No Subject

After a week into the new year I have had a taste of the 2010 Irish job market, and it needs some sugar. There are fewer positions open than before Christmas. I have found a couple of potentials, but they're all in food service. Needless to say, I have dropped off CVs and haven't received any phone calls. The retail experience I recently earned isn't going to be much help, I think. Retail has fallen off hard since Christmas.

But it's all good. I've been doing some shopping. Check out this sweet wool "jumper" I got for €20:


As you can see, we are still celebrating Christmas. That tree is lit every evening. This is partly because we are waiting on some packages of gifts that were sent from the States. It just doesn't seem right to un-decorate until we receive them. Also notice that I have removed one of the eye-splitting rose pictures and replaced it with a calendar––and not just any calendar: this one has a pictures of "wild and scenic Maryland." Whoever assembled it was inexcusably lazy, because most of the photos are from only two counties: Garrett and Worcester (!).

You can also see in the photo our very rigid and uncomfortable sofa, the only "social" piece of furniture we have. This along with our mattress––about as thick and comfortable as a graham cracker––have persuaded us to seek a new residence. There are several one-bedroom apartments open in the city with much nicer furniture. Our backs need it.

***

Ireland continues to be paralyzed by the mysterious weather phenomenon known as "cold." It has been below freezing (just barely) for about a week now: schools are closed, commerce has ground to a halt, and terrifying rumors abound of the yet-to-be-witnessed "freezing fog." Check out the some of the press coverage:

Yes, that says two centimeters. In all fairness, it has been probably thirty years since Cork has seen an inch of snow. And few municipalities have the equipment to salt the roads. It could be worse: in parts of England there are eighteen inches of the white stuff, which has thrown the once mighty empire back into the fourteenth century. Katherine and I are scheduled to fly to London on Tuesday, but there is a good chance we'll be facing long delays or cancellations.

Speak of the devil! As I write this the Cork sky has broken into flurries:

I swear there's snow in these pictures. Click on them for a zoom view.

The Irish are dealing with the adverse weather mainly through lots of moaning. The cold is a surefire way to start a conversation with a stranger, a good icebreaker (pun intended). My Irish friend, Steve, and I sometimes get into slightly academic conversations over glasses of Jameson about Irish and American cultures. During a pub crawl the other night, he came up with a good synopsis of Irish society: Unlike America, which tends to be a society of extremes, Ireland is very "middle of the road." [i.e., culturally homogeneous]. The problems that the Irish complain about are actually quite tame––there is the mild weather that they complain about, there is a mild flow of immigration that they complain about. Pretty mild budget cuts by the government have people really bent out of shape, and folks gripe about traffic that really isn't that bad. But I can't pass judgment, I am guilty of complaining about traffic backups in Elkton, Md.

Katherine and I continue to write articles for the Chestertown Spy, so I encourage you all to check out that publication on a regular basis.