Saturday 28 April 2018

My week of work

Hey there,

what's the crac? This post will be a bit shorter than the last one but I just hope noone minds that.

On Monday John had the day off so I was working with Louis (the one from my first day) and Darragh (shop owner). It was kind of a different experience. It started in the morning when I arrived at the shop to find that I was the first one there and it was raining as usual in such situations. But luckily it didn't take long for Louis to arrive and shortly after Daragh came as well. Basically I was in charge of designing a spring sale mail which led to me searching pictures for the whole day whenever I had the time. Other than that I cleaned some phones and shortly before I left I took payment of a costumer for the first time ever in my life. That was kind of a scary experience. I actually managed to give the customer the merchant slip of the card payment but other than that it went mostly smoothly.

On Tuesday, the 24th of April, I told John everything from the day before and he showed me how to take a customer in. After he watched me doing it once he told me that I from that moment going forward would be the one taking customers in or taking payments. So that is my new main job. Listen to the customers explaining their problems, taking their details and taking payment when they collect their phones. Also, an order came in on Tuesday so I put it all away correctly.
On another note two of my roommates came back from Corfu. Emma and Maxine. We talked pretty much the whole evening and also went up to the guys apartment to eat there.

On Wednesday John and Louis were in and working when I came into work. So I pretty much did the same thing as on Tuesday except putting away an incoming order. But I talked to all the customers and got a bit of a hang of when to ask John about the customers problems. Also I still searched for a good picture to put into the mail. After finding one I asked them what should go in the text. They weren't quite sure so I left it there and started searching tours for the weekend while still going up to the customers whenever one came in.

 On Thursday it was just John and me again. It was quite relaxed. I mainly did the same as on Tuesday and Wednesday. But I also decided that I would go and try every Subway that is available here in Ireland but not in Germany. Other than that I texted a lot regarding a trip I will go on in May. I had to laugh about a few messages so I was giggling quite a bit. John asked about it and when I told him he laughed about it as well. In the evening I met up with John, Shane, Louis and Louis' may-as-well-be-girlfriend Paige. We first went to one of Darragh's other businesses. A pub called Carroll's on Dominick Street. It has a double decker bus standing in its beer garden where you can get pizza. I still am getting used to the pizza habits here. First the toppings on most pizzas are very different. Like chicken or beef mince. And when eating the pizza they dipped their pizza in garlic sauce. I had never really seen that in Germany. Probably once or twice at Pizza Hut but definitely not so casually. The pizza though was really good. And it was not too crazy. We also got a few pints with it. I was one pint ahead of everyone because in true Irish fashion everyone else was a bit late and I didn't want to just stand there. John had to leave early because of his two daughters so the other three and I went on to another pub after enjoying the live music some more and Paige also sang a song with the musicians. We had a lot of fun and after going to two other pubs Shane went home as well. Louis, Paige and I went to a bowling alley afterwards. Louis knows some guy, who works there, so we got in and played a game. I left after that because I had to get up in the morning to go to work. I had a lot of fun on Thursday evening and I also got a picture of the three guys I work with. I asked them if they were alright with me putting up this exact picture and they gave their consent, so here it is:

John is in the back, Louis in the front. Shane is on the right side.

Yesterday I got up at what felt like way too early. But whoever can go out, can get up and work. So I got myself ready and while making breakfast Anna came up to me to say hi after she arrived in the middle of the night back from their trip to Korfu, Rome and Milan. She went back to bed and I went back to work. it was a slow day with not a lot of customers coming in. But we had one whose phone wouldn't back up. He left his phone and laptop with us and right in the middle of updating his phone via the laptop there was a blue screen. It appeared to be a driver problem so I searched for it on the internet but before I could find out more about it the customer came back and collected his laptop and his phone. I told him about it and also told him to keep an eye on it.
On another note we also had a customer who had his Samsung S8+ in for a new screen a few weeks back. John did it but the screen was faulty. It work but it flashed and it was black around one of the edges. So he was told he will get another one that has to be ordered in. Unfortunately, it took a while for the screen to arrive so he wasn't happy with us. He brought his phone in to be done yesterday and John changed the screen. The customer still wasn't super happy but he was alright. He left with his repaired phone. About two hours later a man comes in and shows us a really damaged screen of an Samsung S8+. When we wanted to get his details he told us that it wasn't his phone but his collegues' who is the exact same guy who got his phone fixed just earlier this day. He told us that both of them are bus drivers and that his collegue started work and dropped his phone onto the steps of the bus. So that will be another 300 €. John and me both felt bad for him. After that John told me I could go so I went off into my weekend.
When I came back home Maxine was gone to spend the weekend with her boyfriend. Mackenzie was asleep since she only arrived in Galway at 9 in the mornign after having to stay at the airport in Dublin the night before. Anna and Emma came home just about the same time as me and asked me if I wanted to join them for dinner as they would make shrimps alfredo. We were joined by Mackenzie, Ryan and Tyler. Since it was Tylers last evening with some of them we decided to go out afterwards. True to that plan after the meal we got all ready and went back to the boys apartment. There we met a whole lot of familiy and friends of Liam who are here to visit him. This happening led to only Tyler, Mackenzie and me going out for his last day in Galway. It was his last day because he will go on a three week long trip through all of Europe (whoever knows the film Eurotrip: something like that) after that he comes back for a few days but most of the girls will be gone by then. At least according to everything I've heard about it. But let's wait and see. Also, we didn't stay out too late since he had to get up and leave at five, mackenzie wanted to study for her final and I had plans for today as well.

