Megan Eaves

this week is the whirlwind of weeks. at first, things seemed to be falling into place grand-like. i found a place to live within the first few days after i arrived. it’s a little brick house on a long street row of other little brick houses – more like townhomes really. there are three bedrooms upstairs, a roomy sitting room, living room, and kitchen downstairs, plus the bathroom. yes, we do have to go up and down the stairs if we wish to shower or use the toilets or brush our teeth, but it’s actually not as inconvenient as it might seem. there is no internet, but i’ve been stealing from a neighbor – so far, so good.

my housemates are molly and karine. molly is a bubbly, hippyish irish girl with dark brown hair and fair skin. her long-haired hippy boyfriend, ian, is often hanging about, and he seems to be good for discussing ryan adams and drinking bavarian beer.

karine is a tall, leggy, dark-complected french girl with curly-q tendrils that she often pulls back into a big mass of ponytail. her english is fantastic and she always seems to be offering me bread or cheese or coffee or jam.

the first few days after i moved in were lonesome. the girls, while very friendly, have their own (very established) lives and aren’t actually home all that much. me… at the moment i have NO life and i’m home all the time. things changed this week when DCU orientation started. we had an evening for postgraduate international students, of which there were about 70 (i’m bad at estimating). i didn’t meet anyone from my actual programme, but i did meet several nice people from places like italy, china, france, india and the US. phone numbers were exchanged and we all formed a kind of group, mostly because we are all scared mid-20-somethings from somewhere else with no friends yet. also in common, we all share a mutual confusion over the apparent lack of organisation in all things related to DCU, and we found ourselves confiding and complaining about the fact that we STILL don’t know where our classes will meet or how long our respective programmes will take to complete.

on the job front, things have been hard. i am broke and eating vegetables out of a bag. i am also limited to 20 hours per week of work, thanks to irish law. fuck me for not being born an EU citizen. most of the english language schools i applied to were not interested (something about my certification not being up to snuff, thanks to US accreditation), so i have taken to submitting my CV to just about EVERYWHERE in the hopes of finding a bar or restaurant job. even still, i’m not sure the part-time schedule will even allow me to pay my rent, much less eat or drink guinness with my newfound friends.

but alas, this is all starting to sound very doom and gloom. such is the case when you move to a new country.in all honesty, being here has been harder and scarier than china, if you can even believe that. you see, in china, things were taken care of for me. i was paid well. my accommodation was arranged and i was even picked up at the airport. here… i’m literally on my own. there is no language barrier, sure (that’s even questionable at times hehe), but there is a lot of bureaucracy and i’m severely disadvantaged as an American citizen.

i think things will work out. here’s hoping for the good graces of parents and relatives around the world (hint hint), as well as possible loans from the united states government. they OWE me for making this all so damn hard!

cheers m’dears.

dublin 2