September 7, 2003
Hello everyone!
I made it! I’m in Belfast. We have a computer here at the house with
dial up Internet which we have unlimited use of on weekends and after 6:00 pm
on weekdays. Don’t know why, but that’s
how it is. I start work tomorrow
morning. The place where I work is
about ten steps from the house in which I live. We start at 9:00 am by setting up the table for the “mummies” and
then have a meeting with the paid staff about what we’re going to do for the
day and then go and pick up the mummies and their kids in the vans. Right now I’ll just be riding along, but I
will learn how to drive the vans, which are stick shifts – and they drive on
the other side of the road here. I’m
excited. My housemate is excited for me
to drive, too, b/c she can’t drive since she is under 21. I think that is just the organization’s
rule, not Northern Ireland’s. She is 18
and just graduated high school. She
seems older, though. Her name is
Suzanne and she’s from Seattle. Our other
housemate, Peter, will be arriving from Germany next week.
This house is on a mountain and the
view is spectacular. Yesterday, there
was
a huge rainbow, which was
beautiful. For awhile, there was a
second rainbow.
It looked especially nice when we got
up here and you could see it all across the sky
overlooking the city. You can also see the coast, with the Irish
Sea, which makes it look
really close, but apparently, it’s
not. I’m not looking forward to having
to walk up this hill,
though! Just more motivation for me to learn how to drive.
Oh, so on Mondays, we get done around
3:00, but on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, we get done at like 7:30
pm. That’s a long day!
One of the paid workers came and picked
me up from the airport yesterday. He stopped and let me do my grocery shopping
at Tesco, which was nice. I spent £10
on groceries for the week. I got some
instant mashed potatoes for 35p! That
was my favorite buy. My most decadent
buy was a pack of chocolate cake bars for £1. There are five in a pack and I’ve already eaten 4. Oh I got a 4 pack of Chicago Style frozen
pizzas. I just thought it was funny, so
I got ‘em. (I wanted frozen pizza
anyways, but the Chicago Style was for my amusement).
Man, the
exchange rate is still killing me. I
bought pounds sterling at the airport in London
and I got £44 for
$80. I thought I was all down with the
money since I’ve been to the
United Kingdom before (Northern Ireland is part of
the United Kingdom), but turns out they
have Irish pounds
sterling, too. I found that out when I
got my change from the cashier at the
grocery store. I asked John, the person who picked me up,
what the deal was, to make sure I hadn’t gotten fake money! The exchange rate won’t be affecting me
anymore, though, b/c I’ll get my weekly stipend of £45, and I have no more
dollars.
The flight was okay. I had a window seat for the first time,
which actually worked out well. We took
off after dark, so there was a spectacular view over downtown Chicago. It’s so weird to see all the lights, and the
order they are in. It is very linear,
and organized, and grid-like. I also
got to see the sun come up over the Atlantic Ocean, which was nice. Turns out, when you sit at the window, you
have more space on the side to put stuff, which worked well for me. My TV didn’t work, either, which worked out
well, b/c I actually fell asleep. I’ve
never slept so well on a plane, I just kind of drift in and out, but this time,
I was really sleeping. It made the
flight go by so much quicker, too. When
I woke up, there were only 2 hours left.
I had a five hour layover in London, and I slept in the waiting
area. I woke myself up once with a loud
snore! I just had my purse and the
strap of my bag in my hands and snoozed away.
I got here to the house about 6 or so and went to bed at 8. I woke up today at noon.
Customs was surprisingly easy. Usually, there’s this huge long line and they
interrogate you and stuff, but I went to another customs b/c I had a connecting flight, and I just
walked right up. He looked at my
passport, asked how long I was staying and off I went. I didn’t even have to go thru customs in
Belfast. You got off the plane, right
to baggage claim, and immediately after baggage claim was where people meet you
(you can see them through the glass! I
flew into Belfast City airport, though. Belfast has an int’l airport farther
away from the city.
John was out there waiting for me with
a piece of paper that had my name on it.
Then he went and got the car while I waited, and unloaded my stuff for
me. That was nice. My shoulder bag (carry on) was way too heavy
and now I have a huge bruise on my shoulder. I also have one on my inner thigh,
which I’ve no idea how I got.
