Galway

First glimpses of the Irish coast.

We watched the sun rise.

After 15 hours spent on buses and ferries (mostly asleep) from Cardiff, we arrived safe and sound in Galway.  The Sleepzone hostel was only a few blocks away from the bus station where we arrived, but since it was still another 3 hours before our room would be ready (we arrived around noon), we decided to drop our bags in the luggage room and head out on a free walking tour of the city.  This is something I honestly recommend doing no matter what your destination is as long as they're available.  Especially in a place as small as Galway, where that tour proved fairly invaluable to us in our attempts to find our way around later.  You learn a lot about the people who built the places you visit, and it teaches you a thing or two about the locals living there now.

Irish Stew.  What else do you think I would eat for my first meal in Ireland?

Meanwhile, Sarah went for lamb.  These meals only set us back 10 Euro a piece and we needed cranes when we were ready to leave.  (Below: One of the schools we applied at is in an old flour mill.  While the building has been re-purposed, the old workings have been lovingly restored and maintained.)

 

An archaeological site in Galway.  They expanded the building over it and left the site open to the public.

Sarah at the ring fort outside Ballyvaughan.

The second day was spent looking for work and wandering around Galway -- a town that is shockingly smaller than Kamloops in both population and footprint given that it was once one of the busiest port cities in Ireland.  Even though nobody seemed certain that there would be anything in the way of a job for us, they were all sweet and welcoming.  I know there are a lot of places in the world where people say the locals are rather cold toward strangers, but not Ireland.  There are no strangers there, just friends you haven't met yet.  Come to think of it, our overall experience there made me think of family gatherings back home.

Sometimes people leave offerings for the fairies who supposedly use the circles as portals between their world and ours.  I don't know why they leave lipstick and hair ties though.

Paul and Sarah making friends.

Our third day was spent on a bus tour of the Burren -- which means "the rocky place" when translated from Gaelic -- a UNESCO world heritage site and geopark famous for its Neolithic tombs and barren landscape with plants that cannot be found anywhere else in the world.  We went through Galway Tour Company, with a guide named Paul who was supposed to have the day off.  At least until so many people booked the tour that they needed to hire extra buses.  He isn't one of those guides that just points out interesting landmarks and talks about interesting things related to them.  He tells stories about the places you visit, and the history related to them -- though some of that may also be because in his estimation he's done that particular tour almost 2000 times.  He talked non-stop about everything imaginable, though it was sometimes punctuated by random exclamations from a city girl from Sweden who got excited every time she saw a farm animal.

The dolmen at Poll na mBrón (pronounced poll-na-broon).  More information can be found here:  http://irisharchaeology.ie/2013/06/poulnabrone-tomb-life-and-death-in-the-burren/

Generally when you think of Ireland, you think of greenery, right?  There are also lots of rocks.

The Cliffs of Moher

As we drove through the Burren to the Cliffs of Moher he told us stories of the fairy rings, and the more colourful figures in the history of the region (such as Moira Ruadh -- Red Mary), and of a few superstitions -- like why many Irish men are actually afraid of red-headed women.  The Cliffs are stunning.  If you're ever in the area, you have to go.  There is no question of that.  Just do it.  Sarah may not have particularly enjoyed the steepness of the climb, but I don't think she regrets it.  I think that pictures will honestly go farther at this point, because words won't do this place justice.

Chorco Modhruadh  (cork-um-roah) Abbey outside Ballyvaughan

Dun Guaire Castle, Kinvara

When we got back we were doing a final wander of the Latin Quarter of Galway when we noticed a

Kirwan Lane: One of the oldest parts of Galway.

sign outside a pub on Kirwan lane advertising that the Black Magic Big Band would be playing there that night, free of charge.  Even though we took care to arrive quite early, the place was packed (aided by the fact that there was also a major arts festival beginning just as we were leaving).  One gentleman was kind enough to give us a space at his table even though there were two other women coming to join him later on.  We learned -- to our surprise -- that there are actually people in the world who know where Kamloops is without being told of its proximity to Vancouver.  We were confused until he explained that he was very fond of Vernon and the surrounding area with plans to go back one day.  I hope he does.  Anyway, we had a great view of the band and the dance floor during the first set, but after the intermission people just stood in front of us the whole time and there was no room for anybody to dance.  I managed to record one number, but had to stand on my seat in order to be able to do it.  The other people at nearby tables seemed to think this was quite rude and we continually had to play the cup game so that people randomly leavings their drink on our table wouldn't result in us wearing them.  It didn't stop us from enjoying the music though.

