Jaunting to Cill Airne

After over a week of constant canvassing for work, Katherine and I took a break and headed to Killarney (known in Irish as Cill Airne). The downside to Killarney is that it is a tourist trap: all of the tours for the famous "Ring of Kerry" as well as trips to the Dingle peninsula start in Killarney. The upside is that the town is situated on a beautiful lake, surrounded by mountains, and that we went during the offseason.

So after buying bus tickets that were more expensive than RyanAir flights to London (I'm not joking), we arrived for a day of hill walking.Katherine is our great white hope for finding work: she has been contacted for another interview, this one in retail sales. The two months of experience she has from a sandwich shop in Williamsburg, Va., is really coming in handy. On the other hand––with my lack of retail/restaurant employment history––I have not heard from anyone. These complaints aside, we are determinedly celebrating Thanksgiving today. We have made: turkey with stuffing, creamy onions, green bean casserole, mashed sweet potatoes, regular mashed potatoes, apple pie, and zucchini bread (note: zucs are called "courgettes" here).

The Irish are in good spirits despite the doom and gloom and flooding. Perhaps it's in their genetic makeup at this point, to shrug off bad times. The other night a fellow told us that "this is the worst time since the famine" to be on the island, but even so it's still a good place to be. At a restaurant where I was dropping off a CV, the hostess told me that everyone eventually finds work, even these days. And that she would recommend me to her manager. I haven't heard from him.