Our Wee Apartment

That first night, we were too exhausted to do much of anything except eat and unpack our sheets and duvet. The next day, however, began with a friendly visit from our landlord, Paul, who informed us early on in the conversation that he had lived in Boston for 12 years, but had never been to Ohio. Boston’s definitely a world away from Columbus, but despite being unconvinced of our common ground, I nodded agreeably. I’ve found that a nod and an obliging “Oh, really?” are the only appropriate responses I can give when someone from Northern Ireland tells me they’ve been to America - which really means they’ve vacationed in Florida, New York, Boston, or California. I appreciate the figurative handshake, as if to say, “Nice to meet you. I’m not like the others. I’ve been to where you live.” 

Paul then proceeded to give us a run-down (which I will repeat below) of our apartment coupled with an admonition, “Don’t leave that door open. Heat is precious. Heat is gold.”

Heating: Our apartment is heated with gas supplied by a propane tank sitting in our wee back garden. Our water is also heated by this tank, and is either freezing cold, or the temperature we’ve set for ourselves inside. When the propane in the tank runs out, the heat runs out. Which is not good. So, basically, we have to check our tank by giving it a good shake. If it’s heavy and doesn’t explode, we don’t have to pay Paul 70 pounds for another one. The tank should last us at least 6 to 8 weeks. That is, if we don’t have the temperature up to 100 F.  We were walking around pretty much naked until Paul explained that that they use Celcius over here. Now we have the heater set at a comfortable 35 C in the evenings and turn it off during the day to conserve our propane. 

That brings me to laundry: Funny that the heater should remind me of washing clothes, but we don’t have a dryer here, which is pretty standard throughout Europe. Rather than guzzle up exorbitant amounts of energy running a tumble dryer, folk in Northern Ireland hang their clothes up on the line outside. We tried this. It didn’t work. Firstly, because it rains nearly every day in Northern Ireland which makes drying wet clothes outside a challenge. Secondly, because we don’t have clothes pins and the plastic clothes pin rack we bought from Pound World snapped as soon as we hung our heavy jeans on it. So, our unmentionables are strewn over every available radiator, door knob and wardrobe door for going on 36 hours now. I’m just hoping we don’t have any company until they finish drying. Oh, and did I mention that the washers are miniature? One small  rectangular laundry basket requires potentially 4 or 5 loads - I’m not really sure yet, because the washer seems to be on 3 hour cycles and we ran out of drying space. 

Electricity: Unlike in America, where you never once think about how much electricity you are consuming until you receive a monthly bill, people here in Northern Ireland are very aware of their energy consumption. Here, we pay for our electric with a designated card, just like our cell phone. There is a panel outside the door to our flat that displays how much electricity credit we have remaining. When we get low, we run down the road to the convenience (a tiny shop in a residential neighborhood that sells essential groceries, cleaning supplies, cigarettes, etc.) where you can “top up” or add credit to your water, electric, mobile, and even pay your taxes. And every single appliance, outlet, washer, oven, lamp, etc. has its own designated switch that you have to manually flip down - the opposite direction of light switches in the States - until it displays the tiny, red word ‘ON.’ As a result, you aren’t wasteful, because you only turn on appliances when you need them. Frankly, it’s a bit of a hassle, but it seems to save money. We learned very quickly that electricity doesn’t work the same way as in the States when we had a lamp and a computer turned on at the same time and apparently blew a fuse. However, in checking the circuit breaker, nothing was labelled, and nothing had been flipped, so we are kind of at a loss for how to proceed. We now have no power in either the living room or the bedroom and are hoping that when Paul stops by again today, he will have another simple explanation. Either way, we’ve chosen to leave all of our lights off during the day to save as much money as we can.