That is pretty much all about my last week of work. Turned out it got a bit longer than expected. Also, this post was supposed to go up yesterday evening but clearly that didn't work out. So I will tell you all about my weekend in the next blog that will also contain a bit more pictures again.

Until then: Stay tuned. Cheers!

Juliane

P.S.: Also I cheered when it was announced on the radio that the Duchess of Cambridge had her baby boy and I cheered again on Friday when the name was announced to be Louis Arthur Charles but mostly I cheered on Friday because ABBA announced two new songs. And I'm really happy about that.

Monday 23 April 2018

Going to Kilkenny and Dublin

Hey there,

I'm back. I just couldn't update earlier because I was busy exploring Ireland. But let's start where I left off.
On Sunday, the 15th of April, I didn't do a lot. The girls all came back and Oliver came by as well  to tell us that he found a plumber who should come on Monday which usually means Tuesday. So we thought that maybe if we were lucky on Wednesday the problem would be fixed. Sadly I got a bit of a headache so I just laid down for a bit and afterwards went to Boots to browse around before meeting up with Anna and Emma at a cafe. we then went to the guys apartment to cook and eat. Oliver also told us that it was okay to use the kitchen but we were kind of skeptical about it.

On Monday I went to work and put all the iPhone parts in an Excel worksheet. Other than that I cleaned a few more phones before leaving early. Also Heiko, my trainer from Germany, arrived in Galway on Monday. First we had plans to maybe meet up in the evening. But after arriving at his hotel we found out that it is a bit far away to meet somewhere near and so I finished packing for my upcoming plans and went to bed. On a positive note I can tell you that the dripping had stopped when I came home. Oliver hasn't said a piep to us but we know that there was a plumber in the apartment above us and in the afternoon the dripping stopped and it hasn't started again (fingers crossed it won't ever start again while I'm here).So this problem was solved. Now there are only the nasty stains on the ceiling left.

On Tuesday Heiko came to the shop in the morning and had a chat with John. After that we left to go to Kilkenny. In Kilkenny we went to the Smithwick's experience. There you can learn about the history and the brewing of the beer coming from Kilkenny. The brewery was founded by John Smithwick in 1710.

John Smithwick 1690-1768

information about Smithwicks Ales
The best known beer is the Smithwick's Red Ale which in Germany is sold as Kilkenny. Even tough they change it up a bit to get an alcohol level of 4.8 Vol%. But there are also two other Ales. The Pale Ale and the Blonde Ale. The Pale Ale was launched in 2011 and the Blonde Ale in 2014 making it the latest addition. Today Smithwicks is part of Guiness and isn't brewed in Kilkenny anymore but rather in Dublin at St. James' Gate (next to Guiness Store House). The last Smithwicks was brewed in Kilkenny in December 2013. As part of the guided tour through the former brewery one gets a free drink. Having tried them all by now I can confidently say that my personal favorite is the Red Ale followed by the Blonde Ale and Heiko said his favorite was the Blonde Ale. Also, Heiko is waiting for the Blonde Ale to be released in Germany, which probably says it all. So on the left there is a bit more information about all the Ales.



After that we went to Kilkenny Castle, which was built from 1195 to 1213 and was home to the Butler of Ormonde family for 500 years starting in 1391. It has a nice library room containing 2430 books and has a long room called Picture Gallery. This Gallery contains a lot of paintings but it also has a painted roof. It looked quite amazing.
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Kilkenny Castle
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nursery at Kilkenny Castle
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painted roof at Kilkenny Castle
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garden fountain at Kilkenny Castle
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two pints of Smithwick's Red Ale

In true Irish fashion we went to Langton's pub for dinner before walking back to the hotel and having pint or two there and talking about pretty much anything and everything.

