Going to a house party with a bunch of baby boomers.

So today is new years eve and after a late night Generation Kill session with the super trooper I have woken up to a healthy white frost covering nearly everything out my window. Pretty nice. reminds me alot of last years new years and how a perfect storm of all my friends made their way from all over the place- uxbridge, burlington, queens, branford, providence, avon....all over the place for a pretty awesome time in the 2-0-3. Great night and then an epic session the next morning at Branford Point....


Regardless, tonight Ive decided to go up to Mohegan Sun with my uncle for a great big house party sponsored by the J. Geils Band. Should certainly be an interesting night. I usually love the big plans for new years, enjoying 1 or 7 beers, finding that special somebody at the certain hour. Either way I think im pretty excited about going up there with Jimmy Z. If nothing else Im confident I should be able to learn how to properly bet the horses from a seasoned Vet. Hopefully make some money playing black jack. we shall see. I know Geils is one of my uncles favorite bands of all time so its nice to see him so excited for a concert. From everything I've heard of them they are definetly a pretty good time so i look forward to it. If you have never heard of them before they sing that song "love stinks" from the wedding singer.






id love to know how to post just an audio link on here instead of having to do a youtube video. another time for sure.

This post initially started out to comment on Omar Rodriquez-Lopez and how he has a new solo album (surprise!)Interesting how musical styles evolve and something I really did not like at all a few years ago is now something I really appreciate. I definetly credit some of my best friends (or more specifically one in this regard) for this sort of influence. you can check out a song from his new album here even though its all in spanish it still has some fantastic cords and rockin guitar.


Happy New Years everybody. Tip one back and have a great night. You'll never have to write "09 again. and if your in London or Brixton and get to see Simian Mobile, or new york for passion pit or msstrkrft or chicago for GT or oklahoma for the flaming lips.....well then. for you folks I am outstandingly jealous. especially for you oklahoma-dites. That will surely be a spectacle of epic proportions.

Does this look awesome?

i didnt think there was a reason i needed starz.....thank goodness for the internet.....sex, drugs, and violence. looks like the 18-25 demographic might be interested.

a discussion between my head and the keyboard on a year marked by mashups......

If I were to put my musical preferences in a category this year I'm pretty confident my appreciation fro a quality mash-up would be at the top of my list. While my warmth certainly started with who I would consider the godfather of the mash-up, Greg Gillis (girltalk) I definetly have an expanded repertoire that I call favorites by now.
Now before I go farther I understand that gT wasnt the innovator of the mashup and obviously other people did it first blah blah blah. to me girl talk was my first love so nothing is going to change that. sorry. im biased. deal with it. For a better part of the last 2 years I have havent gone more than a day and a half without listening to something hes created. Night ripper and Feed the animals are undoubtedly two of my most played albums of all time and "live at Yale" and "Murders Seattle" kept painting every day all summer a fun job that got my booty shakin. no one takes such quality crump and straight 80's classics and makes it sound like elton john and biggy smalls planned to have such a beautiful love child.

A great documentary on girl talk is on hulu and it might be on youtube right now. its called " Rip: A remix Manifesto" My friend dustin showed it to me when he first saw it and I watched it a work one day and really nejoyed it. It gives you a a really througout examination on copyright laws and the ideas of fair usage and what it means and what Greg hasnt gone to prison yet. (also why he doesnt sell his records but gives them away) check it out. its a great documentary and certainly worth your time.

But i can go on about girl talk forever and ever. matter of fact I would really love to do that someday when I get some free time. Compile some of my experiences. him wearing my wig. wishing me a happy 21st birthday in dublin. helping pull me up. letting me stay on stage with him. more than my fair share of unforgettable moments.


But the real gist of this post was because I was inspired to just throw some thoughts down about the number of mashup songs that I have listened to this past semester. When i logged onto facebook today I was pumped to see how my friends had sent me the dj earworm remix of this years top 25 billboard songs mashed up together.





First off I give it alot of credit because it has literally taken the internet by storm and has like a million youtube views in its first day. so clearly people are diggin it a little. Tons of people that have never heard of dont really listen to mash ups are into it so thats great.

I think its a great concept for him to include the top 25 songs and its a great way to remember the year in pop music. (what might it sound like it we had an alt or a hip hop or electronic or rock version instead.....) I like my mashups to flow pretty flawlessly so i will give him credit at the 1.45 mark when he goes from justin with a piano slow down into a mellowed out will I. am before turning to the dude from the fray for a single line. I usually dont like when a mashup trys to use words from different songs to tell a story but in this song that concept represents the backbone of earworms work. Its tough to make something sound like it wasnt pieced together when you jump form the black eyed peas-> lady gaga->flo rida-> beyonce->kanye->B.e.P.->drake-> Jamie Foxx and then back to Fergie all in a matter of 15 seconds. i think its a little bit much. I much prefer what he does with the Beyonce and Miley lyrics (did i just type that) I will give that (.50-1.00 mark) two thumbs up. When you give a song a chance to evolve for that amount of time you dont seem so jumpy and pieced together. While I dont have first hand experience i hear that it is much easier to create a faster paced mashup than it is the alternative that we see for that brief amount of time with beyonce and miley.




With that being said I guess my first impression of this song was probably a little bit harsh. While it probably not make its way onto my most played its not bad for a quick little 2009 throwback memory when that time comes.



Along with that throwback though I guss I have to include my favorite mashups that I heard this year. I wish I had some sick nasty all night ragers at my apartment this semester when I could have released these to the masses but o well. They'll have to solidified on here forever instead. Im ok with that I guess.

to start with all im going to say is miley and notorius by hathberger. this was the origianl remix that came out and I remember hearing it on hypem minutes after it was posted. check out a little blurp from a few weeks ago i posted.


One of my favorite techno mashes involved some guys I saw this summer in williamsburg combined with some Justice and a little bit of RaTatat..I guess its by a guy named bearbot who suprisingly I never really looked into any of his other work. I dig it. just always puts me in a good mood. "we are your friends. youll never be alone again." speaks to me... its like their inside the music. there forever for the listener. thats a little over the top but dig it.





Another good one I like and that a bunch of my friends enjoy is a little bit of jay z and the verve. one of those songs holds some serious significance for me so i especially dig anything with bittersweet symphony mixed together. if you get adventurous do some searching for don diablo and jay z remixes....






Xaphoon Jones is pretty popular for his remix of mgmts's kids and bob marley but i dont really dig it too much. its one of the few mgmt kids mashups so i guess thats why it gets alot of play but i actually much prefer what he does with Clipse and my all time favorite rockers. I couldnt find a youtube video but the blog i heard it on has the link saved over here so you can check it out if you want.

http://www.musicalpairings.com/2009/11/single-serving-chiddy-bang-swelly.html

along with the "you need"/clipse remix you can also see links to the xaphoon jones mixtape and someone that my brother actually told me about, chiddy bang bang. if you like rapping over epic techno songs youll surely want to check out what they have to offer over at this site. my brother (whose music choices really are actually fantastic....hes introduced me to a pretty fair amount of quality tunes) has this link favorited on his toolbar so i should definetly include if for anyone who feels like a listen.....

"somebody tell roth that i dont love college"






If you feel like bumping something at your next house party then look no farther than P-10. found this guy off of earmilk one day and listened to his entire album (2 long tracks) instead of doing something that probably could have been deemed more valuable at the time. I know pass him on to you. this is the kind of thing you hit play-repeat on and your party shouldnt even realize you did it for a least a few run throughs. that way the late night party thieves dont strike and steal your xbox and wii or hookah or ipods. sorry cb and stoher and joey and poo you aftab.

go to this link if you want to find his album to download.

basically what I just linked you to is a goldmine of mashups as well. for some reason i cant find this guys myspace or anything on him anymore. that site still has him up though. him and about a hundred other magicians.


those are some of my muy favoritos. if youd like to go on a little blogospher journey googles some dj schmolli or clivester.
represent bostons own Dj BC.
my advice is to watch some videos on youtube and read some of the comments people leave after the videos or on other artists mashups. Alot of these guys are pretty low key until they get one of there songs on the greatest site ever and people like you and me find them and "like" them





anyway I guess this was kind of a lengthy post but I hope at least someone enjoyed it. It felt good to get some stuff typed. I feel like everyone has these end of the year blog entries going so I might as well do my part. maybe i could come up with a top song list or something. thatd be cool. until then. tip back a glass and enjoy the night. i needed an excuse to show off these sunglasses my brother found under the couch in the basement.

