Residential

September 30, 2003

Today we leave for residential.  I don't think I've mentioned this before, but this is like a holiday for a group of families.  We take eight mummies and twenty-two children to a place in the country for a three day holiday.  There are six child care workers for the twenty-two kids.  We will be working twenty-four/seven from Tuesday morning until Friday morning.  We will get back Friday afternoon.  They tell us we will be super duper tired, and that it will be an amazing amount of work and that we are there for the children and thus might not be able to care for ourselves in the form of sleep, proper meals, or breaks, but that it will be a great experience. 

I'm sure we will bond with the children in a way that we haven't yet in our weekly or bi-weekly meetings with them, so it will be a positive thing for that aspect of the work.  Whether or not I can handle not taking care of myself for three to four days is another story altogether.  I'm planning on writing about it when we get back, so there won't be entries for the next few days.  See you on Friday!

Lots of love,
Sabrina :-)

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Letting it out

September 29, 2003

Last night I was really upset and crying b/c I was so nervous about the upcoming residential.  I swore that all my co-workers thought I was crap at my job.  It wasn’t even that I thought I was bad at my job, I was just so worried and concerned that THEY thought I was horrible at my job.  Anyhow, I phoned up Jay to try and get some perspective in this, and he tried his best, but he was busy working on his Master’s course work and couldn’t soothe me for long.  This just made me feel even more like crap b/c I started thinking that I’m just a liability to everyone.  Well, I cried for a bit longer before finally falling asleep. 

Funnily, enough, today I felt super.  Everyone else was stressing out about the residential, but I was cool as a cucumber.  I had gotten all that out the night before.  Strangely enough, though, I think people get annoyed at calmness when they are agitated. 

I went to visit Jay since I will be gone for the rest of the week.  I swore after last night he was going to dump me, but he assured me that was not the case and now all is well. 

Off to residential I go…

Love,
Sabrina :-)

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Course and "Id"

September 28, 2003

My driving lesson this afternoon went really well!  I drove up the mountain and I learned how to do a down hill start.  It was super.  I was going around round abouts and making right turns.  I am still getting too close to the curb on the passenger side, though.  Oh well, I’ll just have to keep practicing.

Our houseguests are still here.  And I hate to say it, but they don’t know how to flush a toilet.  I mean I know British and Irish toilets are a bit tricky and all, but if you can’t get it, ask the person with whom you’re staying.  Geez louise.  Every time I go into the WC there is another surprise waiting for me in the toilet. 

Right now my housemates and their guests are somewhere on the mountain having a picnic.  Hope they watch out for the surprises the cows have waiting for them!  
I couldn’t go b/c I had my driving lesson.  It is a beautiful day, though.  I really, really need to do laundry and I was hoping to hang out with Jay since I will be on residential next week, but he is moving today.  I think I’ll just be going out to look at the view from up here on the mountain every now and again.  It is not what you do, but what you enjoy.  I enjoy the simple pleasures in life. 

I’m considering taking a course at Queen’s University here in Belfast. It is a Counselling course that meets on Tuesday nights.  I will miss the first class b/c of residential, but I phoned them up and they said that will be okay.  Come to think of it, I’ll have to go down to the university tomorrow to hand in my enrolment form and my payment.  Since I am poor, it will be £25.  It meets for 10 weeks, I do believe.  It is focused on Carl Rogers and the person centered approach.  I studied this in psychology and it is was quite good.  It will be interesting to study it more in depth.  This is at the lifelong learning centre, so you don’t need specific qualifications or whatever. 

After having loads and loads of sleep yesterday, I feel rested today.  After I wrote on my website about having gotten up at noon, I ate and then went back to sleep until 4:45 p.m.  I spent the rest of the day in and out of bed.  It was lovely.  I was thinking that on weekends, I’m all about the “id” and that, for me, means sleeping a lot. 
Today, though, that means staying close to home, enjoying the view and taking care of myself.

See you soon.
Lots of love,
Sabrina :-)

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B12

September 27, 2003

Ahh...Saturday!  It's nearly noon and I've just woken up.  I was supposed to take a trip to Giant's Causeway today, but I decided against it.  One, I wanted to sleep and two, I want to take a class, so I'm going to spend my money on that.  I phoned up the hostel and let them know, so all was fine. 

