i don't know, i just work here.

hello my adoring public-

well, not really but we can pretend. so here's the scoop for my research and such. so in ireland, your boss is not required to pay you for any breaks, a lot of jobs do, but mine doesn't, so even though i get an hour for lunch i don't get paid for it. i'm thinking about finding a different job because i'm really tired after 3, 9 hour days essentially is what it boils down to but, on the other hand, are 5 other fingers including, free organic food, i got some spelt pasta today. so not so sure what to do. but we'll see, i just pretend i am a little slow at work and just don't work very hard. i know this doesn't sound very ethical, but i don't get paid for my brains there.

so the next interesting detail from yesterday includes, i still have not finished my scarf yet. so maybe tonight, but i saw a commercial with some puppets, but my roommate paul was talking to me so all i heard was "no no it's a fishtank" and then a television came. so i asked paul what this commercial was for, he explained to me that it was for television tax...i said what is television tax...it is a 154 euro a year per television tax you pay to the irish government to own a television...excuse me, can you repeat the question...yes you are supposed to pay a tax every year to own your television set and how would you police this? so you can't really if someone calls your home and asks you, do you own a tv? you answer no, or as paul said, if anyone you don't know knocks on the door just pretend you're not home, because it could be the television police. so that was my excitment for yesterday.

i got asked yet again for directions today, this time while i had headphones on. apparently i look a lot nicer then other people out on the street.

so here are the names of the people i have met so far that i work with: Jack, he's the owner, Amon he's part owner...and makes no executive decisions and is on a horrible diet which i will divluge later in this segment, then there is Ruth, she is from Dublin and has worked at Down to Earth for 3 years, she's super helpful and nice, there's Jane, could definately be a "knacker" which is an irish slang term/derogatory term meaning a working class/lower class person. she has a hardened exterior, never smiles, looks at me like i am slow, but i just get out of her way or do what she asks of me. i think we'll be just fine in that sense. i also met, Gene, she worked for about an hour and then left, so not sure what that means. then there is another woman who does a lot of the ordering who is on vacation until monday, so i'll meet her on tuesday. so that's the word in the store. so there is no music except for the cd selling music thing that plays motzart for 30 seconds and beethoveen for 30 seconds, with nature sounds and whistles and such. so it is kind of boring and find myself doing my multiplication tables in my head to pass the time. i am finding where things go so i can tell me where to find things, it's kind of nice to just say "go ask blah blah blah" i really have no sense of responsibility when i can do that. i got to mop up a broken bottle today. interestingly enough, most things over here are made out of glass instead of plastic, i think it is less expensive or there is some sort of anti-plastic thing in ireland. maybe, i will ask paul, by the way it's paul's birthday today, hooray for paul he turns 29 today. fransesca and i both forgot like 3 times this week that it was paul's birthday this week. he said he was going to cork on friday, which i thought was weird because his brother was here on monday for a depeche mode concert they went to together so i asked him why he was going to cork, and he said "to collect my presents of course". and i looked at him funny and then the light bulb slowly started to glow above my head, as well as fransesca's, and we were both like "oh yeah, it's your birthday tomorrow".

this raises an important question "how many scorpios does it take to screw in a light?"

now on to amon's diet: on day one you eat: an egg, a piece of toast, 2 tsp. of peanut butter, for lunch: a 6oz can of tuna, 5 tuc(ritz) crackers, a slice of cheese, and for dinner 2 pieces of sliced meat, a slice of bread 6oz. of beetroot, 4oz. of icecream. for like 3 days you go on like this and you are supposed to loose 10 lbs. i don't know what the motivation is behind it, i don't want to know, but i think it has something to do with him going to the world cup semi finals, and finals the next 2 weeks. i think he said he and his "mates" each paid something like 600euro per person for the semi finals and 1000euro per ticket for the finals but he's really excited so i'm not going to knock him for that, just the horrible diet.

so a typical day for work: go in straighten the candybars and granola bars, then go and dust some shelves until lunch, go eat lunch, then i come back to the shop put away some product out of a trolley (grocery cart) and then sweep the floor and leave. wow...i found out today if i want to sit down and have a cup of tea whlie at work i can do that, just not when it's busy. so that's kind of nice, i asked ruth if there is a dress code and she said no, we're pretty loose here, so i asked can i wear jeans, and she said of course you can you're down on the floor and such so i got the green light to be grubby, wow sounds like a certain couple fo jobs i had in the u.s.

so i was going to look for pants after work today but instead i tried to call my grandma, the phone number i have doesn't work, so i will email my mo about that tonight. well peeps i am going to get home so i can have some spelt pasta tonight.

xoxo,
christie

i'm sorry the life has gotten kind of dull, maybe sunday and monday will be more interesting.