Friday, May 27, 2005
Day trip to Bray (Wicklow)
We went to Bray for a day trip. It’s in Wicklow which is south of Dublin. It was only a 40 minute train ride away. If you haven’t gathered already, places are pretty small in land mass, therefore everything is pretty close. In Bray, there’s a nice beach area just 10 minutes from the train station. We walked across the whole beach, and at the end of the beach there was a nice little hiking trail. But it’s nothing like K-Country. It’s a fairly easy hike and took us only 30 minutes to get to the top of the hill. The view is nice at the top. We can see parts of Dublin from up there. We will probably recommend this area to anyone who comes to visit us. I’ll try to put the pictures together, stay toon.
Sunday, May 22, 2005
I still miss everyone!
It's been a while since I updated this thing and not too much as happen, but I promise to update the blog more often.
I bumped into Riley at the outdoor shop, one of my lunch mates at the U of C! He's been here for four years studying dental school at Trinity Collage. I didn't think I would find anyone here I know. He said Dublin changed alot during the last 4 years and it's '100% better'
We went to see the 'Book of Kells' at Trinity Collage with Riley (more like he took us there). Then we walked the hills in 'Killiney' where many of the rich and famous reside. We walked by Bono's estate...
Bo and I haven't moved yet and I haven't quit my job yet. I've finally started to code in dot NET. Anymore document writing and i'll be going mad.
One of my many moments of frustration:
So one day, as I was on my way to work, walking towards my train station, I was told that my station was closed. So I quickly dashed to the next station to catch my train. Alas, I was there and on time. I waited there for while and no train came. Very long story short, they screwed up (so typical) and all of us, who needed to take the ICE (Inter City Express) to the North, ended back at the same station in city centre at 10:30am. Keep in mind that I was at the city centre train station before 8am. Needless to say that I called into work and asked for a day off (they probably don’t want to pay me a full day of pay for a half day of work anyways). Someone had committed suicide and jumped in front of the train that day so everything was delayed. It turns out that this happens a few times a year.
It seems like everything works really (NO EXTREMELY) slowly here. I've finally got my PPS AKA SIN number after working in Ireland for 2 months. It was also hard for me to talk to them since they are only open on weekdays between the hours of 9:15-noon and 1:30-4:30pm. I had to take time off from work to go and talk to them! It took numerous tries and it was always this one person who will NOT issue it to me. One day, after I got turned down again, I waited around there for a while wondering how I would ever get this PPS number without moving! I mean all they wanted was a proof of residence from the landlord, but the landlord just doesn’t want to give us the letter of residence. Luckily as I was contemplating nothing, the guy went on break and another lady took over the one and only window that deals with PPS numbers. I went and talked to her, gave her my proof of residence (bank letters and employment letters) and she took care of my PPS application right away.
Bo also had troubles with his PPS number and he also had to deal with the same guy I had. This guy was constantly refusing to process Bo's PPS application. However, Bo eventually got his PPS number when the guy went on break, and he talked to some other person. Bo and I both came up with the same conclusion about the guy… *$%#
On another note, I haven’t been disturbed by any ‘knackers’ lately, so my experience in Ireland is getting better. ‘Knacker’ is a term used by the locals who describe the jobless people who cares about no one but themselves, who has no interest of working or finding a job, who are most of the time drunk, who has tons of children (so the government would give them a bigger place to live), who likes to give anyone and everyone a hard time.
I bumped into Riley at the outdoor shop, one of my lunch mates at the U of C! He's been here for four years studying dental school at Trinity Collage. I didn't think I would find anyone here I know. He said Dublin changed alot during the last 4 years and it's '100% better'
We went to see the 'Book of Kells' at Trinity Collage with Riley (more like he took us there). Then we walked the hills in 'Killiney' where many of the rich and famous reside. We walked by Bono's estate...
Bo and I haven't moved yet and I haven't quit my job yet. I've finally started to code in dot NET. Anymore document writing and i'll be going mad.
One of my many moments of frustration:
So one day, as I was on my way to work, walking towards my train station, I was told that my station was closed. So I quickly dashed to the next station to catch my train. Alas, I was there and on time. I waited there for while and no train came. Very long story short, they screwed up (so typical) and all of us, who needed to take the ICE (Inter City Express) to the North, ended back at the same station in city centre at 10:30am. Keep in mind that I was at the city centre train station before 8am. Needless to say that I called into work and asked for a day off (they probably don’t want to pay me a full day of pay for a half day of work anyways). Someone had committed suicide and jumped in front of the train that day so everything was delayed. It turns out that this happens a few times a year.
It seems like everything works really (NO EXTREMELY) slowly here. I've finally got my PPS AKA SIN number after working in Ireland for 2 months. It was also hard for me to talk to them since they are only open on weekdays between the hours of 9:15-noon and 1:30-4:30pm. I had to take time off from work to go and talk to them! It took numerous tries and it was always this one person who will NOT issue it to me. One day, after I got turned down again, I waited around there for a while wondering how I would ever get this PPS number without moving! I mean all they wanted was a proof of residence from the landlord, but the landlord just doesn’t want to give us the letter of residence. Luckily as I was contemplating nothing, the guy went on break and another lady took over the one and only window that deals with PPS numbers. I went and talked to her, gave her my proof of residence (bank letters and employment letters) and she took care of my PPS application right away.
Bo also had troubles with his PPS number and he also had to deal with the same guy I had. This guy was constantly refusing to process Bo's PPS application. However, Bo eventually got his PPS number when the guy went on break, and he talked to some other person. Bo and I both came up with the same conclusion about the guy… *$%#
On another note, I haven’t been disturbed by any ‘knackers’ lately, so my experience in Ireland is getting better. ‘Knacker’ is a term used by the locals who describe the jobless people who cares about no one but themselves, who has no interest of working or finding a job, who are most of the time drunk, who has tons of children (so the government would give them a bigger place to live), who likes to give anyone and everyone a hard time.
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