{"id":46872,"date":"2021-05-18T07:48:03","date_gmt":"2021-05-18T07:48:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/technotink.net\/chronicles\/?p=46872"},"modified":"2021-05-18T07:48:05","modified_gmt":"2021-05-18T07:48:05","slug":"05-17-12-stranger-in-a-strange-land","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/technotink.net\/chronicles\/05-17-12-stranger-in-a-strange-land\/","title":{"rendered":"05.17.12: stranger in a strange land"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thursday, 17 May 2012<\/em><\/strong>
\n* Dublin, Ireland *<\/p>\n

It has been a whirlwind this Celtic New Year (November 7, 2011 – Present, so far) as I’ve fallen in love, become engaged, committed to a lifelong handfasted partnership, dropping everything I knew in America to restart across the great big pond with a new life starting all over again as a stranger in a strange land.<\/p>\n

One wouldn’t think the differences between Ireland and America would be so grand, but culturally they are quite different. Things I took for granted in America, I miss, especially the simple conveniences like finding candle wax to make candles, thrift stores bigger than a shoebox, and the “cheap” price of things one needs in daily life.<\/p>\n

Time management is different over here, as is reliability, and the dedication levels in everything are so variable. CVs here, are similar to the American resume, and their “detailed cv” is still a buttered down version of our Curriculum Vitae (i.e. “CV”). Other parts of Europe require photos, dates of birth, religion, sex, marital status, etc. on their requested templates. When you apply for jobs over here, you rarely hear back with a confirmation of whether or not they’ve even received it or are considering you. Even after an interview with a prestigious institution, they don’t even have the courtesy to let you know you didn’t make the 2nd interview, even after contacting them to enquire the status. I don’t get it.<\/p>\n

We had an elaborate “tour” of “wedding” and “handfasting” ceremonies we planned at various festivals and locations around the world (Three Wishes, Faerieworlds, Hill of Tara, Burning Man, etc) – but due to a financial collapse, have had to postpone them for next year. Just as I ran out of funds around the turn of Winter, and my “tourist visa” expired requiring me to return to the States in January. We returned to visit my mom and I stayed behind to work up odd jobs to build up funds to return to Ireland while my love went back to school.<\/p>\n

I installed a sprinkling system, drilled a well, painted a garage, re-sealed a patio and driveway, did landscaping, prepared tax returns, did some blogs, and found some online advertisers. By February I had enough to fly out to Oregon to retrieve my van from a friend’s property as she was moving down the mountain.<\/p>\n

My love befell hardships as her car was towed and impounded, with several hundred Euros to bail it out. In addition, something went awry with her financial aid and never received it. Meanwhile, I was fighting snowstorms, avalanche threats, high vehicle-toppling winds as I trekked across Oregon, California, Nevada, Utah, and Colorado to return my van to the store with a friend while back in Ireland.<\/p>\n

Driving across the icy Rockies and Cascades, with threatening over-heating and engine issues, I felt like I barely made it back to Denver. A whirlwind jolts down to my RV in Colorado Springs to pack up some essential belongings for my trek to the Old World. My plan was to apply for residency and secure a job as soon as I got back to Ireland. But because I didn’t know if I would be accepted for a visa, or turned around because my 3-month break wasn’t quite yet there, my return flight was booked for May 16th – 2 1\/2 months down the road “just in case” I needed to return again to the U.S.<\/p>\n

As hoped by “Aer Lingus” baggage restrictions on the website I was allowed one free check-in, 2nd & 3rd baggage check at $60 each up to 70 lbs. So I planned appropriately. A close dear friend in Denver is van sitting my vardo and gave me a lift to the airport. I was en route to my new life with my love. Unfortunately, checking in with United as an “Aer Lingus” partner, they had different baggage requirements. They only allowed 2 checked luggage, and only up to 50 lbs each. So I was very overweight. They charged me $200 for the 2nd luggage being overweight, $200 for the 3rd being overweight, and $200 for the 3rd piece of luggage. ($600 in fees) It took nearly a month to get those funds reimbursed by Aer Lingus, and because of banking issues for foreigners – almost another month to deposit it by creating a bank account and waiting for it to clear. Things move like molasses over here.<\/p>\n

