June - end of school and lots of parties (Lino bday, class, Mike work BBQ), Fathers Day & flight to the states

Only 2 more weeks until the end of school!!!!!! I am not sure if I am excited or nervous about it. I know that I can't believe its been 5mo already! The time surely does fly by either when you are having fun or bored.

June 4th - 10th

This week was quite busy...I know I say that a lot but I felt like there was just a lot going on. Monday I started the day with a coffee date with Sonja to discuss the Primary Dance on Thursday. There wasn't a lot to plan and do because we did it all already but since it was our first time we wanted to make sure we have everything covered. I also was looking for a little distraction before my 2nd interview! My 2nd interview was for the contract project manager role which I think is the best option for me. I researched the guys that were interviewing me, at least the ones they listed on the email, and I found out that the Director worked at Danone for a long time and was connected on LinkedIn to at least 6 people that worked with me. Another good situation for me because he could easily ask any of them about my work experience and results. The interview went a lot better than the first one. I wasn't nervous and I was able to answer most of the questions pretty well I think. Since it is a contract job I feel like it could be a good chance to get the position and I didn't have to wait long to find out because on Tuesday I got the call that they were interested in offering me the job! Well I'll be damn!!! It isn't an official offer but the starting phases of a job offer. The problem isn't the visa the problem is the summer travel that I have planned. I didn't know what was going to happen with the job and they had told me 2 weeks they would let me know and this was barely 1 day so how am I suppose to plan? So I let the HR lady know and she didn't seem happy about that but what can you do. She gave me some form to fill out and she told me she would be contacting my references in the next few days and will get back to me...so time to wait. The form that I had to fill out was a little confusing too so I had Mike and his HR lady help me. I don't think I did it right but I did the best that I could do. On Wednesday I was preparing for Lino's party. I wasn't sure what to get for the kids because most people spend so much on the presents so I let Lino and Shaun go to the store with me to pick out party gifts and a present for Shaun's friends birthday party. Let me tell you a trip to Toys R Us with kids is not fun and it is not fun at a busy mall. After over an hour, which should have only taken 30min we got pretty much all that we needed for the party. Thursday afternoon I was busy with getting ready for the Primary Dance.

When the boys got out of class I took them to the PTA room so that they would know where I was and Lino was asking me about buying Mrs Brooks a coffee to show her how much he appreciated her???? What??? Who is this kid??? I tell you, as much as she gets on his nerves and mine I think he has a soft spot in his heart for a tough women...it must be because of his mom :-) So I sent him with some money to get a coffee but they wouldn't let him buy it because kids are allowed to use cash to buy stuff at the cafe (I think its to keep them from buying junk with their lunch money) so I had to go get it for him. We just barely caught her finishing her bus duty and he was able to give her her coffee. I think she was just as surprised as I was but very appreciative. Oh my Lino...he keeps me on my toes!!! So back to the primary dance...There was so much drama around this dance it wasn't funny. The lady who normally leads this event is leaving and she has been so back and forth with me and Sonja about what to do and who to do it and all that stuff its just been a headache. In the end it wasn't that bad but because this lady was insistent on making it seem more complicated than it was it was annoying.

Mike did come to help me sell food which was nice and funny at the same time. He was the only dad there volunteering but he didn't care...he always supports me when I am doing stuff so I knew he wouldn't mind helping out. I think he kind of enjoyed it too so that was good. The dance was just for 4-6 graders so our boys were there which was good. The kids seemed to have a good time and we sold almost all of our stuff so that was good too. Friday I was the mystery reader for Shaun's class. I've been seeing the posting for it in his class newsletter but I kept ignoring it or forgetting to really look into it but this Friday was the last one so I wanted to do it. I should have looked a little closer at the details because I only read a very short book and the reader is suppose to read for 20min. I didn't think the kids would sit for that long but one of the kids, Even, informed me that my book was too short and needed to be longer. That kid has a mouth on him. I am not sure how it exactly works anyway, but I provided the teacher with a few clues about me and I think she must tell the class and they try to guess who the reader is. When I got into the class, Shaun nearly dragged me in, they were all like "we knew it was you...it was to easy...we knew it was Shaun's mom!" These little treats are what I really appreciate most about not working. I don't think I appreciate them enough because sometimes I just get so frustrated and tired of not working but this time I did take a minute to really enjoy the moment. I doubt Shaun will remember this day but I will try to keep it with me always because it was just a simple little thing but it was special to me. The weekend was of course all go go go...the last weekend before the end of school and of course we had 2 bday parties...one for Lino and Shaun's friend.