It's Blitz Reminze.

I just wanted to reiterate to myself and anyone who may read this how much I enjoyed the YeahYeahYeahs album that afternoon as I say at the record store. It was in Edin borough Scotland and the record store was playing the album a few days before it came out. I remember hearing Heads will Roll and Zero and just sitting next to the music literacy section and being blown away. I sat on the floor right there and listened to the entire album. Even as the store closed I sat there until the last song was played. The employees knew what I was doing and let me just chill there until it was over. your in europe. i can imagine the staff at strawberrys doing that (insert laugh here)

Really a very cool record store experience.

Now, one of my favorite tracks of the year would definetly have to be the A-Trak remix of heads will roll. I definitely listened to that song on hypem far more than I should have. It just has an incredible pulsating beat that makes we want to stand up on my chair and sing the praises of Karen 0's perfection (too much?) ill let you decide.

epic library friday.

im posting a rough draft to my paper on here because last time i started a big history paper in the library i made the typical flash drive mistake and lose my haight ashbury paper for dr. leonard.... not cool....

also today i have focused on my paper like never before. i dont know what it is or if its some new form of maturity (positive doubt) but it feels great. im about go grab a beer from cambrige 1 and a flatbread pizza. then maybe some cityside to say hello to northboro and then back to my apt to keep truckin.


if you still care about my musical opinion check out the new arctic monkeys album (who i see on sunday with lauren) and/ or the kid cudi pursuit of happyness remix by steve aoki. do it.

(fresh prince of bel air techno remix is also fantastic too if your willing to take a chance)






While looking at American history in the 1960’s one of the most unique aspects is the rise in the counterculture and the effect of radical politics on American policy and domestic affairs. After surviving the 50’s and the swelling threat of McCarthyism, the youth of America rallied unlike ever before. While it is often easy to throw the hippies and new left into a category that often gets shortchanged and left immortalized by stereotypes, in fact the counterculture was a movement that genuinely believed in the American democracy and the basis of social change. Through the constant headlines from leaders like Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, Tom Hayden, Eldridge Cleaver and many more, a culture was able to survive and flourish on the coattails of American society. While media and mass market were screaming about consumerism and violence a core of our society was focused on reevaluating the social norms of the 1950’s. They saw what there parents generation had to offer and decided that change was in their hands. With success in the American South as their kindling they were able to start a fire of which embers still burn to this day. With so much support it is all the more startling that they received so much negative press and were presented so poorly to the American people. Rather than seeing a vessel of change and optimism the focus was often construed and twisted to a media driven purpose shared by the national government. At the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in 1968, the riots that occurred highlight this issue. They go to show how the activities of the radicals were massively unpopular with the government and the lengths by which they would go to control these protests. While the government aimed at quelling the radicals middle America began to get comfortable in their position, influencing the mood of government and the course of legislation to their benefit with little actual effort.


(i deleted the rest. thats just the rough draft of the thesis. if you so desire id love to let you read the rest of it though)


(dont bother clikcing on these links they are resources for me to keep using...)

http://www.ucs.louisiana.edu/~kak7409/groovy60s.html trues and false
http://www.colorado.edu/AmStudies/lewis/film/middle.htm time people of the year middle usa
http://www.colorado.edu/AmStudies/lewis/2010/students.htm

i forgot how much fun it is to update this...

So this website below has a great list of mash ups going with the theme of underage pop stars check out the mash up of miley and notorius b.i.g......with a little work i think it could be epic. (listening greg?)

http://www.earmilk.com/2009/10/19/mashup-monday-it-has-begun/

anyway yesterday was a a pretty great day...rode my bike to the financial district to sell an extra girl talk ticket and that was a totally crazy experience. welcome to cube city. suit city my friends. saw a chiliean bbq place which was cool.

got an expensive lunch with kringer which was great. nice to go out for lunch and not have to steal food from the cafeteria or eat a peanut butter and jelly. had a great chicken sandwich and garlic fries and a smithwicks. skipped my first class all semester to play some frisbee on the beautiful day. totally worth it but i might miss that mid term review we went over.

made myself a steak and cheese for dinner while watching the celtics dominate the cavs. lebron is a freak of nature though....just a blast to watch...

then went to see where the wild things are with a great throwback trip to the drumstudio before the movie. great times.


then we had a little visit from loNDonToWN!!!


check out this book i read yesterday at Trident on newbury....

http://www.amazon.com/Woodstock-Three-Days-Rocked-World/dp/1402766238/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1256226865&sr=8-1







annnnndddddd check out myspace.com/redbullwitchhunt

that will be a wild awesome time!!!!

i waited this long for a really important post...

I had to tell someone this and I thought a facebook update would be excessive. so naturally this is a better outlet right. sure.

Why is this Miley Cyrus song so catchy? why am i afraid mike is going to hear me listening to it? why is it so good? why?




and if your into other music i enjoy check out this new website called 22Tracks.

http://22tracks.com/

its basically a 22 song playlist of streaming songs that this guy that has good taste in music makes every week or so. a list for whatever mood your in. not much else to say about it but its definitely pretty awesome. made me listen to Jemina Pearl....you probably don't recognize the name but its the old lead singer of BeYourOwnPET. good stuff. shes pretty awesome so check her out.


tomorrow night (technically today) monday football we all are gonna root for denver. or for more than 48 points. either way would be great.

cue the bagpipes. tell mel to put his kilt on.

Edinburgh
So Lisa and I started our travels at about 5 am. Luckily I kept my skype on because my alarm didn’t go off and Lisa had to wake me up. The flight to Endinburgh was nice and short and only took about 45 minutes or so. When we got into the city center we amazingly found our hostel unbelievably easily. We just made our way to the giant castle and then right in front of our noses was the Castle Rock Hostel. Awesome! The name of my room as the underwear room and my bed name was Thong. That’s a nice little side point. After we got their we went out to explore the city. About halfway down the main street, the Royal Mile, we found a cigar store and decided it would be awesome to buy Ryan a nice Cuban cigar to smoke for his birthday. We bought him two, a Monte Cristo 3 and a Cohiba.

After the cigar store within a few minutes we walked by an overzealous tour guide encouraging us to join his free tour that afternoon. It was a walking tour and would take about 3 or3.5 hours to complete. While at first we weren’t sure if we were going to do it, by the end of the tour we were really glad that we had. Doug told us pretty much anything that we would have wanted to know about Edinburgh and even more. He was a fantastic story teller. Apparently Edinburgh is also a very haunted tour and the second half of our tour (after our lunch at an irish pub with a deal for tours) focused a lot on these haunting and all the stuff that happened in past history. Some crazy prison hauntings that have even been reported as recently as 2003. After our tour we went back to the hostel for a much needed nap. Since Lisa and I were in separate rooms we decided to just meet in the main room around 6ish. When I woke up from my nap though there was a guy named Allen who said that he was goin to go for a hike up this hill to watch the sunrise. Sounded pretty cool to me and I figured I would join him. The only problem was that Lisa was no where to be found and I had no way to call her or get into her room. So I left her a note and went for a walk with Allen and two other dudes from South Africa. I forget the name of the hill but it was at the very end of the Royal Mile next to the Parliament building. It looked steep but it didn’t take too long to get up to and the view was incredible. You could see the entire city and it was really awesome. It was also cool to talk to the guys because they were from such different places. (allen was actually a high school teacher in London but is from Australlia) On our walk back we went by a place that sold deep fried mars bars. Sounded interesting enough so we split one for the 3 of us. (one guy had given up chocolate for lent) It was a very interesting taste. I wouldn’t mind trying it again someday.

