Dublinfest

So like three months ago when I didn't have any work to do, I played in a lacrosse tournament. Just kidding. It was like two weeks ago. Dublinfest is a tournament hosted by the Dublin lacrosse teams (surprise!) and teams come from places all over Ireland, England, and Scotland. By teams I mean mostly men's teams. There were only 4 women's teams in the tournament, so this will be a pretty quick one.

So we had 6 games to be played over two days. Our first was against a team from Aberdeen. The uniforms they ordered hadn't arrived yet. Logically, their first instinct was for all of them to dress up as Waldo...like from Where's Waldo? It seems like a clever idea right? You know, lull us into a false sense of security. It's pretty hard to take a team seriously when they look ridiculous. But we still won. Next game was against the Manchester team. Anyone who knows me is probably aware that I like to take lacrosse somewhat seriously, and I'm a fairly competitive person...but man those were the meanest bitches I've played against in my life. I wasn't angry that they beat us. I was angry that one of those steroid British freaks intentionally slashed me in the head with her stick. Needless to say they were the least popular team in the tournament...

Anyway, last game was against Leeds, who were good at lacrosse (we didn't even score on them. oops.) and fairly classy, which was nice. Day 2 was more fun. We started off against Aberdeen again. They got their uniforms. They were bright purple. And all the names on the backs were Harry Potter characters. Scottish people are my favorite (excuse me, *favourite*).

It gets better. Remember those nasty Manchester manladies? Well we were pretty fired up (we beat Aberdeen again), and we wanted to crush their spirit. Guess who beat those fools? YEAH UCD YEAH! (They were really disgusted and pitiful afterwards because we're really not that good a team and they had won the tournament the previous two years...hahaha). NBD.

Unfortunately, after expending all of our energy on defeating the evil people, and losing some players (people just left and went home after Manchester...it was that big a deal), we had nothing left to play against Leeds again. So we played for like 10 minutes and then forfeited. Usually this would upset me because I think quitting & giving up in general is SAD, but I really can't even acceptably express how pleased I was to mindf*** Manchester.

Tournament results: UCD 3rd place. Out of 4. Better than losing (sorry Aberdeen).

What am I doing here?

Don't get me wrong, I've actually been really busy here for the past few weeks. It's just my personal opinion that what's been keeping me busy are things that would most likely not be of any interest to anyone else. But, as it's been a while since my last update (and, as I don't want to leave my favorite stalkers hanging for fear of a Misery style punishment), I will document things.

School work: Yeah, believe it or not, I've actually had to do work. I guess the way it works over here is the profs like to lull people into a false sense of security, during which many stop attending lectures...or doing readings...or handing in assignments...and then they pile on the workload and terrify everyone into studying again by giving sample material to prepare for exams (during which many realize that they have no idea what's going on in the class or what their prof's name is...). Don't worry, I'm too much of a nerd to be one of these people.

Weather: Did you know that Ireland actually does receive sunlight? With the amount of fake tan I've seen since being here, I didn't believe it, but it actually gets WARM and SUNNY here. Like the past 2-3 weeks, I've actually been able to go outside a few times without a coat on, and wear SUNGLASSES, and even SHORTS. I was afraid that being out of Philly meant that I would miss the proper smell of spring and those random days where it hits 70 degrees and suddenly everyone is lying on College Green in bikinis. And yeah, it's not quite the same here (because the second a cloud moves over the sun, you start to get the chills), but it's close enough.

Lacrosse: So this past Friday and Saturday, the UCD women's lacrosse team had informal matches. These matches included a mix of players from Dublin, Belfast, Galway, and other places which I don't remember. What you should know about this is that these random players, and about a third of the UCD team are on the Irish Development team...meaning they're going to be representing Ireland in the Women's Lacrosse WORLD CUP. As the cocky American that I am, I figured that this Irish team would probably be a bit of a joke in comparison to teams I've seen back home. NEWS UPDATE: They're actually really good and beat the American team a few years ago...

