european food....

Well back to more cheerful topics

Here are my favorite foods from our journeys, in no particular order

Bitterballen  (Amsterdam)- (minced meat, spices, rolled in a ball, breaded, fried... yumm
Foccacia ( Italy)- In the US this is usually a fancy bread, in italy it is basically pizza crust with olive oil, balsamic, rosemary, salt ... pure goodness
Gelato-(Italy and Germany) yes it is good, and also cheap
Belgian waffles (Belgium), yes in Belgium are better
Beer- (Belgium, Germany) yes it is good, even there NA beer is good
croque monsieur (France) not sure how I never had this before, grilled cheese, smothered in cheese
baguettes, croissants (France) available at the local boulangerie
Lamb shank (Ireland)- free roaming happy  sheep make good food
Sticky Toffee pudding (Ireland)- , no reason we should have this in the states
Open fire pit meat (Germany)- the meat at the Christmas markets was divine
Cornish Pasty (UK) - anything in puff pastry is good on me, the original hot pocket

will need to return to continue to explore the culinary adventure of europe

Rob

some of the little things to miss

A list of the little things

will miss

• authors/books only available here (authors like Jaqueline Wilson, Enid Blyton, series like Dirtie Bertie)
• Haribo
• bike/train commute to work
• morning coffee break
• walking to school
• farm fresh eggs (no need to have chickens at home)
• no tipping at pub

Won't miss

• separate hot and cold water taps
• having to plan for hot water by setting a timer on the boiler
• no free ATMs, charges for every card use
• unadvertised events, leagues- most everything seems to be word of mouth
• school projects sent home with verbal instructions only
• wind (would be great if I were a windsurfer...)

I am sure there's more...

Rob

deep thoughts, bittersweet departure

Well after 2 years it has been quite an adventure

People have been asking 'are you excited to go home?' My answer is that it is very mixed, bittersweet. We have had some great experiences here in Ireland and met some wonderful people. I have experienced as much in 2 years as we did in 5 years in England when I was a kid (thanks Ryan Air for that).
Some different choices at the start (house and school) and we may have decided to stay for a longer time. Would I recommend this to other people?  I would say absolutely (especially if you get an expat deal), but obviously don't make the 2 avoidable mistakes on housing and schooling that we made.

Here is a list of some of the things that went well and that we will miss:

• School trips (bog jumping for Audrey, Tayto park this year for Jack)
• GAA (Gaelic football, hurling, camogie) all great craic
• Soccer (disorganized but the games were competitive and fun to watch)
• Holidays (so many places, once in a lifetime opportunities: Venice, Paris, Lisbon,...)
• Donegal's catch brand breaded haddock and Bachelor's beans with tomato sauce (our regular Friday evening meal)
• Adult friends- Sarah in particular has made some great friends (old and young), perhaps would have made more if Jack were in the correct class. I have enjoyed being a sideline 'soccer' dad (ditto for gaelic sports also...) and interacting with the sideline parents.

Some of the things that went wrong /we won't miss:

• House with carpet throughout downstairs, no wood floor or tile in entry area - odd choice for a country with lots of rain and sports on wet, muddy pitches.
• Jack assigned to wrong grade- he was placed in Senior Infants when he should have been in first class.  This has been a two year irritant that ultimately is one of the top reasons for our departure. Advice to anyone moving abroad with kids - make sure your kid is in the right grade according to age.
• Long days - you would think this would be a good thing, but when kids are knocking on the door to see if your kids can play at 9:30p,  it is a bit extreme. Convincing your kids to go to bed when the sun is a long way from setting is not easy. For those in Portland take your midsummer sunset and add an hour plus (and of course mornings start equally early).
• Sweets- They say that the US is a fat country, but sweets on Friday and even more sweets on holidays (Easter, Halloween, Christmas) start to make the US not look quite as bad.  Here it is balanced by an overall more active lifestyle among kids. 
• Food selection- don't get me wrong, we have had some great food here (see above), but we have been challenged to keep our meals varied.  
• Friends ... 
• for Audrey it took 1 1/2 years to start getting invited to birthday parties, Audrey had some local friends in the neighborhood who ended up drifting on after the first year, so no real local friends she hangs with.  
• For Jack, being in the wrong class meant lots of friends younger and less mature (and that is saying alot for an 8 year old boy). The friends he did make were by and large indoor kids. Which frustrated him because he would almost always choose to be outdoors. He also missed out on possible friendships in sports because all of those kids were a grade or sometimes two higher.
• Communion- Jack missed out on communion in 2 countries because of the grade SNAFU. It is hard enough getting him to church. To get him to go extra for communion will be a challenge.
• Distance from friends and family- While I am used to long distance family, Sarah and the kids are not. The kids would have loved to have their friends and cousins visit them (versus grown ups like Florida Thompsons, Chilcotts, and Lynns visiting us...Not that we didn't love seeing you all, just they wanted the kids to come too. 
• Expat- we did live in envy of Intel friends living the expat deal. Free lodging, utilities, cars, plus allowance means much more disposable income, less financial worry. Would have been a much sweeter deal if we could have enjoyed all of these experiences and made money at the same time. 

That is a heavy post, big sigh, some Irish scenery for a zen-like finish

One month left then back to the states.

Rob