Dang I'm Odd!

I have been thinking about my life lately and am realizing that as wonderful as it is, I am nothing like a typical American 27 year old woman...and those that know me, know that I love being completely different! In the last 3 years, I have met and married the man of my dreams, sold mostly everything we owned, moved to Scotland, moved to Ireland, haven't had a car, had to carry all of my groceries home, lived 1.5 years without a clothes dryer (the worst thing to lack in life!), and have also detached myself from a cell phone to the point that when I go back to visit the States, I text like an 85 year old.

Now that we are finally getting settled in Ireland and facing the rest of our lives here, I'm also realizing that I will most likely never work again (due to stupid immigration laws not allowing me to work), never drive again (because it takes years and tons of money to get an Irish license) and I will sadly have to bite the bullet and learn the metric system.

I'm ok with all of this since now I have an excuse to jump headfirst into a life of doing volunteer work which is what I have ultimately wanted, I won't have to drive the terrifyingly twisted and narrow roads of Ireland that stress me out to no end, but I will most likely be mistaken for a Canadian more often when I finally get all the metric crap figured out...oh well, everyone loves Canadians in Europe.

So many people seem to think that living a life abroad is very romantic and exciting but it is in no way easy or as glamorized as it's made out to be. Don't get me wrong, I love life over here but things are very expensive, fridges you would find in a US dorm room are normal sized here, walking 2 miles to get to church and town may sound like a good exercise plan but it gets old really fast, and for some idiotic reason, people don't clean up after their dogs on sidewalks.

I am glad I will be raising my kids over here and hope they develop the 'less waste' lifestyle that I have grown to love. I also hope they will get to travel everywhere since Europe is at our doorstep but sadly we haven't been able to see it since our 'student husband and not allowed to work wife' income doesn't support the travel lifestyle. Only 3 years left until my husband will have his PhD (all by the time he's 27!) and then he can hopefully get a Professor job here in Ireland...which so happens to be one of the countries that pays it's professors the highest wages....so one day Europe will be ours for the taking!

For now though, I'm happily content to live my much simpler lifestyle and sharing the American Irish dream with my husband!