What’s next?

1 comment July 25th, 2010 12:59pm ryan

In my last post, I mentioned that I’d miss Supermac’s.  That’s because, on Friday, we’re flying back to Texas, and we’ll be living there indefinitely.  But I won’t miss Supermac’s too much, because I’ll be busy missing other things about our time in Europe, chiefly our friends, the activities we’ve done with them, and the talks we’ve had with them.  I expect there’s going to be a fair amount of crying this week as we finish wrapping things up, packing, and making our goodbyes.  Who am I kidding?  We already cry fairly regularly when we think about leaving Ireland.  It’s not that we’re not excited to get back to Texas and spend some time with family and friends, because we are.  We just really love our friends here.  Having moved as many times as we have, I thought this might get easier.  It doesn’t.  But I’m glad for that because if it was easier, that might mean I’d become more callous than I want to be.  You see, I’d much rather have these friends who are close to my heart than not.  I’m reminded that having community costs something, but I think it’s worth the price.

When we left America, we didn’t know much about where we were going, but we did know where we were going, how long we’d likely be there, and some rough ideas of what we’d be doing.  This time around, we know all about where we’re going (Texas and the USA in general).  What we don’t know is what we’ll be doing (I’m currently looking for work) or how long we’ll do whatever it is we end up doing.  We also don’t know where specifically in the USA we’ll be.  With all the uncertainty, I’m a bit reluctant to try my hand at more future predictions.  But I do have some hopes.  I hope we’ll find community that’s not too different from what we’ve found here in Ireland that involves regular hanging out, long talks, and random events.  I hope I’ll care more about people than about stuff.  I hope I’ll remember the examples of hospitality and generosity that I’ve been shown here.  I hope I’ll throw really awesome parties.

Some attempts at the Future

2 comments July 25th, 2010 12:37pm ryan

We left Texas to head to Europe almost 39 months ago.  At the time, we didn’t know much about what the future would hold.  We’d never lived in the places we were going to try to live, and we didn’t know what our lives would look like when we got there.  We had some broad concept of the work we’d be doing, but didn’t know much of the finer points.  One day before we left Houston, we were hanging out with some friends (2 couples we spent a lot of time with), and someone came up with the idea that we should all make some predictions.  I can’t remember who chose the categories, but here are mine:

  1. When and where will you see Scott and Abby again:  August 2008 in Dublin
  2. When and where will you see Chris and Jess again: December 2008 in Houston
  3. What will you miss the least:  using spell checker (I must say I have no idea what I was thinking when I wrote that.  It boggles my mind).
  4. What will you miss the most: Mexican Food
  5. In 3 years, how many places will you have lived: 4
  6. In 3 years, how many cell/mobile phones will you have used: 3
  7. Number of children we’ll have (between the 3 couples): 4
  8. Convenience you’ll miss the most: American washing machines
  9. American medicine you’ll miss the most: Liquid Advil Gel Caps
  10. Person most likely to visit you in Europe:  My mama.
  11. In 3 years, the number of times you’ll have eaten McDonald’s: 24

And here’s how I did:

