Three Months Down. Am I irish yet??

So last time we spoke I was raging off my birthday weekend and sorry to disappoint but I haven't had anything to exciting since then. Let me fill you in.

I can't really remember anything too exciting form the weekend of the 8th except that I went to Kildare Outlets and saw some pretty towers and Cathedrals. However, i started helping out another family in my free times. They're friends with my current family and there's 3 of them, all boys, ages 6,4 and 6 months! So I'm basically doing double duty at two different houses but it's a lovely change of scenery!

Then, last weekend, Helena and Hermance csme all the way to county Louth to see the ever fascinating place I live. I picked them up at the bus station and we walked about 10 mi Utes into Ardee and had lunch at one of my favorite spots in town. We caught up on the past week and booked our hostel for New Year's Eve in Dubs! Then we got a taxi back to Tallanstown which only cost 9 euros! When we got there, my host mom had dinner ready along with snacks and drinks for us to have for the night! She left us the house and said she would be back to drop us into Dundalk for our night out. So we went to dundalk so I could show them the night life and I think we had enough fun for how small the town is haha. Then we got our favorite Taco Fries and hailed a taxi. We said we were going to tallanstown and he said 30 euros so we were like heck yeah! Then when I was giving him directions he was like "this isn't tallanstown, I should have dropped you guys on the road" and I was like what kind of person drops girls on the side of the road. How rude. So we ran out of the car as fast as we could and went in to eat our taco chips. Then the next day, we struggled to get them a ride to the bus because no one was available and for some dumb reason taxis don't run on Sunday's. Ober it. But it all worked out and we had a grand weekend over all.

Then the next week was uneventful but Helena and I went to Sligo on Saturday. Worst idea ever. We didn't get in til half 3 and barely had time to do anything. It was a 5 hour bus ride and we were just wrecked. But the lady at our hostel was so nice! We wanted Chinese take away so she ordered some with us and paid our delivery fee! That was our favorite thing about Sligo. We went out to a few places that were playing whack music and the girls were sloppy and falling all over the places. And to make it worse I bought new shoes and my ankles were shaking by the end of the night. I did get a cute new Jean jacket for 5 euro out of it so it wasn't completely a fail. Now, if I never go back to Sligo in my life It wouldn't phase me. Now I'm back with the new family until tomorrow and Helena, Julie and I are off to try Cork and Kerry in one weekend!

3 months have flown by and I'm loving almost every minute of it. I've got 9 months to go so I'm not letting it go to waste. December is supposed to be icy and colder than ever so if anyone wants to send me some warm clothes I would love you forever! Now in honor of my 3 months I will share some of the lingo I have learned!

Now- said in front of a sentence or just by itself randomly.
Come here- not actually meaning come here but said before telling a story or asking a question.
Loads- a lot, hella
Wee- little
Bit- pieces as in "i can't find the other bits"
Grand- great! Fantastic!
Fabulous or lovely- commonly used to describe food or smell or look
Sweets- candy
Chips-fries
Crisps- chips
Your man/woman- talking about a person as in a pronoun
Give out- to scold
Nappy- diaper
Wellies- rain boots
Pram- stroller
Boot- car trunk
Buns- cupcakes or muffins
Biscuits "bickies"- cookies
Press- cupboard or drawer
Cooker- oven or stove
Plat- hair braid
Plaster- bandaid
Wrecked- exhausted
Fecking- I bet you can guess what that means

These are just a few of the words I have added to my vocab!
Stay tuned ya'll!

This is what a hostel in Sligo looks like

 When they came to visit 

 The front yard at the other house

Babies love to sleep

Aodhan before his haircut

 A beautiful tower in Kildare

Kildare cathedral 

Kildare

It's chrismas time!

Nobody likes you when you're 23??

Wow! What an amazing birthday!
They say no one likes you when you're 23 but I was definitely feeling the love this weekend.
However, the week prior, I worked about 70 hours so I was in great need of this weekend.

So my host mom had a crazy work schedule last week. Where she worked two night shifts then had a day off then worked two day shifts so The kids missed her too much and took it out on me haha.
The older one, Aodhan had the week off of school because they have a bank holiday for Halloween over here. So I basically had the kids from Saturday until Wednesday and it was the longest week of my life. I haven't has Internet for a week and a half because I took up all the data on the mobile wifi. Oops. However, the weekend definitely made up for it.

