Irish Appliances - AAGGHHH :(

April 20th – Day 9

My day started before the sun came up! I woke up before 5:30am to get to the Garda station. Garda=Police in Irish. When I arrived in Dublin I received a 30 day stamp in my passport and instead of a visa, Ireland gives people on a work permit a “Garda” card. It is issued by the Garda National Immigration Board and the office is in city centre Dublin and it opens at 8 am. It is a very busy office and I was instructed to get there by 7:15am in order to get in line. Factor in a 30min train ride and the walk to the train, it was a very early morning! The information I received was very accurate and at 7:20am when I arrived there were at least 30 people in line and the line snaked around the building. I was told that they often cut off the line at 10am in order to finish the processing by 4pm when the office closes. It took a little less than 2 hours and a little concern before I successfully received my card. The guy in front of me was there on a work permit also and the Garda employee wanted to proof of his health insurance and he would not accept a health card as we are accustomed to in the states. He wanted a letter guaranteeing health coverage. I did not have a letter of this sorts, but when another Garda employee was open, and it was my turn, he did not request any health information from me. It did take about 3 sets of lines and different checks before I got my Garda card which is about the size of an American drivers license. Once I got the card I set of to the office. There are 3 major hurdles to getting set up in Ireland, one is the Garda card, another is setting up a bank account and the third is getting a person number (similar to social security number). I have one down and 2 to go.

Near the end of the work day, a gentleman entered my cube and introduced himself. As he said his name, I was very thankful someone had given me an organization chart, because he was head of the entire office and I recognized his name. I think being the first American to come to work at the Ireland office is an interesting distinction. It was very nice of him to come and visit and introduce himself! There are about 500 people at the office I am working at, so it is not a small operation even by US standards.

Another kitchen adventure… I attempted to cook some pasta this evening and turning on the stove was quite a challenge. I played with every knob on the stove and nothing was working. I was about to give up when I noticed a light switch on the wall to the right of the stove. Sure enough, you must actually turn on the light switch before the stove gets any power. I think I can only handle one appliance adventure per day! Tomorrow will be the washer/dryer (all one unit) and maybe I’ll tackle the dishwasher the day after!

April 21, Day 10
Time to attempt some laundry. I went to the store to buy detergent and couldn’t even differentiate between the detergent and fabric softener! I finally selected some and I think it is detergent with “touch of fabric softener”. I asked the clerk if it also had soap in it..what’s the point of washing clothes with fabric softener only! The clerk said no, but I didn’t think he really knew, so I asked a couple ladies in the store and they said that it was both detergent and fabric softener…here’s hoping!

Appliances are proving to test my patience! So I looked at the 3 slots in a pull out part of the washer and was clueless as to which one was actually for soap. I even texted a girl from work and asked which of the 3 slots was appropriate, I found out she uses the center slot. Ok. Then I read the back of the soap in it’s actually in these miniature plastic bags with liquid inside and it says to put it in the washing bin itself. Ok. Inserted it, then I put in few items of clothing. I am being really cautious because a girl at work said that the washing machines over here are kinda sketchy and have been known to “shred” clothing. I proceeded to spend nearly 40 minutes trying to get the machine to start. It had a yellow light on, so it obviously had power, I had selected a program and it had soap and clothes. Why was there no water coming?!? I opened and closed the door about 5 times and I hit every button in the vicinity and no water came. I was really frustrated, so I texted the girl at work again and told her the situation. She called back and said to try I few things. I did them and nothing worked. I was about to call the landlord when I got really frustrated and SLAMMED the door. Low and behold it started. Apparently you need to get violent and slam the door before it decides to work. I hope whoever is reading this is laughing out there at what an incredible process it is to do a load of laundry and keep in mind that I put in 2 t-shirts, one pair of sweatpants and a few pairs of socks and the washbin was full. It is probably ¼ of the size of a standard American washbin. Next comes the drying process. I have been told by the landlord and the girl at work that the drying part of this integrated machine does not really work. So, don’t even bother trying to dry your clothes, rather you must hang them to dry. I also read that you cannot hang your clothes outside in my apartment complex, so once the washer actually finished I must hang all of clothes to dry somewhere inside the apartment! It makes doing laundry in the states seem like a walk in the park!

I totally forgot to tell you about the water pump itself. It is some kind of contraption that is in every apartment and each time you use water in the home it makes a very loud pumping noise. I completely jumped when the landlord was testing the hot water and this load strange noise started. It’s not like it happens once. I just flushed the toilet to test it and it pumps about 10 times before it stops and of course the location of the pump is next to the bedroom…what a bad floor plan design!

There is currently a rectangular drywall cut out in the wall near the entrance door of the apartment, so I looked in and there is actually a wooden kitchen spoon holding things together inside it even has a cut out in the top of the spoon to attach it to a pipe. I guess you can look at this 2 ways, either someone was very resourceful, or they have no building codes or standards of safety for construction in Ireland. I think my friend in construction in the states will get a laugh out of this!