I’m back in Galway. I just booked a week in the Barnacles hostel dorm room.

I dropped my parents off at the Shannon Airport at around 11am this morning. We had a fantastic time traveling together for the week. They both seemed to love Ireland. How could you not? The country grows more beautiful each time I travel its precarious highways. They also both loved the Guinness. One of my favorite quotes from the week was from my mother.

As we were nearing the end of a day driving to a new town, we were all becoming a bit stressed. This is bound to happen when you start each day not entirely sure where you will spend the evening. Navigating can be difficult when traveling throughout Ireland as roadsigns are an often uncommon sight. The frustrations we were all feeling was summed up when my mom said, “I’m ready for a pint of Guinness and some Bacon Fries!” (Bacon Fries are delicious, bacon flavored, rice snacks found in many an Irish pub)

As we were preparing to say our goodbyes at the airport, I was having conflicting thoughts on my current situation traveling. A small part of me thought it would be a good feeling to again have some sort of normalcy in my life. A permanent address. A normal job. A closet to put my clothes in. The other part of me was thinking about how free I was (I’m in Galway as I quit my job with face2face, more on this to come). I had all of my possessions on my back. I had a strong urge to book a cheap, last minute ticket with RyanAir and head to some other part of Europe for a couple days. I decided it would be in my best interest (namely, financially) to come to Galway and look for work.

So, as of right now, I’m unemployed. I quit my job with face2face on Sunday afternoon. I was nearly certain this would happen sooner or later. Even with all of the advantages of the job, I decided it was time to move on. Thursday is November first – this marks the halfway point of my time in Ireland. I’m ready to have a job that doesn’t require 60 hours of my time each week. I have the rest of my life to put in those kind of hours at a job. Where will I be working? I’m not entirely sure as of right now. Hopefully, I’ll be able to give you more of an idea by the end of this week.

Speaking of work, I’ve decided we do to much of it in America. From my understanding, when most people begin full time work in the states, you get two weeks vacation. In Ireland, with most full time positions, you’re given at least five weeks off. There are also eight bank holidays in Ireland. When the banks take a holiday, so does the rest of the country. This essentially means that in addition to your five weeks of vacation, you also get eight long weekends. As a man we met at a pub in Westport Quay said, “Work to live, don’t live to work.”