Anyway once I got back Lisa was hanging out in the main room and so we decided to walk down to the store and get some dinner. I told her all about the place we had just been and how we definitely had to take Ryan there and that it would be the perfect place to smoke his cigars. For dinner we were able to get some really cheap sandwiches from the grocery store and I decided that my beer of choice would be a Newcastle. Seemed fitting. We enjoyed some dinner and then decided to go to some clubs to see what the music scene was like. We went down to the main road where all the clubs are on and we made our first decision based on Doiiugs recommendation for a nice open mic night. I forget the name of the place now but it was like Colonel something or others. It was like 3 stories underground and smelt horrible and damp and was easily the dirtiest place I’ve ever been to for a drink but that just added everything to the atmosphere. It wasn’t that crowded when we got there and there were probably only like 10 or 15 people there but then after a little bit a tour group came in or a pub crawl or something and it picked up considerably. After that bar we decided to check out something a little bit different. We decided to go to ….. it was a pretty cool place and an indie band had just finished polkaying when we got there. The next group to go on looked like a total metal band but theyactually played cover songs and were actually really good. Theo only thing that they were bad at was that they played like crazy happy dance songs and then would play a slow not dancing song so it was pretty poor planning. Still really good though. We stayed there for an hour or so and then headed next door where there was a mates of state-ish band playing with a guy and a girl and a piano and guitar. That was pretty cool but ended not to long after we got there. On our walk back we got a little bit lost but luckily eidburg is pretty tiny so it didn’t take us long to right ourselves. AND we got some fries from some place called the pizza palace. A massive order of them that we ate all the way up until walking into our hostel. A great decision. We had had an awesome first night in Edinburgh and the next morning Ryan was due into the city for his one day trip to Edinburg for his birthday. Sweet.



So the day that Ryan got here we started out with a tour of the castle. A little pricey but something you have to do in the city. There were some cool views of stuff in their and a lot of the stuff was pretty self guided so it was nice. They showed you the prisons and the barracks and the meeting rooms etc. After the castle we grabbed a quick lunch at the hostel before making our way to the top of the hill. Before we got to the hill we took a nice little pit stop at the coffe shop where J.K. ROwling wrote harry potter. that was pretty epic. she had a great seat and you can see the castle that was the influence in the background.




We took our time walking over their and showed Ryan some of the highlights from our tour the day before. When we got up the hill the sun was out and the weather was perfect for an afternoon of chillin. At one point Ryan something along the lines of man it would be awesome if we had a few beers or something to do up here. Almost on cue, Lisa pulled out some Bullmer as I took out the box with his gift in it. He was pumped about the cigars and I think he really really enjoyed them. We hung out up there and smoked the cigars for close to an hour before we had to put them out and we all took a great nap. Once the sun went down we all got up pretty much at the same time and continued to just talk until we started walking down the hill. I thought it was a pretty good idea to roll down the hill and I think one of the two got it on video. So that should be fun to watch. After the hill I got Ryan and Lisa to try the fried Mars bar too before Ryan got on his 35 bus to go to the airport. I think he had a pretty sweet birthday. Definitely a great memory.





For dinner that night I made myself some awesome Paela from Lidl. Really really really great tasting dinner for myself and it only cost like 2 pounds. I definelty have to find that here in Dublin. That night we went to a few places for music but nothing was too special. At the end of the night though we ended up at a dance club called Caberet Voltiare. It was another really cool underground club that played some great house music. We left around 1or 2ish and didn’t stay till the end.

The next morning Lisa hadn’t met in the main room when we were supposed to so after I waited for an hour or so I just decided to go off on my own and meet up with her later. (Turns out she had woken up earlier, laid down to rest and didn’t wake up for a long time) Anyway I wandered on my own and some of the first places that I went were a few music shops. The first one I went in told me about a really cool skatepark about 20 minutes away that I though seriously about going to but I didn’t have my camera and I didn’t have any clothes that would be good to wear if I felt like renting a bmx. She also told me about a really sweet drum and bass group that was playing that night at a club. Even though it was a 6pound cover this girl made it sound totally worth it and I definitely was very interested in it. The next place that I went to was a record shop actually and the people there were also really really cool. I must have listened to 10 or 15 different cds trying to figure out which one to buy because I knew I wanted something to remember the store from. It was totally worth it and I ened up getting a double disc by a house dj called Dj Hell. Ive been listening to it for the last few days and I think it might be my new paper writing tracks. Anyway I kept wandering around and the next thing that I saw was the Sir. Walter Scott monument and that was basically a giant tower structure in the middle of Old and New Town dedicated to the author from Scotland.






I also found the coolest little cd store. It is pretty much like a newbury comics or the virgin store in new York with tons of music, movies, and books about music. Everyrthng was REALLY cheap and I immediately wanted to spend hundreds of dollars on awesome U.K. music and some cool books. I decided not buy anything but that I would come back and pickup a record or two before I went back to the hostel for dinner. My wandering also took me to the top of the first public park in Scotland called Canton Hill, where I was able to hang out and write some stuff down and read some of the free music magazines that I had picked up. After Canton hill I continued to explore and get myself lost only to refind myself time and again. I even checked out the Scotland Museum that had a special presentation on hands on science. That was fun to go to a science museum with interactive activities perfect for a 5th grader. I didn’t care that I was playing all the games and activities by myself. I loved it. Ha! After that I grabbed some lunch at a little deli where I also wrote some post cards finally and sent them on their way. About time I did that. Before going back to the hostel I was torn between going to the cd store or trying to get lisa to check it out too but I luckily decided to go first because I wasn’t sure if she would be home and I also wasn’t sure if I would want to walk all the way back after sitting on the fantastically comfortable couches they have at the hostel. When I got to the cd store it was awesome. They were playing the new YeahYEAHYeah’s cd that didn’t come out for a couple days over the pa and I was totally content to just sit on the floor reading magazines and books and listening to the perfection that is Karen O’s voice. The moment the cd ended the store began to close so I grabbed a few cds that interested me and checked out. I got a 2Many Djs album, an arctic monkeys Alex Turner side project, a book on 60’s history in Britain, and a book called …..

When I got back to the hostel Lisa was chillin and told me about her great day she had too. I cooked up the last of my dinner from yesterday and I started reading my …. Book. Right from the start I was hooked. Mark my words this book will be a movie someday. Every page I read I could imagine a scene directly out of my high school experience or something that I could easily relate to. While I couldn’t relate to everything I am positive I know people who could and I also can imagine certain actors playing the parts perfectly well. Some indie favorites. Think like Juno or Nick and Norah or Accepted types of actors. Those would be perfect. Anyway, I got so into the book that I didn’t even go out that night. I sat on the giant leather couch and read the entire thing, nearly 300 pages of it and loved every minute of it. I don’t even remotely regret staying in and I figure ill just see a drum n bass group another time. While I was reading the book it was one of the hostel employees last day in the hostel so all the workers or whatever had a nice little party together and were singing and dancing so that was a pretty entertaining side show. When I finally finished my book I rented an alarm clock and got ready for my 6 am wake up to get back to Dublin.

Overal I had a really really really awesome time in Edinburgh. I loved every minute of being there and would love love to go back. The music scene was incredible and supposedly Glasgow is the same way. I seriously am thinking about spending my week after school ends in Scotland and the U.K. It could be great. Seems silly to go back to a place I have already been though so ill probably stick with the Poland or Germany deal instead. Ahh it’s a rough life. Also I need a good peace out line like Eggy has…im influenced by his get into it. Im up for suggestions. It could be great.

So its a sunday morning and Uconn lost in the final four last night....tough loss. I watched the game on super slow internet but luckily I could catch the basic drift of the game on cbs sportsline. I am just back from my whirlwind of traveling, from rome back to dublin for a day and then to Edinburgh and now I am finally "home". First time ive slept in my bed for more than a few hours in like 2 weeks. Pretty nice without an alarm and my own bathroom a few feet away.

Anyway today I am going to try and write some stuff about my travels. I bought a really sweet notebook in edinburgh and I am going to try and type some of the stuff I wrote in it. Tons of pictures to organize but I have to try and get the good ones because Im sure no one wants to look at 600 pictures from Rome and the Vatican.

With that I will leave you with a nice little youtube nugget.

Its the can't-eat, can't-sleep, reach-for-the-stars, over- the-ocean, going to Rome in hours kind of stuff...