So Saturday Mike took the boys on their normal Saturday sports while I stayed home to get things ready. I had made the cake the day before and I only put icing on it, no fondant, because I wasn't brave enough to deal with the sweating and dissolving of my cake again. Plus this was a pool party so I knew it would be bad so no need trying to pretend I am a master cake maker. While there wasn't a whole lot that needed to be done because I decided to make pizza at home (so much cheaper), Lino and Shaun made rice crispy treats (they ate almost as much as they made) and I made some pretzel dogs that turned out really good (I got the recipe from Eric) so food prep was easy... I did receive some last minute RSVP's to the party and I had to make a run to Toys R Us again to get a few more water guns for the party bags but thankfully I was able to do that pretty quick since I knew what I was getting. On Friday Lino told me that a few other kids were coming but I didn't get any messages from their parents so I told him maybe they wanted to come but couldn't because no one told me.

He swore they were coming but I didn't believe him...maybe I should have. So of course even though there isn't much to do for this party I was stressed and Mike was "late" getting back so I had to fuss at him. He had to remind me that practice didn't finish until 10:30 so that is why they didn't get home until 12 and not at 11 like I had mentally planned for them to arrive. After that it wasn't so bad other than the extra kids that showed up!!! Apparently, they didn't know what RSVP meant so they didn't inform me that they were coming!!! I had 5 extra kids show up and 3 of them were not prepared for a pool party so I had to race around and try to find swim wear for them.

I told them it wasn't an issue but I was sweating bullets running from the pool to the apartment and back again. It worked out but man what a mess. The bigger issue wasn't swim suits, although 1 of the no swim suit kids was a girl and I had no girl things for her but she was finally convinced to wear the trunks and top that I did have, the problem was the party bags. I did get a couple extra items just in case but I didn't have 5 extra so I had to talk to one of the moms to ask her if I could give her daughter a party bag on Monday. She was very nice and understood...she was actually the one to explain to me that the parents that didn't RSVP didn't know what that meant so she knew the predicament that I was in and was totally cool about it. Lino had a good time and we didn't even have any activities for them to do. It was a relatively cheap party and it seemed like everyone had fun.

When it was over there were 2 of Lino's little girl friends that wanted to stay and play so I invited them up to the apartment. These were our first guest in our apartment and I was totally unprepared. I didn't have any tea or anything to give to them. Thankfully they didn't seem like they wanted anything other than water so I was saved.

The girls helped Lino to open his gifts, Miray wrote down the gifts and who they were from and Aoi helped him open and clean up. They played for a good hour before their mom's finally convinced them to leave. Very successful party! That evening Mike & I took a little trip down to one of the Ramadan Bazzar's...what an experience. We really didn't do it right because it was late and we were hungry so really we only went to eat but it was more about shopping. There was so many shops it was crazy. They were selling almost everything and it seemed like the prices were cheap enough but I think I would have been overwhelmed to do any really shopping there. Shopping at a bazzar is a very special skill that I am thankful that I don't have. I don't have the patience for it at all. As for food, I do like to do a little shopping around to find good/unique food to eat and that is what we did. I can't say we had anything that was just out of this world good but it was good and different. We didn't stay long but enjoyed the little adventure. Sunday Shaun has his classmates bday party so I took him while Lino & Mike vegged out at home. We met up later to have lunch and get pedi's at Star Vista. We haven't been to Star Vista since we came looking for apartments back in October...we kind of forgot about it but it was pretty cool and has a nice little courtyard area where the kids can run around. We ended up seeing friends from the condo so that was funny and nice at the same time. They go to a church there apparently...I need to check it out because we need somewhere to go. We ended the weekend off right with a bike ride to our new favorite hawker center. Unfortunately they didn't have any more steam buns for poor Lino so he wasn't happy but he survived.