So the way the teams were split up, it was the National Irish Team versus everyone else (so they could practice playing together with the new players who just made the squad). Sadly for me, I was on the everyone else team. As in the team on which the players run the wrong direction of the goal. And can't catch. Or throw. Or pick up the ball off the ground once they've missed the catch or dropped the throw. Needless to say, we were massacred. Even though I wanted to yell at everyone at half time, it was still fun(ish).

This week we have a three day long tournament called Dublinfest, which means we miss class and play three games a day on Tuesday and Wednesday, and the winning teams from those games play in a final match on Thursday. I think we have a shot, especially since we won't be losing 99% of our GOOD players to the Irish Team.

Social life: I take it from the conversation I had with my grandmother just an hour ago that it's possible that there's some gossip in this department. "This department" specifically being my (I actually cringe a little when I hear these words) "love life." Yes, I am now dating an Irish boy. His name is Jason. He's on the guy's lacrosse team, which is how I met him. He is very nice. And he has won the love of my roommates by bringing an Xbox to our apartment. Don't worry, I told him I would only marry him if there is a shooting star directly behind him when he proposes.

Stay tuned for the Dublinfest update...and next weekend's trip to LDN!

How Protestant Countries Do Things.

Part 1: Belfast

Yes, Northern Ireland is a different country than The Republic of Ireland. Which means four things:

1. They are part of the UK and not the EU. So...they're loyal to British monarchs.
2. Since they're not part of the EU, I had to use pounds instead of euros as currency. So...no matter how low any prices looked, my American dollar was even more WORTHLESS.
3. Since they're loyal to British monarchs, the majority of the population is Protestant. So...there's kind of a beef between them and the Catholics.
4. Their accents are really impossible to understand once you're used to the Dublin accent.

Anyway, from what I understand, Belfast is a really nice city. However, I was there for a weekend with the lacrosse team, so all I actually saw was the bus station, the hostel where we stayed, a lacrosse field, and a few pubs. Ooooops.

It was fun though. A lot of bonding. A full Saturday of lacrosse from 10am - 3:30pm. After which many libations were poured, served, and consumed. It was grand.

Part 2: Edinburgh

The great thing about Scotland is that it's only an hour long flight from the Dublin airport. The sad thing about the Dublin airport is RyanAir airlines. Which are cheap. Though only at ungodly hours of the morning like 6:25am. This being the situation, my roommate/wingman/protective brother Joe and I decided to stay awake to wait for our 4am cab instead of go to bed and wake up at 4am. We did this by eating a normal dinner, taking a nap, and waking up at midnight to eat another round of dinner. I still don't know how we're not fat...

Anyway, our flight out went well, and we landed in Scotland, which had a warm friendly welcoming layer of icy snow on the ground. Awesome. Luckily, when we got into town where our hostel was, there wasn't anymore snow. But it was nippy. It reminded me of home (sigh). Unfortunately, check-in at Budget Backpackers Hostel (hahaha....story of my life) wasn't until five hours after we had arrived. So after having mild heart attacks, we ate some hostel breakfast (by that I mean we ate 5 croissants each) and ventured out to do touristy things (take pictures of landmarks to prove to our mothers that we did something in Europe besides drink).

We hit up Edinburgh's #1 attraction, the castle. It was expensive, but really worth it. The castle itself was architecturally impressive and the view of the city from the top was amazing (see pictures - I hate describing things). We even spent the extra 3 pounds for the audio tour, which was actually pretty nice. The castle also has the Scottish National War Museum (I could be making that name up) inside it, and the Scottish Crown Jewels were on display in the castle as well. I wish I was allowed to take pictures, but I wasn't, so I guess I'll have to describe those. Basically, just picture a sword so big that if you held it above your head for a minute, your arm would be useless to you for the rest of the week. And there was a crown encrusted with gems and pearls. And there was a scepter which was really small (because all your focus has to be on holding that ridiculous sword). And there was a rock. No, I'm not kidding, it's called the Stone of Destiny. It's been used at all the Scottish (and then British for obvious reasons...) coronations since at least 1057. Apparently medieval people thought the rock had Biblical significance, and why not just keep pretending and carrying on the tradition, right?