Suzanne's American friends arrived last night.  They've walked into the city.  Peter's German friend is still staying here, but he'll be moving into his flat today (I think).

Our party last night went well.  It was mostly German males, but they enjoyed themselves.  I only said hello and then went to bed, anticipating my early start this morning, but that didn't stop me from wanting to sleep late today! Jay was telling me how I need to take a multivitamin because my iron is probably low which makes the oxygen not flow around your blood as well or something, which in turn makes you tired.  I also really lack B12 b/c of my vegetarianism.  I am not getting enough protein here.  At least in the co-op we had like the tofu and Seitan for protein.  I'm having none of that here.  I'll try and be more vigilant about getting that in. 

Well, now Peter has told me that his guest needs to make just two very short phone calls, so he needs me to get off the Internet.  Ah, the joys of group living. 

See you guys later!
Love,
Sabrina :-)

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Driving lesson and Jay's house

September 26, 2003

Thank Goodness it’s Friday!

Had my second driving lesson today.  Went very well.  I drove all over Belfast.  I’m getting the hang of the gears now, so that’s good.  I keep getting a little too close to the curb, though, b/c I’m not used to having to allow for space on my left (b/c the steering wheel is on the other side of the car). 

The driving instructor dropped me off near Jay’s place, and I visited with him for a few hours.  I had wanted to take a shower before I went over there b/c I smelled like baby puke, but I didn’t have time, so oh well.  I went straight from work to my driving lesson, to Jay’s.  I stopped at a store to buy a sandwich (when it’s 5:00 p.m. and you haven’t had lunch, you tend to get a little hungry) but the only vegetarian one they had was egg and tomato.  Now, I don’t like egg, but I was REALLY hungry, so I thought I’d be able to grin and bear it, but no.  It is now sitting here on my kitchen counter and maybe Peter, my German housemate, will eat it.

We are having a “gathering” here at the house tonight.  Peter’s friends just arrived.  Suzanne’s friends will be arriving soon.  They called about twenty minutes ago from the airport.  My friend is not coming b/c he is tucked away in bed as he has an important appointment very early tomorrow morning. 

I will be going to sleep very soon, as I have to get up early for my trip to Giant’s Causeway.  I have to be at the hostel at 9:00 a.m.  Better get some shut eye. 

Lots of love,
Sabrina :-)

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Knowledge

September 25, 2003

Today was a very influential day.  I learned a lot about Belfast and the way things are done here.  I learned about the people who live here and why they live here.  I was blown away by all the knowledge I received.  As my mind was processing it, I was trying to put my thoughts into words and sentences, but was unable to do so.  I realized that I am still too close, that it is all too new, and that maybe one day farther down the road, I will be able to share this knowledge, this understanding and convey this way of life to others who are outside of Northern Ireland. 

But right now, they are still only thoughts and I can not yet put them into words. 

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Cows, Lidl and Country Music

September 24, 2003

Okay, cows smell.  And I don’t mean with their nose; - they stink.  You know how I know?  I have 13 of them living next door. 

Today was fine.  My housemates and I went to Lidl, which is a store exactly like Aldi.  Apparently, it is a German based operation.  My German roommate, Peter, felt very much at home.  I spent £10 on food. 

I just had some “chocolate bourbon biscuits” for dinner, which are like chocolate wafer cookies with cream in the middle.  Oh, and I had the other half of my frozen pizza.  I ate the first half at lunch. 

It was a long day today, but I think I’m just too tired to write anything exciting. 

Right now Suzanne is watching country music videos on a British video show.  Weird.  I didn’t think Brits listened to country music.  Oh and the Emmys are showing right now, too. 

Come to think of it, it’s better if I don’t have anything exciting to write, b/c yesterday was a very exciting day, indeed, but that was because of all the mishaps!  I’ll not complain today.

Hope all is well with you. 

Love,
Sabrina :-)

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Rude Awakening

September 23, 2003

Okay, I hear a beeping noise….maybe it’s my cell phone alarm, it doesn’t sound like that normally, but let’s see. No, it’s not that, it’s only 4:30 a.m.  I hear Suzanne up, “hello”, she says.  I realize I’m not the only one hearing this noise, so I get up to check it out with Suzanne.  The security alarm is beeping away.  Suzanne hops around the corner to get the security code, but it’s not working.  (On hindsight, funny how our first concern is making the alarm stop rather than finding out what set it off.) 