I have my own room. I’m excited. We each get our own room and I got to choose from the two
remaining rooms. I chose the smaller one, but it has a desk and I just liked it
better. I’ve only started to unpack. I
took a shower this afternoon and my hosuemate had told me that instead of
running out of hot water, it’ll run out of cold water, and the hot water is
like super duper hot. Luckily, there
was some cold water for me. The house
kind of reminds me of the co-op I lived in in Chicago, b/c the colors of the
rooms are all different and very bright.
There’s also lots of stuff here from people who lived here before. That includes food – I had a can of
vegetarian soup for lunch which was left behind. Oh and a cup of hot cocoa from a can of mix that someone
left.
Hope all is well.
Love,
Sabrina ;-)
P.S. – The internet is super slow, so
I’m typing this in Word and then going to paste it in, but if I don’t write
right away, it’s because I don’t have the patience to get into my email!
September 8, 2003
Hiya,
Well, today was the first day of
work. It went well. Thank goodness Mondays are short days b/c I
am super tired. I think I’m going to
take a nap! The kids I worked with
today were all under 3 years old. I
didn’t have change any diapers today, though, but I will tomorrow. (the other volunteer and I will take turns).
I unpacked last night. I’m so proud of myself, everything is put
away. Usually, I live out of a suitcase
for awhile. It actually looks like
someone lives there, too, b/c I put a few things on the wall and on my door. I should’ve brought more for the wall, but I
packed in such a hurry.
This one baby, Kieran, was just the absolute
cutest! He is such a good baby. So happy and eats well,
and even took a nap.
I had my first go at trying to
learn how to drive the stick minibus.
We went to a Tesco (grocery store) parking lot. I was just learning how to change
gears. Finally, when I accelerated too
much after switching gears and having the van switch off, I said, “Enough!” and
made motions with my arms to accentuate the point and then Sharon (the lead
child care worker – paid staff) got back in the driver’s seat. It wasn’t weird with being on the other side
or anything, (though I wasn’t out on the street yet!) it was those darn
gears. It is quite a small parking lot
and mostly I was just going around in circles and couldn’t really get out of
first gear.
You know how people will ask you if you
slept well? Well, my roommate asked me
that this morning and I think it’s like one of those things where you’re
supposed to just say “yes”, the way you’re supposed to say “fine” when someone
asks how you are, but I was honest.
“No, not at all.” I said the
same when John (a paid worker) asked
me. Well, they did ask – I’m not going
to lie. I woke up at like 3:30 in the
morning after having the weirdest nightmare and couldn’t get back to sleep
until 5:00. Luckily, we live right next
to the place where we work, so I got up at 8:30 to be there at 9:00.
When we were driving to pick up the
mummies, I saw some of the murals I’ve heard about in Belfast. There was also grafitti saying “F*CK IRA”
and so on. The mummies all live in
housing estates, which is like the projects, or low income housing. There are some kids who are a bit big to be
in diapers as well, and one should definitely be crawling, but he just kept
rolling over, it looked really weird.
I’m really anxious to learn how to
drive, so I can get the heck off this mountain. It’s just us and some cows and dogs up here. I really am not in the frame of mind to walk
that far right now, but hopefully, soon.
Well, at least by Friday, b/c I’m meeting one of my friends in town to
celebrate his birthday. Also, we don’t
get out of work until 7 or 7:30 on T, W, Th, and most things are closed by then
anyways.
Well, I think I’m gonna take that nap I
was talking about now. Hope everyone is
doing well.
Love you bunches,
Sabrina J
September 9, 2003
The lost blog day!
Okay, so I didn’t get around to typing
on this day, but I do remember what happened.
The highlight of the day was * drum roll, please * ……………………….
I got puked on. Yippee. * applause, applause * * I take a bow *
Yes, thank you, thank you very
much.
Sharon: “Oh, he’s just a windy
baby. I’ll get you a towel.”
”A towel?” I thought. I wanted to go
home, change my clothes and shower.
This wasn’t just your typical little bit of baby spit up. I actually knew it happened when I felt it
running down my jean leg. I look at him
and see it all down his poor little body. I thought we were going to have to
take the wee lad to the hospital or something, but alas, no, he’s just
“windy”. He did seem a lot happier
after that, though.