Shortly before coming back to Ireland, my application for Pirate Relief<\/a> to be on the Dragon’s Den<\/strong> had been approved and they were very interested in having us on the show to do a pitch. March 1st I arrived in my new country. On day 2, we applied for my residency and PPS number. With both of us not having any secure sights on income, my love’s financial aid still being withheld, a point of urgency was apparent, and onwards to building income, however, we could be of the essence. Dragon’s Den definitely wanted us to come in for an audition and to create a business plan. All attention was placed on this, job applications, and trying to get my businesses back up and running producing income. I finally got residency, a PPS number, and the ability to work – but no jobs and no income coming in. Things became desperate.<\/p>\n

Our car became impounded again, and this time by the time we were able to find a solution to get it out was over 1300 Euros … the result was a family member bailed it out and bought the car from us – leaving us car-less. Now two months past due with rent, no income ahead, things are grim.<\/p>\n

The Dragon’s Den audition went well, and we were set to be aired, but due to some difficulties with their requirements to be on the show, our producer had to drop out, and with everything being scheduled end-to-end, we had to cancel the live pitch. Job interviews began to appear, but nothing yet firm. Financial Aid never came through and the office doesn’t believe it will. Because I’m new to the country and my love is a student, we don’t qualify for assistance. We’ve reached an all-time low. Every moment of our days is spent now working on finding employment and income either by job hunting, full – part – temporary – or random, building up my businesses with hopes business will come through, and concentrating on what skills we have to try to find anything to slither by.<\/p>\n

I’ve been lucky to sell a photo or two, get some online ads, get minimal pay for some blogs written, and some face painting in. But it’s not cutting it. I come home fearful each day we’ll have an eviction notice awaiting us. I’m not sure what we are going to do. I thought about flying back to Colorado on my return air ticket but that would have left my love alone to deal with these issues, and I’m committed to volunteering to help put on Shakefest at the end of the month.<\/p>\n

So I took the last $250 I had to attempt to salvage my back-door flight to the U.S. and change it to the least expensive change I could muster … and that’s not until January 2, 2013. So I’m Ireland’s problem now. The world is getting scary, our options limited, and very fearful. Anything anyone can suggest would be of greatest assistance. We’re doing everything we can. Fingers crossed we’ll find something soon before we’re on the street.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thursday, 17 May 2012 * Dublin, Ireland * It has been a whirlwind this Celtic New Year (November 7, 2011 – Present, so far) as I’ve fallen in love, become engaged, committed to a lifelong handfasted partnership, dropping everything I knew in America to restart across the great big pond with a new life starting […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":46896,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1778,1288,2],"tags":[2929,2930,177,2931,2932,2933,1319,2934,2428,1026,2935],"class_list":["post-46872","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-life-in-ireland","category-love-stories","category-new-beginnings","tag-cultural-differences","tag-dragons-den","tag-finances","tag-financial-despair","tag-frustration","tag-impounded-vehicles","tag-love","tag-moving-to-new-countries","tag-poverty","tag-relationships","tag-unemployment"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/technotink.net\/chronicles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/051512-001.jpg?fit=600%2C900&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbTmMn-cc0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/technotink.net\/chronicles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46872","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/technotink.net\/chronicles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/technotink.net\/chronicles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/technotink.net\/chronicles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/technotink.net\/chronicles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46872"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/technotink.net\/chronicles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46872\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46897,"href":"https:\/\/technotink.net\/chronicles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46872\/revisions\/46897"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/technotink.net\/chronicles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46896"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/technotink.net\/chronicles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/technotink.net\/chronicles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/technotink.net\/chronicles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}