I want this picture to hang on my wall. So awesome.




(a little is cut off the sides for some reason....makes it not even.....)
.



My 10 year old self would want me to post this one.....




its pretty catchy...incredibly strange grouping of artists but whatever.




a good one to change up the pace.....these guys are great. obviously.




and then we can end with something that ashely sent me that has been on one of my tabs for the last couple of days..... ultra catchy though...be careful if you dont want this stuck in your head for the next day or so...dont say i didnt warn you.




(sorry I cant sleep because i leave for Rome in a few hours. and i dont want to pack. so this is my best option. )

side notes.
kenny bell thank you for making me listen to weezy.
listening to my itunes on shuffle has been blowing my mind lately. thank you for that. you get all the credit.

21 (an epic post about a beyond epic day)

So Friday afternoon I didn’t really do much because we had a pretty good time on Thursday night because that was Arnauds last night here before going to Paris. Didn’t do to much but I did get to use Katharina’s bike and she showed me where the infamous Aldi that I have not been able to find is located. Way cheaper than Tesco and a better cheap beer section. Sold. That was cool and she showed me her house down the street. She lives with a crazy Chinesse roommate who does nothing but whine and cook horrible smelling Chinese food that stinks up the house. ( Im sure my Main Street Flushing buddies would love that….:) After I got back home I found out that, at the last minute Katie kind of went weak sauce on me and said she couldn’t go to the concert because she had to wake up early for her flight to Spain. Maybe somewhat valid but she still owes me a good party to make up for it. When I went to ask Ryan if he wanted to go he was in no shape to party and go to a concert because he was sick in bed with a fever. His roommate though, Cian, was totally down for the show though even though he had never heard of Girl Talk. I was extremely extremely pumped that he wanted to go because he’s wicked fun and I knew we would all have a blast together. (marielle, lisa, emma, sarah, and the two of us. )
We did a little bit of pregaming at Ryan and Cians while playing COD and listening to some music. Definitely fun times. We headed out, feeling fantastic around 10ish. Ryan made me rip a little bit of his everclear before we left which didn’t end as well as it should have but whatever, “that that don’t kill you only makes you stronger”….yeah…that’s it….
When we finally got to the show, one can only imagine how beyond excited I was to be there at that moment. Similar to Dropkick on St. Paddys, or Big D on Halloween or pretty much anytime I’ve ever seen GirlTalk. I was amped. Even at Andrews Lane theater it was cool to meet so many other Americans who were there but had never seen Girl Talk. I even met a few people from my American and the Wider World class who recognized me as “THE BOY FROM BOSTON THAT THE TEACHER ALWAYS TALKS TO!!” I’m telling you I get more recognition from that class than anything else by a massive amount. Haha I love it though and it was great. The place was relatively empty when we got there but after the two opening acts went on I realized how full it had got and how crammed in we all were. When Greg finally came out on stage my life was perfect. He went on after midnight so it was officially my birthday when play your part came on. Damn. I freakin love girl talk. I helped boost marielle on stage and when I got on I was immediately by Gregs side with not a care in the world and no where else I would even remotely want to be at that moment. Literally. I probably could not come up with a better situation. After the show when I told him it was my birthday I got a high five and a hug along with his red hoodie he wore out to the stage. The man of the hour from Pittsburgh knew how awesome his life was and I like to think he knew how epic and legendary he made my 21st birthday. When we finally got home we were completely completely covered in sweat and disgusting. Luckilly Ryan was waiting for us with some cold drinks and some more COD before bed. Absolutely unbelievably beyond awesome and fantastic. I will obviously never forget how overwhelmingly fantastic it was and I still had a huge day on Saturday to go. Man life was good. God Bless America baby. I love college.







As well, I obviously survived my 21st birthday. It really was a fantastic fantastic day. Besides the fact that I’ve now been around for 21 years, Ireland played rugby against Wales for the championship of the 6 Nations tournament. Most people that read this wont really comprehend how big a deal this is, but Ireland has not won the 6 nations Grand Slam since 1948. That’s 61 years. Considering there are only 5 teams they compete against, the significance of the game was enormous. The bar on campus had set up some giant t.v.s and was playing all the days games leading up to the final match at 5.30. That morning I watched the France match with GShlan and Julia and Camille in Julias apartment. For no real reason what so ever, I got up off the couch near the end of the match and as i looked outside i saw someone standing by our window below. Standing there looking into the window was none other than Ty and his girlfriend, back form Galway!!! It was really really awesome to see him and meet his girlfriend and i am totally pumped he was here to celebrate the day with us. Before he left to go park his car at the B&B down the street he told me to come to the car with him where he had a little birthday present for me. As he leaned in the car he handed me a completely full case of Stella pints! (With a few Carlsbergs and Guiness thrown in for some color!) AWESOME!!!







What a great start to the day!!!

Before we headed over to the old bar I was able to talk to everybody back home on Skype and they all had good wishes etc etc.

By the time we got to the old bar with Ryan, lisa, emma and marielle, (everyone else was meeting us there) my day was already off to a great start. Ryan bought me my first drink, something I’ve never had before called a Paulner Weissenbeir or something. pretty good, strong, but kind of a fruity taste. We luckily secured a couch and kind of took it over from the people that were sitting next to us, but i dont think they cared too much. they were really cool. (shout out to Mary...hope your massive paper is going well after the celebration)

The game was epic and everyone in the place was going crazy the entire time. At the beginning of the game actually I bet 5e that one guy, Fitzgerald, would score the first try. (10-1 odds) About midway through the first half, Ireland seemed to score and the place went absolutely bizerk. I went even crazier when I saw that my man, number 11 had been the one to score! MY excitement was sadly short lived though because when they reviewed it, the ball had been passed forward. O well. The money went to charity and it was only 5 bucks. and that minute of excitement was close to worth it. ha ha.

Anyway, By the second half all my French friends had gotten there, Amparo, Katha and their group, along with Ty and his girl so we had quite a crew. The last four minutes of the game were absolutely insane, with 2 different lead changes, the last one when Irelands O'Ghara (face of the team pretty much) scored a drop with a 2 minutes to go to put Ireland up by 2. Everything was going great and every irish fan watching was counting down the seconds until the game would end. Then, with less than 30 second left on the clock, someone from Ireland committed a penalty. From the 49 meter mark, It was down to one final kick from a Wales player. If he made it, Wales would win. If he missed, 61 years of dreaming would alas become a reality.

A few seconds later, grown men began to cry. shouts of joy could be heard throughout Ireland. many a pint of Guinness were spilt on the floor, and the fields of athenry were sung countrywide by men and women alike linking arms and singing their favorite victory song. The waiting was over and Ireland were the champions!






After the game everyone was super excited and full of energy. Camille made dinner for us and he made his specialty which is pretty much just pasta and meat,onion sauce, but he does it really really well and its probably my favorite thing to eat here. It was Cam, G, Ty and Sarah for dinner so that was fun to all hang out before the people came over for the party to start. Right after dinner as I was getting something from the cupboard the lights went out and Jenny and Julia walked in with a cake with candles on it for me. It was really really really really great and I was totally surprised. I’m pretty sure there were 21 candles on it too.






Everyone was hanging out and luckily the French speaking was kept to a pretty low does. ha ha. I guess nothing to ridiculous happened at night, until we started playing Kings later on but I definetly think that everyone was there had a blast. Even sarah and Amparo and their german friends came for while in the beginning with ANOTHER cake for me! Katha was the only one to stay late though…that other group went into the city to celebrate someone else’s birthday and go to a club. ( I was plenty content to stay at home) Lisa was obviously there with her margaritas, Camille helped me with the bottle of Jamesons, Tomas and his girlfriend took some of my beers, Ryan manned up against whatever it is that has had him sick and drank his Everclear, Jenny and Julia were infatuated with each other, and Cyril and G watched us all make fools of ourselves….. so for the most part it was business as usual....haha... there should be some pictures online soon. Well maybe not all of them. Sorry Ger.

