Woo Hoooo!!!! We Got Bikes! :o)

So, we are truly assimilating to living in Ireland because we got bikes today! It's something so simple, but I can't tell you how excited I am. We found a couple of used bikes at a local bike rental shop and they are in pretty good condition. You can see mine in this picture. Ok, so it's purple, but it works. :) Marco got a much cooler red bike, but he rode it to work so it's not pictured here. Maybe you can see in the picture that I also got a nifty little basket that's attached to the front so now I can do a little shopping and carry things home. (Up until now I have been walking everywhere and taking a taxi home when I have a lot of things to carry.) I went to the store this afternoon and quickly discovered that it's not good to have too much weight in the basket as it throws your balance off. Haha. I didn't fall, but I'm sure I looked like I was riding drunk. So now we get to practice safe riding and learn the rules of the road. It's quite different from being a pedestrian! Lots of people ride here, but some of the streets are narrow and people drive on the left side of the road so it can be confusing. I'm sure we'll get used to it.

Ok, so enough about bikes. Last weekend we had a good bit of social activity. Friday night we went out with some of Marco's friends from work. One of the guys is moving to Switzerland, so it was sort of a going away party. It started as a BBQ at his house and then we ended up going out to a bar at midnight! When that one closed at 1:30am, we migrated to another place that had decent dance music and we stayed there until 3am!!!! I know, we are getting way too old for this. :o) Needless to say, we were a bit tired the rest of the weekend. The fun thing was that we met some new people so our network of friends is growing. I lost count of how many different countries were represented by the people there, but I was the only American and Marco was the only Peruvian. Saturday night, we went to Damon & Lisa's house for Mexican food and margaritas. They are Americans from the Bay Area that are here for a year for Damon's job. We had yummy nachos, quesadillas and margaritas that reminded us a bit of home. I really miss El Cholo (my favorite Mexican restaurant). By the way, Lisa has introduced me to a group of American women who are here because of their husband's jobs as well, and we had coffee the other day. They were all really nice and it was fun to share stories about our experiences here.

Marco leaves Sunday for a trip to Germany. He has to attend a meeting there with another Post-Doc from his research group. That means I'll be on my own until Wednesday night. Watch out, mama's going shopping!!!! hehehe. By the way, I interviewed for two different part-time jobs this week. I'm hoping to know something in the next week or two, so keep your fingers crossed.