The Irish: A Mediterranean People

Irish Spring

When I prepared to come to Ireland I read that the island was first settled by Mediterranean people coming up the coast of Spain and France nearly 10'000 years ago. This appealed to me, for the Mediterraneans are known for their good taste in food and wine, and their relaxed attitude towards work. Less stress, and taking what is important in life more seriously than some type A personalty's demands at work, seemed perfect.
However, either my Swiss upbringing or the many years I spent in the USA, make it difficult for me to integrate here. Or, I'm just getting impatient in old age.
Things work well here. When you apply for a bank account, the people are friendly and tell you it will take three to five business days to become active. This is somewhat important, since it is the only way to get paid here.
After hearing nothing for two weeks I called. Patience. It's being processed. It took another few days for a confirmation and welcome letter to dribble in. A few more days for an ATM card, another two for the PIN, etc.
BTW the sheer number of new passwords, PINs, and account numbers you acquire in a short period of time when you settle in a new country is staggering. We are used to a lot of these already and don't even notice many of them anymore because our browsers or we ourselves remember the more frequently used ones, and we don't think about the lesser used ones, like the ones around tax season.
When you start a new job, and a new bank account, new health insurance, new electricity, home phone, cell phone, gas, and internet access companies, you amass a whole bunch of numbers and code words in a hurry! In addition to those you get another social security number, new airline and store memberships, and of course a bunch of magic numbers at work, from a new employee number to access codes, passwords, and various insurance numbers.
The delay in getting a bank account setup is not unique. I registered for health insurance provided by my employer. The application form went off into a void and I heard nothing until I started asking questions. After several referrals I reached a helpful persons who confirmed that I should receive an insurance card and some pamphlets on how to use the service. It all came in the mail two days later. Then, another day later, a second, identical set.
My fancy, tiny smart phone? I ordered it twice and had to reassure them over a land-line phone that I really wanted it, before it was sent out to me.

My super-cool, tiny smart phone

There is a pension plan at work and you can sign up to pay in a little extra each month to lower your taxes and increase the pension when you retire. I did that with the form provided. And heard nothing for two months. Just as I was trying to find out whom to email or call, I get a PIN in the mail that lets me access the web site where I can chose among investment options and see the status of my account. Setting that up takes two months?
It's the same at work. Larger monitor? No problem, takes three weeks. A machine to work from home. Sure. Two months.
After enough emails and phone calls, and once things are setup, they seem to work reasonably well.
Except for my electricity company which still sends me alternating letters welcoming me as a new customer, but also telling me that I have outstanding bills from before I arrived in Ireland. Oh, they also provide gas to my apartment. Nowhere, anywhere, has anything been mentioned about that. The web site says I have not consumed any and the outstanding balance is zero. I'm looking forward to a week's worth of eating out while we sort out who should supply gas to the apartment, who should pay for it, and who owes whom how much for the interim period ;-)

Pollaphuca reservoir in the background