The Irish Homecoming: An Irish love story - returned expat loving Ireland more than ever

April Drew loving her home country more than ever.

“In a few years I’ll bring Colum back up here and show him how to skate,” he added.
And to finish off the afternoon we went to Limerick’s finest Chinese restaurant, the Shamrock, on the Ennis Road for a late supper. Colum discovered his love for prawn crackers and fried rice. It was a fantastic day, and there will hopefully be many more of those to come.

And the excitement builds. This week our container is due to arrive from New York. They tell us it’s already in Ireland at customs.

It’s only a matter of days before we have all our belongings to furnish a beautiful house we are going to rent on the outskirts of Limerick City. We are very excited to say the least.
The kids also start day care this week. Colum is already excited. He still asks for Patti, a wonderful woman who looked after him like her own in his day care in New York.

He understands what’s involved with day care (lots of kids to play with) and asks to go since we visited it last week. The facilities here in Limerick are second to none. The standard and quality of care appears to be outstanding from the outside. I look forward to seeing how they get on.
Sadie will only go part time for the time being – I’m a little anxious about her going because she is so young – but she will be fine. They always are in the end.

There is a baby room, a wobbler room, a toddler room, a pre-school room and so on. Rooms for everything and everyone. They have cameras in each room and they send the kids home each day with a schedule of their feeds and sleeps.

John, after an aptitudes test, two interviews and a medical, was offered a job last week. He will begin Monday, July 2. He is excited and so am I.

It’s not easy in this current economic climate to locate work in Ireland. A lot of people who came home before him are finding it difficult to get jobs so we don’t take it for granted. We thank our lucky stars every day for it and hope it all works out.

Am I missing New York? I’m missing my friends terribly, but I’m definitely not missing the humidity you guys have been having these past few weeks.

During the week I met a lovely elderly couple from New Jersey who were visiting Ireland for the first time. They stopped in a local store to ask for directions to Bunratty Castle (out the road from John’s mom’s house.) I chatted to them briefly.

Like any substantial conversation in Ireland it began with the weather. I informed them of our recent move home and the conversation quickly shifted to their love for our national airline. They couldn’t praise Aer Lingus high enough.

“We’ve flown all over the world and have never been so impressed with an airline before,” said the stout grey-haired lady.

I immediately concurred with them and we spent five short minutes talking about our experiences with Aer Lingus.

John and I flew Aer Lingus home in May. It was a bit crazy with the kids, the luggage, the strollers and ourselves.

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Nster.com