Red headed girl with big gold earrings
– (Salt ‘n Pepa circa 1989)
Cussing girl “F*ck Off!”
September 10, 2003
I am sick today and stayed in. I just popped over to see the after school
group. Today was 11-15 year olds. they made me a get well card! How sweet is that? I just have a sore throat and phlegm (yucky!) in my chest. I'm just trying to rest and let my body
fight this thing, whatever it is.
On a more
positive note, I drove today! My boss's
boss was here today and he used to be a driving
instructor, so he took me
out. At first, they didn't think I'd be
up for it, but I wasn't going to pass up a
lesson by a pro. I was driving all over the Tesco parking
lot, going all the way up to fourth gear and back down again. It was nice. He said that since he can't come out to give me lessons, he's
going to tell Grant (the Centre director) to set me up with driving lessons (to
learn how to drive a stick) so that I'll be confident (and skilled) enough to
be driving kids in a month. I'm
excited!
September 11, 2003
Hello everyone!
Well, I’m still sick, so I went
to the dr. today. It was free, which is
nice. The doc said I have a chest
infection, which I likely caught on the plane, and this infection has triggered
my asthma. Okay, doc, so what about the
nose business going on? Oh, that’s
probably from a head cold, he laughs, presumably at my bad luck. The doctor was nice and tested my breathing
on the peak flow thingie and I couldn’t get that stupid needle to go far at
all, so he let me do it again, and then again, and then realized, hey, that’s
all I got. Then he listened with the
stethoscope having me breathe in and out over and over and then said, okay,
that’s all, if we do anymore you might fall over. Needless to say, I had a lot crap in my lungs and a lot of my
breathe-outs were coughs.
The doctor didn’t take my temperature,
so I asked, “do you have a thermometer?”
He produced one and told me to take it under my arm. I asked, “are you sure?” Ahhh, gotta love Americans. So my temperature was 36.99
degrees…celcius. At first I thought, my
god, I’m frozen! ;-)
Yeah, so that’s fun. I got some amoxycillin and a steroid
inhaler. Woohoo! I was all ready to pay the bargain price of £6.30
each, then I found out I didn’t have to pay at all. That was nice.
I was then able to buy some bread,
butter, cheese, milk and soup. Yippee!
I saw the kids coming in on the van,
and I saw my little Kieran (the adorable baby from my first day). I wanted to go play with him so bad, but best
not give him my nice infection. Soon
enough I’ll be back in the swing of things.
(Hopefully!)
September 12, 2003
Day 3 of sickliness. The
antibiotics seem to be working their magic on the chest infection, but today my
asthma is worse. I called the dr., who
told me to come in, so I went in and he told me I was fine. Well, not really. He told me I wasn’t TOO bad and I could just double my dose of
inhaler, but he wanted to shy away from the “sledgehammer” approach of
prednisone pills. Yeah, okay. My peak flow was apparently fine and he
didn’t seem put off my the strange noises that were going on in my chest while
he listened to me breathe. He also told
me that they gave me tranquilizers in the ER b/c they just do that to someone
who is fine so they can get on with the next patient who might really be
sick. Lovely chap, you see. Anyhow, he told
me to go in again next week for a check
up. Thank goodness that was free or I
would’ve
raised all hell. I pressed him (of course) but I get the
feeling he thinks that Americans are just
overmedicated. Anyway, I went to reception to make an
appointment for next week and she said
he didn’t have any open appointments
‘til next month. Oh darn. I said that’s fine, b/c I didn’t want to see
him again anyways, so she told me to call in on the day I want to come and just
see the locum doctor (apparently, that’s what they call the “fill-in”
doctor. That’s who I saw yesterday and
when I asked him what locum meant, he took a bit of offense and assured me that
he was indeed a licensed physician.)
I just ordered pizza. It’s 4:30 pm and I haven’t been able to eat
today b/c of the sickliness and all.
There’s only one place that delivers up here on the mountain, and they
don’t start delivering til 5:00, but she took my order and said it’d be here
around 5:20.
I was supposed to be going out with a
friend tonight celebrating his 30th birthday, but the sickliness
prevails. I was also going to go to the
city centre tomorrow and finally see the sights of Belfast, but alas, that
looks like it’s off the schedule as well.