Two minutes later and the screech is now louder and even more piercing.  I find

a phone number on the security box and shout the number out to Suzanne.  They turn it

off remotely.  Suzanne is on the phone with them for a few minutes and then tells us that

the alarm went off b/c the battery was low.  Ha, ha, that was nice, and we’re off to bed

again.  I lay down to get back to sleep and I am jolted awake by a pervasive sense of insecurity. 

A little voice inside of me is telling me to follow my intuition.  Check it out, call the police.  I get out of bed and I see that the motion detector light is on at the front of our house.  This, combined with the security alarm really makes me worry.  I call 999 (the emergency number here).  The dispatcher is not the nicest person in the world to me, but says he’ll send someone out.  Five minutes later, there are three members of the Northern Ireland police service outside our front door.  It is pouring down rain and one of them does not have a rain coat.  The water is soaking through his thin white uniform shirt.  I sort of feel bad for making them come out in the rain.  I don’t see where their car is parked.  They have a look around our yard (the mountain!) with their flashlights.  One of them then comes in our house to search for a back door, but we don’t have one.  He says it all looks fine and says “better safe than sorry”, and they head on their way.

At least I feel a bit better now and can go to sleep.

8:10 a.m. – This time it is my alarm going off.  I get up and discover that the toilet is not flushing.  I’m not too bothered, b/c my experience with Irish and British toilets has told me they are quite tempermental.  I go into the other bathroom to wash my hands and the cold water won’t come on.  I manage to handle the hot water for a few seconds and go about my day. A few minutes later, the housemates have discovered that we have no water at all in the house.  Well, who needed a shower anyways?  Brushing teeth, that’s mere decadence. 

Yeah, well I won’t write about work here b/c John told Grant about my website and Grant wanted to “have a word” with me about it (which is never a good thing, by the way.)  In the end, I’m not to mention that place I work at ten hours a day that begins with a Q.  Censorship at its worst. 

Some more stuff happened today to freak me out, but as someone might read this and interpret it to be something negative about this end of the mountain which is right near to that secret place where I work, I won’t mention the specifics, but just ask me about it and I’ll send out an email to a hundred or so of my closest friends, b/c that’s alright.  And yes, you are correct in assuming that I am bitter. 

But I hope all is well with everyone and feel free to write me an email to help cheer me up! :-)

Lots of love,
Sabrina :-)

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Driving, Jason and Counseling

September 22, 2003

I drove today!  Yippee yi yay!  I had my first lesson with the driving instructor, Stanley.  I actually drove on the streets (as opposed to the Tesco parking lot).  So, I drove a stick shift on the other side of the road and navigated my way around roundabouts, and waiting to make a right turn (as opposed to a left).  It was quite excited.  I am very eager to learn and become a pro at it.  He talked about me getting a Northern Ireland driving license.  That would be awesome.  My American driving license will do me fine for a year, but I’d like to get the Northern Ireland one.  We shall see. 

I also had my first counselling appointment this morning.  I’ll be paying £5 a week.  They asked what I could afford, so that’s what it is.  It is a woman named Yvonne who I will be seeing.  I will not see her again until the 6th of October due to our schedules and what not, but that only means we miss one week. She seems nice enough, so we’ll see how it goes. 

Yesterday was an exciting day as well.  Jay and I are officially together.  That’s pretty nifty.  I
haven’t been in a relationship in a long while, so I feel kind of like I don’t know what I’m doing, which sounds kind of silly, but we’ll just see how we go. 

The morning with the children was calm enough and went by rather quickly.  Mind you, I did miss the first bit b/c of counselling and all, but still.  I changed nappies today, which was fine.  Although, even though I wash my hands after every change, I still feel a bit dirty and poopy.  Ah well. 

Tonight we have to color in the certificates for the children who are ending their time here at Quaker Cottage.  As soon as this scanner is working, I’m going to sort that one out, b/c it’s a little ridiculous the amount of time we spend coloring these things in, and it’s all very last minute, so it’s not like a whole lotta TLC going on with them. 