The Claddaugh, as seen from Spanish Arch

One day, I will teach Sarah how to dance.

One day.

Spanish Arch

Our bus to Dublin wasn't until the next afternoon, so we wandered around Galway for a little while after we checked out from the hostel, getting one last glance at some of our favorite places.  The festival meant that you couldn't wander very far without coming across a street performer or a craftsman selling their wares on the cobblestone.  This city is beautiful without a doubt, and returning here is very firmly entrenched on my bucket list as a destination at which to spend more time.

(Actually written now that we're settled in Gliwice again)

Galway Tour Company

The Burren Geopark

Cardiff

Here we were, concerned about running into Daleks and Cybermen when apparently it was zombies we had to worry about.

Never mind.  Worry about Daleks.

I'm probably going to say this a lot as the summer progresses, but I could happily stay in Cardiff for the rest of my life.  I'm not kidding.  The pace of this city is so relaxed, you wouldn't know that it was the capital of Wales at all.  Given the choice, I would rather live there than in London.  Unlike some of out other travels, we actually left Southampton in the morning and arrived with a decent amount of daylight left to us in which to explore the area immediately around our hostel and engage in a little of the requisite geekiness that bewhoved (the spelling error is deliberate here) us to make our way down to Roald Dahl Plass and Mermaid Quay for a bit of sightseeing.  We found a nice little restaurant called Bill's the next street over from our hostel and had serious nerd-outs with a waitress named Ellie who could easily have passed for a pin-up.  She was kind enough to tell us where we should go and even how to get there -- we would probably have stayed all night if funds were unlimited and we didn't care about disrupting her work every time she thought of something interesting she wanted to talk about.  This seems to be the nature of most people we've encountered in the British Isles.

Can you guess where this is?  Disregard the tents.

We stayed at the Bunkhouse hostel on St Mary's -- a very short walk from the bus station unless you're carrying large and heavy backpacks -- basically in the centre of the city and within walking distance of most major bus routes.  The rooms were nice and the staff was friendly, but the combination of not being able to connect to the wi-fi in our room and the fact that we weren't allowed to be in the common area after midnight meant that we often had to sit in the hallway until the batteries were used up if we wanted to do things like peruse the websites of various language schools.  The day was for exploring as much as possible and looking for work, so naturally all of this would occur at night.  The fellow responsible for manning the desk on our last couple of nights there is one of those heroes that would otherwise go unsung -- he let us stay in the common area as long as we needed to.  We were quiet and out of the way...and quite frankly I think it must not have been very interesting down there all alone.  I feel bad for never thinking to ask his name.

A pretty lady in a pretty TARDIS

The Norman motte-style shell fort at Cardiff castle.

 Our first full day in Cardiff was spent meandering and doing research into where we wanted to go for work.  We went quite a ways to get to some of these places and even got lost near one in spite of walking right past the school we were looking for.  The second day involved the Dr. Who Experience, and the Everyman production of Sweeney Todd at the Sofia Gardens.  They had a remarkably minimalistic set, but made it work beautifully to suit their purposes.  Our last day was passed just wandering around.  There was some sort of craft festival going on in Cardiff Castle, which meant that we could actually look around a little without being worried about having to pay 12 pounds for a tour.  We couldn't go inside any of the buildings for this reason, but it was still a lovely place to visit for what we could figure out on our own.  We also had a blast over these days wandering the various arcades off St. Mary's -- and by arcades I mean the random side-alleys lined with shops that would sometimes run between buildings from one street to another.  There we made the acquaintance of an entertaining hat salesman named Stu who had a penchant for all things vintage or antique.

Umm...I've read detective stories.  Not sure I'd stay here.

Cardiff Bay: taken from Mermaid Quay

Cardiff Bay

Yarmouth on the Isle of Wight

So far we've been lucky to find a good number of breathtaking places since we got to the UK.  Yarmouth, on the Isle of Wight, is certainly no exception.  Its early roots date back to the iron age, but most of the buildings date back to Tudor England.  The town is actually quite small and very charming.  The people are lovely and very welcoming -- and also very willing to talk your ear/jaw off about anything and everything.  Especially when they realize that you're from Canada.  It's odd that even in our motherlands (Britain and France) apparently they don't see a lot of Canadian tourists.  Are we really so focused on tropical getaways that we don't stop to ponder those tributaries that feed the rivers of our own (albeit brief) history?