In all, my 21st birthday was pretty epic. Pictures to arrive soon.



right now it is Monday afternoon around 2.30. I just got back from a nice little constructive excursion where I picked up some food for dinner tonight. I am going over to my host families house and I am making them dinner so i went and picked up all the ingredients I would need for some hopefully fantastic chicken parmigana. I’m excited.
I also set up my bank account because my card finally came in the mail. sweet. and i saw my favorite bank teller there who wished me a happy belated birthday. shes great.

Katharina let me use her bike while she is in Cork so that was pretty awesome to be able to ride that to Tesco as opposed to walking too.

And now I’m going to go and cook like a crazy man. Cheers! Tomorrow at this time I will drinking wine with the two best American girls in Italy!

Get Into It.

So tomorrow is my 21st birthday. It is also the Ireland Championship Rugby Match against Wales. (literally i can barely type this right now) Tonight will be Girl Talk. This is epic. Ireland has not won the 6 nations title in something like 60 years so this will be MASSIVE. People here are planning on going nuts for it.


I am literally more excited than you can imagine. nate just sent me a message saying hes doing good, play your part just came on my playlist. my roomate just let me borrow 20 bucks to go buy drinks. shit this is awesome.











its a celebration.

Some Cool Songs because i cant stop

No really. I am really enjoying posting these things. I wish it just didnt take me so long to type up my days.

Anyway here are some cool songs you should all listen too....





^ thats a really sweet song by the guys that made "The whistle song", young folks








And this song is a remake of a classic but with a ghangster twist of perversion and inappropriateness that would probably make you feel uncomfortable if you listened to it with your mother in the room.


check it out...

A Free Thing to do....Obviously ill be checking out the Irish History Museum...

Wed March 4th
Wednesday was a pretty sweet day. I hadn’t really been doing on Wed since I got here and that is pretty much a waste seeing as how I have no class. That day I decided I was going to Irish National History Museum. Lisa said she would be my exploring partner that day so I was pumped. We basically just took the bus into the city and walked down random streets with no real destination specifically in mind for a while. We walked into random malls and some cool little shops and even on a Wed there were still some street performers doing some cool stuff. I actually bought some eggplant from a farmers market so I was excited to make some eggplant parmigana or something for dinner. The museum is pretty far down the Liffy and across from the Guinness factory so it’s a pretty good hike to get there but when we did it was really worth it. It’s a giant museum and its free so that’s always the best. We did about ¾ of the museum (we weren’t sure how much more there was) until it closed down. On our walk back we “relocated” a giant St. Patricks Day Festival Poster from a random billboard. It now proudly hangs on our living room wall minus a large chunk at the top that was some collateral damage. Strapped to my backpack we brought it with us all the way back to DCU.



We took the bus to Tesco actually and popped in there for some food and beers so that was great. It was also the first time I have been carded at Tesco which was annoying because I obviously don’t have an id. Annoying. When we got back to Shanowen I had hopes of cooking the eggplant for everyone for dinner but those plans never panned out because Arnaud was making some fish for dinner already. Great Success. We all did our own thing for awhile until Lisa came over for dinner later on along with a bunch of other French people. Cyril’s girlfriend from America was here and that was cool too. We stayed in our apartment pretty much most of the night and I’m pretty sure we had a bunch more American guest later on that night. That was a great night and we played some Kings so that always gets Gshlan and Tomas involved excited. Really fun time, and really difficult to wake up for classes the next morning.

The French eat dinner far to late for an American like me to get used to.....

The Night of Tuesday February 25th.

So Tuesday’s are pretty good days. I would say I have my favorite classes on Tuesday, my irish lit class and my American foreign policy course. My America and the Wider World professor is a nutjob. He is off the wall and says ridiculous things but that keeps the class very interesting. I cant really even remember exactly what he did but I’m sure he made fun of Americans and Australians, talked about how drunk irish people get, and asked if any other students had been to the pub before class. He hadn’t seen anyone from our class he said. Anyway. After classes, I went to Tesco with Arnaud to get ready for his big Caribbean dinner. He had made up the menu and he was making some sort of baked fish and some sort of fried dough like thing with fish and peppers in it. I was intrigued. We did all the shopping and got everything we needed. It was interesting when he went to pay though and his card for some reason was messed up and wouldn’t work. Luckily I had brought mine so we used it to buy the grocery’s (we were cooking for about ten people so it was pretty expensive). We got back and started doing some stuff around the house. We were planning on having a few people over so we cleaned up a little bit and I set up the table in my room. It was mostly French people over for dinner and by the time we finally even started to eat it was almost 9:30 or maybe even later. I actually didn’t go to lacrosse practice so I could stay home and help cook and enjoy dinner, but before we even ate, Len called me and said he was outside with some of the guys. I had forgotten that I had invited them over to our party that night but we hadn’t even finished dinner yet. I pretty quickly decided to just bring them over to the girls apartment which was a pretty perfect plan because when we got there were as about 15 girls and two guys and I just brought in like 5 of my teammates from the lacrosse team so I think they definitely enjoyed that. I stayed for a little bit but then ran back home for dinner. (keep in mind its probably close to 11.00 by now!)


Dinner was tremendous and then for desert he made some fried bananas which were also delicisou. By desert time people were starting to come over so that was also cool. My mission to find great cups and ping pong balls was a big hit so I guess it was worth the walk. It was really fun playing pong with some Europeans who had never played it before. A few people played some games but Heloise was my partner and she had never played Beirut before so I tried to emphasize the importance of this moment to her. Luckily she got it and made her first shot ever. Great way to start! It was really cool to have so many Americans in the apartment too. I don’t think I had to ask for a French translation once so that was extra awesome. The night was going great and it was cool to be separated into different rooms so we weren’t all clogged in the living room. All the dudes from the lacrosse team were having fun, the French were all hanging out with my American friends, it was really really great. Heloise and I won 3 games in row, life was good. Until there was a loud noise in the kitchen. I ran in and it was like the scene of a cheap horror movie. Len was using the Fire Extinguisher and sparaying the walls and ceiling, while Arnaud immediately ran out of the room and into his shower. Within seconds our entire apartment was filled with smoke and dust and everyone was running out of the apartment with their shirts over their faces. Luckily everyone got outside very quickly and no one else was injured. While our apartment was completely trashed, the main thing was that everyone (besides Arnaud) was ok. Valerie had some small burns on her wrists but nothing too major. Apparently what had happened was Arnaud had been frying up the last of his dough balls and something had caught fire on the counter. Instinctively he had thrown some water on it which, in the heat of the moment seems right, probably isn’t the best option for a grease fire. After everyone was out of the house and scattered from the middle of the apartment complex, we went back in to see the damage and to get Arnaud some help. His arms were completely fried, and he sat under the shower for what seemed like forever. He had blisters all over his hands (luckily we took his ring off before his blisters swelled even worse…)and up his arms. The security guard on hand was nearly (definitely) worthless, and didn’t even know where to find the first aid kit. Luckily the girls in the apartment above us were all nursing majors and had lots of stuff to help him out and get through the night before he would go to the hospital in the morning time. That night he must have smoked an entire pack of cigarettes (that Camille and I had to hold for him) before he finally went to sleep. I slept on the floor next to him and Camille stayed in his room. Our other two roommates slept in a friends apartment because the smoke and dust smell was too strong for them because their rooms were closer to the living room.


The next day when we looked around we got a real sense at how lucky we are AND how bad everything got messed up. The entire ceiling was black as night and the walls looked like someone had shaded them from black to white. Some of the cabinets were ruined, all the light fixtures, and Camilles Iphone were all victims of the night. Arnaud went to the doctors the next day and got bandages and drugs to help make him feel better so I am sure that helped him out a lot. Tomas and I, with some major help from Ryan began to clean the ceilings that day, and realized how hard it was going to be to clean up after everything.


Its too bad such an awesome night turned so crappy, but luckily everyone was pretty much o.k. and by now have realized that can fix most of the things and will just have to wash the walls and repaint the apartment ourselves. Supposedly we are pretty legendary now as well because no one has had a fire in Shanowen Square in something like 6 years. I think every single person that walked by stared into our apartments for the next week or so until we got it all cleaned up. People would see us walk out of the building and ask us if we knew about that fire that they heard about. For most of us we just kind of shrug it off and say whatever, but all Arnoud has to do is lift his bandaged hands in the air and mumble something in French.