I am going on a day trip this weekend (Saturday) to the Giant’s Causeway.  It’s a big rock formation or something….I don’t know, but the International Youth Hostel does a minibus tour up there, so I’ll be going along with that.  I’m also considering taking a course in counselling at the Lifelong Learning Centre at Queen’s University Belfast.  I phoned them today and found out that I would qualify for concession (a discounted rate) on account of my being a volunteer, so that would make it £25.  It meets Tuesday nights 7-9 pm.  I phoned up b/c I won’t be able to go the first Tuesday since we’ll be at residential, but they said that was fine. 

I don’t think I’ve written yet about residential, but it is like a holiday with the mummies and kids.  There are about eight mummies and twenty five kids.  It starts on Tuesday, the 30th of September, and ends on Friday, the 3rd of October.  We will be working 24/7 during that time.  It seems a bit overwhelming, but I’m trying my best not to worry about it too much.  I’m just going to plan as well as I can and we’ll see how we go (I think I’ve said that more than once in this writing!)

Tomorrow is the start of our long stretch.  Mondays and Fridays we get off early, but Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday we have after school kids as well, and we don’t get done until 6 or 7:30.  I think I’ll take a nap now, I’m getting a little tired just thinking of it!  I’ve had an exciting day, though, so like the wee ones, I get wiped out from all the excitement.  See you later, gators! :-)

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Going Out

September 21, 2003

I spent the weekend at Jay's house.  My housemate took me over there early Saturday afternoon.  I just have to get off the mountain at the weekends, you know? The weekend went by so quickly.

Well, Jay and I are officially "going out".  I know, that sounds so middle school, but we're like boyfriend/girlfriend now.  I said, "Jay, I thought you weren't looking for a relationship" and he said that he wasn't, but he likes me, and we'll just take it slow.  To be honest, it's been so long since I've been in a relationship, I don't even know what it's like.  So, we'll just see how it goes. 

I'm home alone at the minute b/c  my housemates went to the cinema.  They left me a note.  I've only been home about half and hour or less.  Oh, and Jay's friend, Tom, gave me a ride home.  No cab fare, yippee!!!

I'm heating up the oven now and getting ready to make a frozen pizza.  They were on sale at Tesco for 50p.  Can't beat that! 

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Hurtful World

September 16, 2003

I cried today because on of the girls we work with seems so psychologically disturbed, I don't know if we can help her.  I just became overwhelmed with all that's wrong and hurtful in the world, and specifically here in Belfast and felt like we are fighting a losing a battle.   I began thinking again about how I want to found a social helping organization and better formulating the specifics in my head.  I want all the aspects from customer service of businesses.  There's no reason someone should have to wait eight hours at an emergency room (like I did) or have to wait for months to receive psychological care or whatever it is they need.   Anyhow, so I want it to be a private organization, and I want people to be able to come in, sit and chat one on one with someone about all the things they may need and be able to file all the necessary paperwork in one sitting, instead of going here and there and waiting, etc.   I also want the quality of care to be the utmost highest.  Like instead of a free clinic, get doctors to either donate services to a set number of clients, or use our funds to pay them. That's the idea I have thus far.  Let me know if you have any further suggestions on how to get this to come to fruition.  

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Catholic and Protestant

September 15, 2003

Okay, so it's been awhile since I've updated this page.  I can't believe it's already been a week!  Anyhow, I can not remember what happened last Monday (it's the 22nd now), so I'll just write about general stuff. 

In Northern Ireland, a "mixed" marriage is a marriage between a Catholic and a Protestant.  Thus far, of the very few people I've met, I've heard of two mixed marriages.  In one case, the children are the religion of the father, as it is apparently customary that this is what goes on the birth certificate.  In the other case, the couple does not have children, but the father does not intend to have them listed as either Catholic or Protestant.  He also told me that he has not filled out his voter registration form (which you have to do every year here, apparently) b/c you can only choose between Irish or British as your nationality.  Northern Irish is not an option. 

See, the Catholic/Protestant issue isn't really about religion at all.  It's really about Nationalists vs. Loyalists.  Loyalists would like to stay part of the United Kingdom (thereby being loyal to the crown) and Nationalists would like to be a part of Ireland.  Typically, Nationalists are Catholic and Loyalists are Protestant. 

