Letters from the North

As most of you know I kinnda moved to Dublin....I'm using kinnda because for the past three months I've actually been on business travel, living at a hotel....so I haven't really moved to Dublin yet :)

I've been thinking about visiting Ireland for a couple of years now, but not until long ago the flight ticket was a bit too expensive for my pocket. So, when the company I work for offered this opportunity, I took it without a second thought. I had this fairy tale image of a green land made by fairies and leprechauns...full of gingers drinking ale while singing loudly in their rustic pubs. And guess what....this is exactly Ireland.

I never though of living here though, but now that I decided to take up the challenge...I'm wondering why...why Dublin? The North definitely seams to be calling me.

There are two major misconceptions people have about the North...especially Southern people - the weather and daylight.

After living in Denmark, I already know that the North is not necessarily cold, it just lacks extreme weather. The highlight here is definitely the rain, but as a pluivophile I don't really mind it, that's actually my favorite weather in Bucharest as well. What I mind is the inability to plan trips because of the rain...but maybe this is something I'll get used with in time. So moving to Dublin means good-bye 40 °C summers and -15 °C winters....hello 5 to 20 °C all year round....

While the weather is not extreme in the North...daylight is. I remember the dawnish nights I experienced in Denmark in July and August, and obviously found here as well. Summer nights never get pitch dark, as it actually starts getting darker only around 11 PM. We were eating out two days ago and it was 9.30 PM...we looked outside and it seamed as it was 3 PM. But well, the tables will turn in a couple of months and the dawnish days will be here. This means darkness all around...and 3 PM will look like 9.30 PM :)

Guess what was my biggest surprise here though?! The language...Gaelic is like nothing I ever heard before. Since their independence it became the country's official language and mandatory in school. Though not very spoken in Dublin, you do hear it in other parts of Ireland....I'm thinking about giving it a try...Language is actually another popular misconception...Irish English is English with a funny accent :)) but it's not that difficult to understand at all.

My YESes and NOs or things I had higher expectations from are:

YESes:

• no unnecessary stress - people are so much calmer and have happier faces, no honking, no nervous people on the bus...;
• milk and berries - bestest food related stuff ever eaten;
• clean air - the weather, but also the low density make the air super clean;
• walking distance to anything - the benefit of living in a small city - walk, walk, walk;
• great infrastructure - it's so easy to visit this country...unbelievable;
• all life is equal - no animal cruelty around the corner/ even the cows and sheep look happy and free;
• traveling - cheap and easy to fly anywhere...especially to Iceland, my next year's resolution trip;
• recycling - my biggest nemesis...but here, not only do they recycle, but they also have special bins for compost...how great is that!
• lots of American and European immigrants - French, Spanish and Italian are spoken more than English :)

NOs

• not so safe - I'm not sure if it was exaggerated paranoia coming from the stories I heard, but I don't feel that safe in the city...nothing happened to me for real....but it's just a feeling;
• lots of homeless people - hand in hand with the safety, but they are clean and well fed and they are not begging aggressively;
• maybe the weather - maybe when I'll have more money I'll have happy Caribbean summer holidays :P;
• not cycling as much - people are definitely into sports here as there a lots of joggers everywhere, but I was expecting them to be more eco-friendly and bike a lot more....would have loved to have a bike...still more biking than in Bucharest for sure;
• overcrowding - maybe I got here at the wrong time, but the city is getting overcrowded and for that reason rents are hugenormeous...a quarter of my salary will go on rent...rent for a room and a shared kitchen, shared living space and a shared bathroom...
• clubbing and going out - pubs are popular...and nice, but there's no real clubbing...at least not the king of going out fun I would like. I haven't experienced it a lot, but what I have wasn't great...need to experience this more;
• food - the Irish kitchen, like most Nordic kitchens is horrible...I don't eat beef and lamb, so I am missing a big part of it, but even so...they eat everything deep fried and greasy...I don't get it...I just don't!

The fortune on your head

The fortune on your head sounds like a bounty hunter ad, but it's not. It's about how precious something as your hair can be to somebody who lost it. I donated a lot of things in my life: time, money, clothes, food, ideas...but never hair. And I haven't even thought about that possibility to be frank....who would want my hair?! It's not like I'm Goldylocks (the character, not the principle) and my hair would actually be a treasure.

But, I have been proved wrong...and so the bravest thing I did this week was to cut 20 cm from my hair. I have to mention that it took me about 3 years to grow them, so yeah, it wasn't necessarily an easy decision to make...I thought, until they were actually cut, and I never felt better.

In my do-gooder research, I learnt about this organisation that makes wigs from donated hair, for women who survived cancer. This program started in November 2015, and already a lot of women chose to be part of it. Natural hair wigs are very expensive and difficult to manufacture, so most cancer survivors cannot afford them. Still, losing hair is one of the most traumatic side effects of cancer treatment, and though it might be ignored, because people usually think about the big picture rather than the details in it, a natural hair wig raises confidence and improves the mental state of a survivor.

How it works, is that you go to one of their partner hairdressers and get a 20 cm hair cut for free...or if you live abroad or in other cities, you just go to a regular salon ask them to cut your ponytail, put it in an envelope/ box and send it to the organisation's address (Fundatiei Renasterea: str Virgil Plesoianu, nr 87, sector 1, Bucuresti, Romania). It doesn't matter if your hair is natural or colored.

To make a short hair wig costs about 200 euros, while a long hair one is about 330 euros. So don't be shy on donating money as well.

If you know women who survived cancer, and are struggling with hair loss, please tell them to contact Fundatia Renasterea and enter this program. It will surely help them improve the quality of their life.

Your body is a wonderland

So, yesterday evening I went to see this play called "The vagina monologues"...pretty famous, translated in 40 languages and enacted in 50 countries. I have to admit that the title intrigued me, and I loved saying it, and that's mostly because I live in a very bashful country, and like to see how people blush to such "shameful" word.

I asked a lot of people to join me and the reactions were laughter, big eyes or negative/ neutral impressions from those who saw it. Seeing it myself now, my impressions are exactly in opposition to all this.

This is a very educational text that reflects exactly on the bashfulness people have regarding the V word, but most importantly the way this shame affects women around the world...especially those in the very patriarchal areas of the world, but not only.

If you don't wanna see the play, read the book....you will have drama, comedy and a bit of history based in real interviews, in just 100 something pages.