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!