Sure I'll Be Grand

I am now the proud owner of a passport stamp that says I can stay in Ireland until next June. That was a productive quick trip to Dublin (about 2 hours by train).  Loughmore Castle, as seen from the window of the Iarnród Éireann train. (Technically this was on my way back  from Dublin.) For a lot of people with United States experience, "immigration" is a negatively loaded word. People who have immigrated to the U.S. are scapegoated for everything from violence to economic insecurity. The government agency Immigration and Customs Enforcement , only created in 2002 in the wake of the September 11 attacks, now functions as ICE, Trump's nefarious secret police,  terrorizing American communities and killing with apparent impunity.  When we traveled to Iceland last summer, our homestay host even commented on how scared we all must be of "the ICE guys" who can come into your home for no reason.  In large part because of these connotations, I want to write about the en...

Just a few things we've noticed since arriving in Ireland... Palm trees. They grow here . Death notices air on the radio daily. (I foresee writing a whole post about Irish death culture sometime in the future.)  The price of groceries generally--it's low compared to what we're used to! Non-alcoholic beer, wine, and cider are much easier to find than stereotypes suggest. Grocery items that have been difficult or impossible to find: applesauce, minced garlic, tomato paste (although tomato puree and sauce, etc. are available). Handshakes. They are generally not treated as a competition. I can't figure out how firmly to grasp or what angle of approach to use in any given situation. Every electrical outlet has its own switch. Laundry: If your home has a dryer, it's the same machine as the washer.  Household appliances are generally much smaller than we're used to. Duvets are everything. Flat sheets are rare. There are no screens on the windows. Coffee might be even m...

Two months ago, I formally said goodbye to my departmental colleagues in the United States. It pretty well sums up how I feel about America this 4th of July.  

Today marks one month since I stepped off a plane into a country where I'd never been before and tried to call it "home." I've been going back and forth: "do I blog about it? is that even something we still do in 2026?" but here we are, and the impulse to write for some unknown audience remains. If you had told me a year ago that this is where I'd be today, I wouldn't have believed you. In September 2025, I applied for a job. My spouse and I, both transgender Americans with varying levels of inconsistent identity documentation, were getting nervous as we watched the window of possibility for leaving a hostile country closing around us. I decided I'd better know what my options were. After all, I got this PhD to take me places--right? (Well, that and to escape the gendered honorific system--my nonbinary, genderqueer self really prefers being called "Doctor" to any other title that people tend to choose for me.) My professional credential...