Our third roommate is arriving tomorrow
at about 6:00 p.m. His name is Peter
and he’s from Germany. He’s going to be
here for a year as part of his mandatory community service. In Germany, men of a certain age either have
to join the military or do a year of community service. I think the lad’s made the right
choice!
Well, it’s time for the next round of
meds. Yippee yi yay! Maybe I’ll write later and tell you how the
pizza was!
Toodle doo.
Love,
Sabrina ;-)
September 13, 2003
It’s 6:33 a.m and I just watched the sun come up. I went outside on the mountain when it was
completely dark, and the sun comes up so slowly, you can’t even notice the
difference until one minute you realize, hey, it’s not dark anymore. I want to
wait and see when the night view becomes the day view, that is to say, when do
you no longer see the lights, but instead see the buildings. I didn’t have the patience to stand out
there that long, and frankly, it can get a bit scary on top of a mountain at
sunrise. I am looking out my window,
though, at the city below, and at this point, I still see the lights. Will that, too, happen so slowly, I won’t
notice until after it’s happened? I’ll
miss the change in the blink of an eye?
What am I doing up so early, you
ask? Well, I never properly fell
asleep for the night. I just
kind of dozed in and out. For some
reason, I couldn’t bear to turn out my bed
- room light as well. I thought I had gotten over that sort of
thing, but sickness, I think, tends to highlight your vulnerabilities.
September 14, 2003
So, I finally got to see Belfast
today. I took a double decker bus tour and walked around for just a
little bit. I met Jay last night, my first Northern Irish friend.
Well, I met him for the first time in real life last night. He'll
probably kick my butt for mentioning him, but he probably won't read this, so
oh well. Anyhow, we've talked like every day since I've arrived and my
roommate said we were like "best friends". I had just hoped
that we got on as well in person, and we did (do). So that's good.
Anyways, I've just been thinking, though, about how like I like Jay a lot and
we get on so well, like best mates or whatever, and so often I just think,
"well, this is it, we should be boyfriend/girlfriend now, look at how well
we get on" or what not. I just can not remember what a romantic
feeling even feels like. I don't think I'd know it if it bit me in the
arse. You know everyone says you should be best friends with your romantic partner,
but does becoming friends come after the romance? Do friends ever really
fall in love? I don't know. Jay told me that our conversations had
led him to believe we were going to be "just friends" (and for god
sakes, this conversation is out of context, so no, I did not make an arse of
myself by telling Jay I was in love with him or anything...I left all that
nonsense in England, thank you very much) and the thing is, I can't imagine
having had any other types of conversation. How do you talk to someone
differently when there's a possibility of romance vs. having conversation with
someone you know there's not that possibility. I don't know.
Especially in a case like this, where we spoke often before we actually
met. Same with Phil (my old British friend). After Jonathan,
though, I began to wonder if I actually even had the capability of feeling
romance. After realizing that I had just spent the better part of three
years with someone who I had no romantic feelings for at all, but had been
ready to spend my life with him....well, that'll make you think, won't
it? I mean, we were best friends and there was physical attraction, so I
thought that was everything. I was comfortable.
But then again, there were two
guys from this summer who I had "different" feelings for from the
rest.
One of them watched a baseball
game on TV (on mute) while we were talking in his living room, the
other one turned out to be psycho
and made me look like his stalker. (He told me to meet him at his place,
I did, he didn't turn up and then was essentially like, "look, she's at my
place waiting for me and everything.") So what does that say about
me and my "romantic" feelings?
Yeah, enough of that. I spent WAY too much money today, despite my being
a penny pincher and not even getting nail polish b/c I couldn't afford
it. However, all the little things (and big things) added up to a
WHOPPING £34. Mind you, I only get £45 a week to live off of.
That's a kick in the ass, so it is. The bus tour was £7, my groceries
were £10, the cab home was £6, lunch was £4, and the rest was like a pound here
and there for essential items which I won't describe here. When I got
home and added it all up, (I kept all my receipts to keep track) I nearly fell
off my chair. Ah well, nothing to be done now. I'll just be skint
the rest of the week. I won't be going out anyways, so I just need to be
groceries again mid week. Then, I'll cross the boundary from skint to dead
broke.
I did have a lovely day today, though. And I'm so happy I got to finally see
the city. Well, experience it first hand rather than looking down at it from
the mountain!
