First Report

Sunday evening, nearly eight o’clock. Sitting on me bed, with me laptop on me laps (that’s why they’re made for, isn’t it?). Wearing a warm knitted jumper and jeans. Listening to a brand new CD I bought today. Couldn’t resist buying ‘Bringing it all back home’, a collection of modern music with Irish influences (including Richard Thompson, Elvis Costello, The Waterboys, Emmylou Harris, Hothouse Flowers and…Luka of course). The first weekend in Ireland is nearly over. One week here, still another fifty one to go (have to keep telling my self that I’m living here the whole next year, still feels a bit surreal).

The trip to Ireland went not too bad. Although saying goodbye to mum and Anaïs was more emotional than I expected. To be honest, from the moment I arrived at the airport, I had a hard time not bursting into tears. Not a big hero, am I. When I’m back in Belgium, my twin sister will have her first daughter. My first godchild. Felt weird. Had some problems at the security checkpoint as well. That stupid security gate went off every time I went through it. Forget about me shoes, have some metal things on it. Felt a bit like a fool. Had a windows seat. Great, isn’t it? Well, unless it’s a ‘wing-windows seat’ of course. Before we take off, the captain wished us a nice flight and ….asked if there was a doctor on board and if so, if he/she would come to the front of the plane. Never found out what happened in the front, but nothing serious I reckon. After one hour and nearly fifteen minutes we arrived at Dublin airport. Had some trouble to get all my luggage together, must looked like a hinny. The bus drive to Mallow went not too bad as well, although I was glad I finally arrived after more than seven hours. Had to change bus twice, and believe me, that’s not an easy thing to do with three pieces of way too heavy luggage. Between Dublin and Limerick, I was accompanied by an old fellow, I could hardly understand. He was just mumbling the whole trip. But nevertheless our conversation ended in a nice conclusion: you’re far way better off living as a single. Nothing good about having a relation. Way too complicated. My first Irish lesson was a smart one, wasn’t it? At the bus stop in Mallow, I was welcomed by Alex Grassick, my boss and a colleague named Ciara (pronounced like the one in Luka’s song, you know). Alex brought me to me landlady, who was waiting for me with a bunch of sandwiches. Julia is her name. Still living with her for the moment. Have me own room here, with a single and a double bed. Also have a huge wardrobe. Not that I’m using it, ‘cause most of me clothes are still in my bag. Don’t want to settle in here, really want to move to Cork City as soon as possible. Julia is nice, she definitely is. A bit like an old nanny. Just not my cup of tea. She is a real soap addict. Have to watch East Enders, Fair City and Coronation Street with her. Well, it gives us a topic to talk about any way. ‘It’s like a bunch of friends and family’, she said to me. ‘It is something to look forward to during the day’. Felt nearly sorry for her. Besides the soaps there are the papers of course: the Irish Sun (with a nude picture on page three, every day again), The Sunday,…the whole lot of tabloids indeed. ‘Het Laatste Nieuws’ and ‘Het Volk’ are high standard quality papers, comparing with those one’s. Nothing than gossip and some local news, mainly about car accidents and medical errors.

Tuesday was my first day at work. Arrived in a hell of a busy week. Maybe a bit of a bad timing. They hardly had any time for me. Too busy doing the last jobs for the Conference they were organising. Had to help them out, but I actually felt a bit useless. I did some routine jobs, as sticking labels, burning more than two hundred cd’s and making parcels for the attendees of the Conference. Send me home early on tuesday. Next day was another stressfull day for the colleagues, a bit less for me, as the didn’t had any routine jobs for me left and they were too busy making lists of attendees and things. Worked till half nine (is nine thirty here, not eight thirty: very confusing thing) in the evening. They kept telling me about how sorry they felt about me arriving in such a crazy time blablabla. Promised to welcome me in a proper way next week (tomorrow it is, looking forward to it).

The Conference itself was a success. I hadn’t a task myself, so I could just follow the whole thing, like I was one of the enrolled attendees. There was another EVS student as well. Ruth from Spain arrived one month earlier and is working in the Energy Agency of Tipperary. Especially the first part of the Conference was quite interesting. Was about Fuel Poverty. Discovered that there actually is a big difference between Belgian and Irish way of housing and living. The other parts were a bit too technical for me, sometimes hard too understand. There were speakers from both over the country and from abroad. Some of the accents were really strong. Although I was warned by some friends I met in Antwerp, I wasn’t prepared to the Cork accent at all. To be honest, communicating with me colleagues is really hard at the moment. They speak really fast out here, it makes no sense to me at all. If they talk to each other I sometimes don’t even have the slightest idea what they’re talking about. From next week on, I really have to make them stop talking so fast (Julia told me to make a little flag with the word ‘Slow’ on it, and just swing it when things go too fast). Especially Alex is hard. Bill is quite all right and luckily I have to deal with him most of the time.

The Conference involved a lot of drinking and eating as well. There was a tea break, there was lunch, there was another tea break, there was dinner and another drink. Took my stomach some time to get used to the huge amount of meat the Irish eat. And it looks like the Irish are not only fast in speaking and drinking, but in eating as well. The Conference Banquet was a four course meal, but already finished after about one hour. I couldn’t keep up with the rest at all. Starter (vol-au-vent, with mushrooms), soup (mushrooms), salmon with mashed potatoes, broccoli and carrots and an awful dessert. The wine wasn’t too bad at all (from Chile). Had a half of every portion I think. The salmon was quite good (although you had to keep an eye on your vegetables, which were served in a separate plate, before you knew someone of the staff took them with them again). Ruth and I had some great table company. A lad from the UK and an Irish one. The UK one was 2metres and three centimetres tall and was working for SEI (Sustainable Energy Ireland). The Irish one was one of the guest speakers and didn’t looked Irish at all. Seemed he was only half Irish, the rest of him was Italian. An Italian looking bloke, without the annoying manners of an average macho behaving Italian and a nice Dub accent. What would you whish more? Went to the bar after dinner. To have my first pints of Guinness since I arrived in Ireland. Was a bit drunk, but had a great time. Ruth’s English is really basic and the lads tried to explain her some English sayings. Trying to get her ‘He’s is a pain in the arse’ saying was hilarious, but ‘better a big fish in a one horse town, than a small one in a two horse town’ was even more funny. In particular when Tim, the giant of the UK, imitated a horse to make the one horse town thing clearer. I still have to smile about it, writing this down. Really love the British sense of humour. We went to bed after closing time and nearly fell asleep next morning at the Conference. But so were the other attendees, as they all stayed too long in the bar.

To be honest, I didn’t had too much contact with my work colleagues so far. Went for some drinks with them as well, but because of the fast speaking, I just couldn’t anticipate in the conversation. I really hope I can make another start tomorrow. Hope the office will quieten down. Think I will get along the best with Bill. Looks like he is a musician himself and he knows a lot of musicians in Cork. Really hope he brings me in contact with some of them. Cause I really want to do something with my recorders. He’s going to help me with finding a place to live in Cork as well. Looking forward to move out from Mallow. Cause this is a real one horse town. Nothing to see or do here. And although Julia is really nice, she sometimes is a bit compelling as well. I need my space. I’m used to live on my own, you know.

I’m getting tired. Want to read a bit (bought the Da Vinci Code, bad idea, ‘cause once you start, it’s really hard to stop reading).