The Skinny

This 'blog is an experiment to see if I can make my international excursion––a 12-month work holiday in Ireland––sound interesting. The idea to broadcast my experience in a public forum first came to me about a year ago, when the Western economy was burning to the ground. Ireland was hit particularly hard, the "Celtic Tiger" actually having depended on a faulty housing boom even more than the US of A. I'm a news hound, and I was amazed at the amount of ink the Irish crash was getting in America. I knew that Americans almost consider Ireland to be the 52nd state, but the intense interest in the economic troubles of a nation of four million was more than I expected.

Therefore, I thought that perhaps my tale of moving to Éire ("Ireland" in Irish) and trying to find work could garner at least a handful of readers. Which is more readers than I'm used to having. My Master's thesis was read by five people, including my wife, Katherine, and me.

Since this is my first post and I'm rather enjoying talking about myself, a little more explanation about the Ireland trip: it's my wife's doing. A year ago I was in the first semester of a six-year Ph.D. program at The College of William and Mary, but it wasn't for me. It was a typical grad student crisis...I couldn't find a topic for my thesis/dissertation that at all interested me, my social life was non-existent, and the Williamsburg area was sucking the life out of me. My then-fiancée, Katherine simply could not find work. As fate would have it, the USA and Ireland struck up a deal last October to offer a new, one-year work holiday visa for "recent" college students. We weren't interested in staying in Hampton Roads for much longer, so we went for the visa. I say "it's my wife's doing" because it has been her dream to try to live in Ireland ever since she studied abroad there as an undergraduate. It was a opportunity we couldn't pass up.

We were married this past October 23rd, and now we're packing up our lives into two suitcases and heading to Europe. We're happily exchanging the financial ruin that might accompany this decision for the opportunity to see a little more of the world. Even Ireland, a white, English-speaking, very "westernized" country will pack more cultural diversity than I'm used to. I'm from Earleville, Md., folks.

My intention is to regularly update about our travels, with a loose focus on the Irish economy and job market. As someone said to me recently, "You're going to try to find work in Ireland? You know, even the Poles have been leaving." Thanks. It should be interesting.