Visas & Moving & Things

Great news, we got our visas yesterday. So we are now officially Dubliners...which also means I have to find a place to live as the corporate housing days will soon be over. My shipment arrived from the states last weekend as well but I haven't had it delivered as I don't want to have to move everything again. I've already moved 4 times since leaving my apartment in Sherman Oaks, so 1 more time and that's it for at least a year I hope. My biggest dilemna with regards to the move is whether I want to live by the beach on the coast or stay in City Centre. The transportation system is much better from the city and there's a million things to do over here, but at the same time I've always wanted to live by the beach so this may be the perfect opportunity for that. This weekend I'm going to scour the websites and take a trip down to the coast and look at the different areas and see if anything catches my eye.

Next weekend is a 3 day weekend here, so Aaron, Chrsitine and I are going to take 2 day tours in Ireland. One will take us to Newgrange and the Hill of Tara and the other one will take us to the Cliffs of Moher, Bunratty Castle, The Burren, and Galway Bay...very touristy but it's a great way to get around when we don't have transportation and I love the history lessons so I actually can learn the significance of what I am seeing.

I also may visit Bobby in London on my birthday weekend which would be nice...and then go back again to have a birthday celebration for Aaron at the end of the month.

I booked my flight home for the holidays this week. I will be in LA from December 22nd - January 3rd. I am so excited, I can hardly wait. My mom wants to have an afternoon party on December 30th at around 1pm so keep your calendars clear.

I also talked to Caroline this week and she's coming to visit me hopefully the 1st week of February. I'm really looking forward to that.

Last weekend, Christine and I enrolled at the gym... I got my first real workout since I've been here and it felt great. Then we went to dinner and had a girls night out with Sarah and some of her friends. I loved the place we went, it's called The Village, and is a pub downstairs with very cool decor and a club upstairs. The music was different upstairs and downstairs and Christine, Sarah and I made our way upstairs and danced a bit. It was nice to be out with a group of girls, I don't know if I mentioned this before but the ratio of guys to girls here is about 10:1 at my work so I am truly appreciating female company. Not that the guys aren't fantastic, they are...but most of them are IT folks so they speak techie talk which is great and I learn alot but it can sometimes be a little too much testosterone for my taste. The last song of the night, was "Hey Jude", very appropriate and sentimental...and the entire bar was singing at the top of their lungs...Jude, you would have been very proud.

I wish I could say I was dedicated and went to the gym 3 more times this week, but I caught another Irish bug and was completely wiped out every day by the time I got home from work. It amazes me that I've been sick twice in 6 weeks here but I guess it happens when you have not built up any immunity to the bugs over here and the weather is much colder than I am typically used to as well. It's been in the 60's all week which is actually quite nice for here but the locals keep warning me that it's going to get much colder and much rainier so I better be prepared.

Christine and Aaron introduced me to "The Ted Talks" this week which was really quite interesting and I would really recommend to download and view. It's basically a group of 1000 successful or prestigious individuals, invite only, who apparently get together every other year and have speakers come and do presentations on various world topics. This year, they recorded it and have been releasing them on the internet, two a week.

The one I watched was a woman speaking about her travels to 3rd world countries, teaching communities, mostly women, how to support themselves and create businesses so that they could better sustain life. What was most interesting is that the tools she taught were giving them tools to be self-sufficient following the "give a man a fish, feed him for a day, Teach a man to fish, feed him for a lifetime" approach.

It was very moving...reminding me of all the community service activities I used to plan, organize and be involved in. I haven't done as much of that lately, but it was a reminder to me that I should stay actively involved in volunteer organizations that contribute to society. The Hathaway House was my favorite place to volunteer and we had some really great group activities there that hopefully inspired and motivated some of those children. For those of you who don't know, the Hathaway House is a home for teenagers (10-18 years of age) who have been taken out of their home for abuse, because their parents have died, some of whom may even be under secret service protection, etc. Some of them have behavioral disorders and such, but the more years we were involved with them, the more you could actually see them opening up and getting more excited about the activities we planned. I could never imagine how hard that must be to live there with other teenagers and never get visitors from your family.

As such, I think I will look and see if there are any places to volunteer around here. Even once or twice a month is a valuable contribution, and really in the scheme of things doesn't take up too much of our time, so I encourage everyone to consider doing the same. Find one you can be passion about it and join or volunteer. I know that Sandra has been volunteering at the animal shelter, Dad volunteers at the Children's Ministry at church...and Jude constantly has charity functions at the Hangar. I'm going to try and motivate to do the same. Let me know if you sign up for anything...I'd love to hear what you are getting involved with.

Hugs and Kisses to you all! Can't wait to get home for Christmas:)