So being unemployed in Europe in the best thing that has ever happened to me. I've never had a situation before where the job I am leaving is not only paying me for holidays that I have earned but also for holidays I would have earned throughout the year up until there fiscal year-end date of September 30th. I feel like that Enron guy getting a pay check of a million dollars to leave the company. I think the spring is finally arriving in Ireland, the weather has started to get alot warmer lately and if April is like it was last year, we'll see the hottest days of the year in a few weeks. Before I head back to America I have one last trip planned to see all my family in Blackpool and Leeds, and also one big weekendout on the town planned for London. Since I have been here I've been to London twice but didn't spend any significant time there, this time it's 4 days of havoc. Some clubbing, sightseeing, shopping, and perhaps a show in the west end. Thats all the ska for now anyway.

Ska- Irish slang meaning news,details, information, etc.   ¶ 12:08 PM

  Happy St. Patricks Day! I was out watching the parade in Cork, couldn't really see much over the tall drunk Irish lads in front of me who were wearing green hats that were about 2 feet tall. Apparently the St. Patricks Day Parades in New York City and Boston are the biggest in the world and even the ones in Sydney and Melbourne are getting to be really big events. For a country with only 4 million people they sure do spread there culture all over the world.
In other news it has become official that I am going back to America for atleast the summer, and then if I return to Europe next fall it will be to the UK. I gave in my notice to work about a week ago, and I actually can't wait to be finished working. My job was suppose to be something different then it ended up being, I thought that working with a small company I would have been able to do alot of things differently in my title as regional manager, but it was a fancy title without any benefits. I won't really miss working here in Ireland but I will miss just about everything else. In the time that I have been here I have become really attached to the way of life, my friends, and being able to travel back and forth to England really cheaply on RyanAir. If things had worked out differently I would love to stay in Ireland and move to Dublin, but under the way things are currently thats not possible unless I started over and found another company in Ireland to sponsor me and pay for a work permit which could take months. I'm reminded of a conversation that I had with a friend a few years ago, and at the end of the conversation he said to me if you don't like the United States so much you should just leave. I wish it was that easy to do, because i woudln't be in the situation I'm in right now.  ¶ 1:22 PM

  This past weekend in Dublin, Wales and Ireland played each other in the 6 Nations Rugby tournament. The city was full of drunk Welsh people in every pub and every resturant, they seemed quite obnoxious to be honest. The majority of them were wearing the Welsh flag on thier bodies somewhere, whether it was draped around them like a giant diaper or worn on there backs like a cape. The fact that Wales won must have had a huge impact on there celebrating I can imagine, because its normally the Irish who are bad behaved, drunk and disorderly after Rugby matches. Next week, the English and Irish play each other in the final week of the tournament, Wales has already virtually won so the outcome of this match will just be for bragging rights for the next 12 months.
Since I got back from London in Mid-January I have been working constantly and now in March I have 4 days off but not as a part of my personal holidays, but because Ireland has such a high amount of bank holidays. There is St. Patricks Day, Good Friday, Easter Monday, and just a random holiday on a friday, but don't worry I'm not complaining about days off at all.  ¶ 10:02 AM

  Even before I moved to Limerick I had heard of how bad it was in terms of crime and lack of entertainment. Well now after 2 months of living here and reading every single week about the spike in violent crimes and experiencing the pubs and night clubs I have decided I really don't want to live in Limerick. I'm the type of person who likes to try everything once before deciding whether it is for me or not. Unfortunately the trial and error process takes so much time that it is not really convinient to try absoluetly everything before making a decision one way or another. Having said all of this I have come to a drastic decision and that is my decision to leave Ireland even though I would love to live in Dublin it is simply not possible at the moment given the current immigration laws. The company which sponsors you to remain in a country has the overall right to decide how long you stay there and where you go as well as what you do. Talk about corporations in America having too much power, in Ireland I am at the mercy of the company I work for at the moment, and anyone who knows me, knows that personal independence is far too important to me to give it up just like that.
In the past 2 years I went from living in Boston to Cork City to Limerick with the latter being the smallest town I have ever lived in and I'm not a small town person. I have to plan my next move very carefully because my overall intention is still to remain living in Europe whether that is the UK, Sweden, France, Holland, or Germany I don't know yet and I'm glad I can't see into the future, because all the surprises along the way have made for interesting stories.  ¶ 9:53 AM