So a few days have passed but nothing too dramatic going on here. It rained/misted some yesterday but not for long and today was great and pretty warm - which made today's Christmas parade extra out of place. I keep forgetting that there is no Thanksgiving here and I'm constantly thinking "too soon! You have to wait until the day after Thanksgiving!". I didn't see Santa but the Christmas lights they turned on are AMAZING so I will have to try and take some pictures to post. I can't imagine Monroeville Mall looking this nice....ever.
I saw a movie tonight at the cinema - you have assigned seats! And they are really nice and comfortable but a little pricey - E 7.70 or about $11. The ticket guy asked me where I wanted to sit and I just said "uhhh in a good seat" and I think he did a pretty good job. I might try to convince my land lady to go see the next Twilight movie with me, because I think it would be hilarious on many levels. Probably not a midnight showing although it would be fun to see it before anyone in the U.S.!
A little more on pharmacy stuff - first of all the max out of pocket you would pay for prescriptions is 120 euros a month and then the government picks up the rest - and that's with private insurance (from what I understand) - the general medical scheme has a 50 cent tax levy per rx so it's wayyyy cheaper but sucks in the long run for getting healthcare. Long-term illness is another scheme that includes diabetes (!) so those patients don't pay anything for their rx's. If you have Celiac's disease, you can even get gluten-free bread, pasta, and cereal covered by your medical benefits. No wonder the country is bankrupt! Some of the stuff that goes on here is so different from what we do in the U.S. that I can barely wrap my brain around it. There are a lot of things paid for by the gov't that insurance would reject at home - like brand name drugs (whereas we have to switch to generic if it's available). Patients also get the hardcopy prescription back if they have refills and they can just take it to wherever they want it to be filled. I'm much improved on using the computer system and a little better with the register, although it's hard to make change since I don't remember all of the denominations available - 1c, 2c, 5c, 10c, 20c, 50c, 1E, 2E coins and then 5, 10, 20, 50+ for bills I think.
I might be addicted to tea now and need to invest in an electric tea kettle when I come home. Butler's, an Irish chocolatier, makes delicious hot chocolate by heating milk and melting a giant glob of chocolate in it -yum. I had that tonight for dinner along with a pear cinnamon muffin that was as good as it sounds. Thankfully, Hugh (landlord) gave me a tip to buy microwaveable meals at Marks and Spencers and they were only 3 for 8.50 so cheaper than eating out all the time.
Dublin is my focus this weekend and I think I'm going to check out an Aussie bar - The Woolshed Baa - to watch the Steelers game Sunday night! I made sure to bring my jersey just in case. Next weekend I booked a one-day tour to Wicklow county that shows a lot of where Braveheart and P.S. I Love You were filmed and Thanksgiving weekend is my big 3-day Ring of Kerry tour. I'm a little ridiculous and made a chart that had my list of sights I wanted to see on the y-axis and different tour names on the x-axis so I could decide which tours would hit everything I wanted. It actually worked out pretty well because I didn't want to overlap sights if possible. Waiting to see how the first tour goes before I book more with the same company, Paddy Wagon, just in case.
In other big news, Carolyn is OFFICIALLY visiting before I leave and that is AWESOME.
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