In the summer of 2019, I moved to Ireland from Seattle, Washington, USA with my husband (Dave), my cat (Henry B), a 100 year-old printing press (yep!), and what turned out to be a very inaccurate idea of what it would be like to live here! 🙃 I get a lot of questions about what happens when you move to Ireland from the US, so I thought I’d write about my experience so far. Here’s what it’s like to be an American living in Ireland…

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This is a long story, in case you want to jump around:

Why did I move to Ireland?
Arriving in Ireland!
Funny differences.
Things I like better.
Things I miss…
Things I DON’T miss!
Things I didn’t expect.
Things I’m still adjusting to…
What I’m looking forward to!
What I’ve learned.
My biggest lesson.

Why did I move to Ireland?

My mother is actually from this beautiful country. She was born and raised 17 km from Westport, County Mayo (where I live now). I grew up visiting family and friends every summer, and pen-palling with them in between trips. I’ve been in love with this place my whole life, and always wondered if I could hack it living here. 

My husband and I were looking for a new adventure: He wanted a career change, and we felt ready to let go of our fixer upper in the Pacific Northwest and start fresh somewhere new. Europe sounded exciting, and we hadn’t seen much of it. I have both Irish and US passports, and we learned that the requirements for Dave (and the cat!) to move to Ireland were pretty simple. We figured we could start an exciting new life and travel pretty cheaply, using Ireland as a jumping off point.

Have you ever made a huge move like this? 

I’ve done it twice now. The first time, I was 23, and moved from Austin to Seattle. I remember it as the absolute time of my life. I was brimming with nothing but excitement and positivity about what lay ahead. When we made the decision to move to Ireland, I honestly expected more of the same pure, happy fun. But this time, I was almost 20 years older with a house to sell, and a couple of decades worth of belongings to deal with. I definitely underestimated how stressful the move to Ireland would be, but we sold our house, got rid of a ton of stuff, and leapt…

Arriving in Ireland

I’m going to be honest with you: My first several months as an American living in Ireland were really hard – so much harder than I anticipated.

During my first several weeks in the country I had a very unwelcome fight / flight / anxiety thing going on. Before we left, I was so sure it was the right thing. I knew I was ready for this adventure.  But as soon as we landed, I felt completely freaked out and uncertain. I wondered if I had just blown up my entire life for no good reason. 

Even with all the research and planning we had done, this huge list of (literally) foreign things to figure out was overwhelming: immigration confusion, where to live, buying a car, insurance, and so much more. I’d visited Ireland many times, but a move to Ireland was on a whole new level.

Then about 6 months after our arrival, just when I was starting to get my bearings, COVID-19 appeared. And you already know how that went, so I’ll skip it!

Good news from this American living in Ireland:

It’s been almost 3 years since the move to Ireland, and things are much better. Even with pandemic limitations, and not being able to really gather and meet new people very easily, I am feeling much more at home here, and way more like myself. Will we stay forever? I don’t know. Someone told me it takes a couple of years to acclimate to a new place. A foreign country must add more time to that notion. And COVID multiplies it for sure, right?! I’m ready to “bloom where I’m planted” as the saying goes. Or rather – as a friend pointed out: where I’ve planted myself.

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Funny differences I’ve noted since the move to Ireland:

• Instead of using the word “program” here, they often use the word “scheme.” As in “There’s a new government scheme that encourages XYZ.” I think it’s so funny. It sounds so shady to me. Of course the government is scheming! I chuckle every time.
• The coffees here are generally tiny. I’ve only found a couple of places that offer the equivalent of a 16-oz cup. This Seattleite is doing ok, though.
• It is socially acceptable to work from a bar. Instead of a coffee shop, I can take my laptop to the pub!

Things I like better as an American living in Ireland: 

• Less consumerism. Material things just don’t seem as important as they used to. (Part of this is likely that I’m turned off by the sheer volume of belongings we purged before moving.) Choices in shops are also certainly fewer. At first it made me panic not to have big stores like Office Max, but it turns out you don’t really need 15 kinds of printer paper to choose from. I don’t, anyway.
• The low crime is awesome. I feel so safe here. 
• Walkability. There are many places in the US where walking is easy or the default mode of transport, but I have almost never lived in those areas. I thought I’d want a remote country house, but I love living close to town. It’s just a 30 minute walk along the water to get to my yoga class, nice restaurants, and shops. And this is my view on the way home: 😮

Things I miss (besides friends):

• Ice-cold, American Coca-Cola, in a can! I am probably the only person on earth who didn’t prefer the Mexican cokes in the glass bottles at home. You know – the ones made with real sugar. I know it’s awful, but I guess I love high fructose corn syrup? I don’t really drink sodas anymore as a result, which is totally fine – I was looking for a way to quit.
• Costco!!!! For some reason, I long to buy an obscene quantity of paper towels at a reasonable price. 
• Big parking lots. Big everything! There’s so much ROOM in the US!