On Wednesday we started the short journey to Dublin for him to go home and for me to explore Dublin and meet up with the guys from the German Bundestag and one from the Federal Administrative Court. But before that I got some food. I went to Nando's for lunch. Nando's is a restaurant chain from South Africa and is famous for its chicken cooked in piri-piri sauce (chilli sauce from Portugal). Currently there are now restaurants in Germany but I hope that there will be some in Germany/Berlin soon because I really love it. Afterwards I went to the National Leprechaun Museum but unfortunately the next available tour was too late. But next time I'm in Dublin I wanna go there. So I just went to Temple Bar and browsed some shops and menus there before going to Chistchurch Cathedral. This is dated back to 1030, which makes it the oldest church in Dublin. Also it was built by the Vikings.
Here are some pictures I took in Dublin: 

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Ha'penny bridge
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Christchurch Cathedral
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Oscar Wilde statue
at Merrion Square
4/6

quote of Humphrey Bogart
at Foley's
5/6

the Spire of Dublin or
Monument of Light (An Túr Solais)
6/6

house in Dublin

Sláinte!
After a quick stop back at the hostel to change into something more fitted for a dinner and a nice get together I met with Steve (blog) at the Oscar Wilde statue at Merrion Square. We talked for a bit while waiting for Tom (blog). Together we walked to our meeting point with Dorian (blog) and Patrick (blog). The fourth guy from the German Bundestag, Tobi (blog), didn't come along because he didn't feel as well so it was just us 5. For food we found this restaurant called Bunsen which serves Burgers. The menu is very short, only consisting of a hamburger and a cheeseburger, the respective doubles and three kinds of chips as sides but it tastes really good. Afterwards we went to Foley's, a pub Heiko recommended to me, and had a couple of pints. It was a quiet and chilled evening out. Steve and Tom left a bit earlier than the rest of us since they had to get up earlier than us as well.

On Thursday I took the bus to go to Howth. The weather was great so I decided to go even if I didn't have a lot of time. So I took the bus to Howth and went on the hard tour. The hard tour is 10 km and takes approximately three hours. Since I stopped quite often to take some pictures it took me 4 hours. The trail was nice and I got lucky. The guys warned me about mud and said I should weear stuff that I don't want to wear again anytime soon but because of the weather the trail was mostly try and I had next to none muddy sections. The view was incredibly beautiful. But just watch for yourself:

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cliffs and beach at Howth
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clouds covering the cliffs
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map, I took the purple trail
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me at the cliffs
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water bumping the cliffs
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Baily lighthouse
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signpost for the telegraph cable
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bird posing for a picture
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fog at the cliffs
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cross for someone who died at the cliffs
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stone at the trail

I had to be back in Dublin at 17:00 to get my luggage from the hostel I stayed in and to board my coach to Galway at 17:45. To do that I took the DART back to Tara Station which was kind of a whole new experience. And I almost didn't get back out of the DART. But luckily for me I was at the coach station on time and boarded mine to go back to Galway. 
When I arrived at the apartment only Acadia was there since the other girls had already left to Korfu in the morning and she followed them on Friday morning. I also felt like I had a sunburn which was confirmed by a look in the mirror. So I put some moisturising crem on and went to bed.

Friday I got up at 8 o'clcok just like every workday and went to work after getting ready. Since there wasn't really anything to do for me I had time to figure out how to put these wonderful slideshows you've already enjoyed on here. This took me about all day and I got a bit frustrated from time to time but I worked it out in the end. Also I fixed the till. Somewhen on Thursday the receipt-printer stopped working and the guys called for their IT-service who fixed the problem. But ever since the till wasn't opening up when a receipt was printer. I first checked that the cable was put in correctley. After that I googled how I can change printer-settings on a MacOS which I had never done before. I found a chat forum where someone was having a similar problem and just followed the steps written there. I was so happy on finding out that it worked. On another note, Darragh came by shortly and said that the pizza and pints are pushed up to next week because of some things that came up. So after work I went into boots to buy some after-sun-lotion for my sunburn/windburn-mix and got some food as well. Also while I had a catch up on tv shows there was suddenly a ship parked right outside our window. Got a little shock there.

boat outside our window

Yesterday, Saturday, the 21st of April, I didn't do a lot. I slept in, skyped my parents and tried to wash my clothes. 'Tried' because while putting my clothes in the washing maschine a different problem arose which was bigger than atticipated: the dryer. I found that most of my shirts aren't alright to tumbledry which makes it impossible to dry them in the apartment without buying a stand for them which I didn't want. So I put in what I could and then went out to search for some new shirts (dryable of course). I wasn't really succesful in that mission yesterday so I went back home to plan my next weekends as most of the stores were closing up.