But I digress.  I could just keep on writing away, but it may be easier to show you a few little snapshots than to simply tell you everything.

Sarah on the ferry.

The view from the ferry as we came to the Isle of Wight.  Yarmouth Castle is in the foreground.

A few shots from inside the castle.  It costs about 4 pounds to walk around.

A shot from the village green,  The yellow buoy marking the wreck site is closer to shore than you'd think.

Construction on this church began in the 1100's.  It's still in use today.

This one, on the other hand, was converted into a private residence.

There are plenty of little lanes like this off the streets...

That lead to views like this.

The King's Head Inn -- so called because the people of Yarmouth were loyal to Charles I before he lost everything.  The first time I read the sign I thought it said "The King's Dead."  Oops.

A bowl of chili with rice, cheese, and sour cream at the King's Head.

Steak and ale pie with vegetables and potatoes.  Strongly recommended.

The old cemetery at Yarmouth.  Most of it is very overgrown like this and some of the stones are so old and weather beaten that you can't read them.  Many are leaning in one direction or another, and some have even fallen and disappeared into the grass.

The other interesting thing we noted while we were here is that not all the gravestones face in the same direction.  It's difficult to observe certain matters of graveyard etiquette when you don't know which way they're lying.

The view from a bench.

Of course this is only a brief little window into the day we spent here.  We perused book stores (of course) and crystal shops and stores full of art and handmade crafts.  If I showed you everything there would be over a hundred photographs in this post.  I'm not going to do that to you or myself.

For now though, I must look up language schools to visit while in Galway and see about getting some groceries for our stay here.

You'll learn of our adventures in Cardiff next time.

J'aime Voyager

 It's only been a couple of weeks since I updated this last, but it feels like it's been forever.

The Last Breakfast: Kipp, yours truly, and Sarah (R-L)

The last week of work was surreal and bittersweet.  It wasn't just about saying goodbye to classes and knowing it's highly likely we won't see them again -- but saying goodbye to friends and colleagues, being relatively certain we won't.  Our arrival in Poland put us through quite a lot and the first few months were definitely a stressful time, but we landed on our feet at the end of it all.  Sofia arrived fairly late on our last night there and seemed more than happy to have people to come home to.  She's quite sweet, actually, and seems very (understandably) concerned for our welfare while we're abroad.  I know I've said it before, but we are both very grateful for everything she's done for us and we don't know how we would have managed everything without her assistance, Peter's, or Christina's.

The Last Breakfast: Sarah, Amelia, and myself (R-L)

We sat up most of the night, talking with her and getting to know her as we tried to work out how best to negotiate the weight limits for Wizzair when we didn't want to pay for check-in baggage and would therefore have to keep the two of us living out of my laptop bag and one large backpack for two months of meandering.  They wouldn't even let us take purses on board as additional carry-on, so Sarah and I had to leave the large bags we brought with us from Canada with the rest of our luggage in Gliwice.  I think it's safe to say we won't be flying with them again.  Peter's boss was kind enough to let him have an extended lunch so he could drive us to Katowice (after helping us move our stuff to a colleague's place before Sofia arrived), where we caught a direct flight to Luton Airport.

Gemma and I

I will warn you of one thing when you're visiting the UK: they expect you to have all the details mapped out when you arrive.  They want to know it all: where you're going, how long you're staying -- how they can reach your host if you're visiting someone.

The train from Luton to London was lovely, except for the part where they forgot to mention that there were two different routes for the Capital Line and we weren't on the one that went straight to London Bridge station -- where we arranged to meet our friend Gemma.  I'm not going to lie -- asking for directions on the tube in English and getting more than just a blank stare in return was -- and still is -- something of a novelty after 10 months of essentially being cut off from my own language outside of home and classroom.  There we were, sitting at Blackfriars Station -- overlooking the Thames -- with a little time on our hands, bone tired but still exhilarated by everything we didn't have in Poland.  Being able to talk to people, ethnic diversity, and the smell of a well-made curry.  We finally made it to London Bridge, met Gemma after a text-based game of Marco Polo through the station and made our way to the hostel in Princes Square (just off Hyde Park) to deposit the two bags we had.  It had taken me that long to realize that I was carrying a not insignificant percentage of my body mass on my back and would be doing so for some time.

