1. Renting
Renting a place in your first few weeks after your move up to the big smoke is top priority. The Daft app becomes your new best friend but a kind of slutty gossipy best friend, that is also best friends with hundreds of other green workers just like you. So when you think it has shared a dream place that no one else has heard about, round the corner you turn and in the queue ahead of you is at least 30 other overly eager albeit slightly desperate faces clutching letters and cheques dressed in their "working professional" best.
Trying to rent a place in Dublin is like being a cow in a cattle mart. If cows had to bring two references, be willing to pay extra, were extremely punctual and good at running around an apartment very quickly while also making desperate promises such as "Yes I will cut the grass weekly, I love cutting the grass"...Actually now that I think of that last one, a cow would be fantastic at this.
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| "Ah she will make a fine tenant. Good references and a healthy coat!" |
2. House Mates
After securing that dream place now comes the minor detail of actually having enough people to rent the rooms. Finding a house mate to fill said empty room is like entering into the world of online dating. The usual fears of catfish and the Craig's list killer loom as you trawl through the various profiles of self proclaimed "neat freaks" (i.e.: takes the bin out every other month) and "chilled out chicks" (until you use the end of their milk that is, then you better hide your rabbit if you have one!) However, you will eventually find someone who likes competitive sport, or sales shopping as it were that will end up dressing you so you can pass off as a slick adult type thing on occasion. Very nice altogether!
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| This is not the Craig's List Killer, but still quite scary. |
3.Salary
Money is eaten by rent and bill gremlins, and boy are they hungry! They will just eat and eat and keep grabbing more, even out of your trusty saving account that you may have once thought of as a safe haven. That lovely salary we all thought would keep us in endless nights out, trips away and clothes is eaten up and whatever is spat back out allows us to comfort eat our way through the month, until there is nothing left on the final week before pay day but a taster board of 20 cent noodles and beans on toast. Delicious, right?
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| What can I say, bloody Gremlins! |
4. Grocery Shopping
Weekly combined shops become a stress that is quickly discarded. Crisis talks that breakdown in the middle of a shopping aisle on whether to buy fruit and veg in Tesco or Lidl are not worth a friendship. Once again this is down to those bloody gremlins- Enough said.
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| Accurate re-enactment of a grocery shopping melt down. |
5. Working with people from different backgrounds
You will work with people that didn't study the same course as you. Imagine such a thing! People that studied computers and design. Such crazy, eccentric, daredevil topics compared to ....*cough*...Commerce. What a big bad world it is after all. I remember exclaiming in my own little mind "WHAT?! YOU MEAN YOU DIDN'T GO THROUGH YEARS OF OUTDATED THEORETICAL MANAGEMENT STUDIES OR STATISTICS THAT YOU NEVER UNDERSTOOD? HOW EVER CAN YOU FUNCTION IN THE REAL WORLD?!"
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| A world outside Commerce, the possibilities! |
6. Electricity
Electricity is measure in units. This is something I knew already. However, don't trust your bills at just a glance. If the amount seems to be more than manageable and your household does not sit around the same candle reading, then it may be too good to be true. A faulty meter can be the death of any remaining money that escaped the gremlins and even if it was the company's error they will still come after you like a man dressed in white with a big butterfly net.
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| "Everyone gather round the candle and I will read to you the latest Breaking Bad Episode!" |
7. Day Length
The days are shorter in the Pale. Especially week nights, there never seems to be enough time to get anything done or go anywhere after work. I don't know it may be some weird time zone thing, I will keep you posted if I figure it out.
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| There are rumblings that this may be the reason .. |
8. Socialising
Going out on a school night has serious re-precautions. The fear monster has a much greater hold of people after college, especially when working in an office full-time. Something about pride of work has been rumoured to be behind it. Be warned, do not go out before kitting your bedside up with a pint of Dioralyte and Barroca for the morning.
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| .............. |
9. Procrastination
While being pushed by the world to become a proper fully functioning adult there are plenty of fun things to procrastinate with in Dublin. So far this year instead of working on my C.V. and becoming more well rounded "grown up wise" I have taken an amazing Hula hoop workshop, become zen for about 8 weeks through Yoga classes (it really disappears once you stop!), made my very own Space Invader at the fantastic Mabos studios, fed the ducks more than I care to admit (I may have Jamie Oliver on my case for causing an overweight duck epidemic if I am not careful!) and also watched an insane amount of television series online where each time I have become too invested in the characters. Except for Revolution, I did not care for that one bit.
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| My lovely attempt at a Space Invader! |
10. The Immersion
This isn't really a helpful tip or thought but definitely something I have learned since living up in Dublin. I now know what an Immersion is and the grave consequences of leaving it on. Which I think makes me a lot more Irish than before I moved up, which is strange.
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| The Immersion, a source of tension in many an Irish house. |
Has anyone any gems that they have learned since leaving college, moving out of home or moving away?
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