two nights where I've slept about five hours. Otherwise, I go to sleep around 9:30 and wake up at midnight or 1 a.m., completely wide awake. It's more annoying than anything right now but only because I don't yet have a job, and I can take a nap if needed. I don't know if it's because I know I'm in a different environment or what, but I hope I get acclimated soon.
It's my birthday in a couple days, but I'm so discombobulated that I've had a tough time focusing on the fact that it's coming up. I haven't quite decided what I want to do to celebrate. Eli has an appointment for his PPS number (like a Social Security number) on Thursday morning, so we'll probably get out and do something. I'd like to go to the library in Dundrum and maybe wander around the big mall there. Eli's taking off Thursday and Friday so perhaps on Friday, we'll head to Bray so I can visit the beach.
I'm already looking for other places to live, even though I think we might be stuck here for a year since our lease doesn't have a break clause. I want to get a house with more windows and a small yard - basically so the cats have things to look at. At the house in Minnesota, there were birds and squirrels and chipmunks and bunnies and deer around all the time, and it gave the cats some enrichment and stimulation. Here, the windows we have look out into the courtyard, and there's not much there to see. I feel like we're on top of each other in this tiny apartment, and it bothers me that I don't have my own space. There are some good things about this apartment, but I can't see staying here for longer than a year. Fortunately, another move won't be quite as horrific - or at least I would HOPE it wouldn't be.
The weather here has been a revelation. Eli was tickled because even when the national weather service says there's a 0% chance of rain, that just means it might rain a little and be over quickly. Currently, it's sunny and 64 degrees, which is leaps and bounds better than the nasty weather Minnesota is getting at the moment.