Then again, on a day to day basis, most residents of this city are happy enough with the way life is.  As ever, it is merely some extremists who really want one way or the other. 

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Meeting Jason

September 14, 2003

So, I finally got to see Belfast today.  I took a double decker bus tour and walked around for just a little bit.  I met Jay last night, my first Northern Irish friend.  Well, I met him for the first time in real life last night.  He'll probably kick my butt for mentioning him, but he probably won't read this, so oh well.  Anyhow, we've talked like every day since I've arrived and my roommate said we were like "best friends".  I had just hoped that we got on as well in person, and we did (do).  So that's good.  Anyways, I've just been thinking, though, about how like I like Jay a lot and we get on so well, like best mates or whatever, and so often I just think, "well, this is it, we should be boyfriend/girlfriend now, look at how well we get on" or what not.  I just can not remember what a romantic feeling even feels like.  I don't think I'd know it if it bit me in the arse. You know everyone says you should be best friends with your romantic partner, but does becoming friends come after the romance?  Do friends ever really fall in love?  I don't know.  Jay told me that our conversations had led him to believe we were going to be "just friends" (and for God sakes, this conversation is out of context, so no, I did not make an arse of myself by telling Jay I was in love with him or anything...I left all that nonsense in England, thank you very much) and the thing is, I can't imagine having had any other types of conversation.  How do you talk to someone differently when there's a possibility of romance vs. having conversation with someone you know there's not that possibility.  I don't know.  Especially in a case like this, where we spoke often before we actually met.  Same with Phil (my old British friend).  After Jonathan, though, I began to wonder if I actually even had the capability of feeling romance.  After realizing that I had just spent the better part of three years with someone who I had no romantic feelings for at all, but had been ready to spend my life with him....well, that'll make you think, won't it?  I mean, we were best friends and there was physical attraction, so I thought that was everything.  I was comfortable. 

But then again, there were two guys from this summer who I had "different" feelings for from the rest.
One of them watched a baseball game on TV (on mute) while we were talking in his living room, the
other one turned out to be psycho and made me look like his stalker.  (He told me to meet him at his place, I did, he didn't turn up and then was essentially like, "look, she's at my place waiting for me and everything.")  So what does that say about me and my "romantic" feelings? 

Yeah, enough of that.  I spent WAY too much money today, despite my being a penny pincher and not even getting nail polish b/c I couldn't afford it.  However, all the little things (and big things) added up to a WHOPPING £34.  Mind you, I only get £45 a week to live off of.  That's a kick in the ass, so it is.  The bus tour was £7, my groceries were £10, the cab home was £6, lunch was £4, and the rest was like a pound here and there for essential items which I won't describe here.  When I got home and added it all up, (I kept all my receipts to keep track) I nearly fell off my chair.  Ah well, nothing to be done now.  I'll just be skint the rest of the week.  I won't be going out anyways, so I just need to be groceries again mid week. Then, I'll cross the boundary from skint to dead broke. 

I did have a lovely day today, though. And I'm so happy I got to finally see the city. Well, experience it first hand rather than looking down at it from the mountain!

It is well past my bedtime now, so I best be going.  Oh, by the way, the pizza wasn't brilliant at all, and the chips were kind of ucky, but I ate it, you see...

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Sunrise

September 13, 2003

It’s 6:33 a.m and I just watched the sun come up. I went outside on the mountain when it was completely dark, and the sun comes up so slowly, you can’t even notice the difference until one minute you realize, hey, it’s not dark anymore. I want to wait and see when the night view becomes the day view, that is to say, when do you no longer see the lights, but instead see the buildings. I didn’t have the patience to stand out there that long, and frankly, it can get a bit scary on top of a mountain at sunrise. I am looking out my window, though, at the city below, and at this point, I still see the lights. Will that, too, happen so slowly, I won’t notice until after it’s happened? I’ll miss the change in the blink of an eye?

What am I doing up so early, you ask? Well, I never properly fell asleep for the night. I just kind of dozed in and out. For some reason, I couldn’t bear to turn out my bed - room light as well. I thought I had gotten over that sort of thing, but sickness, I think, tends to highlight your vulnerabilities.