June 11th - 17th

This is the last week of school!!! I can't believe how quick the time has passed since we arrived in Singapore. It's only been 5 months but it has gone by so fast...I'm pretty sure faster than the first 5 months in Ireland. It's hard to say if it's because of the age of the boys, our experience with moving or the country??? It is probably a combination of all 3 and some. The boys seemed to have settled in pretty good and have a good amount of activities to keep them busy so that helps. Mike has been really enjoying his adventures at work and trying to get the plant working better. Me...I'm still flapping around trying to find my place in all this but for the most part I'm happy. I think between me and the boys I miss our friends in Ireland the most...it is hard to replace them so I should stop trying and just find new/different friends for the here and now. Such a learning experience this has been for all of us...

So last week of school is usually pretty quite for us but not here. There were class parties and assemblies to attend, I was getting us ready for Mike's work BBQ which was a pain in the ass because I had to get Halal meat and the only place I could find that I trusted was all the out by the boys school so it was complicated to coordinate that, then Mike wanted me to find him a floating volleyball net which wasn't easy and even when I found one it wasn't scheduled to deliver until after the party so I had to cancel that and poor Mike was so sad I actually felt a little sorry for him and on top of that my old boss from Ireland was in town for a few days so we met up with them and meet with a few SPMI members trying to drum up some business for Aspira...it was a world wind of a last week. I couldn't tell if the boys were excited or sad about the coming summer. I think there were feeling a little bit of both because of the new friends that they had just made and being able to go back to the states to see family. One thing is for sure, they truly enjoyed all the parties that they had to celebrate the last week of school. Shaun had his class party on Monday and it was really cute. Mike made sure to come and see it and I was trying to help out the 2 class moms but it was a bit hectic. They had set up some small games for the kids to do and then we were to go back to the class for a list little assembly with songs and some announcements from the teachers. The games were a joke...it wasn't the room moms fault it was just to hard to get 40 kids to do the games. The poor lead mom was trying to yell to get the kids attention but her voice wasn't very loud so no one was listening to her. She was so patient which was better than I was, I started recruiting parents to yell the directions at the kids and round them up. It was too funny. One of the games was an egg race, the kids had to quickly walk with an egg on a spoon then pass it to a friend, when the whole line was done they were finished and which ever line finished first was the winners. The eggs were boiled so we didn't have to worry about a big mess but because we are talking about 5yr olds they came up with their own rules for the game. The idea was for them to balance the egg on the spoon but since that little detail was overly expressed some of the kids just put the egg in the spoon and put their hand over the egg to secure it in the spoon and they ran from one side of the line to the next then passed it to their friends. Very practical approach if you want to win but not what the leader had planned. Then you had the other kids who took the instructions way more literally and they were so careful and cautious not to drop the egg that by the time the race was over only 1/2 of the kids had got a chance to go. I was dying laughing. There were a couple other games but after the first one we just lowered our expectations drastically and it was fine. Back in the class the 2 classes (JK3 & JK4 - split classes due to the bilingual schedule) did a couple songs for us then the teachers had a little speech and while they were talking I was near tears. This has just been such an emotion season I didn't really realize it until the teachers were talking about how much the kids have grown up and changed in the year...very heart warming. After that we went to the classroom to watch the video that the parents did for the kids. All the parents were asked to do a short 30sec video to their child and the room moms combined all the videos into one...it was so amazing!!! The kids didn't know we did it so they were all smiles when they were watching it. The crazy thing is that the videos were suppose to be 30sec or less so that the video wasn't super long but people just don't care...one of the parents sang a song for their kids and I'm pretty sure it was over 1.5mins long...they do have twins so I guess they were allowed 1min but seriously, a song? Was that really needed? Anyway, it was very sweet...here is our video to Shaun.

After the video we had a little time in the classroom with their home room teacher. There are several kids leaving from Shaun's class and one is the room mom Becky and her daughter Bella. Since she spent so much time with the kids (she even did substitute teaching some times) they wanted to give each kid in the class a little gift of thanks before they left. Its such a nice tradition, people here give gifts when they are going away they are not looking for gifts.

Shaun and Bella became good friends during his time in JK3 so I know he will miss her. The classes will be reshuffled for SK so who knows will be in his class next school year. Finally all the sad moments were over and it was finally time to eat...there was so much food it was crazy. All the parents from the 2 classes brought in food to share for the celebration and there was more than enough for another 2 classes. It was a nice day and Shaun enjoyed it. Tuesday was Lino's assembly and class party. All of the grade 2 kids were in the assembly and it was actually really nice and Lino was of course the center of attention because he was dancing like a mad man during all the songs. All the parents who knew him or me said something to me after the assembly about how spirited he was and how cute his dancing was...I just shook my head...Lino knows how to get attention when he wants it. Watching him do his crazy dance was really great but the the fact that Lino's class was the only class not to actually have a part in the assembly...I was so annoyed. So the 7 G2 classes all got together to sing some songs and do a little skits then each class had a couple minutes to show a video talk about what they have learned in their time in G2. All the other classes got to do this except Lino's class. Why? you might ask? Well apparently the classes had a time limit allotted to them, like 5 min and so all the classes did something that would fit in that 5 min window allowing each kid to have an individual moment...except Mrs Brooks.