Appliances: We don’t have a TV and don’t plan on buying one. It seems to be too much money to spend on something we won’t be able to take back to the States with us, and after a couple of hours watching TV in Belfast, I’m not sure that Ben and I would find the shows here entertaining for the right reasons. We also don’t have a dishwasher, so we wash all of our dishes by hand after every meal. We don’t have a garbage disposal, which means the trash must be taken out every day to avoid unpleasant odors. Speaking of unpleasant odors, despite numerous containers of baking soda, our fridge has a pungent smell of sour, rotten milk, and cooling and freezing plastic from where the cleaning staff accidentally switched it off before we moved in. The fridge is the size of a mini fridge in the States, which is typical here, and fine by us, because since we don’t have a car, and the food here doesn’t contain many preservatives (if at all), even if we were able to carry enough food back to our apartment to fill our entire fridge, it would all go bad (or “go off” here) before we’d had a chance to eat it. Basically, this means we are required to make very frequent trips to the grocery store.

Groceries: We have tried shopping at Super Value, TESCO and the convenience for our groceries and are still unsure of which chain has the best prices. Right now, TESCO is definitely winning on quality, as we discovered when we opened a jar of jam from the convenience and it was covered in mold. We have cooked almost every meal for ourselves since we arrived, again in an effort to be economical. This week, we bought a loaf of bread, six eggs, a quart of milk, a carton of butter, a zucchini (“courgette” here), a sack of small boiling potatoes, a carton of mushrooms, asparagus, three onions, a package of roma tomatoes, salt, pepper, coffee, pasta, pasta sauce, a package of chicken breast, a carton of juice, mayo w/sweet chili flavor (kind of like chipotle mayo back home), lunch meat, cheese, yogurt, strawberries, blueberries, cooking oil, tomato soup and jam for about 60 pounds. We are trying to spend around 50 pounds a week and think we should be able to budget better next week now that we have a few things to start out with.

Furniture: Our matching couch and armchair deserve their own subheading because they are truly something out of legend. We have nicknamed them “The Mexican Nacho Fiesta couches,” as they are a hideous blend of burnt brick red-orange, faded maize yellow, navy blue, and rose pink in wide, wavy horizontal stripes. Their large armrests and gripping wooden toes seem to shout, “Look at me! I am the world’s most hideous couch! EVER.” Ben and I decided immediately that they must be hidden. Especially because the living room is the only room we have to eat in, and the sight of these couches was making me as nauseous as the flight to Heathrow. Finding a slipcover was an adventure that took us on foot to three stores in Belfast, online to many internet vendors who do not ship covers to the UK, and eventually, on a 2 and a half hour bus and taxi ride to our friendly, neighborhood, IKEA, all the way in Belfast. Finally, the Mexican Nacho Fiesta couches have been exterminated. 

Decorations: The rooms themselves are a good size, but one thing that was definitely lacking was warmth. Ben and I spent the entire first week trekking around Derry buying decorations and essential homewares for the apartment. At nearly every store, the sales people seemed bent on discouraging us from purchasing anything. Ben and I would discuss an item we liked together, and one of the sales people, in an attempt to be helpful would tell us it was “much too dear” and that we really wanted something else - that we didn’t really want a curtain, or slipcovers for the couch. Despite their best efforts, Ben and I managed to find very nice things at a reasonable price. Nevertheless, it was apparent that our money doesn’t travel very far in Northern Ireland and what would have taken a few hours to buy in the States took a week because we went everywhere on foot and carried everything ourselves, selecting and purchasing items without shopping carts (which are pretty much nonexistent here). One of our first steps was to purchase some shades for our ceiling lights, which were simply bare bulbs hanging from the ceilings when we first arrived. We then purchased: 4 pillows for the couches, 2 table lamps, 2 standing picture frames, a few scented candles, a decorative candlestick with tall dinner candles, a piece of wall art, curtains for the bedroom and living room, a curtain rod (“curtain pole” here, also on our trip to IKEA, as it is unavailable in almost any home furnishings store over here), a couple of baskets for our stuff, a dish drying rack, a hamper, 4 sturdy wooden hangers, 2 trash cans, a set of screwdrivers, a hammer, a picture hanging kit, a blanket for the couch, and a partridge in a pear tree.