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Locum doctor

September 12, 2003

Day 3 of sickliness. The antibiotics seem to be working their magic on the chest infection, but today my asthma is worse. I called the dr., who told me to come in, so I went in and he told me I was fine. Well, not really. He told me I wasn’t TOO bad and I could just double my dose of inhaler, but he wanted to shy away from the “sledgehammer” approach of prednisone pills. Yeah, okay. My peak flow was apparently fine and he didn’t seem put off my the strange noises that were going on in my chest while he listened to me breathe. He also told me that they gave me tranquilizers in the ER b/c they just do that to someone who is fine so they can get on with the next patient who might really be sick. Lovely chap, you see. Anyhow, he told

me to go in again next week for a check up. Thank goodness that was free or I would’ve

raised all hell. I pressed him (of course) but I get the feeling he thinks that Americans are just

overmedicated. Anyway, I went to reception to make an appointment for next week and she said

he didn’t have any open appointments ‘til next month. Oh darn. I said that’s fine, b/c I didn’t want to see him again anyways, so she told me to call in on the day I want to come and just see the locum doctor (apparently, that’s what they call the “fill-in” doctor. That’s who I saw yesterday and when I asked him what locum meant, he took a bit of offense and assured me that he was indeed a licensed physician.)

I just ordered pizza. It’s 4:30 pm and I haven’t been able to eat today b/c of the sickliness and all. There’s only one place that delivers up here on the mountain, and they don’t start delivering til 5:00, but she took my order and said it’d be here around 5:20.

I was supposed to be going out with a friend tonight celebrating his 30^th birthday, but the sickliness prevails. I was also going to go to the city centre tomorrow and finally see the sights of Belfast, but alas, that looks like it’s off the schedule as well.

Our third roommate is arriving tomorrow at about 6:00 p.m. His name is Peter and he’s from Germany. He’s going to be here for a year as part of his mandatory community service. In Germany, men of a certain age either have to join the military or do a year of community service. I think the lad’s made the right choice!

Well, it’s time for the next round of meds. Yippee yi yay! Maybe I’ll write later and tell you how the pizza was!

Toodle doo.

Love,

Sabrina ;-)

Doctor

September 11, 2003

Hello everyone!

Well, I’m still sick, so I went to the dr. today. It was free, which is nice. The doc said I have a chest infection, which I likely caught on the plane, and this infection has triggered my asthma. Okay, doc, so what about the nose business going on? Oh, that’s probably from a head cold, he laughs, presumably at my bad luck. The doctor was nice and tested my breathing on the peak flow thingie and I couldn’t get that stupid needle to go far at all, so he let me do it again, and then again, and then realized, hey, that’s all I got. Then he listened with the stethoscope having me breathe in and out over and over and then said, okay, that’s all, if we do anymore you might fall over. Needless to say, I had a lot crap in my lungs and a lot of my breathe-outs were coughs.

The doctor didn’t take my temperature, so I asked, “do you have a thermometer?” He produced one and told me to take it under my arm. I asked, “are you sure?” Ahhh, gotta love Americans. So my temperature was 36.99 degrees…celcius. At first I thought, my god, I’m frozen! ;-)

Yeah, so that’s fun. I got some amoxycillin and a steroid inhaler. Woohoo! I was all ready to pay the bargain price of £6.30 each, then I found out I didn’t have to pay at all. That was nice.

I was then able to buy some bread, butter, cheese, milk and soup. Yippee!

I saw the kids coming in on the van, and I saw my little Kieran (the adorable baby from my first day). I wanted to go play with him so bad, but best not give him my nice infection. Soon enough I’ll be back in the swing of things. (Hopefully!)

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Sick and learning to drive

September 10, 2003

I am sick today and stayed in. I just popped over to see the after school group. Today was 11-15 year olds. they made me a get well card! How sweet is that? I just have a sore throat and phlegm (yucky!) in my chest. I'm just trying to rest and let my body fight this thing, whatever it is.

On a more positive note, I drove today! My boss's boss was here today and he used to be a driving
instructor, so he took me out. At first, they didn't think I'd be up for it, but I wasn't going to pass up a
lesson by a pro. I was driving all over the Tesco parking lot, going all the way up to fourth gear and back down again. It was nice. He said that since he can't come out to give me lessons, he's going to tell Grant (the Centre director) to set me up with driving lessons (to learn how to drive a stick) so that I'll be confident (and skilled) enough to be driving kids in a month. I'm excited!