She either didn't understand the instructions or didn't care because the little video that she put together was like 13min long and there was no way they could show it in the class. So instead of re-doing the video so that each kid had a moment she only showed 2 if the kids from the class. How crazy is that???? All the other 7 classes had videos with all of the kids having their moments or having them speak in front of the assembly but our class was the only one where only 2 people were shown. I was so mad and annoyed and so was the other parents in the class...but what can you do about it now? So after the assembly it was back to the class for the class party but Mike couldn't stay because he had to go back to work. He was even more upset than me that he didn't get to see what Lino had to say. In the class the kids did a couple of dances for us but again this lady is so crazy the way they did there performance was just...stupid...I have to be honest.

It appears that she was using her class projector to show a video that the kids were dancing to, "What does the fox say?", and I guess since that is the way they had been practicing that was the way that they performed it for us. But the problem was that the projector was facing front board and the so called dance floor was right up against this front board. So while all the parents are standing back in the classroom (near the desk) we are looking at the backs of our kids because they are facing the board. I am sure I haven't explained it well but basically they are performing to the board with the classroom behind them (no room really between them and the board) so as a result performing with their backs to us. We had to crowd around the corners and sides to try and get a small glimpse of them from the front of the class...what a disaster. Next was the video, but first the kids got to get food and sit down and come to order before Mrs. Brooks would show the class video.

She has so much order and control it is crazy...I can't really say if that is good or bad for a teacher? I guess you have to have some but man is there any time for her to relax??? After that the parents were allowed to have some food and play games with the kids. I'm not sure if the kids were really interested in playing games with the parents but they enjoyed the games either way. Again, party with tons of food...I hope that it didn't just get tossed in the trash. Overall it was nice to be able to meet some other parents from the class and play games with the kids. I don't think they keep the kids in the same class so it is sort of a goodbye to some since they we be in different classes in G3. Wednesday I was running around getting some things for the BBQ. I went for a good 1 mile hike around a shopping center looking for one store that had food warming trays...I had never been there before but I heard the items were cheap there so I wanted to get it there. It was cheap and they had a few other items that I needed but man walking around for 40min in a circle trying to find a store that is hidden behind the construction walls of a shopping center then still having to hike half way around again (and back) to go to the ATM to get cash to pay for my items might just not be worth all the hassle...what a mess. Good thing I used RedMan delivery (first time using it) for my other stuff...that would have really caused me to drink if I had to go dragging around 2 cart fulls of stuff...thank goodness for modern convinces. Thursday wasn't much better, not only was it the last day of school it was a half day and the last business day before the BBQ because Friday was a holiday, Hari Raya, so I had get all my shopping done or else we were not going to be ready for the BBQ. Needless to say I was running around like a mad person. I had an appointment in the city in the morning, then I needed to run to Halal place to pick up meat before the boys finished school but I was running late from my morning appointment so I was complaining to my taxi driver about how complicated it is to do stuff without a car. He of course asked me why we needed to cook for the BBQ anyway because there are so many catering options that cook, set up and delivery there was no reason to do it yourself. Good point. But for us a BBQ is not a catered thing it is something that you do yourself...and apparently in Singapore you do it and get super stressed about it! The great thing was that he was really generous and he basically dropped me off to get my meat (I had called to order and try to pay on the phone but they refused to do that) and while I was waiting on the meat he went to get a coffee and he said he would come back to get me and take me to the school which was going to save me a lot of time waiting on a taxi. I told him I would be fast but I didn't know how long it would take for the place to get my order together so he went down the road to get his coffee and not even 10min later I was ready to go. Of course I was quicker than he thought so I had to wait a little for him but in the end it worked out and I just barely made it to school 5 min late.