So the morals of this story is.

Don’t put water on a grease fire.

Porterhouse with Wally and Anna

(Sunday)Today i woke up around 2ish and went to the gym with Ryan. He forgot his id so he went back to get it and that was the last i saw him for awhile. Anyway, i saw Heloise and Pauline there and then hung out int he hot tun with Tomas, Cam, and Julia for a while then came home.

Had some leftover salad and then was on my way to visit Wally and Anna in the city. Of course we picked a place that had two locations o i was a little bit late, but not too bad. They offered to buy me dinner so my cheeseburger was extra delicious. Also, it was funny because right when I walked in I tried to order a Guinness but hte waitress nearly knocked me off my feet when she told me they didnt have a Guinness! Somewhere in Dublin without guiness! Blasphemy. Apparently they are a microbrewery and dont sell anything they dont make. Dinner was great and it was good to talk to them. We walked back and they showed me a few cool places that they noticed, and a bunch of all you can eat buffets that I am definitely going to hit up in the future. sweet lyfe. They also brought me a towel, so I dont have to use Eddies Madagascar one anymore. great success. And more importantly, they bought me an excessive amount of sour patch kids. THATS awesome. wally said 7 bags should be a semester supply. lets hope so.

:)


Arnaud wants to play monopoly. I must end this. The oscars are on tonight in America. Benjamin button deserves everything its nominated for. tahts my opinion. im probably wrong but i liked it.

French Dinner Night at the Terace......

SO on tuesday (feb 17) I made an American Dinner for Delphine, Pauline, Heloise, Cyril, and the roommates and on Wed they told us they would make us a French dinner. that day after classes I walked over to Subway with Arnauds girlfriend and when we were there i got wicked pumped because the girls were their with a massive grocery cart of stuff for dinner. So basically I was just pumped all day to eat. they had more grocerys in their cart for one meal than i have had since ive been here. sweet life.


When we got to their apartment at night it was really really awesome. we brought over a Heineken mini keg and some drinks but they had literally everything else. i mean plates stacked 8 inches high off the table with pre made crepes. They cooked the eggs and ham together once we got their so everything was fresh and hot and melt in your mouth fantastic. We started out with ham egg and cheese ones and then for desert we had some nutella and marmalade and sugar ones that we made. those were tremendous. After we finished eating they had invited some irish guys over and so we all sat down and played Kings with some Tesco brand drinks. should have known better. That was fun and we played some interesting rules. (tomas, magda had some interesting 10's) The night ended around 12.30 when the guy came to the door but not before we had some MGMT and MIA singalong with french people who have never actually known the words to the songs they "sing" all the time.

I stayed a little bit later and tried to steal some extra crepes for breakfast but i wasnt slick enough, got caught and went home empty handed. rough. i didnt really have class on wed so i stayed up wicked late talking to people but im annoyed because my microphone doesn't work on skype.


(Im a little bit behind but today is Saturday and i am going into town to hopefully see Jimmys brother Wally, and then head over to Hoath, some place south of here that is on the water and looks awesome supposedly.... )


i booked a trip to Scotland for april 1-4 yesterday
hockey pucks....not really worth it
laundry.....so expensive....im totally rocking the giant bucket with detergent right now.
I met a dude from south carolina yesterday. typifys your farm living red neck. (he uses those words too)

american vs. French dinner....aslan...

Last night before we headed out to the on campus concert at the olebar, I made an American Dinner of hot dogs, beans, french fries, chicken nuggets, and potato salad for the french girls (and Cyril came too) It was pretty awesome especially because hte girls are going to make a french themed dinner another time (tomorrow) so that should be awesome. After dinner though we all played Kings, and I taught everyone how to play. It was pretty great that they had never heard about it and loved it so much. We actually even finished an entire game! Anyway, the cool part about that story is that the next day in class, Arnaud presented how to play in his advertising or Marketing class! He had to give a one minute presentation on ANYthing so he chose something interesting that he just learned! After he went over time his teacher told him to take extra so that they could all learn! that's awesome. Americanizing ireland...one house party at a time.


at the ole bar it was pretty awesome. this irish group aslan was there and they were really really good. the place was packed and it stayed open until 2 am so it was cool to have a place to stay all night especially whne i had no class today. they were really good. check out Aslan, Crazy World. Live would probably be the best way to listen to it so check that out on youtube. they played it as an encore and it was great. After they were done they had a a great playlist that they used with some MGMT, Kate perry, Bon Jovi, Madonna, Justice, and DAft.....it was pretty awesome.

A really fun tuesday night.

I opened a bank account here today...no more atm fees.
i think im going to go to Cork this weekend.
things are still really expensive.
Im leaving after hitting post to go eat some fresh crepes.
How bout ARoid huh.
I dropped a 20euro bill...that is painful. no more pubs the rest of the week now.
uconn down to pitt....darn...duke to bc.....miss watching that stuff
I am going to meet a host family on Monday....should be cool...hopefully ill get someone cool....

The day after the walk, Guinness Factory, and an actual meal.

Some updates. Unsure of the days.

On Saturday the 14th, we went to the Guinness factory with the girls, Ryan, and his roommate. I slept fantastically after my epic adventure and lacrosse game the day before, but ill write about that later. Anyway, Ryans roommate Michael is from Ireland so its nice when hes directing us where to go. Anyway, we walked quite far to get to the factory but it was a nice day out so it wasn’t too big a deal. We walked by the oldest pub in Dublin (which just so happens to be outside the Guinness factory walls…..) When we finally go to the factory it was a pretty interesting tour. They had a lot of audio and visual aides on your self guided tour and they let you sample different ingredients that go into the beer. Interesting fact, Arthur Guinness signed the lease on the factory for 9000 years at 45 euros a year. Smart guy. Anyway when you get to the top of the factory (which happens to be in the shape of a large Guinness glass, they have built a 360 degree glass walled bar at the very top in which you can see all of Dublin from. You get a complimentary beer and get to enjoy it over the city so its pretty sick. When we were up at the bar I made sure everyone at the bar knew it was Leah’s birthday and then we all sang to her, so that was pretty cool. Definitely a nice little birthday song to never forget.

After the factory, we were all starving and hungry and went looking for food. We found our Mecca in the shape of a diner meant to recreate 1950’s U.S.A. Horribly cheeky and tacky but whatever. It was my first real meal that I didn’t make with pasta or out of prepackaged anything so I loved every bit of my double cheeseburger and French fries. (so much that I also helped Kelsey and Corie finish there last few bites…cant let that go to waste!) Needless to say, that was easily the best 10euros I have spent since I have been here. Freakin great. Ill never forget the way that first bite felt. It was as if I hadn’t eating real food in years.


After the factory and the bus ride home everyone was kind of exhausted so any plans to go out that night pretty much went out the window once we tried to nap. We ended up just getting a few drinks and playing some card games at our apartment until we headed over to Ryan’s apartment. Since his roommates are irish and live close by, they had their playstation 3 hooked up to a nice t.v. and so being able to play some call of duty was really nice. We even got leah to try it on her birthday…she wasn’t very good but shes showed potential. Ha ha. After she left, a few of us watched Rock’N’Rolla, the newest Guy Ritchie movie. It was pretty good and was really awesome to be able to just chill and watch a movie. I also found out that allt he guys at the apartment watch 24. So that is a great life update. Cant wait to see what Jack’s been up to lately. Anyway, Im off to cook some dinner. It is currently Tuesday, and the French girls are coming over for an “American dinner”. I’m making hot dogs (which are tiny and really overpriced), beans, fries, and chicken nuggets. Not to bad. Hopefully their French cuisine will be much better.

ireland 101 taught by the Dropkick Murphys

the 'im in dublin moment"

the pan out after the irish team won the game and the announcer says...... we have witnessed a great contest between two mighty forces here on the fields of athenry...cut to the irish flag/irish national anthem......


that was one of my top moments so far......just sick to hear that.....

...

sorry that last post was so long and that the first paragraph is kind of jumbled........

Roomates and Rugby......

