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First Date #37 was with a Latvian woman living in Dublin. We matched on Bumble. Her side of the texting conversation was limited, but she was pretty, so I made an effort to meet. As she was up in Dublin, that meant another trip up on the bus. We agreed to a coffee date after work. I recommended Queen of Tarts as I had just been there, and I knew it to be good. When I arrived on a Friday evening, the place was packed. A few minutes later, FirstDate37 showed and she looked lovely. She didn’t want to wait for a seat and suggested we go to a bar around the corner. Things were already looking better! I ordered a wine, and she did too. I don’t normally order wine in a bar, but this place looked fairly classy, and I was glad that she joined in. It’s somewhat awkward for me to order a wine when my date orders a beer.

The in person conversation was slightly better than the online/texting conversation. Her command of English wasn’t great, and I of course knew no Latvian. Still, she was charming and nice. She wasn’t previously married, and she didn’t have kids. She had moved to Dublin on her own and had started her life/career there. We talked about how difficult it was to relocate to a new country. Obviously easier for me as she wasn’t a native speaker, but she spoke well enough nonetheless.

When we finished our glass, I asked if she wanted another. She declined as she wanted to go home for dinner. When we left the bar, we embraced and I gave her a wine-inspired kiss. On bus back to Kilkenny, I messaged that it was nice meeting her. She responded with a “😊” emoji. Even though I wasn’t inspired by wine anymore, I took this as a good sign. 😊

(First Date – 28 February, 2020)