The British Museum.  It isn't actually bowed like that: that's just a quirk of the panorama feature on Sarah's camera.

We only had one day in London, since it was really just a quick pit stop on our way to Gemma's place in Southampton.  We packed as much into it as we possibly could: the British Museum, the National Portrait Gallery, and a staging of The Importance of Being Ernest at the Harold Pinter theatre.  Will have to explore more when we go back with Amelia in August.

The Bar Gate marking the boundary of Medieval Southampton

While in Southampton, we spent some time exploring the town and looking for work.  We have a couple of prospects with potential, but nothing promised.  It all depends on enrollment for September and how willing these potential employers are to sponsor us for work visas.  Everyone we've asked however, is fairly confident that it will be easier for us as Canadian citizens because we are members of the Commonwealth.  We took the ferry from Lymington over to Yarmouth on the Isle of Wight during our stay and spent the entire day wandering around the heart of town.  Most of the buildings would almost leave you believing the village had been frozen in time were it not for the cars and the ferry terminal next to Yarmouth castle.  Since Gemma needed some time to prepare for her departure to Germany on Wednesday, we got on a bus bound for Cardiff on Tuesday morning to begin another leg of our journey.

But that's all for another post.  As I write this, I'm sitting on the cruise ferry Ulysses -- headed for Ireland.  It's 4:35 AM and the sun is just breaking over the sea.  It's time for me to go out and enjoy some fresh air, get my first look at the Irish coast, and stretch my legs a little before having to get on yet another bus in Dublin to make for Galway.

(Actually posted from the Sleepzone Hostel in Galway.  The internet on the ferry was terrible and uploading pictures would have been a bitch and a half.)

Where Did Time Go?

I can't believe the term is days away from being over.  I'm getting ready to leave a job I actually like and will miss colleagues and students horribly when Sarah and I depart.  If student loans didn't make life so problematic we would definitely stay for another year, but alas the Canadian system of doing things isn't nearly as flexible as, say, the British one.

The strangest thing of it all is that the last 6 months in Gliwice seem to have gone by at the exact same pace as the 3 months we spent in Radom.  I think spending a lot more time surrounded by new friends in a supportive environment does make a whole world of difference.  I wouldn't trade the colleagues at English College for anything, but it might have been better if we weren't all being worked to the bone and actually given help when we needed it.

Most of you who knew me before know that I had a lot of misgivings about coming to Poland -- and while my instincts were unfortunately right about English College, they were wrong about the experiences we've had since we put Radom behind us with a promise to each other that we will never return.  I love this city and Gliwice feels as much like my home as Kamloops does, albeit rainier and more humid than the place of my birth.  As we speak, it's been pouring buckets for hours.  I don't know this place as well as I would like, but it is home nonetheless.

There will be time for more reflections in the days to come, and of course (hopefully) a more diligent capture of our adventures past and present.

Q&A Part 2

3.  Why Gliwice?

The short version is that when our job in Radom went south we were lucky enough to have a friend in Gliwice who was kind enough to help us get back on our feet (with the assistance of a lovely lady back in Kamloops who was wonderful enough to let us rent her flat for the time being).  We found jobs and fell in love with the city in the meantime.


4.  What Are Some of the Biggest Challenges of Living Here?

The language barrier is the biggest hurdle we've found ourselves leaping over.  Other than that I would have to say that our biggest nightmares have been paying bills/student loans back in Canada (the Polish Zloty doesn't translate well) and trying to file taxes.  Don't get me started on that.

5.  What Do You Like About Living In Poland

These won't get answered in any ranked order.  I'm just going to write these as I think of them.

1.  Bakeries

Oh my gods is this ever one of the best and worst things we could have discovered.  Polish baking is fantastic!  It doesn't matter whether it's bread or some kind of sweet, the stuff that comes out of the bakeries here is amazing.  While W-Z is a chocolatey specialty particular to Poland I have to say one of my favourites is Kremowka Papieska -- aka Kremowka Wadowicki (pronounced kremoovka Vadovitski), which is basically two inches of dense cream between two sheets of flaky pastry and dusted with confectioner's sugar.  Sarah is also passionately fond of the coconut macaroons at the two bakeries around the corner from us...they have very different styles of baking them, but she seems to love both equally.