Pasted in from archived geocities page 8/21/14

Windy Baby

September 9, 2003

The lost blog day!

Okay, so I didn’t get around to typing on this day, but I do remember what happened. The highlight of the day was * drum roll, please *……………………….
I got puked on. Yippee. * applause, applause * * I take a bow *

Yes, thank you, thank you very much.

Sharon: “Oh, he’s just a windy baby. I’ll get you a towel.”
”A towel?” I thought. I wanted to go home, change my clothes and shower. This wasn’t just your typical little bit of baby spit up. I actually knew it happened when I felt it running down my jean leg. I look at him and see it all down his poor little body. I thought we were going to have to take the wee lad to the hospital or something, but alas, no, he’s just “windy”. He did seem a lot happier after that, though.

Red headed girl with big gold earrings – (Salt ‘n Pepa circa 1989)

Cussing girl “F*ck Off!”

First day of work

September 8, 2003

Hiya,

Well, today was the first day of work. It went well. Thank goodness Mondays are short days b/c I am super tired. I think I’m going to take a nap!The kids I worked with today were all under 3 years old. I didn’t have change any diapers today, though, but I will tomorrow. (the other volunteer and I will take turns).

I unpacked last night. I’m so proud of myself, everything is put away. Usually, I live out of a suitcase for awhile. It actually looks like someone lives there, too, b/c I put a few things on the wall and on my door. I should’ve brought more for the wall, but I packed in such a hurry.

 

This one baby, Kieran, was just the absolute cutest! He is such a good baby. So happy and eats well,
and even took a nap.

I had my first go at trying to learn how to drive the stick minibus. We went to a Tesco (grocery store) parking lot. I was just learning how to change gears. Finally, when I accelerated too much after switching gears and having the van switch off, I said, “Enough!” and made motions with my arms to accentuate the point and then Sharon (the lead child care worker – paid staff) got back in the driver’s seat. It wasn’t weird with being on the other side or anything, (though I wasn’t out on the street yet!) it was those darn gears. It is quite a small parking lot and mostly I was just going around in circles and couldn’t really get out of first gear.

You know how people will ask you if you slept well? Well, my roommate asked me that this morning and I think it’s like one of those things where you’re supposed to just say “yes”, the way you’re supposed to say “fine” when someone asks how you are, but I was honest. “No, not at all.” I said the same when John (a paid worker) asked me. Well, they did ask – I’m not going to lie. I woke up at like 3:30 in the morning after having the weirdest nightmare and couldn’t get back to sleep until 5:00. Luckily, we live right next to the place where we work, so I got up at 8:30 to be there at 9:00.

When we were driving to pick up the mummies, I saw some of the murals I’ve heard about in Belfast. There was also grafitti saying “F*CK IRA” and so on. The mummies all live in housing estates, which is like the projects, or low income housing. There are some kids who are a bit big to be in diapers as well, and one should definitely be crawling, but he just kept rolling over, it looked really weird.

I’m really anxious to learn how to drive, so I can get the heck off this mountain. It’s just us and some cows and dogs up here. I really am not in the frame of mind to walk that far right now, but hopefully, soon. Well, at least by Friday, b/c I’m meeting one of my friends in town to celebrate his birthday. Also, we don’t get out of work until 7 or 7:30 on T, W, Th, and most things are closed by then anyways.

Well, I think I’m gonna take that nap I was talking about now. Hope everyone is doing well.

Love you bunches,

Sabrina J

Arrived in Belfast

Hello everyone!

I made it! I’m in Belfast. We have a computer here at the house with dial up Internet which we have unlimited use of on weekends and after 6:00 pm on weekdays. Don’t know why, but that’s how it is. I start work tomorrow morning. The place where I work is about ten steps from the house in which I live. We start at 9:00 am by setting up the table for the “mummies” and then have a meeting with the paid staff about what we’re going to do for the day and then go and pick up the mummies and their kids in the vans. Right now I’ll just be riding along, but I will learn how to drive the vans, which are stick shifts – and they drive on the other side of the road here. I’m excited. My housemate is excited for me to drive, too, b/c she can’t drive since she is under 21. I think that is just the organization’s rule, not Northern Ireland’s. She is 18 and just graduated high school. She seems older, though. Her name is Suzanne and she’s from Seattle. Our other housemate, Peter, will be arriving from Germany next week.

