Ireland Training Lesson 6: The unlikeliest thing to learn will be patience.

Ireland Training Lesson 6:  The unlikeliest thing to learn will be patience.

Written by:  Amy Cakebread in Drogheda watching Abby in Crochet class.  Started writing 9/14/14 finished 9/15/14

I’m finding that the more I try to accomplish here, the less actually gets done.  Which you can imagine is very frustrating.  Unlike simply going on vacation, we are trying to make a life here so things (like reliable heat and electricity!) need to be procured.  And, fast.  Turns out, fast is not something I am finding common here.  Could this be Ireland training me to be patient?  Unfortunately, if I haven’t learned the value of patience yet, no amount of Ireland Training is likely to change me.  Instead it just sets my teeth on edge and drives me to the fitness center for stress relief.

Take, for instance, buying a mixer (which can sometimes be referred to here as a blender for some reason) and a measuring cup (which they call a measuring jug).  Seem easy enough, right? But, getting a mixer isn’t as easy as it is at home. 

First, I know that not all mixers are created equally and to do the culinary masterpieces I dream of concocting, I need a good mixer.  So, I have high standards for a mixer, but I do not want to pay the high prices for something I am going to leave behind.  After looking through some shops for mixers, I turned to my most trusted personal shopper—Amazon.co.uk!  After an enjoyable hour before bed perusing the different mixer options, I decide on a nifty red one with 5 speeds and enough power to whip merengue and potatoes.  Not in the same bowl.  That would be gross.  I add a couple of other cooking and non-cooking incidentals to my virtual shopping cart.  The total?  £22.72 (British pounds)!!  I managed to find a mixer, an American measuring cup, house slippers (tiles are cold on the feet!), and a glass mixing bowl for what amounts to $37.00.  That’s not bad for over here.  I merrily complete the necessary billing and shipping information and am about to confirm when I see the new total--£51.90.  What happened?  Well, even though we are Amazon Prime members, shipping to Ireland is very expensive.  It turned out that I would pay more for shipping the stuff to me than I would on the items themselves.  Back to square one on getting a mixer, a pair of slippers, a measuring jug,

The next defeat continues to be the house we rented.  We are still experiencing problems with the thermostat on the furnace, the terrible shower hot water pressure, the work-when-it-wants-too refrigerator, the condenser (Europe's poor attempt of a dryer) then Tuesday we discovered a problem with the electric boiler that heats the sink and tub—it keeps tripping the breaker.  So, we do the only thing we know to do—we contact our property manager who we hope contacts the owner.  We sent an email to our property manager who promised to forward our reminders on to the owner.  Since then, we have heard nothing.  Not wanting to be the ugly American's, we are choosing to wait, but we've really begun to lose our cool.

We’re dealing with it, but one more house wrinkle presented itself to us Friday night.  To continue to have electricity in the house, we need to call up the electric company and “Top up” our power.  We are on a prepay system.  The landlord popped over last week and wrote down an account number for us on a piece of paper.  We scoured the house for the paper.  Ker thinking I had it, I knowing Ker had it.  Since the note is scribbled on what looks like an advertisement, I have a sinking feeling that Ker threw it away.  However, he insists he didn’t (this is a touchy subject between us since I always accuse him of throwing stuff away).  Giving him the benefit of the doubt, I continue through the weekend to tear apart our meager belongings.  Good news is that since we don’t have much, there’s really not that much to go through.  Bad news?  No account number.  I finally go dumpster diving and, low and behold, I find the pamphlet.  (I’m not rubbing it in, trust me.  Haven't even mentioned it to him that I was right.  Didn't even make him chant "You are right, you are ALWAYS right."  See what a good wife I am?) 

It's Sunday now and we’re pretty desperate.  The meter says we have €4.68 left of electricity.  So, we attempt to call the power company to put in more money now that we have the account number, but the nice person on the other line says that she can’t find an account that matches that number.  Back to square one.  

[Update:  We look further on the landladies note and it has something to do with an O’Reilly’s Supermarket.  We jump in the car this morning and race on over. O’Reilly’s is a like a coastal convenience store which also happens to have a prepay electricity machine.  So, we hand the nice teller—Evan—our landlady’s note and he tries to give us power.  This yields no success.  We just can’t catch a break here.  Finally, Evan decides that we are not keying in the correct electric company.  He efficiently finds out which one from an obscured piece of writing on the landladies note.  Finally, we have a code to put in our machine to have power! It worked!]

Yet another loose end…we need a car.  Renting is just not an option for us.  It’s too expensive.  We figured out the bank wire transfer issue.  That only took a week.  So, we have gone out every morning and part of Saturday looking for a car. 

For those in car sales in the states, yes it is very different here.  There is absolutely no pressure to buy.  No hard sells at all.  Once salesman said that kind of thing “really only works in America.  Everywhere else it’s just not done.”  Also, a dealership is legally required to disclose everything they can about the vehicle.  They must put it through their own garage looking for problems and then disclose them to the buyer.  Even with all of that, you still get the fun of negotiating the price.  

We seem to be torn between getting a 7 seater or a mini.  All week we’ve been looking at cars from 9 am to noon—the hours Ker doesn’t need to be working.  No luck yet.  I feel a little like Baby Bear… this one’s too old, this one’s not diesel, this one’s got dents, this one’s too pricey and no, just no.  It gets more complicated because the car lots are only open Mon – Fri 9 am – 5 pm.  Saturday you might have them open 10 – 2.  Sunday they are closed.  These times are not conducive to having a job or watching the girls do school.  Consequently, we have extended our car rental 4 times.  We have our rental till Monday at 7 pm.  I REALLY hope we can find a car that works tomorrow morning. [We didn't.  Sigh.]

