Belfast 2

Alright back to life here. I have been fortunate in my setup. Like I said, I live above one of the restaurants and occasionally my commute to work is 14 stairs. The flat is situated near a major university and in a neighborhood with most of Belfast's eateries and pubs. Most importantly is my proximity to a cheap but amazing Chinese Buffet. 154 paces. Pretty much like putting a glue-sniffer next to an Elmer's factory. After slowly weaning myself off before the trip and being without for most of it, I am back on buffet gorging wagon. Oh sweet Chinese.

Some thoughts on my adjustment here. Let's talk about language. Yes, we speak the same, which is sometimes unfortunate because it leaves me no excuse for miscomphrehension due to the distortion of some heavy accents. Sometimes the only cues I have for what my reaction should be to what was being said is the number of F-Bombs dropped in the sentence. Only 5, I usually nod approvingly. Upwards of 15, I usually feel that it was something that I should be angry/shocked/disbelieving, so I just shake my head with a frown and hope they don't realize that didn't pick up on what was actually said. What is nice here is being called "love" by someone you just met. In regular everyday conversations, having an old lady call "love" usually gives me the false impression that I have already succesfully integrated into life in the North.

Ok back to the flat for a moment. When I moved in the place contained a few food stores. Some horribly expired, but edible all the same. One of which is a Sam's Club type case of cheddar crackers. I have been doing my best to take advantage of the bounty, so if anyone has any good recipes that incorporate Ritz-esque crackers, please shoot them my way. This is your cue Matt Kopp.

Well crap, I need to wake up earlier as I just cant manage to get off more than a couple paragraphs before work. More when I can.


O'Brien


Oh and anyone fancying a chat up, my cell number here is (from the US): 00447546103258 (Dont forget about the time difference:) Mailing address available upon request (there are a few Blogstalkers I am afraid of).