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Published: April 25th 2009
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The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly
To be honest I was starting to get pretty down lately thinking that I wouldn't be able to find work and inevitably have to return to good ol' Canada. Not that I don't love Canada and everyone I left behind I just had a lot of dreams for Ireland and the adventures that I could have had while I was here. So the thought of those dreams only being partially realized was a complete let down. But on Sunday night my roommates best friend Pepa dropped by and he brought me a present. The present being a beautiful white quartz stone he had found while camping with my other flatmate Milan over easter weekend. He said, through his broken english, that he thought the stone might bring me some good luck. And the very next day my flat mate Milan came home from work and informed me that one of his coworkers from another location came in to his work and told him that she had given her two weeks notice. So Milan called his manager, who is also the manager of the other location, and told him about me. Thankfully this
Milan's Poor Car
The teenagers in the background running away from the scene of the crime. manager agreed to meet me and upon meeting me he agreed to hire me. SO YAY JOB!!! YAY STAYING IN IRELAND!!YAY DREAMS!! So I start work this coming wednesday. I will be working as a Barista in a very popular espresso shop called Insomnia. The staff and management all seem really nice and to top it all off it is a 3 minute walk from my apartment... highly convenient. I am unbelievably relieved. I ran straight from my interview to Milan's work with a huge smile on my face to tell him that I was going to be his newest coworker. Then I went home and did a happy dance... ok I did a few happy dances.
So that covers the good and heres the bad. Our one flat mate seems to have developed a pretty severe drinking problem. He was on a drinking binge since the Thursday before easter and we were all pretty much fed up with it. Then rent day comes and he has the nerve to ask us all to cover his rent for the month. We all said 'hells no' and that he had till the next day to get money from his sister/aunt/friend/strangers
off the street/whatever. He failed to get the money so we kicked his butt to the curb. Which was nice because none of us liked him but it means that we need to split his portion of the rent between us!!! But we are working on either the land lord dropping the rent to match the current market values or finding a new place all together that will be cheaper for us. So that was a mix of good and bad.
And that brings us to the UGLY. So my flatmate Milan has his car here from Czech that he parks on the street infront of our building, which is a really busy area of road with lots of people out all the time. Every day Milan goes to check his car to make sure it is ok and moves it often to a new spot along the road so that no one thinks that it is abandoned. So Thursday evening he went to check his car as he usually does and all was well. The next day, Milan, Karel, and myself were on our way to view a house that we had liked. We decided to take the
short way through the poor neighbourhood as there was 3 of us and it was the middle of the day so we figured it would be safe. We were crossing a bridge when Karel stopped dead in his tracks and said something to Milan in Czech. Milan looked over the bridge and then back at me and said "Katie call Garda (the police) that is my car" so I look over the bridge and see a car that looks just like Milans crashed into the riverbank with the doors torn off and two teenagers crawling around inside of it with tools attempting to get the cd player out. I, very stunned, said over and over "Milan that can't be your car you just checked on it last night.. it was fine last night..." and Milan just kept saying "Katie please call garda for me" (as I have better English and it would have been difficult for him to communicate with the police when he was so upset). So when I finally came out of the disbelief I called the Garda and yelled at the kids to get away from the car. They quickly ran away but stayed close by most
likely hoping we would leave so that they could finish their job. So as we desperately wait for the Garda in complete shock the kids start coming back to the car so I bust out my camera and start taking pictures of them at which point they see me and start throwing rocks at me. I, bullheaded, don't leave as I will not let them continue to ravage my friends car and they eventually run away. We stand our ground near the car protecting what little is left of it for the Garda. The teenagers wait down the block still thinking we are going to leave but I stare them down, maybe foolishly but I did it none the less, and they slowly retreat further and further away. About 30 minutes later the Garda show up and they explain that the police had actually found the car at 11pm the night before when the fellow who lived next to the river called to complain that some teenagers had driven a car through his fence into the river but because the plates and all the papers for the car were missing when the police arrived they were unable to track down the owner so they had left the car there until the wreckers could get in to remove it. So I asked the Garda to stay with us while I crawled under the fence (that the city had come by earlier that day to weld back on) to go and see if I could find anything in Milan's car that he could salvage. The Garda agreed to stay and watch out for the teenagers while I sadly rummaged through the picked over car. All that was left was a few bungie cords, some candles, a bottle of antifreeze, and a little stuffed lion toy. The Garda said that there was really nothing they could do other than file another report as this was a bad neighbourhood and they would never be able to figure out who did it. So we thanked them for waiting with us and grabbed up the few trinkets left from the car and took the sad walk home.
So that was this week. A mixed bag of emotions to say the least.
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Cathie Lutes
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What a week is right.
Well you guys did have an eventfull week. I must say I was so happy about you getting the job I cried tears of joy. I was so disturbed about Milans vehicle I cried. However I laughed as I could just picture you pulling out that camera then getting stones thrown at you.. you are very bullheaded - everyone now knows if they didn't know already - no punks better mess with our Katie. I hope Milans week is better this week.... as it should be he did a good turn by you..job it is great!!!!