  1. When and where will you see Scott and Abby again:  August 2008 in Dublin – We actually met up with Scott and Abby again when they came to visit us in North Wales (a two hour boat ride from Dublin) in September 2008, so I did pretty good on that one.
  2. When and where will you see Chris and Jess again: December 2008 in Houston – We haven’t managed to see Chris and Jess again yet, and we didn’t go to Houston in December 2008, so kind of bombed on this one.
  3. What will you miss the least:  using spell checker – I’ve written a whole bunch of emails and documentation these past few years, and have relied a great deal on spell checking software, especially the built in spellchecker in Firefox.  The good news is that it’s way better than the spell checker in Lotus Notes which I hated in my old job.
  4. What will you miss the most: Mexican Food – Well, when it comes to things, Mexican Food was definitely something we missed.  But Sarah’s gotten pretty good at making Mexican food, and I haven’t suffered.  Also, the occasional packets or bottles of Taco Bell sauce that friends and families sent us were great.  Plus, we discovered Indian food and now love it; it’s like the Mexican food of Britain.  What I actually missed the most was family and friends.
  5. In 3 years, how many places will you have lived: 4 – This is a tough one, because it depends on how you interpret the question.  We’ve lived in 3 different countries (Wales, Scotland, and Ireland.  Wales and Scotland are both part of the United Kingdom while Ireland is its own Republic) and accordingly have had mainly 3 domiciles.  But if you count all the addresses we’ve had for at least 2 months at a given time over the past 3 years, the answer to this question would be 5.  We’ve moved around a lot.
  6. In 3 years, how many cell/mobile phones will you have used: 3 – 3 indeed was the lucky answer for me.  At times Sarah and I shared a mobile, but most of the time she had her own.  Pay as you go is one of the perks about living in Europe, because Europe knows how to do it well.  For the country that invited the telephone, America could learn a few things about communicating in the 21st century.
  7. Number of children we’ll have (between the 3 couples): 4 – I definitely did not get this one right.  At the time of my prediction, none of us had kids.  Today, the correct answer is 2, thanks to Chris and Jess’s 2 sons.
  8. Convenience you’ll miss the most: American washing machines.  I didn’t miss them at all.  American dryers, maybe a little (or a lot at first), but now I actually look at American dryers and just think, wow, all that electricity when you could just hang stuff on a line.  What convenience do I miss the most?  At this point, not very much.  My life is actually pretty convenient since I live in a village where just about anything I need is within walking distance, as are many of my friends and the places I most like to spend my time.  Although, I might have to say that I miss drinking water that is safe to drink straight from the tap.  Right now we drive about 10 minutes to a place where I fill up water bottles about once per week, but the tap works great for all other water requirements.  On the flip side, I have no water bill, as water is “free” in Ireland so that’s pretty sweet when I think about everyone in Texas having to pay for the water that they pour on their lawns.
  9. American medicine you’ll miss the most: Liquid Advil Gel Caps – good news people, my worry was unwarranted.  They do have medicine in Europe :)
  10. Person most likely to visit you in Europe:  My mama – Mom was indeed the first person (well Dad came with her :) ) to visit us in Europe.  Mom and Dad came to see us in Wales in June 2008 and in Scotland in April 2009.  They didn’t make it to Ireland, but Sarah’s mom and sister did in March of this year, so that was fun.
  11. In 3 years, the number of times you’ll have eaten McDonald’s: 24 – not really sure, but this sounds about right.  We ate McDonald’s about once a month in Wales (partially since we could see one from our house) but since moving to Scotland and Ireland, we cut back.  In Scotland, there wasn’t one on our island, no great loss there.  And in Ireland, we’ve converted to Supermac’s.  It’s awesome, and I’ll miss it.

I came across these predictions when I was throwing out (and burning) a lot of old papers.  In retrospect, some of the things I was trying to predict seem a bit silly, but I found it entertaining nonetheless.  I hope you did as well.  Read the next post for some thoughts on what’s ahead for us.

Day in Dublin

1 comment July 20th, 2010 09:22am sarah

We spent Saturday in Dublin, wrapping up some things for work and enjoying time with friends. When we arrived it was lashing rain, and we were worried about the prospects for the day, but after a little while the weather did a 180 and we thoroughly enjoyed the sunshine.

Croagh Padraig

1 comment July 19th, 2010 12:13pm sarah

We went up Croagh Padraig yesterday with a group of friends. It was tough (very steep and rocky) but we all made it and it was really enjoyable. The weather was great, no rain, just a nice cooling breeze. It was good symmetry, to finish off our time here with a hike up a to a peak of some kind… I remember walking up Snowdon in Wales, the first time I’d ever hiked up a mountain, and thinking “I’ll never make it”. But then I did, and that was an amazing feeling. Over the last three years, there have been various points were we thought we wouldn’t make it, but God gave us strength to keep going. As we walked up Croagh Padraig, I thought once or twice I wouldn’t make it, but then I remembered that I had made it up Snowdon, and had made it through three years, not just surviving but thriving, and knew that I could keep going.

Whirlwind Weekend

Add comment July 11th, 2010 10:05pm sarah

This weekend I played poker, watched half of the World Cup final and learned more about football, made boiled shrimp with potatoes and corn, and had onions and lettuce fresh out of the garden on a sandwich, none of which I had ever done before. We also went bowling, which we haven’t done in at least three years, and played a full game of Wii hundred pin bowling. I got two metropolises in one game of Settlers of Catan:Cities and Knights, winning decisively, and in another game lost my only city and had to buy it back, coming in last. Seriously, how much more action packed can two days get?

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