Being in a different country with an entirely different culture obviously comes with some changes. Some are for the better, while others are still a struggle for me, which is mainly what this post is about. It's been hard to adapt, having to learn my way around on my own. Sometimes it gets to me and all I want to do is be back "home" for a little while. There are many things here I don't understand, that seem completely illogical. But then again that's how things have been done here forever and I doubt if they'll ever change. This post is by no means an "I hate Ireland" post because that is definitely not the case! I love it here! These are just some of the things that are pretty much nothing more than common annoyances for me as an American living in Ireland. And as a local once said to me... "Aye, the Irish aren't that different, surely" ;-) Here's what I've noticed so far:
- Immersion Heaters - If you want hot water in most Irish houses, you have to flip a switch to turn on the Immersion which is basically a big electric water heater. Used to taking showers in the morning? Not in Ireland. Actually, are you used to taking a shower whenever you feel like it? Well you'll have to wait at least 30 minutes. And then when you get distracted and FORGET you have the Immersion on you panic when you remember and run to turn it off because it is VERY expensive to leave it on for a long period of time. Anyway, I'm still not used to this change. I usually end up boiling water on the stove even if I want to do the dishes, and I always end up taking my showers at night (which makes my hair look like a mess the next morning!)
- Prescriptions - At home if my doctor writes me a prescription he can either call it in or I can take the prescription to the pharmacy and they fill it for me, which it is then entered into their system and to refill it all I have to do is call and pick it up later. You can even have your prescriptions automatically refilled for you. In Ireland, the GP writes your prescription and you take it to the pharmacy, they stamp the back of it with the date, and then give the prescription back to you. I don't know about you, but I have a severe lack of organizational skills, and having to remember where that little piece of paper is, and having to take it back to the pharmacy every month... doesn't work well for me!
- The Lack of Common Food Items - Black beans, white vinegar, dill pickles, corn starch, turkey, artichokes, decent peanut butter, pretty much any type of Mexican food... these are just some of the random things that you can't get in Ireland. Oh what I would give to have a good dill pickle right now.
- The Weather - Yes, it's Ireland, it rains a lot. But you don't realize how much it actually rains until you live here, and you don't realize how much it effects you until you have to deal with it all the time. It's depressing. And that's coming from someone who used to love the rain.
- Funerals - Funerals in Ireland are still very traditional and this does not bode well for someone like me who has an extreme fear of deceased people. Visitations, or Wakes, are held in the home of the deceased person or that of a close relative. Their bodies are laid out in their beds, candles lit, and people visit the bedrooms to view and say their goodbyes. No embalming, no make-up, a Bible sometimes propped under the chin to keep their mouth closed. I was TERRIFIED when I heard this (still am terrified). After the wake, the coffin is carried from the house to the church in a type of parade, which always tends to close most of the roads in town. Also, something I think is quite rude in regards to funerals here, the family of the deceased are the ones who provide food for the guests. Something which is very different from the States where the family of the deceased aren't expected to lift a finger in regards to food!
- The use of "Sure" and "Like" and "Yer man" - I love listening to everyone talk here, there are just a few things that I don't think I'll ever catch on to. Maybe someday though! In the States when we say "Sure" it's often in answer to a question, for example Q: "Hey, do you want to go out to dinner tonight?" A: "Yeah, sure. That sounds great." Or we also use it a lot to replace the word 'positive', for example: "Are you sure you don't want to go to dinner?" In Ireland, or at least up in the Northern areas where I am, "sure" is probably the most common response to any question, statement, or really any comment at all, and it's pretty common to just stick it onto an end of a sentence for no reason whatsoever! Example: "Oh go out to dinner with them sure, You'll have a great time sure". 'Surely' is also a very popular way to say it as well. "Oh aye, surely" is probably one of the most common ways to answer questions here, I never hear people just answer "yes" or "yeah". Steve told me before that this is because when the Irish language was still spoken there was no direct translation for "yes" or "no". As for the the word 'like', in Ireland it is said more as an afterthought. For instance someone would say, “That sheep is really sick like” or “She went to the shop like”. At home in the States we would say something along the lines of “I like your new dress!” or 'Valley Girls' try to fit 'like' in after every word... "Like oh my God, I like so totally like that!". But rarely, if ever, would we say “I
know like” and consider it a complete sentence and say it just to say it. Finally, "Yer man". This one gets to me for some reason. The first time someone said it to me I was very confused, thinking they were asking me or telling me something about my husband, as he's technically 'MY MAN'! But no, it's just a way the Irish say "that guy" or maybe "whatshername". But they say it in a way where it sounds like you're already expected to know who they're talking about and I usually have no clue. It's also used when the sex of the person referred
to is not known which is REALLY confusing to me. Example: "Why don't you give yer man a ring" or "Did you see yer man at the pub?". I think I'll write another blog post soon about all of the language differences here.
- Time - The Irish are late for absolutely everything. Maybe it's because everyone is laid back, but really... Everywhere closes for lunch here and I remember one day waiting at the bank for it to re-open. 15 minutes after their re-opening time, nothing. 20 minutes... nothing. A line (or queue as they would say here) had formed and everyone was relaxed and chatting to the person next to them, whereas I was really annoyed because I had places to be! Over 30 minutes later the bank re-opened, no apology. One of the workers was even on a personal phone call for another 10 minutes (the line I was in of course). It's the same when you have builders or any type of maintenance person coming to your house to fix something. When we were getting carpet put into our cottage we were the ones who were continually calling the carpet company to make the appointments, etc. and then when we finally had the appointment scheduled, no-one ever showed and we never heard anything back FOR OVER A MONTH! By that time we had gone with another company. It's definitely a game of cat and mouse when trying to work with other businesses here. As frustrating as it is to someone who was raised to be on time or better yet early, I always have to keep reminding myself that they're late because they're relaxed, and maybe I should learn some lessons from that.
- Small Appliances - I didn't realize when I came to Ireland that the ovens were half the size as American ones, along with everything else including refrigerators and washer/dryers. Everyone is very energy conscious here which I think is a great thing, but everyone also seems to depend on the weather to dry their clothes. We're in Ireland remember? It rains all. the. time. So when I wanted a dryer (to put in our laundry room... which is outside in what used to be an outhouse) everyone thought I was crazy and that it was a waste of money. We ended up buying a combination washer/dryer which I don't think even exist in the States, but it works. I hang up my clothes when I can but otherwise I use the dryer. The oven and refrigerator are other things that are very small here. When we moved into our cottage the oven was pretty trashed so I wanted a new one. The most common type of oven here has two doors on the front which to me was very inconvenient as I like to cook, and having two miniature oven doors meant that I wouldn't even be able to fit a casserole dish inside. The day we went shopping I didn't have much of a choice, we bought the only one door option there was. But it works, and even though it's still very tiny it's perfectly fine for cooking for two people. Although I would have no idea how I would cook an entire holiday meal if my family was here. As for refrigerators, they're small as well. Ours is very skinny and short. I would say it's probably only 4-5 feet tall and the freezer section is miniscule. But to have what they call an "American" fridge here... be ready to fork out A LOT of money. I don't think an "American" fridge would even fit in our kitchen anyway!
I know there are many more things I've had to adjust to since living here, however I'm sure a lot of them I don't really notice much anymore and others I just can't remember now. I'll have to start taking notes when I remember things so I can do a Part II of this post.