So not like I didn't have enough going on I had told my Chinese moms that I would go with them to the museum with the kids after school...just one more thing. So since I was late and I had the meat that I needed to get into the fridge and because it was the last day of school and all the kids were saying their goodbyes I was taking longer than the other mom wanted to wait. So she left us (she was going to give us a ride), it actually worked out because she went to get food for her son but I had food for the boys so they didn't need to go anywhere for food and they had a few more minutes to play.

That might be the last time I get to pick them up from school for a while if this contract position actually goes through...I'm pretty sure I'm both happy and sad. We finally head off and take the MRT/bus to the museum and make it there in perfect time. We went to see the Marvels exhibit because all the kids were boys and they love all those avengers movies. The exhibit was OK but it wasn't very big at all. The kids would have blown through it in 20min if we hadn't slowed them down all the time. They really enjoyed it and I am glad that we went. We hung around for a while after that then headed home...mommy was tired.

Friday was Hari Raya and we just stayed at home and Mike started to cook the pull pork for Saturday...that was a DISASTER!!!!!

Oh man, I felt bad for Mike but it was funny. He was insistent on making a pulled pork and we have been talking about how to actually cook it on the BBQ pits in the condo. He wasn't going to be able to smoke it for the 12hours that he normally does so we decided he would just cook it on the grill for a couple of hours then put it in the oven to tenderize over night. Well that was a good plan but some how it didn't exactly work out that way. First off he forgot to order lighter fluid so I went to the condo market to get something and all they had were some little flint like fire starters. He tried to use 2 to get the fire going but after 30min of only smoke I told him he might need to throw on a few more just for good measure...eventually he got it going. Next was putting on the meat which didn't seem to go to bad, we had decided to use one of the big foil trays to cover up the meat so that it could smoke more than cook. I left him to it and the boys were outside playing so I had some time to get the hamburger patties seasoned, pressed and ready to put on the grill the next day. While I was doing my work, Mike was having a heck of a time with his poor fire. At one point his meat caught on fire!!!! OMG!!! I guess because of all the fire starters, the grease and the lid it was just a recipe for an inferno. I am not sure what he did to put out the fire but somehow he did...but not before he got a few videos of the crime scene. At that point I had to go down and provide some moral support...I checked out the pork and it was pretty chard but since he put the fat side down a lot of the heavy damage was done to the skin & fat which we always cut off so I told him it should be salvageable. Apparently he was looking so pathetic out there with his burning pork that the guys BBQ'ing at one of the other pits brought over a beer for him. Talk about embarrassing. But...he recovered and was able to quite the fire and let the pork smoke and not burn any more. When he was finished he just wrapped it up, said a prayer that the few minutes on fire might just enhance the smoke flavor and put it in the oven. Oh, sometime between the burning and coming inside Shaun fell into the fish pond...apparently he was trying to "see" the fish but for some reason he was bent over with his arms all the way into the water up to his shoulders so I'm not sure how he fell in but he did...he was fine...just smelly. Saturday was the party...another crazy day of sports in the morning and party prep in the afternoon. But before we could even think about prepping at the house we had to make a plan on how we were going to search the malls for a floatable volleyball net for the pool party. I told Mike that I didn't remember seeing any when I was looking for stuff for Lino's party but he wanted to go to the stores and confirm it for himself. So we hit up Jem mall since it was close to the boys school...no luck there but thankfully we didn't waste a lot of time. Then a taxi to Vivo City and after checking a few different shops and running into Mike's HR manager (who was coming to the BBQ later) it was finally confirmed that there was no floatable volleyball net...honestly there wasn't much water sports stuff at all which is really disappointing seeing as though there are so many pools here. Oh well...next was prep time...the pork actually turned out good, I don't think you could tell that it was on fire the day before which was good :-) Mike got the grill set up a little quicker this time but he picked the pit that was right in the middle of the BBQ area and had no real cover at all...and this was at 12:30 in the afternoon, the blazing hottest time of the day!!!! So I was complaining to him about almost everything he was doing and he was so over me so I had to just leave and let him be. The boys were telling us to stop fussing and so I knew that was my que to shut up. Mike was handling it so no reason to fuss any more...right??? Well some of the issue is that we are not use to cooking on these crazy BBQ grates. Mike got some grill grates to put on top of the grill to help because the grill grates on the BBQ pits were like a good 5 inch apart from each other so you couldn't put burgers on there without them falling through and the hot dogs were just as tricky because if they turned just a little they would fall through as well. So he got grill grates but we didn't realize they were so small so he could only do a few things at a time. The burgers had to go on first because they were Halal so that took some time. I flipped the first few because he was sure that my patties were going to fall completely apart. They were very loose patties because the meat was super course ground but I didn't want to over work them to make them tough so I told him I would flip the first few to see how to do it. It did take some time to get the hang of it but once the bottom cooked if we got the spatula just under the patty just right they flipped just fine...but there was a learning curve to that. Eventually we figured it out but of course I was bothering my husband the whole time...the boys were off with their friends so at least I didn't have to worry about that. The party was suppose to start at 2 so we started to get set up at 1:30 but people didn't show up until 3 which worked out because I had to finish BBQ'ing so Mike could entertain his guest and I didn't finish until after 3. We only were cooking burger and sausages and I made a slab of ribs at the last minute because Shaun wanted it. The reason it took so long is because Mike only made a small fire to cook over so we could only make about 3 burgers and 5 hot dogs at a time. Of course I fussed at him about this because I told him to just fill the whole grill up so that we could cook more at once but he didn't...so half way through the cooking (just before he had to go) the coals were pretty much out and we had to put on more coals to cook the rest of the food. It is never easy with us...but it came out good and it all worked out. The party was small & nice. There was only one other kid and she was acting a little shy with the boys at first but opened up soon enough. I had to complain to them about all my drama with the Halal meat and they all laughed and reassured me it was good. It was a nice group of co-workers. For the most part it was pretty relaxed. Mike's boss arrived late due to other obligations but once he arrived we started doing swim races. This was fun...I didn't race of course only the Pepsi people did and the boyfriend of the HR manager. It was a lot of fun!!! Fun for me at least because between me and Lino we were having them do all sorts of crazy stuff. They are a good group of people. Sunday was Fathers Day and I pretended like I didn't know it was Fathers Day all week so Mike thought that I didn't have any plans but I did.