This house is on a mountain and the view is spectacular. Yesterday, there was

a huge rainbow, which was beautiful. For awhile, there was a second rainbow.

It looked especially nice when we got up here and you could see it all across the sky

overlooking the city. You can also see the coast, with the Irish Sea, which makes it look

really close, but apparently, it’s not. I’m not looking forward to having to walk up this hill,

though! Just more motivation for me to learn how to drive.

Oh, so on Mondays, we get done around 3:00, but on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, we get done at like 7:30 pm. That’s a long day!

One of the paid workers came and picked me up from the airport yesterday. He stopped and let me do my grocery shopping at Tesco, which was nice. I spent £10 on groceries for the week. I got some instant mashed potatoes for 35p! That was my favorite buy. My most decadent buy was a pack of chocolate cake bars for £1. There are five in a pack and I’ve already eaten 4. Oh I got a 4 pack of Chicago Style frozen pizzas. I just thought it was funny, so I got ‘em. (I wanted frozen pizza anyways, but the Chicago Style was for my amusement).

                 Man, the exchange rate is still killing me. I bought pounds sterling at the airport in London
                 and I got £44 for $80. I thought I was all down with the money since I’ve been to the

                United Kingdom before (Northern Ireland is part of the United Kingdom), but turns out they
                have Irish pounds sterling, too. I found that out when I got my change from the cashier at the
                grocery store. I asked John, the person who picked me up, what the deal was, to make sure I hadn’t gotten fake money! The exchange rate won’t be affecting me anymore, though, b/c I’ll get my weekly stipend of £45, and I have no more dollars.

The flight was okay. I had a window seat for the first time, which actually worked out well. We took off after dark, so there was a spectacular view over downtown Chicago. It’s so weird to see all the lights, and the order they are in. It is very linear, and organized, and grid-like. I also got to see the sun come up over the Atlantic Ocean, which was nice. Turns out, when you sit at the window, you have more space on the side to put stuff, which worked well for me. My TV didn’t work, either, which worked out well, b/c I actually fell asleep. I’ve never slept so well on a plane, I just kind of drift in and out, but this time, I was really sleeping. It made the flight go by so much quicker, too. When I woke up, there were only 2 hours left. I had a five hour layover in London, and I slept in the waiting area. I woke myself up once with a loud snore! I just had my purse and the strap of my bag in my hands and snoozed away. I got here to the house about 6 or so and went to bed at 8. I woke up today at noon.

Customs was surprisingly easy. Usually, there’s this huge long line and they interrogate you and stuff, but I went to another customs b/c I had a connecting flight, and I just walked right up. He looked at my passport, asked how long I was staying and off I went. I didn’t even have to go thru customs in Belfast. You got off the plane, right to baggage claim, and immediately after baggage claim was where people meet you (you can see them through the glass! I flew into Belfast City airport, though. Belfast has an int’l airport farther away from the city.

John was out there waiting for me with a piece of paper that had my name on it. Then he went and got the car while I waited, and unloaded my stuff for me. That was nice. My shoulder bag (carry on) was way too heavy and now I have a huge bruise on my shoulder. I also have one on my inner thigh, which I’ve no idea how I got.

I have my own room. I’m excited. We each get our own room and I got to choose from the two remaining rooms. I chose the smaller one, but it has a desk and I just liked it better. I’ve only started to unpack. I took a shower this afternoon and my hosuemate had told me that instead of running out of hot water, it’ll run out of cold water, and the hot water is like super duper hot. Luckily, there was some cold water for me. The house kind of reminds me of the co-op I lived in in Chicago, b/c the colors of the rooms are all different and very bright. There’s also lots of stuff here from people who lived here before. That includes food – I had a can of vegetarian soup for lunch which was left behind. Oh and a cup of hot cocoa from a can of mix that someone left.

Hope all is well.

Love,

Sabrina ;-)

P.S. – The internet is super slow, so I’m typing this in Word and then going to paste it in, but if I don’t write right away, it’s because I don’t have the patience to get into my email!