Saturday.
(the last post was actually a Friday. And if that’s wrong then the day before is wrong too. This all happened on Saturday. As if u care. Anyway. Saturday was a great day. Probably one of the best wake ups I have ever had. If not the best, definitely the most unforgettable. I was sleeping and around 11 am ish I started to hear a few noises outside my door. I was really hopeful it was my roommate but I was in to much of a sleep coma to think about it. My true wake up in fact came when I heard my bop it being pulled and twisted and that distinguishing sound it makes when you use it. If you could have takne a picture of me I’m sure I was sitting in my bed with a huge grin on my face.

Tomas and G’Shlann were my first two roommates to arrive at the apartment. Both are business students at a French university and both are incredibly nice. Tomas’s friend Rebeeca was also with him and she is living in our apartment complex too. Both of them speak great English so that is not a problem at all. We hung out for a little bit but then after a short while we decided to head over to the grocery store and pick up some stuff. At the grocery store we picked up some stuff and that was cool (read: expensive) Tomas has never lived on his own (he commuted to school from home) so this was also his first time shopping. It was funny to see his basket with pasta, soup, and heatable pizza. Hopefully that will change a little bit so we can eat some real food. Ha ha. It was really awesome to talk to them both on the way over to the grocery store about literally everything. When we got back to the apartment we went our separate ways for a bit.

Saturday was also the day of the Ireland v. France rugby match. Rugby is an enormous deal here. Huge. Think like Red Sox Yankees on a Sunday afternoon in august big. Anyway I had some plans to go with the group of girls I have been hanging out with to watch the game at our favorite pub but appearnetly when I went shopping they had left. Also on my way back in from shopping I saw a few French girls that I had met the day earlier on the bus tour. They asked me in very broken English was I was doing and I told them I wanted to watch the game etc etc. I helped them carry some of their bags up to their room while we were talking and they have a SICK penthouse apartment with a roof deck. Super super super cool. (perfect for the French and all their cigarette smoking too Anyway I also made some tentative plans to watch the game with them too since the girls had already left. I ran back to my apt and while there Rebecca said she and Tomas were going into Temple Bar to watch the game. (Remember temple bar is an area not a bar….) I told her thanks but I was gonna go somewhere with eh French girls. Anyway long story short the French girls though I was going to meet them at the bus stop, the other girls thought I would meet them, the others left without me and I proceeded to sit at home waiting for something to happen. Ok well I made that sound kind of bad but in reality I just got on a bus and headed into the city. I was annoyed that all my plans were juggled but there was no way I was missing the game. I’d just go by myself.

When I arrived at Fitzsimmons on Temple Bar I cannot even begin to explain to you how crowded it was. Side note, its nice to offer a bouncer id and have him turn it away because you clearly look over 18….. back to how crowded it was though. Something comparable. Ill go with something like an Orchard or a Gardner party in Boston. JAMMED with fans drinking and faces painted and all their colors on. I should have taken some pictures. Anyway since tomas and Rebecca were sitting there they were obviously sitting with their French friends and cheering from French. While I was trying to squeeze close to them I was on the cusp of both groups of fans and that was very interesting to hear the roars of the crowd anytime anything happened. When you see movies about European sports fans you could very easily feel like they are exaggerating things a little bit but I tell you they really really really don’t. insane. Anyway, Rebecca had a big group of friends that we decided to out with after that but first they all stopped at McDonalds for dinner. Now I know that seems like a mute point but when I tell you this group of 20 people stopped at McDonalds for dinner, I mean they stopped at McDonalds for dinner. Literally I sat in that McDonalds for 45 minutes. (no food…too expensive) like a marathon meal at mickey D’s that they treated as no big deal! Anyway after the meal Tomas and I just decided to go back and not bother paying to go to another pub. Anyway, we caught a train back and all that time was nice to get to know him a little bit better. He loves one tree hill, he loves playing computer games, he speaks a little bit of Japanese that he randomly taught himself when he downloaded a program. Some interesting things. When we got back, since our flat is right in front of the entrance, we could see another guy sitting in our living room with G’Shlann. Arno, our new roommate was sitting at the table drinking a bottle of wine.
Arno is originally from St. Martin, but went to school in France and actually lived in Boston last semester while studying abroad at northeastern. Right from the start I knew that he was going to be a real cool guy. We sat in the living room and had a few drinks together until a knock at the window from the girls brought us to our feet. We invited them in to meet my roommates and they told us they were heading over to the Comet for a few drinks. Can’t turn something like that down so we all headed out and on the way I grabbed the French girls and invited the, (I knew if they couldn’t talk to me they could at least converse with my 3 frenchmen!) We got to the Comet and saw our friends and got right down to having a great time and getting to know everyone. I love that place. Really awesome. Anyway I also got to talk to Arno on the way there and while were their and that was really awesome. He is a really interesting dude and I know were going to have a great time. While Tomas and G’Shlann might not be to wild or go out to much, Arno probably couldn’t be more opposite. It is very important to note as well that he bought me my first Guinness draught from an Irish pub. I was waiting for the right moment and when he offered there was no more perfect of a time.

After we left the pub we all came back and had a few more drinks at our place before we all headed our separate ways. Its really awesome to just go home after the bar closes or the party ends and just be able ot chill out in your own house and not have to worry about RA’s or noise violations.

The next day Arno, Tomas, and I woke up and decided to venture into the city centre to look for a t.v. long story short we didn’t get one because there was nothing cheap and a lot of places were closed. Anyway, while we were in the city centre we found out that our new roommate, a friend of Arnos from his college in france had just moved in and was on a bus to come visit us. He wanted to get right into the city and visit a pub so rather than head back in Arno and I decided to stay while Tomas (didn’t really want to go to the pub) decided to go home. Cam was the new roommate and its debatable if I could get better luck with getting roommates in my college career. He is awesome to and we got off to a great start. We went to a few little shops before we went to the pub and the guys got some burger king (again…to expensive for me…) before we just walked in somewhere at Temple Bar and sat down for a pint. (I only had 5 euros with me so I wasn’t planning on staying very long) Well after the first round a friend of Arnos said she wanted to meet us downtown so we decided to stay for a little bit longer. Well a little bit turned into a lot bit and long story short we stayed there for about 3 hours, my new roommates telling me to stop saying no and to just accept my free drinks they kept buying me. That was great. There was a few great things about the pub we were in. for one thing it was a Sunday afternoon and it was packed. Like jammed. And they played u2 every other song. No I mean every other song was bono singing. Literally. Not like every few. EVERY OTHER SONG!!! And then around 5 or so they brought in a guy who played guitar and sang popular songs. That was sick too….group singalong at the pub. Its awesome to recognize songs in an irish pub from Dropkick Murphy’s songs because they literally are the same lyrics just with a punk band and in Ireland with an acoustic guitar. Awesome. When we got back to the flat, we had some people over while I cooked a chicken and ate some pasta. They were the first things I had ate all day and hungry doesn’t being to describe how my stomach felt. I skyped for a little bit with some people and when I came back to the common area there was like 10 or 12 french people smoking cigarettes and talking fast in the living room. Apparently a sign of things to come. Anyway not long after my American girl friends walked by on their way to the bar and stopped in to hang out as well so that was fun. I don’t recall but I think we convinced a few of them to stay in with us instead of going out. We all hung out for a little bit and when Katie was the last American to leave I decided to go bed. My roommates can speak great English but when its late and they have a few drinks in them they have no desire to speak my language. Nevertheless that night I slept like a baby and woke up the next day to worry about my classes for the day.

Comet's Pub...The Irish Thortons.......

So Friday morning we started out with a breakfast sponsored by the school, which is really just Danish and some coffee. They told us about some of the courses we could take and they made some of them sound very very interesting. In Ireland a lot of the classes don’t have final exams, and some only make you write one paper that is worth your entire grade. If my schedule goes the way I want it too I shouldn’t have any exams (maybe 1) and one class that only has one 3000 word paper to determine my entire grade. Talk about all your eggs in one basket. ( Too bad Niles and Nate wont be staying up late to finish that with me)

After breakfast I tried to open a bank account but the bank was closed for some reason so Katie (a friend comparable to the looks of Natalie (Audia), the openness and willingness to meet people of Ashley forgione, and the desire to drink like Dani…not bad) anyway she and I went to check out the athletic complex here at the school which is actually pretty awesome. Having a big school really lets you stretch the limits. There is a giant rock wall, like enormous. Baptista would love this thing…could easily spend hours and hours in it. A large basketball gym (pretty bad lighting is the only complaint), racquetball, handball, tons of cardio stuff, indoor 100 yard track, wrestling mats, steam rooms, small pool, and lots of cool stuff.