It is well past my bedtime now, so I best be going. Oh, by the way, the
pizza wasn't brilliant at all, and the chips were kind of ucky, but I ate it,
you see...
September 15, 2003
Okay, so it's been awhile since I've updated this page. I
can't believe it's already been a week! Anyhow, I can not remember what
happened last Monday (it's the 22nd now), so I'll just write about general
stuff.
In Northern Ireland, a "mixed" marriage is a marriage between a
Catholic and a Protestant. Thus far, of the very few people I've met,
I've heard of two mixed marriages. In one case, the children are the
religion of the father, as it is apparently customary that this is what goes on
the birth certificate. In the other case, the couple does not have
children, but the father does not intend to have them listed as either Catholic
or Protestant. He also told me that he has not filled out his voter
registration form (which you have to do every year here, apparently) b/c you
can only choose between Irish or British as your nationality. Northern
Irish is not an option.
See, the Catholic/Protestant issue isn't really about religion at all. It's really about Nationalists
vs. Loyalists. Loyalists would like to stay part of the United Kingdom
(thereby being loyal to the crown) and Nationalists would like to be a part of
Ireland. Typically, Nationalists are Catholic and Loyalists are
Protestant.
Then again, on a day to day basis, most residents of this city are happy enough
with the way life is. As ever, it is merely some extremists who really
want one way or the other.
September 16, 2003
I cried today because on of the girls
we work with seems so psychologically disturbed, I don't know if we can help
her. I just became overwhelmed with all that's wrong and hurtful in the
world, and specifically here in Belfast and felt like we are fighting a losing
a battle. I began thinking again about how I want to found a social
helping organization and better formulating the specifics in my head. I
want all the aspects from customer service of businesses. There's no
reason someone should have to wait eight hours at an emergency room (like I
did) or have to wait for months to receive psychological care or whatever it is
they need. Anyhow, so I want it to be a private organization, and I want
people to be able to come in, sit and chat one on one with someone about all
the things they may need and be able to file all the necessary paperwork in one
sitting, instead of going here and there and waiting, etc. I also want
the quality of care to be the utmost highest. Like instead of a free
clinic, get doctors to either donate services to a set number of clients, or
use our funds to pay them. That's the idea I have thus far. Let me know
if you have any further suggestions on how to get this to come to fruition.
September 21, 2003
I spent the weekend at Jay's house. My housemate took me
over there early Saturday
afternoon. I just have to get off the mountain at the weekends,
you know? The weekend went by so quickly.
Well, Jay and I are officially "going out". I know, that sounds
so middle school, but we're like boyfriend/girlfriend now. I said,
"Jay, I thought you weren't looking for a relationship" and he said
that he wasn't, but he likes me, and we'll just take it slow. To be
honest, it's been so long since I've been in a relationship, I don't even know
what it's like. So, we'll just see how it goes.
I'm home alone at the minute b/c my housemates went to the cinema.
They left me a note. I've only been home about half and hour or
less. Oh, and Jay's friend, Tom, gave me a ride home. No cab fare,
yippee!!!
I'm heating up the oven now and getting ready to make a frozen pizza.
They were on sale at Tesco for 50p. Can't beat that!
September 22, 2003
I
drove today! Yippee yi yay! I had my first lesson with the driving
instructor, Stanley. I actually drove on the streets (as opposed to the
Tesco parking lot). So, I drove a stick shift on the other side of the
road and navigated my way around roundabouts, and waiting to make a right turn
(as opposed to a left). It was quite excited. I am very eager to
learn and become a pro at it. He talked about me getting a Northern
Ireland driving license. That would be awesome. My American driving
license will do me fine for a year, but I’d like to get the Northern Ireland
one. We shall see.
I also had my first counselling appointment this morning. I’ll be paying
£5 a week. They asked what I could afford, so that’s what it is. It
is a woman named Yvonne who I will be seeing. I will not see her again
until the 6th of October due to our schedules and what not, but that only means
we miss one week. She seems nice enough,
so we’ll see how it goes.
Yesterday was an exciting
day as well. Jay and I are officially together. That’s pretty
nifty. I
haven’t been in a
relationship in a long while, so I feel kind of like I don’t know what I’m doing,
which sounds kind of silly, but we’ll just see how we go.
