Clara Lemos, from Rio de Janeiro, moved to Dublin in 2022 for her job, but has stayed because of the people
Clara Lemos: 'In Brazil it’s very rare for people to share a house. But here, it’s people fighting over space.' Photograph: Nick Bradshaw
As everyone started to dust themselves off and emerge from Covid-induced lockdown, Lemos was able to quickly find work as a restaurant hostess. She studied electrical engineering in college, but like many of her peers she wanted to broaden her horizons, “try new things” and “have the experience of living abroad and knowing different people from different backgrounds and cultures”.
Dublin’s rental market proved tougher to crack. The 28-year-old recalls her desperate search to find somewhere to live. After almost two months, a friend of a friend from home pulled through and, after spending the first few weeks of her new job in a new country living in Airbnbs and temporary accommodation, Lemos finally had some security.
“When I was 19 I had a chance to do a small summer programme in Cambridge University, a business programme. When I was there I travelled to Dublin for two or three days to meet a friend. We went out to the pubs in the city centre. I had very little memory of the city, about the experience – I just remember I had fun there.”
“You just have the pub life. After you finish work, it’s ‘Let’s go for a pint’ or ‘Let’s meet some friends and have dinner and a pint’ ... I definitely drink more here than I used to drink at home.” When I got my job here, it was the first time that I felt that I equally like my job as much as my free time
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