Today I went on a Hop-On-Hop-Off bus tour throughout Galway to not only see anything but also to get some stories to some of the buildings or Galway itself. There I learned that Christopher Columbus stopped by in Galway on a trip to either Iceland or the Faroer Islands in 1477 and that the Cromwellian forces sieged the city for nine moth before an agreement was made. It was a nice trip and I learned more about the history of this city. Also I got to say that Tony, the tour guide, was quite funny and - if I dare to say so - adoreable. Made the whole tour. Afterwards I went to Dunnes and there I finally found dryable shirts. So now I seriously need to consider buying another suitcase and upgrading the checked luggage for my flight back to Berlin. On a side note the Celtic Explorer, the ship that arrived Friiday night, departed again. Otherwise I wrote this blog and played a bit with anything regarding these slideshows. 

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first pub of Galway
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former jail now used as a cafe
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house of president Michael D. Higgens who spends his weekends here

 
That's it for my second week in Galway. So here is back to work.  

Stay tuned. Cheers!

Juliane


Saturday 14 April 2018

Satisfaction, frustration and apartment sitting

Hey there,

on Thursday I continued with my taske at hand and finally also sorted out all the iPad screens. These took me a while since they were kinda all over the place and it's harder to tell them apart. So that led to some satisfaction when it was actually done. After sorting them out I started putting my counts into the web-application (repairshopr) they use for keeping track on everything.
Also on Thursday I started looking up car hires since I want to go some places by car and some class mates who are in Dublin would like to come with me. Turns out that since last time I was here the car hires changed their terms regarding age requirements to 25. This frustrated me to no end because when I was here in 2014 the required age was 21 and I was 20. It felt to me like history repeating itself. But after a lot of searching, going down to the Europcar place in Galway and some live chatting I finale found two car hires who do rent their cars to people aged 23, one even doing 21, I think. Only downside is that they only have counters in Dublin Airport and Shannon Airport. So hiring a car to go somewhere won't happen as easy as I would have liked.
But that wasn't even the most frustrating/angering/cheesing me the hell off thing on Thursday. No that was still about to come and the bus not showing up probably was a sign for that. So here it comes: The girls all left at noon for a trip to Edinburgh so I knew that I would be all alone. I already had vague plans for the weekend and was really looking forward seeing more of Ireland. But all these plans were blown up on arrival at the apartment. I came in just to see a big puddle on the kitchen floor. When I moved closer I saw that water was still dripping out of the kitchen lamp. First thing for me was to try and get a hold of the girls to ask them if they know anything about it and if so if Oliver, our landlord, already knows about it. But that wasn't the case here. So I called Oliver and afterwards started to mop up the floor. At 18:30 I gave up on Oliver coming by and because I didn't know what to do for dinner since cooking was out of question I ordered myself some pizza. Before my pizza arrived Oliver finally came by asking if it was still dripping because there is nothing wrong in the apartment above ours. Unfortunately it was. So he said that he would go and have a look at the apartment next to the one above us and then get back at me about it. So a bit later I moped everything up again, emptied out the bowl I put under it and went to bed knowing there was water dripping in the kitchen.
Friday morning I did the same thing and went to work thinking that Oliver would call me if he wanted to get into the apartment. Also I noticed some water stains on the ceiling on Friday morning. At work I started the stockcount on the other iPhone parts such as charging ports, home buttons, home button flexes, back cameras and such. At around noon I buried my weekend plans for good and realised that I would spend another weekend in town and with going back to the apartment regularly because I hadn't heard from Oliver at all.
On a positive note I met Darragh who owns the shop but isn't there very often since hea lso owns at least one pub in Galway. He invited me fore pizza and pints next Friday which I happily agreed to.
I also got to learn that they use a German product for cleaning the board and the phones. It's the Kontakt LR spray.
And to actually make one thing right: The other guys name is Shane not Shawn. So sorry Shane for getting your name wrong in the other post.
After finishing work I still hadn't heard from Oliver so I decided to stock up on kitchen paper, bread, ham and cider. I also got myself a sandwich and had a sandwich dinner at home after finishing up the moping and emptying out ritual. I also called Oliver again and he told me that he couldn't figure out where the water is coming from and that he is trying to get hold of a plumber. Naturally I spent the rest of the evening home opting to watch Irish Netflix to get at least some English in.
When I woke up today the first thing was to empty out the bowl of water which was filled to the prim and almost spilling over just standing there. I also noticed that it was dripping more frequently now. Like every other second or so and that there were new stains on the ceiling as well. I hand't heard from Oliver nor where there any messages. So after getting ready, moping the kitchen floor and emptying out the bowl again I went out and just walked around in Galway enjoying the nice weather and feeling happy to be here. That's when I dscovered the Latin Quater which has really small and cute houses of which some of them have very colorfuldoors.

