My New House!

Finally, after months of searching, I have found and paid for a place of my own. I'm relieved, because as I previously related, most of the living available in Dublin is either outrageously expensive or 'styish'. You will be happy to see then, this picture of my new house:


Or perhaps not. As you can probably tell, that is not actually my house, it is the residence of the American Ambassador to Ireland, as you can clearly see by this sign:


My house looks like this:

Don't be alarmed by the square foot of front garden, the house is actually in a great location. And by great location, I mean it is next door to the off license, which is Irish for 'liquor store.' On the other side of the off license is Farrell and Sons, a stonework shop which makes primarily grave markers. I feel like it is a subtle warning, placing these mementi mori next to the liquor store...

Despite the size of the garden and the facade of the house, my room is actually quite... roomy... It is cheery orange, and already a mess, thanks to my current paper filing-laundry combination scheme. However, the color of the walls is pretty much the only warm thing about my room. There is a window in my room (yay!), but it doesn't close (boo!). This makes my room more like a happy orange igloo than anything else. I do have a radiator in my room, but the presence of this heating device is pretty much negated by my roommate Matt, who must have heavily invested in Ireland's sweater industry, because he keeps turning off the heat in the whole house. I see him sitting in our front room wearing three or four jumpers (Irish code for 'sweater'), thermal long johns, and wool socks. Somtimes I join him, dressed in all of my clothing, including my winter coat and two pairs of boots, with the duvet from my bed as a cape/hat. If Sinead and Laura are in, Matt lets us build a fire in the front room using newspapers and peat, which we dig from the front garden. No wonder it is so small.