Days 6-8: Settling in

Saturday, Day 6, felt like a somewhat normal day, except instead of watching March Madness, Thomas and Sam watched part of the Six Nations Rugby tournament on the teli.  There is a dry cleaner at the bottom of our building (yes....at the bottom of our quiet little complex is a coffee shop, what one referred to as "the best Chinese restaurant in Ireland," a hair salon, and a dry cleaner.  They tout that they have same day service, but I dropped it off on Thurs, and he said it would be ready Sat morning.  Well, Thomas went down 4 times to get it, and every time the guy, a Persian, told him "Half hour longer."
After acquiring Thomas's clothes we all headed over to look at cars at a dealership.  In perfect Irish fashion, the front desk lady made us tea and frothy hot chocolate made from real, fresh milk (none of that powdered stuff you mix with water with a little red straw that does nothing) and biscuits.  It was refreshing that our salesperson was a young, jovial Irishmen, because our temporary area of town apparently is known as a haven for foreign nationals from Eastern Europe and the Middle East.  I love how Irish people do things well, but yet in a relaxed way.  For instance, in a place where you would typically see cars in pristine condition in the U.S., when we opened up the boot to take a look we found some old shoes, a half drank water bottle, and some books.  We chuckled when Dave, our sales rep said, "Ah yeah.  You just never know what yiz'll find when when Carrick takes a car home." WE all joked about making room for the kids in the boot when we have company, etc.  We decided upon a VW "People Carrier" (7 seater) to have room for guests (but how will I park that thing?) and an Audi something or other.  That's what we picked, at least, but, also in true Irish fashion, we are still waiting to find out what is going on with actually getting the leased cars in our hands.  (Irleand doesn't really lease cars usually, but VW and Audi and a couple others  got smart and realized that ex-pats need to lease cars, so they have a program with Dell and other businesses)I

After resting up a bit, we took the LUAS light rail (just down the street from us....so convenient and a great line) into City Centre.  The had no idea what a huge deal this Six Nations thing is!  People spilled out of the pubs, and tv's were outside on the side walks for the overflow so that people could cheer for the games....not for Ireland at this point, though....for certain other teams to lose so that Ireland, by default, would eventually win the whole thing!  We had all been dying for some real fish and chips, and we read that one o the best places was Burdocks, so we found one on the map, in the perfect location to be convenient for our next activity, and we discovered that this is a take-away restaurant only...no seating.  The weather so far has been cool but pretty nice, but when the sun goes down it gets quite chilly. But we had no choice....we carried our heavy, hot paper packets of goodness over to the Christ Church grounds and sat on a low wall, in the dark cold, eating every delectable, warming bite that made us completely forget that our butts were sore and our hands were cold.  This was the perfect location to eat because our next stop happened to be 1000 year old Christ Church to listen to a choir and orchestra perform Handel's Messiah.  Handel was German born, and lived in Britain, but Dublin was the location of the premiere of this, later to become one of his most infamous works, in 1742.  What a treat!  Sam was totally exhausted, so we ended up cutting short our attendance, knowing that we had the walk and train ride ahead of us, and wanting to take care of his needs.

Sunday, Day 7 found us late to 11 am Mass at that pretty little church in Sandyford.  Mass moves so quickly here that we had already missed the Liturgy of the Word and they were on the Intentions so, disappointed, we decided it would be better to come back that night.  We were glad we did, and we think it may have been "part of the plan" because after Mass that evening we were stopped by some friendly people (no!  In Ireland?)  to compliment the children.  They started up a discussion, which led to homeschooling, which led to them telling us that there is a family in the parish that homeschools, and her husband works in the parish office!  That connection was no coincidence, and which was cemented later.  We were moved by the beautiful shine for St. Therese of Liseux, the Little Flower, and I thought of Jenny Klement (Hope you see this, Jenny) and Kendra (who mentioned her recently)  Behind the statue was a mural of the main events of St. Terese's life, which Lucy recognized immediately.  Outside, I also was struck by the crown of starts lit up around Mary's head.

Monday, Day 8 -- Thomas had an intense week at work with the board meetings and the president of the bank (his boss) gone, so he was flying solo.  Huge learning curve.  Anyway, it became clear to me that there was alot left that needed to be done to complete the relo, and Thomas really needed my help to do some things, so I spent quite a bit of time on the computer, while the kids worked on their schoolwork.  We also managed to have their personal trainer continue to work with them twice a week via Skype.  It works really sell....WE bought exercise equipment, and we just move the sofas and coffee table back, and she works them out hard!  WE also have a really big balcony patio which Sam and I utilize quiite a bit for jump roping.  Sam has been into leaning how to cross jump rope.  Went to the store for maybe the 6th time....we have to go frequently because the fridge is small, the items are small, the food is fresh and spoils pretty quickly, and we can only carry so much.  This day, after we crossed the street and were on the sidewalk about to head home, I realized that I had forgotten rubbish sacks (trash bags), and I needed to turn around and go back.  The kids were beaming when I suggested that maybe they could walk home on their own and I would get there later.  They made it to the building, punched in teh key, rode the elevator, opened up with the key card, and began unloading groceries.  We have noticed really big growth in terms of independence since we have been here.  I was also proud of Lucy this week because her trainer pointed out that when she started working with the kids Lucy couldn't even do one sit up, but this day, all in all, she did SIXTY!  I am hoping all this walking everywhere will be good for her/their fitness and tone.
Falling asleep and tonight is time change so it is WAY later than I need to be up, so I will end here.  Remind me to start on Tues, Day 9.  That was an interesting day!