houses in the Latin Quarter of Galway

After a quick stop back home for my kitchen ritual I found a small market with local food and jewelery. I got myself a claddagh ring which has hands, a heart and a crown. They stand for firendship, love and loyalty. It is most commonley said to be invented in the known form by a silversmith named Richard Joyce around 1700 while being an Algerian slave. But there are earlier mentions of similar looking rings. Also, depending on which way and on which hand it is worn tells anybody about the wearers current relationship status.

claddagh ring

After purchasing the ring I just walked Shop street towards the Eyre Square. On my way there I came by a statue of Oscar Wilde and Eduard Vilde. The former is pretty popular for being an Irish writer. The latter is not as popular but he was an Estonian writer.

Oscar Wilde (left) and Eduard Vilde (right)

Next to the statue two young buskers where playing some songs. I listen to them for quite a while and when I asked them for permission to post one of my pictures on here they introduced themselves as Jack and Philippe. They also said they would check this blog out. So shoutout to them. They were really good.

Jack (guitar) and Philippe (fiddle)

For dinner I wanted to go to a café I saw earlier in the day whose name captured my attention as it was "The sitting Duck" but theywere closed already. I went to Blake's Corner bar for a pint and then on recommendation of Maxin I went to Dough Bros. This is a former pop-up restaurant which serves wood fired pizza. It was simply delicious. There is no other word for it. When I was about to leave the line went on forever which I do get having eaten this pizza.

pizza at Dough Bro's Wood Fired Pizza

After that I went back to the apartment since I'm on apartment sitting/kitchen ritual duty and I'm just about to have a lazy night in.

Stay tuned. Cheers!

Juliane

Wednesday 11 April 2018

Sunday, first day of work and meeting more roommates

Hey there,

so heres the first English double-update.
So like I already wrote in the last entry Maxine and me went out on Saturday night.So first we went to 'The Quays' and afterwards to 'The Front Door'. Both places were absolutely packed. On the second pub we met a friend of hers whose birthday was on Sunday so we stayed there and chatted to her and her friends.
After another lay-in on Sunday I met Emma. One of the four girls who were still away travelling when I arrived. She is from Cleveland, Ohio, and a real chatterbox/ball of energy. But very lovely. For dinner we went out to get burritos and chatted a bit more. So I had a very lazy Sunday.

Yesterday, Monday, the 9th of  April, was my first real day of work though. John said to be there around 9:30 so I did that. He then showed me how they test iPhones, which they want to resell. So this was my task for the day: to test all the phones he gave me and to write anything that's wrong with each down in order for it to be checked out. After finishing this task he let me go to take the afternoon off.
Using this opportunity I explored a bit more of Galway. But before that I took all my stuff home and on arrival I met another one of my roommates: Mackenzie. She's from New York and studies biology and chemestry. These last few days she went to Cyprus and Israel. After meeting her I went out again.
My first destination of the day was to get some food since I hadn't had anything to eat since breakfast and it was teatime already. So I went down to Quay Street, which starts at the Spanish Arch, and got some fish'n'chips. Afterwards I just walked up Quay Street and went to St. Nicolas' Collegiate Church, which was first mentioned in 1320.

Right next to the church is a memorial called Lynch's window. There the mayor and judge at that time (1493) James Lynch hanged his own son, who had murdered a Spanish guest. He did it himself because he couldn't find anyone to execute his son. It's further said that he hung him out of his homes window since they couldn't get to the execution site and that the word 'lynching' has its origin in that story.

Lynch's window

Right around the corner from the window is the Nora Barnacle house. Nora was the wife of James Joyce, one of Ireland's best known authors. Now there is a museum about her in the house. But it is open randomly and I wasn't lucky enough.

