Another post about everything else (The last 2 weeks, continued. Are they playing Christina Aguilera downstairs?)

Saturday October 13, 2007

1:48 p.m.

Dublin

So after Oktoberfest we all came back to the Isle. James and I went down to Corrigan’s to watch Ireland get their teeth kicked in playing Rugby against France (really the final nail in the coffin for what was an overall very disappointing World Cup for the home town team), and after that we went home, and James flew back to Boston the next morning.

Sunday night my friend Danielle from BC and a couple of her friends from school who I hadn’t met before came into Dublin after being out west for the previous couple days. The three of them were on a trip from studying in Paris for the semester, and having a welcoming place to stay with someone who at least one of them knew well seemed to be a great relief. They also could not get over what a luxury it was to be able to speak English to everyone. After 3 days in Munich, I know the feeling.

I had the great inconvenience of going to class Monday through Wednesday the next week, but on Tuesday night after class I went down to practice with the UCD Ultimate Frisbee team. Running around and getting some competitive exercise was, along with music, the one thing my daily routine from the last 15 years has really been lacking, so it was good to get out there, get dirty, get a little hurt, and knock some people around. The team is decent, and about half the players Americans or Canadians. Moving on.

Thursday afternoon Ricky and Rory (two of my roommates), Danny (Bentley/Woburn) and I all played golf at a place down the street from the school. It was a very nice, semi-private course. The regular greens fees were something north of 80 euros, but being UCD students we got to play for 14 euros, which was great. I’m sure we’ll all play there a few more times, but we’re also all interested in finding a Links course to play before too long. Wherever we play, though, it’s good to have a solid foursome together.

That brings me up to last weekend. Hanover Ashley and her friend Natalie from Trinity/Lexington, MA came over to watch the three division series games, including the first one (the Manny game) which lasted until the sun came up in Ireland. Sacrifices, man. Sacrifices.

Last Saturday the program sponsored a trip out to Newgrange and Knowth to tour the ancient burial grounds out there which were wicked cool and about 500 years older than the pyramids. Crazy! The view from the top of the Knowth tomb was remarkable, and was one of those “Man I really wish I was more of a picture-taking kind of guys” moments.

The rest of this week was pretty standard with class Monday thru Wednesday, Frisbee Tuesday night, and sitting in anticipation of the ALCS to begin. I had my first real kind of assessment this week in the form of an Accounting test. It went pretty well, but time was tight and my only real problems came when trying to interpret Irish phrases, terms, and sayings in the questions. Seeing as I was the only non-Irish kid in the class of 75, I really didn’t feel like raising my hand in the middle of the test to be like “uh, I’m an American…and I really just don’t know what this means.” So I made do, and I think it went okay. I’ve been hanging out with some different people now and then, trying to branch out from my roommates and meet some new people, which is going decently well so far. There are good people all around, so it’s really hard to go wrong. Last night I was the anti-social king as the sox played from 12 a.m. local time until about 3:30. The game was great, as I’m sure you all knew, but being in a city where the nightlife doesn’t really start happening until 11:30 (no joke, most places don’t even open their doors until 11, it’s crazy), I felt a little bit bad deserting everyone to go watch my baseball. But not that bad. Not really at all. James my roommate has a couple of friends from school staying with us for the weekend, so hopefully we’ll all get a chance to hang out before the Sox come on at 1 a.m. tonight. Ashley (my Red Sox/Patriots watching partner in crime) is visiting a friend in London for the weekend, so I’m flying solo for now. I might call Danny to see if he wants to stop by and watch the game tonight, just to have someone to yell and scream in unison with. Seeing as that’s about the 5^th sentence I’ve ended with a preposition, I’d say it’s about time for me to wrap this up and go do something with my Saturday.

Later.

2:15