Things I DON’T miss:

• Expensive-ass healthcare tied to employment. The system here is not perfect, but so far it’s working a lot better for Dave and me.
• 24/7 everything – specifically food options, and Amazon Prime. Things aren’t open very late or every single day, so I have to plan more. Amazon exists, but it’s not like it is in the US. It’s been good for me! Instant gratification is overrated.

Things I didn’t expect when I moved to Ireland:

• We have spent a lot of money. I blame COVID 🙂 Oh well, there’s more where that came from, right?
• Many places do not have a website or web presence at all. And if they do, the information might be very out of date. I’m never quite sure if something will be open. 
• Doubts. Constant doubts! Every day I’m still not sure I did the “right” thing by moving here. I’m not unhappy; I don’t regret having moved to Ireland. But my brain loves to tell me all the ways I could have done it better. And since it’s still so new, I have no idea if we’ll be here permanently, which puts an uncomfortable question mark on the future. What’s “permanent” anyway, though? 

Things I am still adjusting to as an American living in Ireland:

• LAUNDRY. I don’t have a clothes dryer. I think most people here probably don’t have one. So, now I use a clothesline outside or a rack in the spare room to air dry. I like a lot about this, and I have mostly made my peace with it, but it’s very funny that this is what we do in a country with so much rain. It also means I can’t have a whole “laundry day” – there’s just not enough room to dry it all! I need to be a lot more on top of things. 
• Small town life. It’s still weird to see people I know out and about while running errands. In Seattle, I almost NEVER saw people I knew when I left the house. Here it happens all the time – and I don’t even know many people yet! It’s delightful, but I have to remember I’m not as anonymous as I used to be. 
• Driving! It’s not the left side of the road thing – that’s pretty easy to change. But the roads are narrow and twisty – you need to pay a lot more attention driving here. And I get stuck behind a lot of tractors. And this kind of thing happens:

UPDATE! I got my driver’s license! Need to pass your Irish Driving Test? Dane Tyghe videos help a lot!

What I’m looking forward to now that I’ve moved to Ireland:

• Traveling around Europe! We only got to go for one long weekend in Munich before COVID happened. It was really nice though… Amazing chocolate!
• Understanding GAA football. It’s so loud in the pubs when Mayo starts winning. I don’t need to care about the game – I just want to know when it’s about to get loud.
• Getting a taste for Guinness. I’m not there yet, but I want to be.

What I’ve learned since I moved to Ireland:

• I got very good at packing. Like for real – I’m an amazing packer now. Our container went a long route from Seattle, around South America, and across the Atlantic to get here, and NOTHING broke! I’m pretty proud of that.
• My cat is brown? Our house in Seattle was surrounded by the tall, tall trees of the Pacific Northwest, so we didn’t get a lot of natural sunlight. Since we moved to Ireland, Henry B. sunbathes so much more, and we can actually see him better. I thought he was a fluffy gray guy, but look at the photo below!
• Wherever you go, there you are.

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Wherever you go, there you are.

Do you ever think, “I can’t wait until X, because I will be so much happier” ?

When we first decided to move to Ireland, I truly thought that would be the case. I made a big list of what I wanted when I got here. Where I wanted to live, what kind of house, what I’d be doing day to day – everything. I got specific! Dates, dollars, I visualized it all. That’s what you’re supposed to do when you have a big goal, right? 

I recently came across that list, and I realized I have already achieved most of what I had intended. And guess what? I’m equally happy! Meaning, still kind of miserable half of the time, 🙃 haha. Sure, a whole bunch of problems went away, but a new set appeared. 

It wasn’t that I thought when I moved to Ireland nothing bad would ever happen again, I just really thought it would be better here than there – but it’s not. It’s just different. I’m really starting to love it, but I loved a lot about my old life, too.

That’s something to think about maybe. Maybe you don’t have to make a giant change like I did. Maybe things are already better than you think right now. Perhaps you can just step back and appreciate everything that’s going great where you are at this moment. Even now, I still question everything once in awhile. Luckily, Dave likes to remind me that, “There’s literally no greener grass than here in Ireland.” 

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Can you relate?

Have you ever made a huge move? Are you an American living in Ireland? Or somewhere else? What was the biggest surprise? What did you learn? Do you have questions for me, or want more pictures of my move to Ireland? I’d love to hear from you in the comments!

P.S. You mentioned a printing press?

Yes I did! When I moved to Ireland, I brought my beloved Chandler & Price letterpress with me, and I have big, Ireland-inspired plans for it. Be the first to know!