2.  Reliable Public Transit

Compared to Kamloops Gliwice, has the bus service of the gods.  Even if you're trying to get to an outlying area there really isn't anywhere that busses don't go. 

3.  Polish Foods

This one may require another blog post.  While it's easy enough to  tell my readers at home what foods from Canada I miss, the things we sometimes eat here may require some explaining.

4.  Things Are Close

Even if they close rather early by the standards we're used to, there's always a grocery store of some variety within walking distance.

5.  There Is Always Something New To Learn

I don't know how Sarah feels on this subject, but one of the things I have loved most about being abroad is learning new things about the area, the people and the culture.

What still surprises me after spending the (almost) last year here is that in general Poles are so negative about their country.  They don't think it's very interesting or viable on a global basis at all.  They usually laugh when I explain to them that from my perspective Poland is like the woman who spent years with an abusive husband, and is finally getting on her feet after she's gotten the nerve to divorce and start over.

They tend to correct this view by suggesting that she puts his body in the trunk of her car and takes him to a lake.  They don't have a very good relationship with Russia and it shows in the way they talk about Communism here.

There will be more Q&A to follow.  For the moment I have to go do some grocery shopping before things close.  There is another government holiday this weekend, and apparently nothing will be open in Gliwice all of the long weekend.

Questions We Get Asked Most Frequently -- And Our Answer

These questions are common when students meet us for the first time, but they also tend to come from some of the few service people we interact with who speak enough English to hold a conversation.

1.  Why Poland?  You could go anywhere!

Actually no, we can't.  Part of the problem stems from some of the political issues associated with being an LGBT couple in the ESL field -- nondiscrimination laws that are a mandatory part of joining the EU mean that our jobs are still protected by law if anybody found us out.  Sarah and I don't actually acknowledge the fact that we're a couple at work -- at least outside the staffroom.  Officially, we're friends or "traveling companions"  when we talk about each other to our students.  That being said, there are a lot of places we wouldn't risk going because our lives and livelihoods could very well depend on it.  Most of the people we've encountered over the age of 30 are still quite homophobic here, but it isn't as bad as some other places in the world.

The other part of the problem with trying to find work in the EU is that so many schools and businesses prefer Native Speakers who already have EU citizenship (ie from the UK) because everything is cheaper from a bureaucratic standpoint and you don't have to deal with the messy issue of work permits and visas.  This is one of the reasons we actually do tell our students.

One of the others we mention is that in the more westernized parts of Europe it is exceptionally difficult to find jobs that don't require you  to have a Master's degree.  Because University costs dramatically less than it does at home -- even in the countries that don't have free Uni -- almost everybody and their dog has a Master's in something.  We get a lot of shocked expressions from our students when we explain what we have to pay and that there really isn't a lot of support for the under-privileged in Canada in terms of scholarships and financial aid.  Here, parents are required by law to support their kid through university until the age of 26, even if they have to move to another town to study and public universities are free if you are a citizen...that being said my students find it quite unthinkable that a post-grad degree in Canada would cost too much and result in hundreds of thousands in debt.

Truthfully, it's a lot easier to get an ESL job in Poland because for the most part they seem to be quite happy to have a Native Speaker around.  Especially when it comes to people from North America, Poland isn't the tourist hotbed of Europe in spite of the fact that it's drop-dead gorgeous here.  We wanted to come here, much to the surprise of those we encounter.

2.  What Do You Miss Most About Canada?

There are a lot of answers to this one.  Fortunately modern technology enables us to keep track of family and friends, but there are some aspects of life in North America that just can't be replaced.  These are some of our top-ranking answers:

1.  Ethnic Diversity

We would seriously kill for some real Chinese food right now.

The problem here lies in the fact that more people leave Poland than want to come here, so the rich immigrant population that we're used to being surrounded by doesn't exist...at least not in Gliwice.  According to our students you're more likely to find that diversity in a major centre like Warsaw or Krakow, but not a small (by their standards) city like Gliwice...and definitely not in Radom.  The very few immigrants we've encountered here are Vietnamese, so Chinese food is mostly a loose interpretation by non-asians.