After admiring these "Honours of Scotland," we left the castle and walked a bit down the Royal Mile, which leads down to the palace. Things we noticed while walking this chunk of mile:

• A really pretty cathedral that had been turned into a cafe...I didn't realize how Catholic I was until I found myself mildly offended (it was Ash Wednesday, and I didn't sleep. I was cranky and not in Dublin anymore).
• A lot of stores with cashmere. I guess I'm a savage because I really had no idea that was like, a Scottish thing.
• The Elephant House Cafe, where J.K. Rowling wrote Harry Potter (well...this one was just off the road, but I'm still counting it).

When we got to the point of whiny bitch exhaustion, we stopped at a Subway, hid our shameful American food in our jackets, and returned to the hostel. Still an hour too early to check-in. So after eating our shameful American food in the public space of the kitchen (and falling asleep with our heads on the table), we were finally able to get into our room. Where we slept until 6pm. FIVE HOUR NAP FTW.

After a classy dinner of frozen pizza and garlic bread from the convenience store (all a total of 5 pounds, so complete SHIT), we joined a group from our hostel for a pub crawl. I will not discuss the pub crawl....mostly because I don't really remember any of it. But I do know the drinkage was cheap because I still had money when I woke up the next day!

Like the Cork City pub crawl in Ireland, the Budget Backpackers Edinburgh pub crawl did not help me want to wake up and go sight-seeing. Actually, we slept until 3 the next day. Oooops again. But we were able to get out, drink smoothies, and check out the cemetery and the palace at the end of the Royal Mile, the queen's official residence when she stays in Scotland. As goes the story of my life (again), the palace was closed by the time we got there. But I saw some of the outside of it...(sorry Momatron).

The touristy highlight of this day was dinner. We dove in and tried the haggis, which actually doesn't look scary at all, and tastes better than it looks. I found it a satisfying meal, but to be honest, I really would not go out of my way to eat it again (I know, shameful American). After dinner, we once again joined the group for the pub crawl. Despite our pact to take it easy this time, we both ended up even worse off than the previous night. I guess the people we were with either found us very lovable or the drinks were just DIRT cheap, because people just kept buying us shots...rumor has it that at some point on the walk in between bars, I started screaming "GUYS I CAN'T SEE ANYMORE." But I don't remember that so I bet it's not true.

Anyway, we survived the night (by this I mean I didn't get arrested or try to fight anyone, and Joe did not get killed as a result of me trying to fight anyone) and by some strange voodoo we made it back to the hostel (I'm pretty sure God did not want to be involved in that sloppiness).

The next day was the day from HELL (see, I told you God had NO PART IN THIS). We made it to the airport in good time for our 12:40pm flight, and then got delayed FIVE HOURS because of "technical issues." Word to the wise - no matter how cheap they are, don't fly with RyanAir. I am telling you from personal experience, and the grumblings of the other veteran passengers, IT IS NOT WORTH IT.

We did eventually get back to Dublin. I missed Ireland. But I can't lie, Edinburgh knows how to get the craic on.

Drummylicious Visit

This past weekend, I had the wonderful joy of hosting a visit from my fabulous friend, Caitlin, who came from London. There was plenty of craic to go around, which was good because I finally have work now at UCD, and I needed a nice weekend. I actually had to turn in two essays this past week, and I've got two more due this week. Let me take a brief moment to just share some things my professors have taught me about essay-writing here:

• You are not supposed to plagiarize.
• You are supposed to have a thesis statement, topic sentences, and quotes from the text as evidence of your point.
• Essays will be accepted until two weeks after the due date has passed (at a loss of half a grade a day).

I do not consider myself to be a snob, or a particularly judgmental human being, but HONESTLY. Back at Penn, if you hand in you essay two HOURS after the deadline, good luck trying to get a professor to accept it. No, no, wait. two MINUTES with some profs I've had. Two weeks? REALLY? Don't even get me started on the thesis thing.

Ok, English major rant over. Back to my weekend.