Nora Barnacle house

From there I went to the Salmon Weir Bridge. During the salmon run this is the perfect place to watch the salmon swimming up the river.  You can also see there how the water is just going a bit crazy at the dam.

dam at Salmon Weir Bridge

Right next to the bridge is Galway cathedral, which has the very long name of 'Cathedral of Our Lady Assumed into Heaven and St Nicholas'. It is quite formidable on the outside as it is on the inside.

Galway Cathedral

window at the entrance at Galway Cathedral


window at Galway Cathedral

Since the weather was changing and I didn't bring anything with me I made my way back home. On the way I bought a pair of nice wool socks since the floor of the apartment is quite cold and I don't want to walk around in my shoes all the time. Yet I found that finding a pair of socks smaller the a size 4 (37) isn't quite as easy as you may think or as it is in Germany. Also I went to a butcher to get some mince for a bolognese sauce, which I cooked for dinner. After that I just sat with the other girls and chatted a bit before going to bed to be fit for work today.
This morning I was the first one (and kind of the only one) up and got ready. While I was preparing my breakfast a very sleepy girl came into the kitchen and introduced herself as Anna. She and Acadia (the last roommate I just briefley met) arrived last night around 3 in the morning. So after meeting her and almost missing my bus I arrived at iBroke and John told me that the new shelves hadn't arrived yesterday as planned, so he gave me time to look at their website, write most of this post your currently reading and just listening to clients coming in. After the shelves arrived around 10:30 I started stockcounting all screens they have. Many of you probably don't see how that fits in my apprenticeship but it actually does perfectly as the last topic we had in economics had to do with stocktaking and I got to know all screens and the differences between them. Like the differences of an iPhone 5, an iPhone 5C and an iPhone 5S screen  or an iPhone 4 and 4S screen for example. So my task today and ongoing until it is finished is to count and label all screens before putting them into the new shelves.
Back in the flat I met my last roommate Acadia. But only very briefly since she has a date this evening. The other girls and me went to another apartment where some guys their friends with live.

So that's it for now. I'm off to bed. Stay tuned. Cheers!

 Juliane

Saturday 7 April 2018

Meeting new collegues and exploring Galway

Hey there,

so yesterday I met three (or t'ree how the Irish would pronounce it) of my new collegues at iBroke. But let's start in the morning. After getting ready and having a small breakfast I took the bus to iBroke. I can walk there as well but it was raining quite a bit so I took the bus. On arrival I met Louis and Shawn (I'm not sure about the second name. Neither the name nor the spelling so bare with me there). Louis is a friend of John and originally from Dublin, while Shawn is from Galway and has a bit of a heavier accent than Louis. John wasn't there and they didn't know what I should do so I just sat there waiting and watching them. Every once in a while we talked a bit and it was quite funny. They are really nice and we got along well.
Around noon John came in and we just settled everything that was still up there. My next work day is on Monday.
After getting his okay to leave I walked back to the Eyre square which is a green right in the city centre of Galway. Since it was still raining a little bit I went to a small drug store and then right back to the apartment. After drying myself and searching some stuff I want to do while being here, it cleared up  and I went out to explore Galway some more. First I went to a store, where I could put money on the leap card, that I brought with me. After that I just walked down William Street to Lynch's castle, which was built in the 16th century.

Lynch's Castle

After that I got some more home stuff and groceries and went back to the apartment given that it was almost dinner time.
After dinner Maxine and me started talking and got to know each other better before being joined by her friend Tyler and watching "The Room" aka the worst film ever made.
Today I after catching up on some sleep I explored Galway some more. First of all I went to see the Spanish Arch which was built in the 15th century and symbolizes the trade the Normans had with the Spanish.

The Spanish Arch

As it was sunny there where a lot of people sitting there by the arch and the river. So I figure it is 'the place to be' if the weather is right. After crossing the river Corrib I was able to see where the river flows into the see.  Since it was really nice there I decided to stay a while and just enjoy the weather and everything around me.

river Corrib

estuary mouth of the river Corrib

After that I just walked back to High Street and browsed through some shops there and in Shop Street, the two most popular streets in Galway.
Now I just had dinner and I'll head out with Maxine to go to a pub right around the corner.

That's it for now. Stay tuned. Cheers!

Juliane

P.S.: As I promised in my last post I took some pictures of the apartment. So here it goes:

View into the main room of the apartment

The kitchen with a washing maschine, a dish washer and a dryer

Living room with the glass wall and a view of the Docks

My room with my bed on the right side

En-suite bathroom of my room