So on Halloween I took a bus into Kilkenny to kick off my birthday weekend! My first bus broke down on e motorway so we had to wait for another one to get us. Then, I missed my connection so I had to hang out in Dublin for a few hours. Which wasn't too bad! I got to Kilkenny at about half 6 and was waiting for Hermance and Helena to meet me there. While I was waiting' I made my classic 'gingerbread woman' Halloween costume and hung out in the pub that was a part of our hostel. They got there a little after 8 and we had dinner and then got ready for the night!

We went to a couple pubs before we found one that was having a Halloween party and playing th best live music ever! And we were basically the only girls there so that was something that kept out attention haha. We ended up meeting a group of guys from Armagh wich is up north who were there celebrating a stagg. The three of us left to find some taco fries and then turned in for the night about 1 o'clock.

The next morning we got up to start our day! We had a delicious breakfast at a cafe down the street. Then we walked to visit Kilkenny Castle. Wow it was Gorgeous! We took a tour and got to see the history of the castle and see some of the original architecture. It was such an amazing experience. After the tour, we went down to lunch and then headed out to find something else to do. We walked down the street and found the Smithwick's factory which of course we had to take a tour of. At the end, we each got a pint of beer which of course I didn't drink haha. Then I went and got a pre-birthday mani-pedi and we got dinner. That night we went out again and got lots of free drinks since it was almost my birthday! Then I made the girls walk all over the city basically so our feet hurt just a wee bit by the end of the night. We again got some taco chips and resided back to our hostel at about half two in the morning. Which was by then, my Birthday!!

Sunday morning we woke up and remembered it was my birthday! We slept in til about half 10 and then Hermance had to leave us because she had work the next day. Helena and I realized we had done everything already so by 3 in the afternoon we were both tired and ready for a nap. We slept a good bit and then woke up feeling refreshed and ready for the night. We went to dinner and a pub which left us feeling excited about the night! We went back to the hostel and I put on my birthday dress and Tiara and was feeling ready. We went to our favorite pubs and found some guys to give us advice on what to do. They basically followed us the whole night but I wasn't complaining. Something about the curly red hair man. You would think they would see enough red hair in this country but apparently not. We went back to our favorite live music pub where they sang me happy birthday and we ended the night in the main club in Kilkenny called Morissons. I had an amazing birthday night.

When I got back to my house the next day, my host family had a red velvet cake and presents waiting for me! It was such a nice surprise. The cards and letters I recieved from my family back home made my birthday even more special. Thank you mom, dad, papa, grandma, Oregon Lampsons and the Ericksons for my cards and gifts! And thank you to my girls Hermance and Helena who came and celebrated with me. Thank you for all the birthday wishes. It was truly amazing!

Make New Friends Whom You Meet Through The Old.

Every day I'm in this gorgeous country I fall even more in love.
In the past few weeks I took a full day walking tour around Dublin (on accident) and I went to Galway for a night away. I gained two more friends and have planned for my birthday weekend in a week and a half! Oh and if you haven't heard, I'm going to Spain with Helena for Christmas!!!
   
I honestly am not sure how I feel about Dublin. We took a bus in to go shopping and we ended up visiting just about every landmark there is there. SO, if you asked me where a certain building was in Dublin, I could probably direct you to it. We saw the castle, city hall, Saint Patrick's (Padraig) Cathedral and some places where Vikings used to live. I swear we walked for maybe 6 hours of the total 8 hours we were there and I have seen enough of Dublin for a lifetime. I'm ready to go there for some fun!
   
Galway on the other hand was grand! We only stayed for one wee night because most of us had to be back on Monday to watch the kids but that night was pretty fun. We stayed in a hostel right in the city center but it was more like a hotel. We had our own bathroom in the room and the mattresses were pretty comfortable. Get this, it was called SNOOZLES. hehe. I met up with Helena again and she brought to other Au Pairs, Jules and Hermance, who are from France! Their English was also really good and the language barrier is almost unapparent. We did some shopping and took a free train tour around the city which was absolutely gorgeous. I wish we were there for longer but the kids come first!