So on Friday night, Caitlin met my friends and we all happily feasted at the apartment. I then gave her some cultural education (by this I mean taught her Irish slang and made her listen to what in my opinion should be the Irish National Anthem. Here's the link, but don't listen if you're in public unless you have headphones http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljPFZrRD3J8). After I finished mentally preparing Caitlin, we all went out in a group to Purty Kitchen, a poorly named nightclub. It was a bit dead since a lot of Irish people went home to their non-Dublin counties to vote (I hope since the elections are over people will take down the posters of the politician who looks like Mr. Burns from the Simpsons...), but we were rolling 11 playas deep, so we brought the party anyway.

On Saturday, Caitlin and I took the bus into city center and then walked like 23985739451934 miles to the Guinness Storehouse, which despite being an iconic Dublin landmark, is way off in a shady ugly area of the city. It was grand though, I now know a lot more than I really need to know about Guinness. I must, however, share my favorite fun fact. Arthur Guinness, the founder of the brewery, fought off cops with a pickax to defend his somewhat illegally obtained water supply (which is not, like people say, from the River Liffey, but from the Wicklow Mountain springs). Apparently it worked out pretty well for him...

Though the nicest part of the storehouse is actually the Gravity Bar at the very top. No, it's not what you think, I don't say that because of the beer, but because it shows a 360 degree panoramic view of Dublin. It just so happened that the sun shone ALL DAY, so it was absolutely magnificent.

Anyway, after enjoying our tour/Guinness drinking, we walked around the city a bit. I gave Caitlin some more cultural orientation by taking her to Supermac's, which is the Irish version of McDonald's. They really like to advertise the fact that their beef is 100% Irish. Like, they REALLY want you to know it's not that crap with mad cow disease.

When we finally admitted defeat to exhaustion, we returned to UCD for another home-cooked dinner. And then went out to Porterhouse, a reputable pub. Unfortunately, grenades were exploding everywhere (if you don't understand, watch the Jersey Shore and EDUCATE yourself), and the house beer (which was cheapest) was quite foul. And I can put up with a lot of rubbish, believe me. Luckily, we still had a nice large crowd so all was not lost. We got home, ate an unnecessary amount of food, and went to bed.

Great weekend, now back to work =( Good thing spring break is THIS COMING WEEKEND!!!

Life Goes On

This post is purely for selfish purposes. By this I mean I have an essay due in 38 hours, I'm 1,400 out of 2,500 words into it, and I can't bear to look at it right now. So, thinking of some advice from my old creative writing professor, I will use this as a 'writing exercise.' Meaning it'll probably be fun for me and boring for you. Sorry.

Now, on the off chance you've actually committed to reading this evening's rubbish (sucker), you're probably wondering what the heck I've been doing since my last update. I mean, I'm in Ireland. I must be making fun/interesting/cultural/historic discoveries every single day. Well....yes, I have, but they are all small things. Actually, you know what, the little things deserve attention too. I should know, I work with kids (who I miss TERRIBLY).

Here are some of my 'Happy Meal' sized observations and experiences:

1) Besides saying "grand", Irish people tend to say "cheers" rather than "thanks." I like that too, but I've been irrevocably conditioned to say "thanks" so that one won't catch on for me unfortunately.

2) Despite whatever anyone tries to tell you, Irish people change the context of "craic" like every time they say it, so I'm terrified to use it. It supposedly means "happiness" or "good times" or some such thing, and it's pronounced "crack", not "crake." Like honestly, what would you think if I walked up to you and said, "Yo, how about that craic (crack) last night? It was off the hook, no?" That would just be sketch. I think the rule is you're only allowed to say it if you have an Irish accent.

3) A D4 is a girl who straightens her hair, teases it until it's a good 5 inches above her head, wears make-up that doesn't match her complexion, and 4 inch heels that she can't walk in.

4) I joined the lacrosse team here. Half of them smoke cigarettes immediately before practice. I thought that was bad...until one girl walked off the field while we were doing sprints, just so she could take a few drags of her friend's cig. Then it was just SHAMEFUL.

5) Domino's is the highest quality pizza over here. It's like 30 euro for a large two topping pie.

6) Irish people don't actually like U2. And they absolutely HATE Bono.

Trinity College (aka the school in Dublin where the "smart" people go...)