The morning with the children was calm enough and went by rather quickly.
Mind you, I did miss the first bit b/c of counselling and all, but still.
I changed nappies today, which was fine. Although, even though I wash my
hands after every change, I still feel a bit dirty and poopy. Ah
well.
Tonight we have to color in the certificates for the children who are ending
their time here at Quaker Cottage. As soon as this scanner is working,
I’m going to sort that one out, b/c it’s a little ridiculous the amount of time
we spend coloring these things in, and it’s all very last minute, so it’s not
like a whole lotta TLC going on with them.
I am going on a day trip this weekend (Saturday) to the Giant’s Causeway.
It’s a big rock formation or something….I don’t know, but the International
Youth Hostel does a minibus tour up there, so I’ll be going along with
that. I’m also considering taking a course in counselling at the Lifelong
Learning Centre at Queen’s University Belfast. I phoned them today and
found out that I would qualify for concession (a discounted rate) on account of
my being a volunteer, so that would make it £25. It meets Tuesday nights
7-9 pm. I phoned up b/c I won’t be able to go the first Tuesday since
we’ll be at residential, but they said that was fine.
I don’t think I’ve written yet about residential, but it is like a holiday with
the mummies and kids. There are about eight mummies and twenty five
kids. It starts on Tuesday, the 30th of September, and ends on Friday,
the 3rd of October. We will be working 24/7 during that time. It
seems a bit overwhelming, but I’m trying my best not to worry about it too
much. I’m just going to plan as well as I can and we’ll see how we go (I
think I’ve said that more than once in this writing!)
Tomorrow is the start of our long stretch. Mondays and Fridays we get off
early, but Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday we have after school kids as well,
and we don’t get done until 6 or 7:30. I think I’ll take a nap now, I’m
getting a little tired just thinking of it! I’ve had an exciting day,
though, so like the wee ones, I get wiped out from all the excitement.
See you later, gators! :-)
September 23, 2003
Okay, I hear a
beeping noise….maybe it’s my cell phone alarm, it doesn’t sound like that
normally, but let’s see. No, it’s not that, it’s only 4:30 a.m. I hear
Suzanne up, “hello”, she says. I realize I’m not the only one hearing
this noise, so I get up to check it out with Suzanne. The security alarm
is beeping away. Suzanne hops around the corner to get the security code,
but it’s not working. (On hindsight, funny how our first concern is
making the alarm stop rather than finding out what set it off.)
Two minutes later and the screech is now louder and even more piercing. I
find
a phone number on the security box and shout the number out to
Suzanne. They turn it
off remotely. Suzanne is on the phone with them for a few minutes
and then tells us that
the alarm went off b/c the battery was low. Ha, ha, that was nice,
and we’re off to bed
again. I lay down to get back to sleep and I am jolted awake by a
pervasive sense of insecurity.
A little voice inside of me is telling me to follow my intuition.
Check it out, call the police. I get out of bed and I see that the motion
detector light is on at the front of our house. This, combined with the
security alarm really makes me worry. I call 999 (the emergency number
here). The dispatcher is not the nicest person in the world to me, but
says he’ll send someone out. Five minutes later, there are three members
of the Northern Ireland police service outside our front door. It is
pouring down rain and one of them does not have a rain coat. The water is
soaking through his thin white uniform shirt. I sort of feel bad for
making them come out in the rain. I don’t see where their car is
parked. They have a look around our yard (the mountain!) with their flashlights.
One of them then comes in our house to search for a back door, but we don’t
have one. He says it all looks fine and says “better safe than sorry”,
and they head on their way.
At least I feel a bit better now and can go to sleep.
8:10 a.m. – This time it is my alarm going off. I get up and discover
that the toilet is not flushing. I’m not too bothered, b/c my experience
with Irish and British toilets has told me they are quite tempermental. I
go into the other bathroom to wash my hands and the cold water won’t come
on. I manage to handle the hot water for a few seconds and go about my
day. A few minutes later, the housemates have discovered that we have no water
at all in the house. Well, who needed a shower anyways? Brushing
teeth, that’s mere decadence.
Yeah, well I won’t write about work here b/c John told Grant about my website
and Grant wanted to “have a word” with me about it (which is never a good
thing, by the way.) In the end, I’m not to mention that place I work at
ten hours a day that begins with a Q. Censorship at its worst.