If…no WHEN we get a car, we will need to have insurance.  The issue with insurance is that Ker and I get a discount for our clean driving histories.  Before we left, we pulled our driving record from the DMV.  We have them in fax form.  The insurance companies over here need a signed document from the insurance company.  No fax, only an actual paper.  We have emailed our insurance guy in Oregon.  I hope it doesn’t take him long to make a letter, sign it and get it over to us.  Sigh.  So, not much movement on that.

That brings me to the job issue.  So, to work in the Republic of Ireland, you need a PPS number (think SSN).  You get these at the Social Welfare Office.  The first place we went—Navan—had us wait in line and then told us that they wouldn’t be able to do anything until October.  Um, no.  So, the next day, Ker dropped me off at the Dublin (yay!) Social Welfare Office. 

In general, these offices are not the happiest of places.  There are a few professionals like myself just trying to get our PPS numbers, but vast majorities of people in these offices look like they have not had an easy life.  It was hard to watch.  Which I did for 3 hours.  Finally it was my turn.  A nice gentleman asked me a bunch of questions, looked at my passport, took my picture, and then we were done.  Less than 5 minutes.  However, I won’t get my PPS number in the post till next week.

Then I jumped over to the Employment Office next door to have a look at what’s out there.  Answer?  Not much.  Undaunted, I took a number and while I waited to speak to an Employment officer, I perused the listings for jobs in my area.  Still not much.  When it was my turn, the officer asks me why I’m not a guest lecturer somewhere.  Grrrrr!  I would LOVE to teach one or two classes a term here, but I do not have a Ph.D.  So, I’m not eligible for the universities here.  Pout.  Pout.  I’m not giving up on that though.  I just don’t have the contacts here right now.  The nice man behind the counter gave me a form to fill out to see if my combined degrees translate to something that would allow me to teach in a university. So, I'll be filling that out the minute I can print out my transcripts.

On the bright side, after my government office hopping, I explored a part of Dublin I’ve never been—Parnell Street.  There were 100’s of stores.  Lots of shoe stores.  

I was able to window shop for an enjoyable hour, and then I had a smoked salmon salad at a 

converted church café 

outside enjoying the sun.  Then I caught the bus home, which was really fun.

But, going home also brought me right back to the job thing. Many jobs require a Garda (police) check as well.  To get that, they need to check my Irish record, which should be easy because I haven’t been here long enough to really get into any serious trouble, right (but I did manage to get a parking ticket.  Go ahead and laugh.)?  And, they need to get a copy of my American record.  Which, thanks to Kerry, is now parking ticket free.  So, I went to the nearest Garda station got my fingerprints (€60),

 and now I just need to send a form and a check ($33) to the Oregon State Police and they will send me my criminal background record.  This may take up to 3 weeks and requires a form. I have no printer and the last 7 times I’ve gone to the local library to print either the internet or the printer has been down.  Which all sucks and puts me exactly nowhere.

So, I thought I would substitute teach.  That way, I can work when I want AND get inside schools here to see how they teach math.  Two birds, yes?  Well, to be a teacher—even a sub—here in Ireland, I have to be a member of the Teaching Council similar to our TSPC in Oregon (sans all the evil).  For them to register me they need, my PPS number (sigh), a certified copy of my degrees, a certified copy of my teaching current teaching license, certified copies of my transcripts, a more extensive Garda check, and every course description of every class I have ever taken from the Registrar plus €200 fee.  So, for an entire week, I have been on the phone with UP Registrar, UP Department of Education Secretary (who is AWESOME!!), TSPC (who are not!), PSU Registrar, and Transcript Office, and the Teaching Council phone representative.  The Teaching Council guy and I are on a first name basis now.  Transcripts from UP require me to print out a form off the net but that leads back to the printer problem.  UP managed to get the course description information in 2 business days.  PSU is saying it might take up to 3 weeks.  The Teaching Council says it may take 10 to 12 weeks to process my request.  So, we find ourselves stalled out on that.

Speaking of the printer, Kerry ordered the printer via Amazon.  Our first hurdle was our bank.  We told them before we left to expect purchases from Ireland.  They were fine with that.  But, Amazon is from the UK (the Brits) and our bank would not allow the purchase to go through.  So, we had to get in touch with our bank.  So, 100 years ago, I worked for this bank.  It boasted 24-hour customer service.  That has gone the way of the dodo.  With the popularity of the internet and internet banking, our bank has cut way back on its live person customer service offerings.  So, we had to wait until a person could talk to us to release the funds.  Then we had to wait until the Irish post was open.  That seems to be only Monday through Thursday.  Delivery through Amazon was supposed to be Friday.  We got the printer on Monday. Now all we need to do is get the WiFi constant enough to be able to handle Ker’s work computer, my computer, the girl’s computer and a printer.  So far, our broadband is not working for any of it.  And, the printer didn't ship with a freaking cable!  Which means we are stuck on that as well.

All these documents are easy to attain electronically.  Each US entity has politely (and not politely in the case of TSPC) reminded me that I can get these online from a website, or sent to me electronically.  Well, Ireland does not accept anything but a hard copy.  So, all of these documents from the US have to come here via snail mail.  Not ideal.  I’m totally kicking myself for not having all this done before I came.

On the research front, I contacted a couple of schools and asked to observe a math classroom.  I didn’t hear anything for a week, even though I went in person.  I finally heard something from one school.  I get to meet the Principal this Wed.  But, she doesn’t think I will have any luck observing until October.

Everything here just takes so much more time.  Time for the post, time to connect to the right people, time for the people to work, time for processing, time to get lost in the car, time to explain to people what you need.  I have to remind myself that I have the time; I just need to see some progress.  I guess that’s an Amy problem, not an Ireland problem.