Since I only have one class on Fridays, I usually like going into town and just walking around. This past Friday, I finally went to see Trinity College, which is well-known for its library and the Book of Kells. This book is considered a great work of art from the Dark Ages. It was written by Irish monks somewhere around 700-800 AD, and it contains the four Gospels and beautiful illustrations. The exhibit also contains various other rare manuscripts, all of which are really amazing when you think about all the work that went into creating them. I mean really, some dudes spent years of their lives painstakingly transcribing religious texts onto calf skin, making sure each letter was perfectly formed. It's crazy.

After seeing the book, you exit through "The Long Room." I wish they allowed pictures to be taken, because it looked like the library from Disney's Beauty and the Beast. The roof had to be raised to fit all of the books. I felt like just standing in there made me smarter. It was nerd HEAVEN.

Yeah Cork Yeah

Presently, I'm too exhausted to be charming and witty. But I have to update this thingy.

So the Erasmus international student group that I mentioned in an earlier post plans trips to major cities in Ireland. Meaning I don't have to do the work and plan it myself. Win. This past weekend, 200 of us went to Cork city, which is on the southwestern side of Ireland. We left on Friday morning, and took a long annoying bus ride (our driver wouldn't shut up to let us sleep, and he wasn't even clever or funny to make up for it) to Cobh, which is a town about half an hour away from Cork. It was scenic, with a harbor and a pretty cathedral. But the weather was dreadful. I'm not even talking rain (I LOVE rain now), I'm talking wind that can blow a side-view mirror clear off a coach bus...which is ACTUALLY what happened while we were on the highway. So we spent a good deal of time in the cathedral and getting food instead of walking around.

We then arrived in Cork at about...5pm? Yes. And we stayed in the Kinlay House hostel. I wasn't prepared for this, but in order to shower, I had to hold down a button (like those sinks in public bathrooms) and keep pressing it if I wanted a steady flow or water. Which, by the way, never got hot. As a matter of fact, it was pleasant if it reached lukewarm temperature. But it's cool that's what student traveling is ABOUT. The nonsense that you'll deal with to save some $$$

That night, after dinner at Luigi Malone's (an Irish Italian restaurant if you can't tell by that awesome name), we went out for a Pub Crawl. Now, in Dublin, they have special guided pub crawls that feature music or literary history. Our pub crawl in Cork was guided by the leaders of the Erasmus group, and it featured drinking. In four different pubs. I don't remember their names, but I can tell you that one of them had a huge screen and only showed rugby games on it, and another one looked like a log cabin and played metal the whole time. The other two apparently didn't make an impression on me.

Unfortunately, after this sort of pub crawl, people are generally useless the next day. As in sleeping til 12:30 and then being afraid to go outside because the wind sounds like 1000 dying baby foxes. But of course, we eventually forced ourselves to brave the ugly weather and walk about town a bit. Sadly, Cork city isn't really known for it's museums like Dublin, so we just ended up checking out two decently famous churches, St. Anne's and North Cathedral. After taking enough pictures to satisfy our tourist consciences, we went back a slept more...since that night we were promised reduced entry price and a couple free drinks at a club (priorities). It was grand.

Sunday we left the city to come back to Dublin, but not before stopping a few hours at the Blarney Castle. This was really the highlight of the trip. The castle was amazing. The grounds and gardens were gorgeous. Even in the dark cloudy rain, I could not resist walking around outside the whole time.

Oh yeah, and I kissed the Blarney Stone. Let me tell you what this entails.

1) You have to walk up these very narrow, steep, winding tower stairs. Been to the top of the Statue of Liberty? Yeah those stairs have got NOTHING on these ones.

2) You have to walk around the top of the castle, over some nice safe not deadly at all SLIPPERY MEDIEVAL ROCKS.

3) A man yells at you to turn around, sit on a soggy mat, and lean your body backwards while he holds you upside down over the edge of the castle to kiss the bloody rock.

4) Some other man yells at you to take a ticket to spend 10 euro on the awkward picture he took of you struggling to contort your body, wondering if you're fully ok with the old grumpy guy touching your waist.

But all discomfort and confusion aside, it really was GRAND.