Since the athletic complex is close to the liquor store and a small grocer, we decided we should just head over their and pick up some essentials while we were there. Theses stores are about a mile away from our apartment so I think that is one of the reasons I feel like I need to include it in this sort of thing. Don’t worry mom and dad im being safe!! Anyway even just talking to the grocer is awesome because ethey are all so nice and any question you ask is ok. They literally exemplify no such thing as a stupid question! He gave a us a deal on Brooklyn Lager (shout out to c1) because he says its hard to sell that in Ireland. Works for me. We carried that home (that wasn’t pleasant) because we wanted to have a little gathering to meet the people from our program later that night so just picked up enough to share. A great idea that everyone really enjoyed that night.

As Katie and I were rushing back, we were worried we might be lost and not make our tour of Dublin but luckily we made it their with plenty of time and were actually the first ones there. When we finally got there she said she hates being late for stuff. I told her our friendship might very often be strained. ha ha! The tour of Dublin by bus was overwhelming and awesome. Really really great and Im incredibly mad I didn’t have my camera (some other people took a ton of pics so you’ll see some soon) Basically they told us lots of cool places that sparked my interest that I will now want to go check out on my own. The prison tour is probably number one on my list because of all the history that it has with the irish uprisings and capitol punishments it gave out etc.
After our tour ended everyone was exhausted and pretty much went home and crashed for a couple hours. That night though we had a nice big party with all the study abroad students. I think there was something like 10 countries in the room at the same time so it was pretty cool. Everyone was sharing their hometown favorite drinks and talking about their journeys through rain and snow (the Europeans) and the jet lagged Americans. After an hour or so of everyone hanging out we literally all left out apartments at the same time to head over to a pub down the street that we saw earlier in the day. There was probably about 30 or 40 total, which cut in half when we got to the pub because some people wanted to go into the city. It is funny how when we walked into the pub we literally lit up the room and everyone at this very local, very classic irish pub took complete note of the Americans walking in. We made our way to a table and ordered our first round of drinks. After a little bit, Katie was no where to be found at our table so I took a walk around to see where she was at or what she was up to. That girl can literally go up to anyone and start a conversation. Its pretty awesome. Because of her we met some incredible incredible people. I started talking to one of the other guys next to he and soon enough we were cheering and acting like the best of friends. Really. These guys were great. Martin, Connor, JohnPaul, and a few others I cant remember. Literally all night long we sat with them and talked about everything from Christiano Ronaldo to Barack Obama to Whitey Bulger to the Red Sox to the history of the pub we were in.
I could literally go on for pages and pages about all the stuff we talked about but the highlight of the night was when one of the guys offered me a gift of his Celtic Football League hat. Literally you could see the look of surprise on his mates faces as he handed it to me and began explaining the significance of the Catholics and the history and pride and honor of the Gaelic Football League. He reiterated that wherever I walked with that hat on I would receive respect and a helping hand if needed. They continually put there hand on their heart and kept telling me how lucky I was and how proud I should be to wear it. There was also a friend of theirs named Ger at the pub as well. All the girls in our group really got along with her and she was really fun and super exuberant. Hopefully she will be back again next week.

That night was fun and after we left a couple people came over to my apartment (one girl who is a perfect cross between Katie Cornine and Alessandra….you would literally immediately think of those two if you saw her…and we had hung out and listened to music and just hung out for a little bit. A Great night . still no roommates though.

Random Thought I. I saw a robeks in downtown Dublin. Sick
Random Thought II. I sat next to some French girls on the bus tour of the city today. They made fun of me because I could not say their names.
Random Thought III. Stuff is really really really expensive here.
Random Thought IV. I got my heat to work yesterday. Like magic. ;)
Random Thought V. I really want to play some basketball.
Random Thought VI. Listening to Muse, Black Holes and Revelations

Temple Bar and Some French Rugby...

So night one of going out in Dublin started with us going straight for the top, with us taking a bus into Dublin to take on the Temple Bar area. I really can not compare Temple Bar to anything I have ever experiences or have heard about. Basically, It is a street off the main roads of Dublin center that has hundreds of small and large pubs, music venues, and discotheques. Literally if you can think of a theme or a style of bar its on Temple Street. Seeing as how it snowed earlier that day the streets were icy but we made it safely to the bus stop which is about a mile away. Many of the girls weren’t a huge fan of that but from the looks of our location that will be a common occurrence. The girls that I have been hanging out with are pretty cool. There are not that many guys in my program at all (I still have no roommates) and I haven’t had much connection with the other guys. Megan is from Emmanuel and she would be how I met all the other girls. Cori and Christina go to UNH and knew each other from home. There is a girl named Julia and she’s from PA and knew about Girl Talk so she gets some major brownie points. Katie is from Pennsylvani but goes to school at West Virginia….(shes a mountaineer Natalie!) While we were waiting for the bus we met an italian guy going to DCU who invited the girls and I to his apartment the next day for a little housewarming. Good be a fun option.
The bus ride into the city was a short and painless ride, far easier than making the trek out to Stevie and the guys house in brighton. When we got their we walked around Temple street trying to figure out where to go . The first place we saw had a live band playing but there wa0s a ten euro cover so we didn’t do that. We decided that our first pub would be Harringtons. There was a guy playing guitar and it was very much what I expected except cooler because it was real! Smithwicks was my first drink of choice and we all cheered to our time abroad. Probably the best part of the pub was the fact that there was a small French rugby team their celebrating their time in Dublin (right down to the passed out man in the corner with cups and coasters and writing all over him.) The girls had some fun taking pictures of him. Anyway, we stayed and talked to these French men for a few rounds and it was really awesome to hear what they had to say and listen to them try and understand us. Now I know what Mayssas hometown is like! Right down to their cheers of YES WE CAN! CHANGE HAS COME! They loved talking to us and even bought us a few drinks. (At 5 euros , $7…that’s a great thing) They told us they were here for the huge rugby match on Saturday between France and Ireland. I guess tickets run upwards off a hundred euros so it’s a big deal. We actually plan on going into the city near the station to catch some of that excitement tomorrow. Games at 1700 hours so should be a great celebration of a day.

After Harrington’s and our great experience with the Rugby guys, we went over to the first bar we went to thinking that we were going to get in for free. Well the girls were wrong and we had to pay the 10 E but o well. It’s like freshman year at the club….you just gotta go for the ride. That place was fun and the drinks were a little cheaper, although it was very much a club atmosphere. Bill and Mickey and the guys can feel comfortable in the fac that there are plenty of bros in Dublin too! Gotti’s and bros everywhere with crazy strobe lights and strange techno remixes of don’t stop believing and MJ and beyonce. Jill and Michelle would have liked the journey remix…It went on for what seemed like hours. We had a few drinks their and by that time we were definetly feeling pretty great. We left around 2.30 and got a cab home, but not before stopping at some local burger place where I got some overpriced fries with hot ranch dressing. Strange and forieng, but worth every penny.

All in all it was a great night, definely something I will never forget. The Rugby players made it truly memorable and something I could never experience anywhere else. The only thing that stinks about the night is that I had to come back to my room by myself at the end of the night…no roommates, no talking about the night, what were gonna do tomorrow, how awesome we are, etc. O well. Hopefully soon enough. Before I went to bed I actually used my usa phone to set my alarm and it automatically set itself ot Ireland time and still showed all my messages and pictures. Allright. I started typing this and told people I would meet them in 5 minutes and its been much more than that. LatR!

Random Note I. Listening to Tha Carter III…wish I could see the grammys Sunday….gonna be awesome…
Random Note II. Go see Mike Graham at the Battle of the Bands.
Random Note III. Happy Juice. Anybody from France or French person know what that is>?
Random Note IV. Lots more to come tomorrow.