Some more stuff happened today to freak me out, but as someone might read this
and interpret it to be something negative about this end of the mountain which
is right near to that secret place where I work, I won’t mention the specifics,
but just ask me about it and I’ll send out an email to a hundred or so of my
closest friends, b/c that’s alright. And yes, you are correct in assuming
that I am bitter.
But I hope all is well with everyone and feel free to write me an email to help
cheer me up! :-)
Lots of love,
Sabrina :-)
September 24, 2003
Okay, cows
smell. And I don’t mean with their nose; - they stink. You know how
I know? I have 13 of them living next door.
Today was fine. My housemates and I went to Lidl, which is a store
exactly like Aldi. Apparently, it is a German based operation. My
German roommate, Peter, felt very much at home. I spent £10 on
food.
I just had some “chocolate bourbon biscuits” for dinner, which are like
chocolate wafer cookies with cream in the middle. Oh, and I had the other
half of my frozen pizza. I ate the first half at lunch.
It was a long day today, but I think I’m just too tired to write anything
exciting.
Right now Suzanne is watching country music videos on a British video
show. Weird. I didn’t think Brits listened to country music.
Oh and the Emmys are showing right now, too.
Come to think of it, it’s better if I don’t have anything exciting to write,
b/c yesterday was a very exciting day, indeed, but that was because of all the
mishaps! I’ll not complain today.
Hope all is well with you.
Love,
Sabrina :-)
September 25, 2003
Today was a very
influential day. I learned a lot about Belfast and the way things are
done here. I learned about the people who live here and why they live
here. I was blown away by all the knowledge I received. As my mind
was processing it, I was trying to put my thoughts into words and sentences,
but was unable to do so. I realized that I am still too close, that it is
all too new, and that maybe one day farther down the road, I will be able to
share this knowledge, this understanding and convey this way of life to others
who are outside of Northern Ireland.
But right now, they are still only thoughts and I can not yet put them into
words.
September
26, 2003
Thank Goodness it’s Friday!
Had my second driving lesson today. Went very well. I drove all
over Belfast. I’m getting the hang of the gears now, so that’s
good. I keep getting a little too close to the curb, though, b/c I’m not
used to having to allow for space on my left (b/c the steering wheel is on the
other side of the car).
The driving instructor dropped me off near Jay’s place, and I visited with him
for a few hours. I had wanted to take a shower before I went over there
b/c I smelled like baby puke, but I didn’t have time, so oh well. I went
straight from work to my driving lesson, to Jay’s. I stopped at a store
to buy a sandwich (when it’s 5:00 p.m. and you haven’t had lunch, you tend to
get a little hungry) but the only vegetarian one they had was egg and
tomato. Now, I don’t like egg, but I was REALLY hungry, so I thought I’d
be able to grin and bear it, but no. It is now sitting here on my kitchen
counter and maybe Peter, my German housemate, will eat it.
We are having a “gathering” here at the house tonight. Peter’s friends
just arrived. Suzanne’s friends will be arriving soon. They called
about twenty minutes ago from the airport. My friend is not coming b/c he
is tucked away in bed as he has an important appointment very early tomorrow
morning.
I will be going to sleep very soon, as I have to get up early for my trip to
Giant’s Causeway. I have to be at the hostel at 9:00 a.m. Better
get some shut eye.
Lots of love,
Sabrina :-)
September 27, 2003
Ahh...Saturday!
It's nearly noon and I've just woken up. I was supposed to take a trip to
Giant's Causeway today, but I decided against it. One, I wanted to sleep
and two, I want to take a class, so I'm going to spend my money on that.
I phoned up the hostel and let them know, so all was fine.
Suzanne's American friends arrived last night. They've walked into the
city. Peter's German friend is still staying here, but he'll be moving
into his flat today (I think).
Our party last night went well. It was mostly German males, but they
enjoyed themselves. I only said hello and then went to bed, anticipating
my early start this morning, but that didn't stop me from wanting to sleep late
today! Jay was telling me how I need to take a multivitamin because my iron is
probably low which makes the oxygen not flow around your blood as well or
something, which in turn makes you tired. I also really lack B12 b/c of
my vegetarianism. I am not getting enough protein here. At least in
the co-op we had like the tofu and Seitan for protein. I'm having none of
that here. I'll try and be more vigilant about getting that in.
