“The only thing I feel good about is that other kids are coming into this test holding Spanish-English Dictionaries.”

Sunday, December 23, 2007

2:44 a.m.

Dublin

So it’s almost over. I had my last couple of exams. One was easy, the other one was eh. But now they’re over. I’ve found that no matter how defeated or excited, relieved or tired, blocks or continents away from home I am and feel after exams, the one constant is that I am always glad they’re over. I’m glad they’re over.

I spent the last week since exams ended like I was actually a student studying abroad in Dublin – going to the pubs, having friends visit, staying up late for no good reason, and sleeping in late.

The night of my last exam I met Dad’s cousin Patrick Harte in the city for dinner with his wife and daughter. It had been over 14 years since I’d seen any of them, and we had a great meal while talking about cousins and Papa and Uncle Jack. I told them I would definitely be back before another 14 years was up and that I would make a trip up to Belfast to see them when I return.

On Thursday afternoon Kevin and Len flew in from London. Ricky and Rory had exams to take on Friday so the three of us, James, and Josh (Liam couldn’t answer the bell) all went into the city to celebrate Josh’s last night. He really had a great time while he was here, and we all enjoyed getting to know him. And, lest we ever forget his impeccable taste in music, he left us all with a CD of all the terrible music that he blasted throughout the house over the past few months that will no doubt remind me of dirty dishes, grease stained Guinness playing cards, and the one lamp that we’ve all been moving around from room to room over the last month or so every time I hear it.

On Friday afternoon Kevin, Len, and I went over to the north side and took the Jameson tour. The tour itself would have been good if the tour guide was not so horrible (every line he’d memorized was forced and awkward, and at one point he even said “Now keep in mind I’m not an expert on Whiskey.” Hmm…) The only good thing about him was that he picked me to be one of the six post-tour Whiskey tasters. Kevin and I were discussing afterwards, and decided that the reason he stared at Kevin for about 4 seconds and then picked me instead was because he couldn’t decide if Kev was 18 or not. However, still sporting the finals beard, I was a definite. Our faithful tour guide was disappointed that I chose the Johnny Walker Red Label over the Jameson in the taste test (they were labeled, I just like Johnny Walker better, sorry). After the taste test the three of us lingered in the tasting bar while everyone else left we realized that the other taste testers had barely touched their samples, never mind their regular helping of Jameson that they got at the end of the tour with everyone else. Needless to say we took full advantage of this fortunate situation. We decided, however, that it would be best if we stayed and took our time and left the Guinness tour for the next day. Probably a good decision.

By the time we got back everyone at the house was pretty much packed up. They were all leaving for the airport at around 6 a.m. and were staying up the whole night, so I decided to stay up with them. Len, Kevin, James, and I went into the city for a little while before coming back to Portobello (the bar around the corner) and meeting up with everybody else. Izzy, Devon, Megan, Danielle, and George (Denver, Denver, Fordham, Bentley, Bentley) were all there with them, and we had a last pint at the regular spot before saying the first round of goodbyes and heading back to the house. Len went to bed, but Kevin stayed up with me, Rory, George, Liam, and James as we talked all about the last 4 months and ate anything and everything out of the fridge. Finally 6 o’clock rolled around and everyone headed out for the airport and I went to bed.

It’ll be an adjustment I’m sure to be not living in such close quarters with all those guys, but that’s for a post-game blog entry and not this one. I will say, though, in case I don’t think of this later, that I think living with these guys was a very different experience than the year I spent on the first floor of South Keyes or living with the 7 other guys in Walsh 806 last year. In both those situations those were the people I lived with. Sure, they were among my best friends that I had around and I hung out with them all a lot, but I always had Orchestra or Church or bOp! or friends from home or any of the other countless groups of people that I associated with on a daily basis. These guys, in contrast, with a few others added in, of course, were the entire scene. Whatever I did or we did, we always did together or in some combination of us. I think for that reason it will be a much different adjustment than the times before. Moving on.

After getting a few hours of sleep last night Kevin, Len, and I got up and headed off to Guinness. Len had a good time rummaging through everything that didn’t make the cut when my roommates were packing to go home and took a nice little goodie bag full of batteries, ping pong balls, Gatorade mix, and who knows what else. On the way to Guinness I stopped by the bike shop and sold back my trusty Jeep Cherokee Limited 2.8 bicycle. The back brakes were disconnected and the transmission was in far from perfect condition, but I still got 40 euros for it (I only paid 120 to begin with) and I kept the lock that I got while bargaining in September. All in all I ended up paying 80 euros for the fastest city transportation available instead of paying about 280 euros for 4 bus passes (not to mention the bus doesn’t run after 1030 – the library closes at 12…yeah.)

The Guinness tour was pretty good. Len took a handful of roasted barley and then gallantly started brew 2020 of year 2007 despite the record-taker’s inability to understand his name through the dark-brown grains busting through his teeth. I’m sure it will taste good anyway. We hung out in the Gravity Bar at the top of the tour for a little while and I looked at all the sights of Dublin that I had and hadn’t investigated over the last few months. We had about as clear a day as we possibly could have, so it was great to really be able to see all the sights in every direction from way up there. After we finished our pints we walked back to Dame St. so Len and Kevin could catch the aircoach, and I took a leisurely stroll down a jam-packed, Christmas-crazy Grafton St. soaking in the fact that the trip is pretty much over and that I was now, for the first time in my life, completely on my own in a city, albeit only for a couple of days.

Tomorrow will be a day full of Church, packing, and finishing up some Christmas shopping. John Culliney invited me to have dinner with the family again tomorrow night so that will be a great way to wrap everything up.

I’ll probably write again when I’m stuck at JFK or maybe before that if there’s time. If not, so long from Ireland, and be sure to check up for some looking-back entries, as I’m sure thoughts and stories will come back to me as I settle back into home. In other words: fear not, dear readers, the joegoesabroad blog is not over just yet.

Anyway, it’s pretty late now and I should get some sleep. I’ll talk to you all soon and some of you I might even see before you realize there’s a new post. Can’t wait to get home.

Go Sox.

Later.

3:35 a.m.