Clothing: So far, our search for clothes has been pretty unsuccessful. We came to Northern Ireland with a 50 lb. suitcase a piece and quickly discovered that we have hardly anything to wear. Since we needed to make a trip to Belfast anyway in order to go to IKEA, we decided to kill two birds with one stone and try to go shopping at Castle Court on a Saturday. Bad idea. All of Northern Ireland appeared to be at that mall. There was a long line (or “queue” to get into some stores, and it was nearly impossible to look at anything because Ben and I were constantly in the way. Rather than say ‘Excuse Me,’ people just  stared at us as if we were doing something wrong, which we might have been. After all, we wouldn’t know any differently. It’s difficult to get a gauge on women’s fashion here. There are a lot of looks that we don’t have in the States, in particular, the British indie vibe, which is simply nonexistent back home. And it’s difficult to tell which stores are age appropriate. I saw stores carrying clothes I might like and began shopping, realizing a few minutes later that everyone else in the store was over 40. Sitting at Subway (which is everywhere over here, I might add), trying to calm my nerves, Ben and I noticed that young women here tend to dress either like flight attendants, hookers, or 14-year-olds and sometimes a mixture of all three. Even the hair and makeup are different. Girls walked by with mountains of teased, ratty hair and heavy lipstick and seemed to be in the norm. After trying on dress after dress in varying shades of brick red, mustard yellow, teal and brown at store after store, I quickly realized that finding something flattering in my size was a rather tall order. At home, I’m an 8 maximum, and a 6 or a small in many stores. In Northern Ireland, I couldn’t fasten a size 12. Any larger, and I would potentially have to shop in the plus sizes. At this point, I felt very defeated. Ben ended up purchasing a warmer coat for himself, and I found a pair of comfortable shoes to walk in that didn’t instantly single me out as an American. At least we didn’t walk away empty-handed.

Banking: We have had numerous difficulties opening a bank account here in Northern Ireland. Before we left, I researched all of the identifying documents I would need to provide to demonstrate that I am a credible client for a bank in Northern Ireland, and to show that I have a good credit history. I brought my passport, bank statements for the past couple of months, direct deposits slips from the past several months, my confirmation of enrollment from the university, and our lease agreement. All of this information, has proven insufficient. While my passport will suffice as my proof of identity, none of the documents I own provide proof of a UK address, which is something difficult to obtain in Northern Ireland. Ben and I don’t have utility bills, and since I’m an international student, my offer letter was emailed to me, rather than mailed to my address in Northern Ireland. Further, since we rent from a private landlord, our lease doesn’t come from the Northern Ireland Housing Executive, and can’t be accepted as an official document. After a short meeting with a friendly bank staffperson, Monica, we determined that the only way for me to open an account is to have the university mail (“post”) my letter of acceptance to my address here in the UK. Then, I will have both a letter of reference and a proof of address, which should be sufficient to open a student account. I will not, however, be able to open a personal account, or a joint account with Ben, since Ben will not be able to provide any official documentation verifying his address. Monica did mention that after about a month or so, we could return and try to open a joint account in Ben’s name. Until we open an account, however, it may be difficult for Ben to get a National Insurance Number (the UK’s version of a Social Security Number) or to obtain work, but we are hopeful that the university will be able to help us out and that Ben can list my student account information on any job applications until he is added to the account. Unfortunately, until this account is opened, Ben and I also won’t be able to get a monthly mobile or internet plan from Vodafone, both of which require a UK bank account to authorize a credit check.

Despite all of these difficulties, however, Ben and I are very, very happy together. We love being married and we love the life we have chosen here in Northern Ireland. We are just trying to rely on God and each other and are so grateful for the opportunity we have to depend on one another for our needs. We are optimistic that everything will be sorted out eventually, and just praying that things are sorted out sooner, rather than later.