I never thought I would live to see the day when I got excited by seeing someone on the street who wasn't Caucasian, but the truth about Poland is that the population is extremely homogeneous and they know it.  I wonder sometimes if that isn't part of the reason why political correctness and acts against racially intolerant views aren't such a big thing here...even in spite of their history.

Seriously...you should hear some of the comments they make about Jews and Roma here.  It's shocking.

2.  Reliable Internet

I understand that the company we go through isn't our choice, but seriously!  Imperium Telecom sucks things that I probably shouldn't mention in the event that there are young readers looking at this page.  It gets annoying that for whatever reason our service kicks out around the 23rd of every month (so far nearly always on a weekend), and nobody ever answers the after hours numbers provided when you try to call them.  This makes life difficult when the weekends are usually when we have time to talk to our family and friends back home.

3.  The Awesome Things Happening At Home

Not kidding!  Kamloops decided to get awesome when we left home and we're jealous!  Luckily we could watch the live stream of the Jane Goodall lecture -- which kept us up until 5am -- but had to miss the WCT production of Les Mis, the screening of 'The Last Unicorn' with Peter S. Beagle in attendance...and god dammit who decided to have a Dr. Who themed birthday party in our absence?!

We also miss the normal things like the monthly Kamloops Burlesque productions...even though we went nearly every month.  It's still fun to see what new ideas they come up with -- though explaining what Burlesque is and the fact that it was going on to Peter were just as entertaining.

4.  Sleeping on a Real Bed

This isn't actually an answer that we give to our students because it requires a lot more explaining than is professionally wise.  However it's very true.  Admittedly the sleeping situation in Radom was largely due to the fact that we weren't comfortable talking about our relationship status with our employers until they more or less outed us in the car to work one day.  But pulling mattresses off the two single beds in separate rooms so that we could sleep together on the floor became an enormous pain in the everything.

We were stoked to see a fold-down couch in Gliwice, but it comes with its own set of challenges -- like Sarah taking over what basically amounts to something slightly smaller than a double mattress, or Brutus deciding he wants to follow my butt around the bed when I need to roll over.  We have since come to realize that when we return to Canada we can't do anything smaller than a queen and have it work.  The couch is still more comfortable than a mattress on the floor.

5.  Certain Foodstuffs That Can't Be Found Here

This list is long enough that it needs a separate blog post.


6.  Being Able To Converse With People

The fact that we don't speak a lot of Polish (or any) often means that we can smile and say hello to people, but not much more than that.  It would be nice to be able to talk to our neighbours about their day and any suggestions they have for living in this city.  It would be nice to strike up a conversation with the people riding next to you for some of those long bus trips to in-company classes in outlying areas.  The language barrier has left us pretty isolated here once you take the students and fellow colleagues out of the equation.  I can count the number of people with whom I've been able to say more than a few words on one hand.  I know this is something that just comes with the territory of teaching your own tongue in a foreign land, but it still can get pretty depressing.

7.  Mountains

A person from Saskatchewan could feel very much at home here in Poland.  It seems like the closest mountains in Poland are always near the border with somewhere else, no matter where you are.   In the vast majority of this country nothing gets more serious than a small hill that even the least exercise inclined could probably climb in 5 minutes.  That being said we seriously need to go to the mountains.

8.  Having a Microwave

It isn't that they don't exist here: they definitely do.  It's just that they're expensive and rather awkward to lug home if you don't want to pay for a cab or have access to a car at that particular point in time.  It's really changed the ways we have to think about the way that we time the preparation of our meals and what we make leftovers of because we don't always have the convenience of reheating in a timely manner.

9.  Having a Car

While I'm relatively certain I've stated more than once that driving in Poland seems like a scary proposition, we both miss a lot of the convenience that a car comes with.  It would be nice to do things like go on trips to the supermarket without inconveniencing Peter, and I'm pretty sure we would explore more if we could drive.  Lugging everything to the train station, paying for tickets, and getting everything on/off the train only to drag it all to your hostel is a considerable hassle.  I miss the days of being able to just pack the car and go on a road trip.

10.  Being in The Same Time Zone

Sometimes we have to contact people and government organizations back home, but the fact that their day is our night can often make that more than a little tricky...especially when we work in the evenings. 


Naturally we also answer these questions with standard things like having face time with family and friends, but since these are fairly obvious and require no explanation they haven't been listed here.

Since this post is already enormous, there will be more Q&A to follow.