I planned to go to brunch at a new place because I just can't believe that the Ritz is the only one with an amazing brunch so we went to the Fullerton Bay hotel and Deanna & Eric met up with us at the last minute. Lets just say if the Ritz was considered 100% this place would be barely 50% for almost the same price! I'm not saying it wasn't good, the food was OK but it wasn't the same as the Ritz. The buffet was very minimal and the order menu was small. The dishes that we did order were only so so too...we thought that at least those would be amazing but it wasn't. The only thing they had going for them was the kids room, which we quickly sent our kids to after they ate, and the make you own gin bar. That was it! I was so disappointed but Mike was happy that I thought of it and he didn't complain at all...such a good guy. The boys really liked it which was good but I think they just liked the kids room. It was funny because in the kids room they had little burger sliders, fries and chicken nuggets...well when Mike & Eric saw this they wanted sliders too. So we asked the waiter for an order of sliders and you would have thought that we were complete rif rafts in this fine dining place asking for burgers when there was lobster tails, shrimp and various pate's on the buffet. But no, our men wanted burgers so we got them burgers. The waiter was like "I've never had anyone request burgers during Sunday Brunch" and we told him it was probably the type of people who came here who didn't appreciate a good burger...I don't think he agreed. We also suggested to him to tell management that for the next Fathers Day brunch they should really do something meat oriented like steaks, burgers, pork chops, BBQ something like that. For some reason I didn't think he will be sharing our suggestion :-) Well during brunch we got to discuss our only friends leaving Singapore. Deanna told me on Saturday that it looked like they were leaving so we talked a lot about that. I am already sad that they are going and they are not even gone yet but those are our only couple friends. I felt so lucky to have met her so early on and I thought surely we would be leaving before them because they said they were not interested in leaving any time soon. But you just don't know where life will take you. Hopefully we will get to meet up at least once more before they move but it looks like it will be a quick exit for them in order for them to get settled and get the kids in school for the next school year...so sad. This is one of the things about Singapore that I don't like and would always keep me from wanting to stay very long...it is such a transit city that you have to either be really good at making friends or plan to only have superficial relationships with people because they or you will be leaving soon enough which is hard to deal with. I think we all took that for granted in Ireland...we were the "blow in's" and everyone else was pretty set in there locations so we didn't have a lot of people leaving but that is not the same here. Its something we will have to deal with but for now we will enjoy the little moments that we have with our friends.