We were there to celebrate Hermance's 20th birthday and we were all carded for the first time ever in Ireland! We went to the Coyote Bar which is Ireland's take on Coyote Ugly! The bartenders even dance on the bars and there was a huge poster of Tyra Banks and the rest of the cast from the movie. Of course I was doing all the line dances to the country songs they were playing so people kept telling me to get on the bar but that was not an option haha. There were loads of stagg and hen parties there and I actually met another person from County Louth who didn't believe that I live here! haha. 

I'm planning to go with the girls to do something for Halloween and then the next two nights we will celebrate my birthday! I was thinking maybe to do my "ginger bread wo-man" costume here since it was such a hit in the states and Halloween just started to become a big thing for the Irish. The kids here get two weeks off of school for Halloween because it's a "bank holiday" which is pretty great for the kids. I've had the house to myself the last two days and the peace and quiet has been nice but I miss the constant smiles from the kids. They'll be back tomorrow tho and I'll get to take care of them all weekend. 

I would say I'm becoming a tourist but there's loads of other places I need to see! My birthday is on November 2nd and it takes approximately 8-14 days for packages or letters to get here so if anyone wants to send me a birthday gift you better hop to it! haha just kidding! 

I doubt anything eventful will happen between now and Halloween/my birthday weekend but if it does I will definitely write about it! Oh and I still find it hard to understand the different Irish accents sometimes, but I'm getting there! haha. And for those of you wondering about Nathan, I tried multiple times to see him again but got no return for my efforts so off to the next!

Stay tuned ya'll!!

Eyre Square, Galway

Obviously I wasn't prepared for the rain in Galway

Helena and I in our room at Snoozles!

My new French friends, Hermance and Jules

She loves her Icecream

Cillian loves to swing

Trying to get a picture of all 3 of them.

Cillian eats everything

A panoramic view of the Dublin Castle.

More of the Castle

Trinity Uni in Dublin

There's plenty of water here!

Belfast was a Bel-Blast!

My first weekend away was so class like!

I met up with another Au Pair who lives about two hours west of me and we met at the bus station in Belfast. Her name is Helena and she's from Spain but her English is AMAZING!

Belfast is also part of Northern Ireland so it is considered part of the UK so they use Sterling there so I literally had to learn how to use a different form of currency AGAIN! 

So we decided to stay at a hostel because it was super cheap like. We each paid about 20 Euros each night which would probs add up to about 35 dollars a night. Our room was literally only big enough for one bunk bed and a sink but it wasn't like we were in there much. Everything was in walking distance it was grand!

The first night we were there we went to a pub called Laverys and we were just checking out the Belfast scene. Its great being from America because I never run out of stuff to talk about and for some reason, Irish people love the American accent! I'm definitely not hating all this attention. But there were these two guys standing next to us claiming that some chick was trying to rob them and they were freaking out. I ended up starting up a chat with them and this guy Nathan ended up being hillarious. He had me laughing all night! Helena was definitely appreciating the love she was getting for being Spanish as well. I can tell that she and I are going to be lifelong friends.

After Laverys we went to a night club right across the street and it was so crowded like. I love to dance but there was no room on the dance floor! We ended up staying out pretty late and then when we got back to the hostel we had to show our room keys to get in and the staff guy named Gary started up a chat with us. He works the night shift so I'm sure he enjoyed getting the opportunity to talk to two foreigners. He ended up being super cool and saved us from this creepy dude who was like 40 and staying at a hostel. Like who does that?

The next day we only slept til about half ten and then we went to go eat food. Then this tour guide approaches us and asks if we wanted to take a hop-on hop off-tour for 10 pounds and I was like hells yes. Especially since none of the shops were opened til 1 anyways. This tour literally took us around the whole city of Belfast and we got to go to the Titanic museum! Definitely my favorite thing by far. We also drove by Queens University which is absolutely gorgeous. Oh and we drove by the Parliament building. NBD. Then we went back and took naps and got ready for the night!