Well, now Peter has told me that his guest needs to make just two very short
phone calls, so he needs me to get off the Internet. Ah, the joys of
group living.
See you guys later!
Love,
Sabrina :-)
September 28, 2003
My driving lesson this afternoon went really
well! I drove up the mountain and I learned how to do a down hill
start. It was super. I was going around round abouts and making
right turns. I am still getting too close to the curb on the passenger
side, though. Oh well, I’ll just have to keep practicing.
Our houseguests are still here. And I hate to say it, but they don’t know
how to flush a toilet. I mean I know British and Irish toilets are a bit
tricky and all, but if you can’t get it, ask the person with whom you’re
staying. Geez louise. Every time I go into the WC there is another
surprise waiting for me in the toilet.
Right now my housemates and their guests are somewhere on the mountain having a
picnic. Hope they watch out for the surprises the cows have waiting for
them!
I couldn’t go b/c I had my
driving lesson. It is a beautiful day, though. I really, really
need to do laundry and I was hoping to hang out with Jay since I will be on
residential next week, but he is moving today. I think I’ll just be going
out to look at the view from up here on the mountain every now and again.
It is not what you do, but what you enjoy. I enjoy the simple pleasures
in life.
I’m considering taking a course at Queen’s University here in Belfast. It is a
Counselling course that meets on Tuesday nights. I will miss the first
class b/c of residential, but I phoned
them up and they said that will be okay. Come to think of it, I’ll have to
go down to the university tomorrow to hand in my enrolment form and my
payment. Since I am poor, it will be £25. It meets for 10 weeks, I
do believe. It is focused on Carl Rogers and the person centered
approach. I studied this in psychology and it is was quite good. It
will be interesting to study it more in depth. This is at the lifelong
learning centre, so you don’t need specific qualifications or whatever.
After having loads and loads of sleep yesterday, I feel rested today.
After I wrote on my website about having gotten up at noon, I ate and then went
back to sleep until 4:45 p.m. I spent the rest of the day in and out of
bed. It was lovely. I was thinking that on weekends, I’m all about
the “id” and that, for me, means sleeping a lot.
Today, though, that means staying close to home, enjoying the view and taking
care of myself.
See you soon.
Lots of love,
Sabrina :-)
September 29, 2003
Last night I was
really upset and crying b/c I was so nervous about the upcoming
residential. I swore that all my co-workers thought I was crap at my
job. It wasn’t even that I thought I was bad at my job, I was just so
worried and concerned that THEY thought I was horrible at my job. Anyhow,
I phoned up Jay to try and get some perspective in this, and he tried his best,
but he was busy working on his Master’s course work and couldn’t soothe me for
long. This just made me feel even more like crap b/c I started thinking
that I’m just a liability to everyone. Well, I cried for a bit longer
before finally falling asleep.
Funnily, enough, today I felt super. Everyone else was stressing out
about the residential, but I was cool as a cucumber. I had gotten all
that out the night before. Strangely enough, though, I think people get
annoyed at calmness when they are agitated.
I went to visit Jay since I will be gone for the rest of the week. I
swore after last night he was going to dump me, but he assured me that was not
the case and now all is well.
Off to residential I go…
Love,
Sabrina :-)
September 30, 2003
Today we leave for
residential. I don't think I've mentioned this before, but this is like a
holiday for a group of families. We take eight mummies and twenty-two
children to a place in the country for a three day holiday. There are six
child care workers for the twenty-two kids. We will be working
twenty-four/seven from Tuesday morning until Friday morning. We will get
back Friday afternoon. They tell us we will be super duper tired, and
that it will be an amazing amount of work and that we are there for the
children and thus might not be able to care for ourselves in the form of sleep,
proper meals, or breaks, but that it will be a great experience.
I'm sure we will bond with the children in a way that we haven't yet in our
weekly or bi-weekly meetings with them, so it will be a positive thing for that
aspect of the work. Whether or not I can handle not taking care of myself
for three to four days is another story altogether. I'm planning on
writing about it when we get back, so there won't be entries for the next few
days. See you on Friday!
Lots of love,
Sabrina :-)