Living In Ireland?

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My husband and I are here looking at living in Ireland.We have vacationed here once before and thought it was beautiful and the people so friendly.Loking at it through the eyes of being an expat here makes it a litle different.We have not been doing the "fun ' things that we did during our Dun Loarghrie(Forgive the spelling),Dublin vacation in the winter of 2002 or 2003(sorry for the foggy memory.)We are looking at schools for our two teens and houses that will make us feel at home for at least 3 years and likely more.EXPENSIVE and sparce is what I have to say about housing for our family as well as the cost of living.And EXHAUSTING is what I have to say about this trip. Maybe it is the fact that this is the longest time that we have been away from our children and the grandparents at age 60 and early demise of health just can't handle our pretty self sufficient teens.Maybe the lack of family support is why it rarely bothers us to pick up and leave for greener pastures so often.

Cork is a rainy county in Ireland and it was prettywarm when we arrived.As an American I am used to using my air conditioner almost all year long.No such thing here...and it has been hard to adjust to.It appears that we will make the move here very soon and all I can say is that I will be bringing my Haier stand alone air conditioner as one of my comforts from home and will likely buy another one to bring also.Nasal spray with eucalyptus is sold everywhere along with headache and allergy meds.So,it is not just an American thing.I wonder why ceiling fans have not at least caught on here? I see many migraines ahead as the barometric pressure has been proven to cause these and I have had my share in the two weeks that we have been here.As lovely as Ireland is ;I won't be upset if our assignment here falls through .A lot of that has to do with being the timing of this offer.

I have been enjoying a Guinness each evening.It is better in Ireland than the exported version .The reason for that is that pasteurization is required for it to be exported to the USA.The area that we are looking at living in is Midleton.It is kid friendly ,mom and dad friendly and is just a beautiful ,friendly ,cozy part of County ,Cork.I was surprised that I fell for this area because I have always considered myself a city girl.But Midleton has all the flavor of the country mixed with the convenience of city life .It is also very close to the all girls school that we hope that our daughters will attend .Perfect...but we will leave it to higher authority as to whether we make this move or not.It is something that we can do but we need to do it now before all our boxes from China are unpacked.We are a little weary now with all the moves in my short life and don't want to get too used to America and then have to readjust.We will see what happens ...

We did visit Kinsale and it is a lovely sea village that is sort of touristy for Ireland .I wish we had time to see Dingle as it is pretty close.But if we move here ;there will be time to go there.As one of the school principals told my husband "your lady just might fall for you all over again if you take her there"and then he turned beet red.Sounds like a romantic weekend will be in order should the move become reality.

Back to the USA in two days and I miss my teens so much.They grow up so fast and the option of transition year adds another year to their lives with their parents and each other.This will be a very sentimental assignment for us as it will be their last expat assignment together and with us.The years have flown by...

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