“The good thing about looking for your golf ball in Ireland is that there aren’t any snakes.”

Thursday September 20, 2007

1:40 p.m. IST

Dublin

It’s been a semi-eventful past few days. I spent nearly all of last Saturday with the Cullineys. I took the DART (Dublin Area Rapid Transit) up to the station near their house where John picked me up. Sitting in the left front seat of a Volvo made me feel not so far from home. We went back to his house where his Ann and Roy made soup and sandwiches, and I met the rest of the fam. After that John, Phil, and I went and played golf. I’d heard the courses over here were different, but I was not prepared for greens that had absolutely no give (seriously, there was not a single dimple or landing mark of any kind in any of the greens – amazing.) After golf we went to their friends’ house to watch Ireland squeak by Georgia in the Rugby World Cup (I’m getting pretty into rugby, mostly because the only Gaelic Football game I was around for was the championship game, which was really cool, but beside the point.) After the game we all went out to this awesome restaurant right on the water and had a delicious meal that lasted late into the night. It was a great day.

I’m getting into the groove of classes, which all fall in the spectrum of bearable to really good, which is always good news.

James said he might fly out in the next couple days, in which case he’d be able to bring my clubs (3 of my roommates already have theirs here, so it would be nice to get a chance to go out and play with them. Phil (Clauda’s husband) and I also made plans to play some more while I’m here, so that would be really fun.

We’ve been exceptionally lucky with the weather since we got in, since it’s only rained for about a total of 2 hours over the last two weeks. John and Phil were telling me this summer there was a stretch when they had 60 straight days of rain. 60. six-zero. Shockingly, John said it was pretty depressing (and that’s keeping in mind that he wasn’t even here the whole time).

As of now I’m planning on going to Dublin Castle with my history class tomorrow and then on a daytrip out to Kilkenny with the program on Saturday. Plans could change if James comes out, though.

Now it’s back to eating my sandwich and listening to Copland. Later.