We went back to Benedicts which was the night club before but it closed at Midnight because it was a Sunday. So we ended up going to another bar/club called Filthy McNasty's and that's not a joke. We ended up just being able to meet new people and got a free cab ride home! Gary was working again and he gave us a mini tour of the hostel at 3am and showed us one of the rooms with like 12 bunks in it. I was like this would not be fun to sleep in. We checked out the next morning at 11 and I walked with Helena to the bus station and then hung out with Nathan until my bus left at 4. Overall it was such an amazing weekend!

However, I took the wrong bus and missed the last connecting bus to my town so I had to take a taxi all the way from Newry to Tallanstown which would have been like 45 minutes. It only cost be 30 quid which is about 38 Euros. I guess it was the American accent haha.

When I got home, the kids were so excited to see me and I realized how much I missed them! Cillian crawled over to me with a huge smile and in the two days I was gone, his walking has improved so much! Tonight is my first night by myself with them so I have to rock Cillian back to sleep every time he wakes up so I'm a little nervous about that and I'll probably be awake by 7 since the kids like to get up early haha. So wish me luck! 

Every day I fall more in love with this family and this country. I am literally so blessed.

Stay tuned ya'll!

The parliament building!

Just hopped on the bus!

TITanic museum!

Our favorite staffer at the hostel, Gary

Saturday Night

Grand Opera house

The view from our room

Este es Helena

A picture of the babies sleeping

Queens University!

Dressed in their Sunday best at a football match :)

Is It That Obvious I'm American?

Seriously!
Ireland gets better every day. I'm telling you. I really do live out in the country tho. Like today they were fertilizing the neighbor's field so we thought that one of the kids had missed the toilet or something hahaha.

I bet you're all wondering how I'm getting on here right? Let me tell you, I've never truly been happier in my post-college life. (Don't freak out mom and dad, I will come home, EVENTUALLY). Most of my weekdays are spent home with the kids helping Sinead out when I can or just chillin out maxing, relaxing all cool. My favorite thing to do tho is run around outside with the kids because the weather has been class all month! (Class means great or awesome, just some lingo I'm picking up hehe). 

On the weekends tho, thats when I really let go, haha not really but I do try to get out when I can.
Ana, who is another Au Pair up the road from me, has really become an awesome amiga. Oh and Eugenia who lives just about 20 minutes away from us. These are the girls that I get together with on the weekend and they are both from Spain! So thank you Sra. Binney, you would be so proud of me! They help me better my spanish while I help them learn better English. they are just two really awesome gals. Last weekend we went shopping in Newry which is part of Northern Ireland so its part of the UK and I was technically in another country. It was awesome. Then we went to Carlingford for the evening on Saturday and went into one of the pubs and met this awesome group of guys who invited us to their table and the whole not we all were just having laughs and it was just really cool to have all these people interested in who I am and where I come from. It was also great getting to hear that they had all been friends since childhood haha. They also said they want us to come back but we'll see if they'll hold up on that offer when the time comes.

This weekend, my host family went away for the weekend so I had the house to myself. On Friday it wasn't too bad because I went out again with Ana and Eugenia in Dundalk and we went to a couple pubs. We were sitting there sitting on some drinks and all of a sudden "Yeah" by Usher comes on and since I know all the words by heart, I was having a field day just dancing how Brittany does and I could tell there were eyes on me. That's because I was literally the only one out of 100 people maybe dancing. haha. But that's just how I do. So I went up and talked to a couple people and they told me they could tell I was American because Irish girls wouldn't be brave enough, no crazy enough to show off her awesome dance moves. haha. They assured me it was a good crazy tho. 

Guys here are way shy and definitely not bold like Americans. But its a good thing because its forcing me to go up to people and make the first move which I guess shows how confident and independent I am. I guess it also gives me a boost of confidence knowing that for some of these people, I'm the first and maybe only American girl they will ever meet so I know that there will always be something to talk about. I haven't found my husband yet but hey, I've only been here for a month so I still have plenty of time hehe. 

I'm literally so excited for what my future in Ireland holds and I'm loving every minute of it.
Stay tuned ya'll.
Love,
Brittany 

Ps It's 5:45 pm here and 9:45am in California

Best hott chocolate of my life

Yay new friends

Hair twinsies

Have fun in Canada Tony!

The backyard from my room

Mi nueva amigas

Dundalk is already ready for Halloween!

Eugenia and Ana and our Warrenpoint homies